RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH by G. T. Wilson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 18, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 45.

RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH.

By G. T. Wilson

BY ELDER G. T. WILSON.

Of men, the Lord declared, "There is none righteous, no, not one." Rom. 3:10. It is said of "Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:19, 23. Man sinned, "missed the mark," "and came short of the glory of God." God's character is his glory, and so when Moses prayed to God, "Show me thy glory," the Lord came down, and hid him in a cleft of a rock while he passed by, and gave a revelation of his righteous, merciful, and gracious character. Ex. 34:6, 7. Moses, just a little before his death, in telling what he had learned of God, says, "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." Deut. 32:3, 4. The sweet singer of Israel exclaims, "Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments." "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is truth." Ps. 119:137, 142.

The holy, merciful, and righteous "King of eternity" says, through the prophet Isaiah, "My righteousness shall not be abolished." Isa. 51:6. And he said by the Psalmist, "My tongue shall speak of thy word; for all thy commandments are righteousness." Ps. 119:172. God is righteous; man was made in his image and pronounced good. Gen. 1:27, 31. By sin he has fallen short of the righteous character of God, and now is unrighteous. None are by nature good. But God's character has not changed, and so his righteousness is everlasting, and shall not be abolished.

"His work is perfect," and his law is perfect, because it is his work. Ps. 19:7. He is declared "a God of truth," and again, "Thy

law is truth." Deut. 32:4; Ps. 119:142. Says Daniel, "O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee;" and the Psalmist exclaims, through the Spirit, "All thy commandments are righteousness."

It is clear from the texts we have just quoted that it is impossible to find any imperfection in God or his law. And his law being the truth, perfect and righteous, can no more be abolished than the character of God which it represents to man. By this law man is shown to be a guilty sinner. It gives him a clear knowledge of his sins, demands of him the perfect righteousness of God, which it represents, and as man cannot give the law's demands, it shuts him up in the prison house of sin, under the bondage of corruption, condemned to suffer the penalty of his sins, death.

"What the law could not do." It could not give to a single transgressor the righteousness it claimed from him, no more than a thermometer can make heat and cold. Man can no more make himself righteous than a leopard can change his spots, or an Ethiopian his skin. Jer. 13:23. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." Job 14:4. Our own efforts are fruitless to remove from us any of our iniquity, for God declares, "Not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. 2:9. In spite of our best efforts to remove our sins by bodily purification, "yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God." Jer. 2:22.

But, thank God, Sinai points to Calvary. The earth may tremble beneath the sinner's feet, he may hear the holy law speaking terror to his awakened conscience, the lightnings of wrath may flash from Sinai's top, the thunder may threaten, but the Eternal One who proclaimed that "perfect law" is the One who has said, "Come unto me," "He that cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out." "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Look to Calvary, sinner; "behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." See him high uplifted on Calvary's cross; from his side there flows a stream which can cleanse every stain which sin has made in your character or mine. It is God that has said, "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Then surely shall one say, "In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." Hear the suffering Saviour pleading, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I hear the Father saying to the sinner, who has almost sunk in despair because of his sins against the Giver of every good and perfect gift, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."

Listen to what the Lord says to us. We need not despair. There is hope for us, sinful and vile though we be, for the Father of mercies says, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

I thank God for Sinai's holy law, which showed me how vile I was, and for Calvary's loving, suffering Saviour, whose blood hath cleansed away all my sins, and with the prophet I can say, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." "My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long." Then truly it can be said, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." Oh, the riches of his grace! My heart's desire is that I may count all things else loss to win Christ, "and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."