Righteousness and the Law.
By T. E. Bowen
RIGHTEOUSNESS is imputed by God to every humble believer on Jesus Christ. This is the gift of God. Man's heart is described as being "deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?" Hence no righteousness that can be accepted of Heaven can be found in this unclean fountain. It must proceed from another source apart from the human heart. But, praise the Lord, there has one righteous Life been lived here on earth! One born into our family, even a Son, given us by the Most High—He hath wrought out the problem for us, making it possible for vile sinners to be cleansed and made righteous—not by works, lest man should boast, but thru faith. Nothing whatever that we can do, apart by itself alone, can atone for the least or smallest sin. But "faith," which "worketh by love," can purify the heart. God counts that man righteous who, by faith, believes in and accepts for himself the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and confesses continually his sinfulness and unworthiness. Notice how beautifully this is set forth in this scripture: "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace thru the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth [observe that God, the highest authority in the universe, does this] to be a propitiation, thru faith, in His blood, to show HIS righteousness [not ours; for we have none] because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season: that He might Himself be just, and the Justifier of him that HATH FAITH IN JESUS. Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay; but by a LAW OF FAITH." Rom. 3: 23-27. Then faith hath a law. That is, the true faith in Jesus, that which justifieth the sinner, has some sort of test by which it is measured5to prove absolutely, before every enemy that might rise up to challenge, that it is genuine, and will receive the approval of Heaven. This point is vital. For altho we may think we have the righteousness of Jesus, think ourselves ready to enter thru the gates into the city, unless God the Father, and Jesus Christ the Saviour, and the heavenly intelligencies whom God has associated with Himself in passing upon the characters of men, so think and so rule, our thinking we are righteous passes for nothing. God will deal impartially with every sinner. Hence, there must be a universal law, a universal test, by which every character must be measured. What can this be? Has the Bible told us? "But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, BEING WITNESSED BY THE LAW and the prophets; even the righteousness of God thru faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction." Rom. 3: 21, 22. Here the secret is revealed. That same law mentioned, "apart from" which a righteousness had been found (because of the sinfulness of our flesh which had become weak and ineffective), becomes now the main witness in the heavenly courts of justice to testify to the genuineness of this righteousness wrought out for us by Jesus Christ. But it is the same law given upon Mt. Sinai. It is not altered even by a jot or a tittle. While it condemns our pretended righteousness as unrighteousness, it testifies that Jesus' righteousness is genuine. Those ten holy words, that same spiritual law proclaimed by Christ Himself from Sinai, stand for the witness, become the test for that righteousness which is imputed to every one who believes in Jesus. How thankful every trembling sinner should be that God has not permitted His law to be changed by any human devising. If He had, no soul could be saved. For an imperfect—changed—law could bear only an imperfect testimony, and hence might reckon as righteousness that which God could not, or would not, admit into His kingdom. Then truly we should have to come to that condition where no "flesh could be saved." But no. God's perfect law remains unchanged. It witnesses to that perfect life Jesus lived for you and for me. He kept every precept of this law. At the close of His earthly life, no man, no fallen angel, could convict the Son of God and our Elder Brother of sin. Therefore, while every one has sinned—broken this law—Jesus did not. And because He did not, we may be saved—but not while knowingly transgressing any precept of this same law Jesus kept. By His grace, we can keep it, too; for He is able to strengthen us to do so, by His might in the inner man, to the glory of His own dear name. Therefore, the righteousness that will pass the final test will be a righteousness in full harmony with God's holy, unchanged law. The one is the counterpart of the other. Dear reader, in the light of these sacred truths, what possible part can the Sunday-keeping practise of the world have in making up a righteousness that will meet the approval of Heaven? Sunday-keeping nowhere enters into the life of Jesus Christ, that Life by which righteousness was wrought out for us; neither does the Sunday-sabbath form any part whatever of God's divine law by which all righteousness must be measured. Will it not be worth while for you to stop now and ponder this point very carefully? Can you afford to risk obtaining eternal life by trusting in something which has the appearance of giving you life, when in fact it possesses no claim whatever upon the righteousness of God, found alone in Christ Jesus, and without which no man can be saved?