I have just taken the close of this chapter, as being the summing up and application of the apostle's argument, which he had drawn from the sin of Jew and Gentile. Then, in chapter 4, he passes on to another principle, as brought out in the testimony of Abraham and David. After the opening introduction, at the beginning of the Epistle, in which the apostle presents the mission with which he had been charged, and consequently, as we have seen, grace and righteousness revealed to man in the gospel, he turns to unfold man's need, and the way in which it had been met, as that alone on which the soul could rest. He opens out the horrible evil of the Gentile, and of man generally, throughout the world; and he then shows that, without any inspired testimony, the two great testimonies that ought to have acted on their consciences, were first, the knowledge of God possessed by their fore-fathers, but which they had not retained; and second, the creation. The invisible things of God being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse. "Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man," &c. " Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts." For if a man has left God he cannot suffice to himself;—that is the prerogative of God—he always turns to the lusts of his own heart, and to objects below even himself. Hence if they had not discerned what became God, they should not be able to discern what became man. It is God's way, when the light He gives is rejected, to give those up to blindness who have rejected it; and this giving up by God is an act of judgment on God's part. As these Gentiles, not liking to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. It was so with the Jews in rejecting the testimony God had given them; God says by the mouth of the prophet, "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." (Isa. 6:1010Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. (Isaiah 6:10).) So will it be with professing Christendom. In 2 Thess. 2:11, it is said, "God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie." Thus we see, whether Jew or Gentile, or Christendom, the effect of man being given up by God. We see what man becomes when left to himself. It was not all, as regards the Gentile, that natural light was given in the beginning in the testimony of creation, but men did not like to retain God in their knowledge, when that knowledge was there. Every man has a conscience, distinct from grace; but conscience cannot bring us to God. Conscience is the sense of responsibility, united to the knowledge of good and evil; and if the conscience becomes awakened, and there is not the power of life drawing to God, it only drives us away from God, like Adam in the garden, hiding himself from God. The Gentiles did not like to retain God in their knowledge, and God gave them up to a reprobate mind: properly, they did not discern (in the way of moral approval) to retain God in their knowledge, and God gave them up to an undiscerning mind, i.e., a mind incapable of distinguishing what was good, with approbation of it. So the Jews, having rejected God's testimony, sentence is passed upon them by Isaiah, seven hundred years before it was accomplished. " Make the heart of this people fat," &c. Also, as Stephen says, " Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did (before Christ) so do ye, (now that He has been revealed.) Both are guilty of the same sin. As regards the public state of that people, they were adjudged to blindness; and so it will be at the close of the present state of things. Those very things by which, according to Peter's testimony, Christ was testified to have come from God, will be the very things, according to 2 Thess. 2, that will lead the Jews (as it will doubtless others) to receive the false Christ in the latter days. "Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which GOD did by HIM in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know." (Acts 2:2222Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: (Acts 2:22).) Compare this with 2 Thess. 2:8, 98And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (2 Thessalonians 2:8‑9) "Then shall that wicked be revealed, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders. In Greek the words are the same, 'power' in the one being the same as 'miracles' in the other. Thus as the Jews rejected what God did in their midst, by Jesus of Nazareth, so they will be allowed to receive what Satan will do by that wicked one; and all this, as the apostle goes on to say, " because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."
From the 17th verse of Rom. 2, the apostle speaks of the Jews; and finally, from the 3rd verse of Psa. 14, and other passages of the Old Testament, in the 10th to the 18th verses of Rom. 3, concludes all are under sin; the Jew under law, as well as the Gentile without law, are alike guilty. For if the Gentile be given over to a reprobate mind, the Jew is proved by his own scriptures to be just as bad. Thus " there is none righteous, no not one; there is none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh." The will is gone wrong. They are blind in mind, perverse in will, and guilty before God. Not only was the nature sinful, but they had slighted the testimony, and rejected the light God had revealed to them. Such was the state of the Jew, for the law spoke to him. Natural conscience sufficed to condemn the Gentile; but the God of judgment was there to discern the truth of the state of those who boasted of the law; and now it is proved that by the deeds of the law no flesh can be saved; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Thus we see those under the law are brought under condemnation. It is no use for the Jew to attempt to get his part before God, in virtue of the privileges and condition in which God had placed him; for the law, of which he boasted, condemns him. " By the law is the knowledge of sin." The 7th of Romans springs out of this. The Gentiles had no right really to put themselves under the law; but we all do, somehow or other, put ourselves under the law; and see where it brings us to: "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God." And were there any? None. "They are all gone out of the way;" and the Jew, if he listened to the law, learned that on his own ground he was utterly guilty; though the apostle does not bring against them their hardness of heart in rejecting Christ. But both Jew and Gentile are alike thoroughly guilty.
