02.05. Chapter 3B
CHAPTER 3B JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IN CHRIST
We now come to the unfolding of that word which Paul in Romans 1:1-32 declares to be the very heart of the gospel,--the reason it is "the power of God unto salvation": namely, "therein is God’s righteousness on the faith-principle revealed to any having faith" (Romans 1:17). The first work of the apostle, as we have seen in studying Romans 1:18-32, Romans 2:1-29, Romans 3:1-20, was to bring the whole world under the judgment of God, guilty, helpless. His second task (and it is a blessed one!) is to reveal God’s coming out in rightousness at the cross unto us. Let us most diligently read, ponder, yea, and commit to memory Romans 3:21-26; for it is God’s great statement of justification by faith. Its first announcement is:
Romans 3:21 : But now apart from law God’s righteousness hath been manifested,--borne witness to by the Law and the Prophets--The first words, "But now," should be hailed by us joyfully, as beginning an account of something heavenly different from our guilt and helplessness, detailed in the preceding part of the Epistle (Romans 1:18-32, Romans 2:1-29, Romans 3:1-20). The next phrase is: "apart from law" [61] --lay it to heart! Unfortunately, the King James Version misses the emphasis here. For the Greek puts to the very front this great phrase "apart from law" (ch ris nomou), and thus sets forth most strongly the altogether separateness of this Divine righteousness from any law-performance, any works of man, whatsoever. Luther’s rendering was, "without accessory aid of law." In this revelation of God’s righteousness, law was left out of account. Righteousness is on another principle than our right-doing!
[61] The absence of the definite article, the, before the word law, in Romans 3:21, Romans 3:28, Romans 3:31; Romans 4:13, etc., shows that it is the abstract principle of law that is before us rather than the specific, concrete, thing--the Law of Moses, the ten commandments. It will become evident to us that God is dealing with men now upon a different principle altogether than that of law: for grace confers the blessing, and lets the fruit flow from "faith working through love" by the power of the Spirit. Law demands fulfilment of conditions before blessing: grace announces that Christ has fulfilled all conditions.
Now the great and most common error in setting forth God’s righteousness here, is, to allow law at least some place. Men cannot, it seems, get over reasoning thus: that since God once promulgated the dispensation of law, which called for human righteousness. He must thereafter be bound by it forever. And this despite Divine assurance, over and over and over, that the present dispensation proceeds on an altogether different principle; that there has been a "disannulling of a foregoing commandment" (Hebrews 7:18); for He who had the right to command had also the right to disannul. It was "because of its weakness and unprofitableness--for the Law made nothing perfect,"--that the "foregoing commandment" was set aside. It had served its purpose--to make the trespass "abound" (Romans 5:20). [62]
[62] "The Law has no such office in the present state of human nature manifested in history and in Scripture as to render righteous: its office is altogether different, viz., to detect and bring to light the sinfulness af man" (Alford).
It is not that God has not the right to demand legal righteousness from us: but that He does not do it. "Righteousness which is of God" speaks in a way diametrically opposite to man’s law--obedience, of any sort whatsoever.
Men who do not see or believe that the whole history of those in Christ ended at the cross (for they died there, with Christ) must hold that God is still demanding righteousness: for "the law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth!" The "teachers of the Law" (1 Timothy 1:7) say: "Behind God, as He talks with you in grace’ is His eternal Law. And He must carry out what He has expressed in that Law. But, because you are not able to perform it, He has graciously’ given Christ, to perform all its requirements for you. And the positive, or active’ requirements are, the observance of all the commands of the Law to the letter,--which (these teachers say) Christ has by His perfect life of obedience to the Law on earth, furnished for you. And the negative, or passive’ obedience, as they call it--that is, the penalty of death for your sins which the Law (say they) demanded, Christ has paid on the cross. So that, now your debts cancelled by Christ’s death, you have Christ’s legal merits’ as your actual righteousness before God: for God must demand (they say) perfect righteousness from you, as measured by His holy Law,"--etc., etc. This seemingly beautiful talk is both unscriptural and anti-scriptural.
God says that the believer is not under law, that he is dead to law,--to that whole principle, being in the Risen Christ; and Christ is certainly not under law in Heaven! Believers are "in Him"; they are "not in the flesh" (Romans 8:9). They were formerly in the flesh (in the old natural life of Adam); but are now "new creatures" in Christ Risen!
