WHEN I come to that point, to say (not the world is wicked, but) I am wicked, I have the “Daysman” between me and God. (Job 9.) He is the One who has come to me in all the wickedness of my heart, and has come to me because I am so. Now I have, not only God working in me, sending Satan to plough up the fallow ground, and to show to my conscience what was there long before, but God doing a work for me. He brings in a righteousness (His own) for the sinner. He works a work for us. The first thing I find then is that this my state has not kept Him away from me, but it has brought Him to me. That is grace, not righteousness. Hiding my sin from me would not be mercy. Not letting me see things as God sees them is not mercy. It is in meeting me just as I am, and acting above the sin, that he has shown mercy. Christ never alarms people who come to Him in their need. To the hypocrite He speaks terror, but to the poor in spirit it is “Fear not: I am all that you need.” You say, “I am such a sinner.” Christ says, “That is just the reason I am come.” You reply, “I have an awful will.” “That is the reason I am come,” says Christ: “I will break your will.” “Neither do I condemn you,” said He to the woman accused by the Pharisees.
I defy you to find a case where Christ brought fear upon a convicted conscience. He takes the fear away instead of causing it. He comes in the poorest and the lowest way to meet with those in need, and that they might not be afraid of Him. Grace reigns―it has come in God’s own blessed sovereignty.
How different are men’s thoughts of righteousness now from God’s! We can let all go on quietly without trying to set things right, knowing we have something better. We are made the righteousness of God in Christ.
We have a daysman not only laying His hand on man but on God. He is the mediator to reconcile. If a day is assigned in a court of law, the daysman is the one who appears on my behalf to undertake my cause. Not only has Christ come to me in my sins, but He has come to answer for me, taking up the whole cause. He has done it―settled the whole thing as to my sins, and is gone back to appear in the presence of God for me. He has appeared for God amongst us, but now He is gone to appear for us in the presence of God. I have given up all attempt to answer for myself: He has taken it up. Has God accepted his answer for me? Here faith comes in to accredit God when he says He has accepted Him. The work that the daysman has done is accepted. We know not only that there is a daysman, but that the days-man has sat down, the work being finished, no more remaining to be done (as to the sacrifice). The Holy Ghost is the witness of that: “their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
Righteousness is there. Where? Before God. I am not talking of the fruits of righteousness, but of righteousness itself there. God’s mind is that He has accepted Christ. God has given Him, and that is love. He has accepted His work, and that is righteousness. Now there is no fear. Grace reigns through righteousness. I stand in the presence of God by virtue of the perfect righteousness that has been presented to God. Where is love to be seen? Very feebly indeed amongst Christians, but love is not feeble in God. I find in Him perfect love. He has broken my heart because it was a hard heart.
Here was all the country set in movement to get Job’s heart right!― Sabeans, Chaldeans, &c. God has been working in all this. I have the key to it all now through the gospel. Self-will, pride, all must be broken; but God is perfect love. He has taken away the sin by the cross, and He has provided righteousness. Then what have I to fear? Though He will exercise our souls that we may know good and evil, it is all love. I can glory in tribulation, knowing that it worketh patience, experience, hope.
Now, beloved friends, are you resting on the daysman or are you saying, “If I can make my hands a little cleaner, my conscience a little, quieter, I shall be all right? “If you were to stand in the presence of God, that would be all spoiled. (Job 9:3131Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. (Job 9:31)). What righteousness is that which is spoiled in the presence of God?
It is the blood which has made atonement, and Christ at the right hand of God is our righteousness.