But now it is the righteousness of God without law: and here the apostle carries on this great principle to its full extent. He states it in a direct and absolute manner: righteousness is altogether on a different principle—it is the righteousness of God; and it is a righteousness without law at all. It is God's righteousness, and who can give a law to Him? And being God's righteousness, it is altogether on a different principle to law? for law requires from man; but here the righteousness is God's. God's law, consequently, only condemns, for it requires righteousness, and it cannot give life. Put a man under obligation, as a means of righteousness, and it is all over with him, because man is a sinner. He is blinded in mind and perverse in will. Man has a will, (that is not obedience,) law brings it out, and man's will never submits; for it would cease to be will if it did. God never meant righteousness to be by the law. It would have been cruelly mocking man, being a sinner, to have proposed it to him with this object. "The law was given that the offense might abound." Not, mark, that sin might abound; for sin was there and abounded before the law was given; but it is not offense until there is a law. Thus it is that the law worketh wrath; for where no law is there is no transgression; but sin by the commandment becomes exceeding sinful. Thus every mouth is stopped, and all the world is brought in guilty before God; and now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Remark that it not merely exists, but that it is manifested; it exists ever in the purpose of God, and hence promises were given, to which faith clung by grace; but it was not manifested till the gospel was brought out; therefore the apostle says, " to declare at this time his righteousness."
No sinner ever stood, or could stand, in God's presence, from Adam downwards, but in God's righteousness. But it had not been manifested until now. "But now the righteousness of God without [the] law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." Thus the law and the prophets only showed what God was going to bring in. But the church of God is founded on God's righteousness, and is in the light as He is in the light; therefore it is manifested at "this time." God's righteousness is brought in without law, but witnessed by the law and the prophets; it was witnessed to before it was manifested. We do not get into the Church position till we get into the 4th chapter. In the 3rd chapter we get all brought in guilty before God; and then how we are to get into the presence of God. Can man, that is a sinner, approach God in himself? No. But Christ has been made a sacrifice for us; He has answered for all we have done in the old man; and as the new man, He is in the presence of God for us, and we are there in Him, in all the favor and acceptance in which Christ Himself is: always there as He is. Thus it is man gets, or rather becomes, the righteousness of God. The claims of God against the old man have all been met in the new man, Christ Jesus: and we are made the righteousness of God in Him. In the end of chap. 3, we have the answer to God's perfect demands;—the sin, whether of Jew or Gentile, put away by the blood-shedding of Christ Jesus, and God's righteousness brought in; for Christ has perfectly glorified God in respect of good and evil. In chap. 4, we have another thing, resurrection, at least in principle: "Abraham believed God." And not only did he believe in the resurrection, in spite of the principle of death which was in him; but he did so, as believing the God who could raise from the dead. So we, as the apostle states it, do not merely believe in Jesus, who rose from the dead, but in the God who raised Him. Thus we, having entirely done with law, by which sin is imputed, get the second of the two great principles on which the gospel is founded. The first is blood-shedding, the second resurrection; and the Jew, who might be put to silence on the ground of law, might appeal to Abraham; but here the doctrine of faith, and righteousness by faith, comes clearly out; for in referring to Abraham, who had nothing to do with law, he says, " Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." It is not said that he believed in God, but he believed God, and that is how he got his righteousness. So also David; he believed God. Thus we see that Abraham and David alike found righteousness by grace, through faith: and the faith of Abraham, in this respect, is our faith; only we believe not that God can, but that He has raised Jesus. Thus it is that Abraham is called the father of the faithful,—first publicly called out from the world to righteousness and relationship with God by faith. Having touched this point of the resurrection, before going farther I would show its use in the following chapters. Christ having taken, in resurrection, the place of the accepted man, after having been delivered for our offenses—justified by faith, we are at peace with God, stand in His favor, and repose in the hope of the glory. For there Christ is before God. This brings out the great doctrine of our standing in the first and second Adam; constituted sinners by the disobedience of one; righteous by the obedience of the other.