If you put believers under law, you must put their federal Head, Christ, back under law; for "as He is, even so are we in this world." To do this you must reverse Calvary, and have Christ back again on earth "under law." For law, we repeat, was not given to a heavenly company, but to an earthly nation. Scripture says it was to redeem that earthly people (Israel) who were under law, that Christ was "born under the Law" (Galatians 4:4). You must thus, if you are "under law," be joined to a Christ belonging to Israel, a flesh and blood Christ; and must consent to be an Israelite--to which nation He was sent. But alas! You find that such a Christ is not here! That He said He must "abide alone,"--like the grain of wheat unless it "fall into the ground and die." To an earthly, Jewish Christ, you therefore cannot be united. And so your vain hope of having Moses and Christ is wholly gone. Therefore you must be united with a Risen Christ, or with none at all! But if to a Risen Christ, it is unto One who died unto sin (Romans 6:10); and those (Jewish) believers who were under the Law died with Him unto it (Romans 7:4). And you, if you are Christ’s, are now wholly, as Christ is, on resurrection ground. This truth will be brought out fully in chapters Six and Seven; we can but note it here. [63]
[63] Your body--you are waiting for the redemption of that. But your body is only the "tabernacle" in which you dwell,--it is not yourself. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17). The words hath been manifested (Romans 3:21) Conybeare lucidly paraphrases, "not by law but by another way, God’s righteousness is brought to light." God had always dealt righteously, although His way was not as yet plain. He pardoned many, and He did not seem wholly to judge sin even in the unsaved world. But at the cross "He spared not His own Son." Here was revealed, indeed, righteousness to the uttermost!
Borne witness to by the Law and the Prophets--by the Law, in its sacrificial offerings; by the Prophets, in direct statements: "This is His name whereby He shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6); and again, "Thy righteousness"--21 times in the Psalms! as, "I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only" (Psalms 71:2, Psalms 71:15, Psalms 71:16, Psalms 71:19, Psalms 71:24); and Isaiah: "By the knowledge of Himself shall my righteous Servant make many righteous" (Isaiah 53:11). [64] Yet it was not brought to light how this should be, until "the fulness of the time" came, and God sent His Son to "suffer for sins, the just for the unjust," to "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," that God’s righteousness might be "manifested," both in His dealing with sin, and in glorifying His Son in heaven, who had glorified His Father on earth.
[64] Peter indeed declares that "God had foreshawed by the mouth of all the prophets that His Christ should suffer" and "to Him bear all the prophets witness, that through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 3:18; Acts 10:43. It is well to remember that Paul reminds his hearers in Pisidian Antioch that it is possible to hear the prophets read and really not undrstand "the voice of the prophets" nor Him of whom they spake (Acts 13:27.
It would have been righteous for God to smite Adam and Eve as He did the angels that sinned. He could have revealed Himself in righteousness of judgment in accord with His holiness and justice. He was not obliged to save any man. But it was God’s will to reveal Himself: for He is Love.
Therefore He now comes forth at the cross in love,--albeit He must there come forth also in righteousness,--for He Himself must righteously and fully judge sin upon the person of His own provided Lamb. The sword "awakened against His Shepherd, the Man who was His Fellow,"--the "fellow" of Jehovah of hosts! The Shepherd was smitten: "He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace [that would procure peace for us] was upon Him." God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up, and the penalty for our sin was visited upon Him, Jesus, God’s provided Sacrifice (Zechariah 13:7; Isaiah 53:5; Isaiah 53:6).
