RIGHTEOUSNESS OF LAW AND FAITH.
By Milton C. Wilcox
THAT which reveals and condemns sin must necessarily reveal righteousness. The law of God is the righteousness of God. Ps. 119:172; Isa. 51:6, 7. It is God's revealed will. Ps. 40:8. Sin is only the negation of righteousness, or the transgression of God's law. Did not the law reveal righteousness, we should not know its negation, sin; for the sin is shown in its being the negative, or the exact opposite of that which the law requires. Therefore if the law does not reveal to us its requirements, which is perfect righteousness, it cannot reveal to us the opposite of its requirements, which is sin. But by the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20); therefore the law reveals to us righteousness. "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." Ps. 19:7, 8. "For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life." Prov. 6:23. But although sinful man may find righteousness in God's holy law, he cannot obtain it there. The prize is revealed, but it cannot be grasped; the jewel is before his eyes, but he cannot lay hold of it by any means which he possesses. But to him who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, God will reveal the way to obtain it; in a more abundant way than he can ask or think, the hungerer will be filled. This way is our Lord Jesus Christ, or the way of the gospel. "For therein [in the gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from [by] faith to faith." Rom. 1:17. Righteousness is revealed as obtainable. Faith grasps it; it is obtained. The prize is grasped. What man could not obtain in the law because of the sinfulness of the flesh, he has obtained in the gospel by faith in Christ. And, while he gets the righteousness of God by the gospel in a different way than he could the righteousness of God by the law, it is the same righteousness; for it is witnessed, or proved, or attested, by the law. Rom. 3:21. That this is true may be shown in other ways. He who is made righteous through Christ, who walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, in him is fulfilled the righteousness of the law. Rom. 8:4. That is, the righteousness received by faith is identical with the righteousness required by the law. And he who walks in this faith, through the Spirit fulfills, or fills up, or keeps, the righteousness demanded by the law. The proof that he has received the righteousness of God by faith is shown in the fact that he keeps the commandments of God. 1 John 2:3. Again: The righteousness of God imputed to us through the gospel is termed justification, or accounting righteous. That is, believers in Christ are accounted righteous, as righteous God; for they are clothed in the righteousness God. But "the doers of the law," those who have never transgressed it, are likewise justified, or accounted righteous, before God. Rom. 2:13. The believer and doer are equally just. The angels are doers of God's law. The righteousness of God is fulfilled in them. The law is to them righteousness and life. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is righteousness and life to fallen man. That is, faith in Christ brings pardon and peace for all past sins; faith in Christ enables him to obey God's law; and the keeping of that law is the righteousness of faith. M. C. W.