p. 1 | Righteousness Through Faith in Christ

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 16, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 48.

Righteousness Through Faith in Christ

Just as an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, so an evil heart cannot produce good deeds. Man in his natural, unregenerate state has an evil heart. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Jer. 17:9. See also Mark 7:21, 22; Gal. 5:19-21. Man, therefore, cannot do God's law that he may be righteous; he must be made righteous before he can keep God's righteous law. "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous." 1 John 3:7. But while it is man's duty to obey this righteous law, while it is utterly impossible for him to do it of himself, God will, through Christ, enable him to do it. He will change the heart; he will plant within man his own spiritual nature; Christ will dwell in his heart by faith. That which he could not do alone, God will through faith in Christ do in him and through him by his own mighty power.