God is able to come forth to us now in absolute GRACE, sending out His messengers "preaching peace by Jesus Christ";--nay, preaching much more than peace. In effect, God says, "Utter and infinite oceans of grace shall roll over the place where judgment and condemnation were!" Forgiving us all our trespasses, He goes further: having raised up Christ from the dead. He says, I will now place you in my Son. I will give you a standing fully and only in Him risen from the dead! Not only did He bear your sins, putting away your guilt, but in His death I released you from your standing and responsibility in Adam the first. You who have believed are now new creatures in Christ: for I have created you in Him.’ And because this is so, it is announced further: "Him who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." These astonishing words state the present fact as to all believers,--of all those in Christ: they are the righteousness of God in Him! [65]
[65] "The resurrection of Christ was not only Divine power in life; there was another truth in it. Divine righteousness was shown in it. His Father’s glory, all that the Son was to Him, was concerned in His resurrection; Christ having perfectly glorified God in dying, and having finished His Father’s work, Divine righteousness was involved in His resurrection. And He was raised, and righteousness identified with a new state into which man, in Him, was brought; and more than that, indeed, for more was justly due to Him--He was set in glory as man at the right hand of God. Not only did the blessed Lord meet for us who believe all our sin as children of Adam, by His death, so as to clear us according to the glory of God from it all in His sight; but He perfectly glorified God Himself in so doing. Man, in the person of Christ, then entered into the glory of God. Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him, . . . and shall straightaway glorify Him.’ But all Christ’s work was wrought in us; our sin was put away by it. Christ, as having thus glorified all God is, is our righteousness. We are thus the righteousness of God in Him.’ "Either Christ, in His own present perfectness, risen from the dead, is my righteousness, His place my place, and I myself absolutely dead and gone as regards the old man; or I am making Christ a completer of my standing, as alive in the old man. Scripture teaches me that I am not alive as a child of Adam in this world. If ye died with Christ . . . why as though alive in the world? says Paul. "And now I am in Christ, risen and ascended; and have no righteousness to make out, but to glorify God as His child, being the righteousness of God in Christ already. My defects have nothing to do with my righteousness. They have with respect to my living to God and enjoying communion with Him" (Darby). In the book of Romans, Paul is describing God’s action toward a believing sinner in view of the shed blood of Christ. It is as if God were holding court with the infinite value and benefit of the propitiatory sacrifice and resurrection of Christ only and ever before Him. No other apostle will be called upon to set this forth fully as does Paul. Of course it could not be stated by the Old Testament writers in its fulness and clearness; for our Lord had not then offered Himself, and all the Law and Prophets could do was to declare sin temporarily "covered" (Heb., kaphar) from God’s sight; and so the Old Testament believer was one who rested on what God would do, in view of these types and shadows and promises.
John the Baptist, however, pointing to Christ, said, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," something that had never before been! Therefore, after the cross, it is written, "Once in the consummation of the ages, hath He [Christ] been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" In the Old Testament, we repeat, sin is covered,--which is the meaning of the word kaphar, "atonement,"--used only in the Old Testament, and there constantly (some 13 times in one chapter-- Leviticus 16:1-34), to express the covering from God’s sight of sin: though the sin remained untaken away until Christ died. In the New Testament, therefore, sin is said to be put away by Christ’s sacrifice. [66]
[66] We call attention to the error in the King James Version at the end of Romans 5:11 where those translators render "atonement" when it should be "reconciliation" (katallange). Therefore, properly speaking, the idea of covering up sin ("atonement," kaphar, of the Old Testament) is entirely absent in any mention in the New Testament of the effect of Christ’s sacrifice, which does not cover up but puts away sin from God’s sight forever.
God can, therefore, not only forgive the sinner, but also proceed to declare the believing sinner righteous, not at all meaning that he has any righteousness of his own, or that "the merits’ of Christ are imputed to him" (a fiction of theology); but that God, acting in righteousness, reckons righteous the ungodly man who trusts Him: because He places him in the full value of the infinite work of Christ on the cross, and transfers him into Christ Risen, who becomes his righteousness.
We may look at the term God’s righteousness from God’s own side; then from that of Christ; and, finally, from that of the justified sinner.
1. From. God’s side, the expression "God’s righteousness," must be regarded as an absolute one. It is His attribute of righteousness. It can be nothing else. He must, and ever will, act in righteousness, whether it be toward Christ, toward those in Christ, or toward those finally impenitent, whether angels, demons, or men.