Having thus, in the 5th chapter taken up the two men, the old man, the first Adam, and the new man in Christ, the second Adam,—in the 6th chapter he goes on to show that some will say, ‘Oh! if Christ's obedience alone has made me righteous, and grace reigns, it is no matter what I do. If it is righteousness without works, then we may walk as we like.' No; it is not so; for we cannot have part in this righteousness but in Christ. Now Christ has died to sin, and lives to God. Hence in Christ I have not only righteousness, but have it as in Him, dead to sin, and alive to God. I cannot be righteous but in this condition; for such is the Christ that I have it in. If I have a part in justification, I have necessarily a part in life, and that a holy life; not that the life is the same thing as the justification, or the cause of it, but the two are always united. I am risen again in Him to be in this new position of justification. Now a new and holy life brings with it hatred of sin. The same principle of resurrection is applied, in chap. 7, to the law. If I am dead and risen again, the law, which is binding on a man as long as he lives, has lost all claim upon me; I am dead to the law by the body of Christ; I am delivered from that which has power over me, that I might serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. We have the application of the risen life to man as placed in justification before God, as in a risen Christ, in chap. 5; as dead to sin, and alive to God, as risen again in the power of a holy life, in chap. 6; as dead to law, in chap. 7; for the law has killed us, therefore it can do no more; its greatest work was to kill Christ; but He rose again, and we in Him, beyond the power of the law. Chapter 8 then brings out the Christian in perfect liberty, in virtue of our being risen in Christ, justified in Christ, our affections showing our life in Him; "he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit; " and "where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." Being thus fully and freely justified and accepted in Christ Jesus, we are only waiting for the redemption of our bodies. It is now no man' s righteousness, it is God's righteousness for all; and no man can come in in any other way, if it is God's righteousness. He cannot accept a Jew in preference to a Gentile; it is "to all;" it is as free to sinners of the Gentiles as to the Jew. As regards the standing and peace of the soul it is deeply important to see that what we are ever struggling for is to get something in which we can come before God, while it is God who comes and presents to us Christ as our only righteousness. "It is unto all;" but it is upon those that believe. Mark here another thing that is connected with peace of soul. Some may say, ‘I do not deny His divine righteousness; I believe it; but how am I to know that I have a share in it? Is it applied to me? I want it applied to my soul.’ Well, God does work by His grace to make you believe, (and He alone can,) but what do you mean? If, by divine teaching, you believe you are verily guilty, and look to Christ's work as your only hope, then God has applied it to you. If in the consciousness of your sinfulness you have believed the record God has given of His Son, then you have had it applied to you, for it is upon all them that believe. You are righteous. It is bad if, when awakened of God, we go on tampering with sin, or with the world; God must work this out of us; and thus it is often long before the simplicity of faith is there; but the thing that is believed is what His Son is, and has done. If there is tampering with sin or the world in our souls, it prevents our laying hold of the truth; neither can we have, consequently, the joy of the Holy Ghost in our hearts; for God must be real in His ways with us. The Holy Ghost cannot tamper with sin, and if He work in us, He will make us recognize and judge and resist sin. But it is not by seeking fruits we shall find peace; for till the Holy Ghost is there in power, there can be no fruit; and for this we must submit to the righteousness of God. He it is that takes of the things of Christ, for the joy of our souls. But if God has fixed the faith of your hearts on Christ, God has applied this divine righteousness to you. But if there be any sin or worldliness lurking in the secrecy of your soul, God being real and faithful to you, He must work it out in judgment in your soul, to bring you to lean on Christ as your righteousness because of it; and of course while that process is going on in the soul there cannot be joy.
