It will perhaps be of use to say a word as to the meaning of the expression, “Righteousness of God.” In spite of its simplicity, there prevails a good deal of misunderstanding about it. Luther’s German translation has instead, “The righteousness which avails before God.” Now man’s righteousness, according to the law, avails before God; and although indeed it is nowhere to be found by Him, yet still it counts before God; only it is not God’s righteousness, were it ever so perfect. In John 16:1010Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; (John 16:10) we see wherein the righteousness of God has been demonstrated; namely, that God has seated Christ at His right hand in glory, because He has perfectly glorified Him. Righteousness consists in this, that the Father has exalted Christ as man in His own glory—the glory which He had with Him before the world was; and God, as a righteous God, has glorified Him because lie has been glorified by Christ on the cross. (John 17:5; 13:31, 325And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John 17:5)
31Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. (John 13:31‑32)) In the above—cited passage (John 16:1010Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; (John 16:10)) the Lord says: The Spirit “will convince the world of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more.” In rejecting Christ, come in grace, the world has forever lost Him (in this character); but God has exalted and glorified Him. When the Lord speaks of the world, in John 17:2525O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. (John 17:25), He says, “O righteous Father!” but in interceding for His own, He says, on the contrary, “Holy Father!” (vs. 11) Thus the proof of the righteousness of God consists in this, that He has glorified Christ. As God was in Christ in the world, it must either accept or reject Him. It rejected Him, and for that reason is judged, and will see Him no more until He comes in judgment; but Christ, as man, has perfectly glorified God in all that God is, and God in righteousness has glorified Christ. The gospel then announces this righteousness of God; namely, that Christ, in what He has done for us, having glorified God, has been glorified as man, and seated at God’s right hand, clothed with divine glory; furthermore, that our standing before God is the consequence of what Christ has done. Our justification and being glorified are a part of the righteousness of God; because what Christ has done to glorify God, has been done for us. We are the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)) Christ would lose the fruit of His work if He did not have us with Him in the glory as the fruit of the travail of His soul, after having glorified God in all that He is, although we are absolutely unworthy in ourselves.
Thus the apostle shows why such a righteousness, the righteousness of God Himself, was necessary, if man was to be saved. Human righteousness did not exist on earth, and yet righteousness was indispensable. But as it is God’s righteousness, and certainly not of our works, it must be reckoned to us through faith, on the principle of faith; for if man’s works could help towards it, it would not be the righteousness of God. But if it is by faith that man participates in this righteousness, then believers from amongst the nations have part in it equally with the Jews.
We see, then, that if the person of Christ was placed in the foreground as the first main subject of the epistle, the second is the righteousness of God presented on the principle of faith, so that it is for all, and to be received through faith, and thus appropriated by the soul. What made this righteousness indispensable is the universal sinfulness of man, whilst the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. With regard to the heathen, the apostle gives two reasons for this wrath. First, the testimony of creation (vss. 10, 20); and, secondly, that, knowing God, they did not wish to retain Him in their knowledge, preferring idolatry. (vss. 21-24) “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (vs. 20) That does not imply that they know God in His nature, but they ought to have known Him as Creator; unless one is blind, one sees a Creator in the creation.
But God had not only revealed Himself as Creator. Noah did not only know Him as such, but also as a God with whom man as a responsible being had to do, as a God who had judged the world for its wickedness, who took note of man’s ways, and who would not have unrighteousness and violence. At the tower of Babel they had learned to know Him as a God who had scattered them, because they desired to be independent in their own wisdom, and mighty in their own strength. Such a God, however, the heathen did not wish to know or acknowledge; they made for themselves gods such as man could make, which gratified their passions, and instead of glorifying the true God, or being thankful to Him, they fell into the darkness of their own hearts. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” And because they did not wish to maintain the glory of God, but abandoned it for their own lusts, God gave them up to these lusts. He gave them up to vile passions in which they did things unbecoming nature itself, and, filled with all ungodliness and controlled by their passions, they not only did such things themselves, but with deliberate wickedness they found their pleasure in those that did them. It is true that there were some who judged these infamous ways (chapter 49:50), but they did the same things, and thus condemned themselves, and came under the just judgment of God, whilst they despised the riches of His goodness and patience, not perceiving that this goodness led them to repentance. Instead of giving heed to this goodness, they, by their hardness and impenitent heart, treasured up wrath against the day of wrath.
The apostle comes now to an important principle, simple indeed, but which greatly helps to clear the whole matter. Now that God is revealed, He deals with man according to his action. In the day of judgment He will deal with everyone according to his works, let him be Jew or Greek; for there is no respect of persons with God. It is true that God chose a people, and brought them near unto Himself for the proving of man, and for the maintenance of the truth that there is one God; but fundamentally there was no difference amongst men. All were sinners by nature, and all had sinned. We see also that God with regard to His people, although He had given them a law, remained always hidden behind the veil without revealing Himself. But now the veil is rent, and man—first the Jew and then the Greek—must be manifested before Him, each one according to his course, and according to the reality of his moral condition; and here it is not a question whether his standing be that of Jew or Greek. God, according to His righteousness, looks only at the measure of light which each one possesses. The apostle supposes Christianity when he speaks of those who seek for glory and honor and immortality; for the knowledge of these things depends upon a revelation. God will give eternal life, without distinction between Jew or Greek, to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek these things. God looks for the reality of the divine life, and not a mere external form. Those who do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, must expect indignation and wrath. “Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.” All will be judged, each according to his deeds, according to the light which he has possessed, without respect of persons. “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.”
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” If one from amongst the nations does what the law commands, he is accepted, and has the preference over one who, possessing the law, does not observe it. As we have said, it is a question since the revelation God has made of Himself, no longer of an external relationship, according to which some are “near” and others “afar off,” but of that which is right in the sight of God. In reality, if one of the Gentiles by the Spirit walked in love, he did that which the law commanded; whilst a Jew, who had the law and walked in sin, could not be accepted of God. It is no longer a question of external relationship to God, of His administration of the world and His people, but of the condition of the soul before God, and of the day of judgment, when the secrets of the heart will be brought to light, and man will be judged according to his works.
After clearly stating these great and important principles, the apostle goes on to describe the real condition of the Jews, as he had done with regard to the nations in chapter 1 The Jews boasted themselves of the law, and the privileges which they possessed; they knew the will of God, and were able to instruct the ignorant; yea, they even boasted of God. But did they also instruct themselves? On the contrary; they did all that which in their wisdom they taught others not to do. They dishonored God whilst bearing His name. The one true God was blasphemed amongst the Gentiles by them, as it is written. They possessed prerogatives, but if the law to which these prerogatives belonged was broken, their circumcision became uncircumcision. And if the Gentiles observed the law, they condemned those who, possessing the letter and the circumcision, transgressed the law. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly.... But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
J. N. D.