2. From Christ’s side, it is His being received by God into glory according to God’s estimation of His mediatorial work. Our Lord had said that when the Spirit would come, He would "convince the world . . . of righteousness, because I go unto the Father, and ye see me no more" (John 16:1-33); and He had said, "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work Thou gavest me to do. And now, Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory I had with Thee before the world was" (John 17:1-26). In answer to this prayer Christ was "raised from the dead through the glory of the Father" (Romans 6:4), and was "received up in glory" (1 Timothy 3:16). Now our Lord was man, as well as God. And when the Father glorified Him "with His own self," with that glory Christ "had with Him before the world was," it was as man that God thus glorified Him. So that, at God’s right hand, Christ set forth publicly the righteousness of God; for (a) as the slain Lamb He shows the holiness of God and God’s righteousness fully satisfied,--since God had "spared not His own Son" when sin had been laid upon Him. The truth of God as to the wages of sin had been shown in Christ’s death; thus the majesty of the insulted throne of God had been publicly vindicated, so that Christ’s being raised and "received up in glory" set forth the righteousness of God; for it were unrighteous that Christ should not be glorified! And (b) Christ not only thus set forth the righteousness of God, but being God the Son, as well as man, He was that righteousness! Christ dead, risen, glorified, is the very righteousness of God!
3. From the believer’s side, the justified sinner’s side, what do we see? The amazing declaration of God concerning us is, "Him who knew no sin God made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The saints are said to be the righteousness of God, in Christ. Of course self-righteousness simply shrivels before a verse like this! All is in Christ: we are in Christ--one with Him! The expression "God’s righteousness" then signifies:
1. God Himself acting in righteousness (a) toward Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him as a man in the place of absolute honor and glory; (b) in giving those who believe on Christ the same acceptance before God as Christ now has, inasmuch as He actually bare their sins, putting them away by His blood, and also became identified with the sinner--was "made to be sin for us" and, our old man was thus "crucified with Him." Just as it would have been unrighteousness in God not to raise His Son after His Son had completely glorified Him in His death; so it would also be unrighteous in God not to declare righteous in Christ those who, deserting all trust in themselves, have transferred their faith and hope to Christ alone.
2. Thus Christ, now risen and glorified, is Himself the righteousness of believers. It is not that He acted righteously while on earth, and that that is reckoned to us. This is, we repeat, the heresy of "vicarious law-keeping." He was indeed the spotless Lamb of God; but He had no connection with sinners until His death. He was "separate from sinners." "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone." It is the Risen Christ who is our righteousness. "Christianity begins at the resurrection." The work of the cross of course made Christianity possible; but true Christianity is all on the resurrection side of the cross. "He is not here, but is risen," the angel said.
3. Thus Christians find themselves spoken of as the righteousness of God in Christ. Not as "righteous before God," for that would be to think of a personal standing given to us, on account of Christ’s death, rather than a federal standing, as in Him, united to Him,--which we are! John Wesley said a wise thing indeed: "Never think of yourself apart from Christ!"
Now to be or become "righteous before God"; to have or obtain a standing that will "bear God’s scrutiny," is the fond dream of very many earnest Christians. But however stated, and by whomsoever stated, that idea of our obtaining a "standing before God" falls short, and that vitally, of Paul’s gospel of our being made the righteousness of God in Christ. It denies that we died with Christ; and that we have been made dead to the whole legal principle in Christ’s death (7:4). Thus it leaves us under the necessity of "obtaining a standing" before God; whereas believers federally shared the death of Christ, and Christ Risen is Himself now our standing!
Negatively, then (as Paul begins to declare in his first recorded discourse. Acts 13:39), "Every one that believeth on Him is justified from all things";--"justified in His blood" (Romans 5:9); and
Positively, Christ was "raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25): that we might receive a new place, a place in a Risen Christ,--and be thus the righteousness of God in Him, as one with Him who is that righteousness.
God declares that He reckons righteous the ungodly man who ceases from all works, and believes on Him (God), as the God who, on the ground of Christ’s shed blood, "justifies the ungodly" (Romans 4:5). He declares such an one righteous: reckoning to him all the absolute value of Christ’s work,--of His expiating death, and of His resurrection, and placing him in Christ: where he is the righteousness of God: for Christ is that! Does Christ need something yet, that He may stand in acceptance with God? Then do I need something,--for I am in Christ, and He alone is my righteousness. If He stands in full, eternal acceptance, then do I also: for I am now in Him alone,--having died with Him to my old place in Adam.
Earnest and godly men, wonderfully used of God, have brought out, as did the Reformers, that we are justified by faith, not works: without, however, going on to show, as does Paul, our complete deliverance, in Christ, from our former place in Adam, and from the whole principle of law. The Reformation statements were as follows:
Luther: "The righteousness of God is that righteousness which avails before God." This means a "substantive righteousness,"--a quality bestowed which "avails." But I am not in these words seen as dead, and now in Christ only.