But we are returned to our main subject. " The righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe, for there is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. " Here we have the absolute freeness of divine grace, the sovereignty of God's own goodness, in His being glorified in respect of our sins, by virtue of the efficacy of the work of Christ, which has met and put them all away, having discharged everything that was against us. That is the efficacy of His death; and being in Christ, I rest upon the acceptableness of His person. Many a Christian would be glad to rest there; and why don't they? Because they have not really learned the value of the cross; for if they had they would not be trembling, as if their sins were not put away. You say ‘you have no other confidence than the cross;’ as to the conviction of your heart, that may be true; and ‘that you feel your need of it;’ that I suppose, or you would not look to it. But you have not yet learned the value of the cross; and the secret of it is that you have still a little bit of your own goodness lurking within. You do not think yourself as thoroughly bad as God says you are. You have to learn that it is the ungodly that God justifies. You do not think yourself ungodly, and nothing else, and to be nothing else, in order to be justified; and therefore you have not yet realized God's justification.
Here, "being freely justified by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," is not mere justification, but actual deliverance, entire redemption. In the case of Israel it was a question between God and Pharaoh, "Let my people go." It is a real, positive redemption, not merely a forgiveness. Christ has bought us, free from all Satan can have against us. If I buy a slave, he is mine, and no one can have any right over him; and that is true of us. Even with regard to our poor bodies, though not yet redeemed by power from sorrow and suffering, they are free from Satan's power to serve God with. The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God will have us entirely for Himself, by the work of Christ; for not even the smallest particle of our dust shall remain in Satan's kingdom; and this is why redemption is mentioned last in 1 Cor. 1:3030But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Corinthians 1:30); it refers to full, final deliverance, and includes the redemption of the body. Such was the typical order of the deliverance of Israel in Egypt; it was one thing for them to be screened from the destroying angel, by the blood on the door-posts, when in Egypt, and another, and very different thing, for them to be brought clean out of Egypt by the passage of the Red Sea, thus being entirely delivered from the power of Pharaoh. But more than this; Jesus has broken and destroyed all the power of death, by which Satan held us, taking them captive whose captives we were; and is now making us, who were Satan's captives, the vessels of God's power and testimony against Satan.
"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God." Here we have the connection of the blood of Christ with God's righteousness. It has been declared. It rested only in promise till Christ came in the flesh. It was not manifested until then; so that, take Adam, Abel, or Job, they rested on the promise of righteousness, because the blood was yet to be shed. But now it is declared as having been fulfilled, and it is an amazing difference between resting on a promise, though that is blessed, and on a fulfillment. A man in prison, with a promise that his debt shall be paid, though relieved by the promise, is not in the condition of him who is walking at liberty, with the knowledge that it has been paid. It is not forbearance now, but accomplished salvation. It is God's own righteousness declared: can He forbear with that? The time of forbearance was in the time of the Old Testament saints. Then God was forbearing because of what He was going to do; but that is not our condition. We have God's righteousness at "this time," this present time. He is not speaking here of that which is past of our natural life, but of the time passed before Christ's death. This is part of that "better thing God has provided for us." For if I sin, I do not want a prophet, as Nathan, to come and tell me my sin is put away. I can say I know the blood has been shed, therefore I know, as a present thing, that my sin is put away. It is a settled question. It is such a righteousness that He who accomplished it is set down at God's right hand, and our life is in Him there. Abraham could not say, ' I am one with the man at God's right hand,' for Christ was not there as man then. But the believer in Christ can say so; for as surely as the first Adam was turned out of paradise, so surely has the second Adam entered heaven, and I am as sure of my place in Christ as of my place in Adam. Well, then, it is such a righteousness as God recognized, and, as regards the blood, such a work as has fully satisfied God. He is just to forgive. It is His own righteousness which is upon the believer, and he must own it; and here is the resting-place of faith. This is justice; but the opening of my heart is at the out-flowing of love. For the opening of the heart is under the sunshine of grace. To see ourselves perfectly cleansed makes us hate sin. A man who is thoroughly clean will not like to get a spot on his garment; while he who is already somewhat dirty will not care about getting a little more dirty. When the blood was put on the lintels of the door posts, it was to keep the God of judgment out, and He passed over; for had He come in, He must have judged them, for they deserved judgment as much as the Egyptians; nay, more, for they knew better. Therefore it was grace keeping God out. But at the Red Sea they were to stand still and see the salvation of God. It was God over-riding every barrier and coming in and taking them out of the place of judgment altogether, and bringing them to Himself. While the one was keeping God out, the other was bringing them to God, on His own ground and by His own arm. As an un-godly man I am justified by His blood; but as a Christian I am accepted in Him. Has the cross then left me out-side? No, it has saved me from judgment, therefore I value it. I see a sinner trembling at the foot of the cross, feeling his need of the cross, or he would not be there; but not seeing the value of it, so he gets no further. He thinks he values it, but if he valued it aright he would not be trembling any longer at the foot of it.
