April 17

The word of righteousness. - Hebrews 5:13.

LET us consider the character here given of the gospel:- “The word of righteousness.” It is called so for two reasons. First, To hold forth the quality of it. The word of righteousness, then, is the righteous word,-a common mode of expression in the Scriptures; and it is so. It resembles the Author of it, who is “holy in all his ways and righteous in all his works;” and so we are told that “holy men of God spake as they were, moved by the Holy Ghost.” The more the book is examined, the more its contents will be found to be “a doctrine according to godliness.” Every word of God is pure; and, while the gospel brings salvation, it “teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.”

Secondly, It reminds us of the subject of which it treats; and this is righteousness. “The word of righteousness.” What righteousness? The righteousness of God. This is an essential attribute of his nature, and the Bible displays this; the Scriptures are full of instances of the faithfulness and truth of God, in fulfilling his threatenings and his promises, with regard to countries, families, and individuals; and, whatever difficulties may attend some of the divine dispensations, “shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” “Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid: how then shall God judge the world?” “Clouds and darkness are round about him; justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne.” It is still moreover the righteousness of God as to the dispensation of his grace in the salvation of men. It is the word of righteousness; that is, it reveals the way in which God makes us righteous, both in state and nature. In answer to the question, “How can man be just with God?” or, “How can he be clean that is born of a woman?” it may be observed, that he is not “just with God,” but he can be made so. He is not clean, but he can be made so. How interesting must such a communication as this be!

Now, this “word of righteousness” shows us how it is that God accomplishes this work; how he makes us righteous in state; how he makes us righteous in a way of justification: that it is not by the deeds of the law, for “by the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified,” but by “the hearing of faith.” “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness.” This is what is called the “righteousness of God;” this is the everlasting righteousness which the Saviour wrought; this is the righteousness without the law, yet testified and witnessed by the law and the prophets, and, above all, by the apostles.

The righteousness of Adam in Paradise was only the righteousness of a man; and the righteousness of an angel in heaven is only the righteousness of a creature; it is therefore a finite righteousness: but the Christian’s righteousness-the righteousness on which he depends, and which he pleads before God-is a righteousness divine and infinite, and therefore he is said not only in this righteousness to be justified, but in this righteousness to be exalted. And it shows us also how it makes us righteous in disposition, or righteous in a way of sanctification. This is by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that, as we are justified by the blood of Christ, so we are saved “by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.”

God then works in us “to will and to do of his good pleasure;” he produces in us righteous views, principles, feelings, righteous hopes and fears, righteous joys and sorrows. And all this is necessary, not only in a way of evidence, but of qualification. In vain would God pardon our sins unless he subdued them. This work is equally of God with the former, and, through his operation in the first instance, is perfect at once; his operation in the second is gradual:-He has “begun a good work,” and he “will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Then the one will be as complete as the other; then he will “present his people faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,” and there will be nothing but righteousness.