Calvin: "By the righteousness of God I understand that righteousness which is approved before the tribunal seat of. God." Here again is a quality, not Christ Himself, who is made righteousness unto me, and I myself "of God," in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30). And according to Calvin I must stand before God’s "tribunal"! But Christ at the cross met all the claims of God’s "tribunal,"--and that forever; and I am now in Christ Risen!
Again, Calvin, writing on 2 Corinthians 5:21, concerning our being made or becoming "the righteousness of God in Christ," says: "In this place nothing else is to be understood than that we stand supported by the expiation of Christ’s death before the tribunal of God." Here is still the thought of a future (or present) "tribunal." Only the negative side--expiation of guilt, is brought out. But this text in II Corinthians is positive: we are God’s righteousness in Christ! Believers are not seen by Calvin as having died with Christ, and having no connection at all with Adam’s responsibility to furnish a righteousness and holiness before God’s "tribunal." Believers, says Paul, are not now "in the flesh" in their standing,--they are seen by God in Christ only! (Romans 8:9). Calvin) and all the Reformers, and the Puritans after them, placed believers under the Law of Moses as a "rule of life"; because they did riot see that a believer’s history in Adam ended at the cross. But Paul, in Galatians 6:15; Galatians 6:16, says that those in Christ are to walk as "new creatures": they are a new creation! "And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them!" This is God’s prescription for your walk, whatever men may teach!
We do quote Luther, that great man of God, in connection with Chapter Seven, in the expressions of his wonderful personal faith, as saying: "These words, am dead to the Law’ (Galatians 2:19) are very effectual. For he saith simply, I am dead to the Law’; that is, I have nothing to do with the Law . . . Let him that would live to God come out of the grave with Christ." (Luther on Galatians; in which book is often shown a vigor and boldness of faith hardly to be matched since Paul!)
Dr. Scofield in his note on Romans 3:21, says that the righteousness of the believer "is Christ Himself, who fully met in our stead and behalf every demand of the Law." Yet Scripture says that the Law was given to Israel; and that Gentiles are "without law," as contrasted "with Israel," who were "under the Law." Paul’s words to us in Romans 6:14 : "Ye are not under law, but under grace," do not mean that we were once under law (as were the Jews) and have now been delivered; but rather mean that we, having died with Christ (our old man crucified with Him, and our history in Adam closed forever before God), are not placed at all under law! It is unfortunate that Dr. Scofield goes on to quote beloved Bunyan: "The believer in Christ is now, by grace, shrouded under so complete and blessed a righteousness that the Law from Mt. Sinai can find neither fault nor diminution therein. This is that which is called the righteousness of God by faith."
Now it is at once evident that such a statement as Bunyan’s leaves "the Law from Mt. Sinai" master of the field, lord over us. According to this the Law remains Inspector General of those in Christ! We are not "discharged" from it. We are still on earth, under legal trial, men "in the flesh." The gospel, however, is that we are, in Christ, not under the law-principle at all! "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." Those who believe are not now under law, but under grace, being "in Christ." We are now in a Risen Christ, who as such "lives unto God"; and it is unthinkable that He is under law! The Word of God says that Christ was "born of a woman,"--thus reaching the whole race; and "born under the Law, that He might redeem them that were under the Law,"--that is, Israel. But to maintain that the Risen Christ is "under law" in Heaven, is both to deny Scripture (Romans 6:4) and also to close our eyes to the manner of His risen life (Romans 6:10). Christ in Heaven lives under no legal conditions, but freely, in love unto God. And God has sent forth "the Spirit of His Son"--mark that!--into our hearts. This means not only the witness that we are adult sons (huioi) of God, but that the very same emotions of relationship and nearness to the Father belonging to Christ, God’s Son, are ours--witnessed in our hearts by the Spirit of His Son!