Where is boasting then? It is all gone, as it is God's righteousness by the law of faith without any legal deeds whatever. Recollect we are not under law as innocent; for man is a sinner, and the law cannot allow of even a lust. Then where is the use of giving a law to man that is a sinner. What is the use of my giving a righteous law to a man who sells fraudulent goods? What is the use of my giving a true measure to him, but to teach him where he is wrong? So God never gave the law to make men righteous, but only to convict them and show them their sin. Men may abuse the grace to continue in sin, but that does not alter the nature of God's righteousness. If a law is given to man, already a sinner, it must be to make him know himself a sinner.
Is He the God of the Jews? Yes, and of the Gentiles also; for He will justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? No, we establish it. Not only Moses's law, but the principle of law. If a thief is hanged on a tree, is that making void the law? No, so far from making it void, it establishes it. So when Christ died, He established the law; and faith comes in and says, So far from making void the law when Christ died on the cross for my sin, He established the law: but that, does not put me under it. If under it, I am lost, not merely as a sinner, but also by the law itself. Nothing establishes the law like the death of Christ. The first chapters give us the Gentile, lawless, and the Jew, under law, condemned out of the law. Christ was born under law. He kept the law and died under its curse; and is He under it now? No, He is dead to the law and risen again. I am the dead sinner; He died for me; He has borne the curse, and it is all gone, and it has lost all power to touch me, for I am one with Christ. I stand in Him in the presence and favor of God, as dead and risen again in Christ. He gave all His sanction. to the law and suffered it-glorified it, but delivered us from it.
In chap. 4 the apostle refers to Abraham and David, as believing God; for if the law did not bring in righteousness, this does not dispose of Abraham, who was before. His testimony, therefore, is brought in. He goes on, therefore, to show the ground on which Abraham gets the promises, and in what state he was when he got them. He was accounted righteous through faith, and it was in his uncircumcised state that he obtained the promises. As righteousness was reckoned to Abraham in uncircumcision and on the principle of faith the Jew's mouth was stopped and the promise available to the Gentiles. Then in David we have the same thing. "Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." The law worketh wrath; and therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, so that the promise should be sure to all the seed of Abraham; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all before Him whom he believed, even God who quickens the dead, and calls the things that are not as though they were;—thus introducing us as raised men in Christ into the presence of God. Beloved, in a day like this, what a thought it is to be set in God's righteousness. Christ has set aside all man's reasonings by the manifestation of God's righteousness, as the rising sun not only dispels the darkness, but causes even the stars to vanish by reason of its brightness. When Christ is first revealed to the soul, it is always humbling, because it displays to the soul what it really is. I do not say that the affections may not be moved towards Christ without this; but there must be, sooner or later, such a revelation of what Christ is, as to show us what we are in the presence of Christ; and it is that which breaks down all inside the soul-foolish and vain desires, self-will, sinful thoughts and feelings, and everything that is the opposite of Christ; thus showing us, not only our need of Him and our committed sins, but that we are sin. Then afterward we understand how we are brought into the unclouded favor of God, according to the love which sought us and gave His Son for us.