We find hardly any writers except indeed certain devoted saints among the "Friends of God" of the fourteenth century; and later, certain among the mystics like Tauler, Ter Steegen, Suso and the "prince of German hymnists," Paul Gerhardt; together with many early Methodists; and in the nineteenth century, certain of those remarkable men whose followers were later called "Plymouth Brethren," who have seen or dared believe our complete deliverance before God from Adam the First: that is, from our former place "in the flesh," "under law." The last, the Brethren, indeed speak with more Pauline accuracy. But these earlier saints, though much persecuted, exhibit marvelously in their lives and testimony that heavenly freedom of those taught of God their place in Christ! Hear one of them singing:
"Thou who givest of Thy gladness Till the cup runs o’er-- Cup whereof the pilgrim weary Drinks to thirst no more-- Not a-nigh me, but within me Is Thy joy divine;
Thou, O Lord, hast made Thy dwelling In this heart of mine.
"Need I that a law should bind me Captive unto Thee?
Captive is my heart, rejoicing Never to be free.
Ever with me, glorious, awful, Tender, passing sweet, One upon whose heart I rest me, Worship at His Feet."
--Gerhard Ter Steegen. The Law was given to man in the flesh; not to those on resurrection ground. Our relationship now to God is that of standing in the same acceptance as Christ; and we have the same Spirit of sonship as Christ!
Now, Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, and the life that He now liveth, He liveth unto God. And He lives unto God as man. He is God; but He is also a Risen Man.
It is into this Risen Christ, thus glorified, that God has brought us. [67]
[67] The "righteousness of God" is the justification of the sinner, is His own attribute of righteousness; that is, His acting in accordance with His own holy nature; manifested, however, not in demanding righteousness from the sinner, but in setting the believing sinner in His own presence, because of the righteous judgment of his sins already visited by God upon his Subtitute, Christ. And God is not only Himself righteous, in remitting the penalty of sin; but He sets the sinner in the very standing in which Christ is, with Him!
We do not need therefore a personal "standing" before God at all. This is the perpetual struggle of legalistic theology,--to state how we can have a "standing" before God. But to maintain this is still to think of us as separate from Christ (instead of dead and risen with Him), and needing such a "standing." But if we are in Christ in such an absolute way that Christ Himself has been made unto us righteousness, we are immediately relieved from the need of having any "standing." Christ is our standing, Christ Himself! And Christ being the righteousness of God, we, being thus utterly and vitally in Christ before God, have no other place but in Him. We are "the righteousness of God in Christ." Not to the cherubim, not to the seraphim, not to the elect angels, has been given such a place as this! They may be sinless,--they are. They may be holy,--they are. They may be glorious,--they are. But they are not "the righteousness of God"; for they are not in Christ. They were never cut off, as we have been, by a death that ended completely their former history and standing, and then placed in Christ! And so we come to a verse the very reading of which has been used to save and bring into the light thousands:
Romans 3:22 : God’s righteousness, moreover, through faith concerning Jesus Christ unto all them that believe--If it were man’s righteousness, it would be through something man accomplished. But it is God’s righteousness; it is apart from out right-doing--that is, law-keeping altogether; for keeping law would be the only way man could get a righteousness of his own. But the moment we mention righteousness here, people can hardly be restrained from the notion that they are to have a new quality bestowed upon them. Since they have themselves lost this quality of righteousness, they are anxious to get it back,--the consciousness of it. But this is really self-righteousness,--and that at its worst. For we read here the words, "through faith in [or concerning] Jesus Christ." And people rush to talking of Christ’s "merits" becoming theirs, being "imputed," or reckoned to them: so that they are, thereby, in a righteous state! But we shall see in Romans 4:5 that God accounts righteous the believing ungodly as such; not those who are first to be in any wise "changed," and then reckoned righteous; not those to whom certain "merits" of Christ are to be given, so that they are thereby righteous--not at all. But the believing ungodly are to be reckoned righteous--while they are still ungodly: it is that fact that makes the gospel!
Justification is God’s reckoning a man righteous who has no righteousness,--because God is operating wholly upon another basis, even the work of Christ. If Christ fully bore sin for man, and has been raised up by God, a believing man has reckoned to him by God all that infinite work of Christ!
Thus, no change in the ungodly man is necessary for justification. [68] He believes, certainly. But faith is not a "meritorious" work. It is simply giving God the credit of speaking the truth in the gospel about Christ. It is Christ’s shed blood, and that alone, which is the procuring cause of God’s declaring an ungodly man righteous: while God’s grace is the reason for it. Our faith is simply the instrumental condition. God counts our faith for righteousness, because by it we give God and Christ the full glory of our salvation. Faith in God also brings the heart into His light; for, when "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness," the heart, in thus believing, is turned to God directly, in the simplicity of a little child. When Adam sinned, he fled from God; when a sinner believes, he comes back!
[68] Of course, God will--does--give him life: it is "justification of life," in Christ. But he is justified, accounted righteous, while ungodly; and only by the blood of Christ. God will also finally, indeed, present him faultless. But he declares him righteous upon believing--while he is ungodly! If God changed him first, he would not be "ungodly."
Now concerning this chiefest revelation of Romans, we must go to Scripture only. It will never do to accept men’s writings as "authorities’" or as "standards,"--as men call them. For to do this is not to interpret the Scriptures, but to proceed along Romish lines. Nor will it do to rely on men’s devotedness to God, however real, as proof of their reliability in statements of Divine truth.
Take the Reformers: God brought them back, in principle, to the Scriptures as their only guide. (Would that there were the same devotedness and zeal today!) But, after mounting up to Heaven as it were, in personal grasp and use of the truth of justification by faith apart from all works, yet the Reformers put Christians back under Moses as a "rule of life," under law I "What is required? and what is forbidden?" in this Mosaic commandment, or that, is the burden of Christian living, according to this theology.
Godly and earnest men have thus held; but the only question is, what are the words of Scripture? We must "prove all things" men write, in the light of Scripture: for God says we are not under law: and that the "rule of life" is, that we are a new creation (Galatians 6:15; Galatians 6:16). Is the Pauline revelation that we died with Christ from all earthly "religious principles" (Colossians 2:20), (such as God declares the Mosaic system now to be: Galatians 4:9)--is this glorious fact once set forth in all the reformed "standards"? By no means! Believers were not seen by the Reformers as having had their history ended at the cross, and being now wholly in a new creation. Neither did the Puritans enter into this truth. This Pauline doctrine was not fully recovered until God wrought,--again in a reviving, almost a Reformation power, through godly and devoted servants of His, 300 years after Luther and Calvin. Truth is truth: and those seeking God’s truth welcome it wherever they find it! Revealed Truth belongs to the whole Church, to every believer. Those attached to, and entrenched in tradition, will always be found fighting for that. [69]
[69] We are glad to note, in Sanday and Headlam’s Romans, this word regarding William Kelly’s Notes on Romans: "His Notes are written from a detached and peculiar standpoint; but they are the fruit of sound scholarship, and of prolonged and devout study, and they deserve more attention than they have received." This is a fair and honest admission. For its irrefutable setting forth of truth, its Christian fairness and love, and its brevity, make Kelly’s Notes invaluable. Men prefer "belonging" to a system: (1) Because where faith is not vigorous it comforts the flesh to find oneself among a party.(2) Where direct personal knowledge of Scripture is lacking it is a comfort to the heart to be told "authoritatively" what to believe--what the party to which one belongs, holds, (3) It is abhorrent to the flesh to walk by the Spirit. It is infinitely easier to be occupied with the "Christian duties" practiced or prescribed by your sect. (4) The flesh cannot bear to be little, despised, but desires to be of those that have the regard of "the Christian world" (an awful phrase!). (5) Even among the most earnest Christians the temptation and the tendency have always been to seize upon those truths emphasized by the leaders of the sect they follow and claim those truths and principles as their own! But this in effect denies the unity of the Body of Christ, and that all truth belongs to the whole Church of God. Now all this is of the very essence of Sectarianism. If your Christian consciousness is of anyone but Christ as Head over all things to the Church, and of any body but the Body of Christ, of which all true believers are members, and you members of them--then you are on forbidden, sectarian, "carnal" ground: "For when one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men . . . are ye not carnal, and do ye not walk after the manner of men?"
Simple faith, then, receives "God’s testimony concerning His Son," and rests there. They used to say of Marshall Field in Chicago, "His word is as good as his bond." It was no credit to the merchants that trusted Mr. Field, but it was a great credit to him! It gave him the public honor of his integrity.
God’s righteousness, moreover, through faith concerning Jesus Christ--Here we must study carefully. The King James Version reads, "by faith of Jesus Christ." "Through faith" is more accurate, as the preposition is, dia, "through,’" as the Revised Versions, both English and American, read. Concerning the form, "of Jesus Christ," see Mark 11:22, Acts 3:16, Galatians 2:16, James 2:1 where the same Greek construction appears. The expression "faith concerning Jesus Christ," literally, "faith of Jesus Christ" must be regarded either as:
1. Faith in the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ, as set forth at the beginning of the Epistle, involving of course appropriation of Christ with all His benefits for oneself; or,
2. Trust in Christ. But Christ has already died for sin, for the world; and trust, here, would mean relying on Christ to do something for the soul; either to put forth power to deliver; or, as they say, to become one’s "personal Saviour"; or, "to see one through to the end," or the like. This is in accordance with man’s gospel: "Jesus Christ will save you if,"--rather than in accordance with Paul’s gospel of believing God’s Word concerning Christ as having accomplished for us a work that was finished once for all on the cross.
3. The rendering received by many today in certain circles which would make "the faith of Jesus Christ" mean Christ’s own believing on our behalf! which, they explain, is "exercising His own mighty faith," instead of calling upon the strengthless hearts of men to believe. But this avoids our responsibility to believe God. They quote here Mark 11:22 : "Have faith in God," as, "Have the faith of God"; a grotesque, unbiblical, impossible meaning! Our Lord said, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." He did not say, "I will believe for you." Again He did say, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He [the Father] hath sent" (John 6:29).
4. Finally, some have thought to render, "the faith of Jesus Christ" as His faithfulness to us; which is not the meaning of the Greek, is out of place, and is contrary to the apostle’s usage.
We believe that the first meaning we have indicated--that is, faith in the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ as set forth at the beginning of the Epistle, is the true one here; for it accords perfectly with this first great expansion in Chapter Three, of the announcement of Chapter 1:1-3(Romans 1:1-3), "the gospel of God concerning His Son": the power of which is that "therein is revealed God’s righteousness on the principle of faith."’
Faith is not trust, and must be carefully distinguished therefrom, if we would have a clear conception of the gospel. Faith is simply the acceptance for ourselves of the testimony of God as true. Such faith, indeed, brings one into a life of trust. But faith is not "trusting," or "expecting God to do something," but relying on His testimony concerning the person of Christ as His Son, and the work of Christ for us on the cross. So faith is "the giving substance to things hoped for." After saving faith, the life of trust begins. In a sense that will be readily perceived by the spiritual mind, trust is always looking forward to what God will do; but faith sees that what God says has been done, and believes God’s Word, having the conviction that it is true, and true for ourselves. In saving faith, then, you do not trust God to do something for you: He has sent His Son, who has borne sin for you. You do not look to Christ to do something to save you: He has done it at the cross. You simply receive God’s testimony as true, setting your seal thereto. [70] You rest in God’s Word regarding Christ and His work for you. You rest in Christ’s shed blood.
[70] I often quote 1 Timothy 1:15 to inquiring sinners: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." In response to my question, they confess that "came" is in the past tense. Then I say, "How sad that you and I were not there, so that He might have saved us, for He has now gone back to heaven!" This shuts them up to contemplate the work Christ finished when He was here; upon which work, and God’s Word concerning it, sinners must rest: that is faith.
It is GOD that justifieth (Romans 8:33), as it is God against whom we sinned. And it is God whom we find in Romans 3:25 setting forth Christ on the cross as a righteous meeting-place (between the sinner and God) through faith in His blood. And again: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him [God] that justifieth the ungodly" (on the ground, of course, of the blood of Christ). "Righteousness shall be reckoned unto us who believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Romans 4:5 and Romans 4:24). This, it seems, is what the Lord meant in His last public message to the Jews, John 12:44 : "Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me." Faith, indeed, lays claim to Christ and possesses Him, but it is through believing the testimony of God the Father concerning His Son. And this seems to me the meaning of the words in Romans 3:22, "through faith concerning Jesus Christ." Peter also says not only that we have "the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21), but: "through Him [Christ] ye are believers in God, that raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God" (1 Peter 1:21). Thus also, he says, "Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
We must remember that it is the "gospel of God" (Romans 1:1) in its general aspect, which we are now studying; and that it is "concerning His Son." Christ says also in John 5:24, "He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me hath everlasting life and cometh not into judgment."