This last is the way the point is looked at in the Epistle to the Romans. In the Ephesians it is simply a new creation when we are dead. To make this a little more clear,-there are two ways in which I can deal with the point of the relationship between God and man. I may simply take the counsels of God and begin with them. This is done in the Ephesians. Or I may take the actual state of men as responsible children of Adam, and show how grace meets this state: the result is blessedly confirmatory of the other, but the point of view different. This last is the view taken in the Romans -the ways of God in His moral government met by grace. In the first, man is found dead in sin. All is God's work from beginning to end. Christ is seen- to bring about this blessed counsel in grace-dead; and we, dead in sin, are brought back up to God according to these counsels with and as Him. In the Romans man is proved to be dead, dying under the effects of in and his moral condition as a living, responsible being, a child of the first Adam; and this responsibility, as a sinner who has ruined himself, met by grace.
But before I unfold the Epistle to the Romans in its bearing on the point which occupies us, under the added light of that to the Eph. 1 would gather the statements of Scripture as to righteousness, to see how far it has to do with law, in the case of a believer. Of course a man under law could only be righteous by keeping it. But is this the way (i.e., the making good legal righteousness in any way) in which righteousness is obtained by the believer-his title to be in heaven I Turn to Rom. 3: in verse 21 I read, “But now the righteousness of God without the law” -not without the man's doing it and by another doing it for him, but apart from law entirely, χωρις νόμου. It is witnessed by law and prophets, but it is another kind of righteousness, made out independent of it. “To him that worketh not” —well, what instead ?-but believes on Him that has wrought it out for him instead? Not at all— “ but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.” It is opposed in kind: So, further on, the promise he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed by law. It was not on this principle. It is not that it was on this principle but that another had to carry it out; but it was not on the principle, not by law. The law entered by the by (chap v. 20). We are not under the law, but under grace (chap. vi.). Why then to have it fulfilled in my place? We are become dead to the law by the body of Christ (chap. vii. 4). How held to its fulfillment if I am dead to it and consequently it has no more dominion over me? So further on, we are delivered from the law, being dead in that in which we were held. Then he enters into its power as a means of convicting of sin, which is not my object here, but of which I purpose speaking further on. So in Galatians, as many as are of works of law are under a curse-not as many as have broken it: all under it had; but that is the position of one under it. No man is justified by the law; for the just shall live by faith, but the law is not of faith; that is, our justification does not proceed on this principle, whoever may meet it. And how are we redeemed from its only effect-a curse? The curse is taken by another. It is not met by another's fulfilling it: not a hint of it. After faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster. I have nothing to do with it as a way of righteousness. How was another to be my righteousness by keeping it? I must have righteousness; but I am not under law, so that righteousness should be claimed in that way. If righteousness came by law, Christ is dead in vain. How could this be said if it does come by law, Christ having livingly fulfilled it to be our righteousness? And mark, His death is appealed to. Christ is dead in vain, if law is the principle on which I have righteousness; for faith, in the death of Christ, the very nature is dead in me from which the righteousness of the law would have been expected. I am crucified with Him; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Is He under law? if not, I am not. If I am justified, says the Apostle, by works of law, why have I cast it all down? If I build law after Christ, I am a transgressor in leaving it to come to Christ; but I through law, says he, am dead to law (i.e., not bound to it), that I might live unto God (which no one under law ever did: it is weak through the flesh); for by works of law shall no flesh be justified, be he Jew, or Christian, or who he -may, or whoever may do them. No one is justified by works of law. We are set on a wholly different ground-dead and risen again in the second Adam. We are in the presence of God through the rent vail.
Again, Christ is become of none effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. You are fallen. from grace. It is on another principle. It is not, Do this and live. As regards walk, even, it is the same setting aside of law. If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under law. If led of the Spirit, they were going right, yet they were not under law. We are not children of the bondwoman. The whole of the system on which I am now commenting, which places man on the ground of legal obedience, flows from not apprehending the truth of being in Christ. But of this point in examining the Epistle to the Romans.
These quotations will give not a particular, difficult, or contested passage, but the well-assured view of the Spirit, often expressed. The Epistle to the Romans, to which I now turn, will give the great principle on which this depends, and how the saint passes from the old state to the new. What I find in the Scripture is this: when I read in the Ephesians of the counsels of God, I find nothing of the law at all. All is God's work, and all is in Christ; who is not spoken of as alive down here, but is first viewed as dead, then exalted, and believers exalted in Him. It teaches unity now of all saints in Him when taken out of death. If I turn to the Romans, I find the responsible man in flesh proved guilty, not seen dead; but no remedy for his condition by making it in any way good, but death brought in; at which point we arrive at the beginning, so to speak, of the Ephesians, but so making the state of man uncommonly clear. We do not find even Christ exalted in the Romans (save in one passage which does not apply to this point, and confirms the general view I am presenting), nor the counsels of God as to the Church. The results of the union of its members is presented in one practical passage. The Epistle to the Romans places the individual on the ground of righteousness, and thus of true liberty in life, but does not reach the union of the body with Christ. Hence, death and resurrection, which supposes man to have had to say to sin in life, are its theme. After stating that its purport was God's good news, it begins with a divinely powerful display of the wickedness and evil state of man, alike terrible and true; and terrible because true. Gentile conscience must quail before its plainness, telling things as they were; and Jewish hypocrisy, too, laid bare by the edge of that very word in which it made its boast, seek to hide itself in vain in its anger. All the world is guilty before God. But grace meets this-by deeds of law none are justified, by law is knowledge of sin.
But now righteousness of God is manifested. What is this? The first idea, so to speak, which is given us of God's righteousness (Rom. 1:1717For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)), is exceedingly abstract. In other passages, we shall see the way it is brought about and made good as to us; but here I do not doubt it is its general nature and character. It is God's, not man's. It is, has its character, quality, and source, from God, not from man. It is what it is that is spoken of, not how it is. It is a righteousness after this fashion, not man's. It comes from God for man, not from man for God. Hence it has the character and qualities of its source, whoever may be given to profit by it. So wrath of God from heaven; it is not human wrath or justice on earth ending there in its nature and quality, nor even divine wrath exercised in an earthly way by earthly instruments. It is divine from heaven. It is not the righteousness of God, a fact, an existing thing, which is spoken of, but righteousness of God-this quality of righteousness. But hence it must first be found in God Himself, or it would not have that essential quality. Hence we are after God as to the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness. The righteousness which is valid before God (which is the sense put by Luther and Calvin on the expression), is utterly astray, because legal righteousness, where it existed, would be valid before God. If accomplished, it would be accepted. Man would live in doing it; but then it would be not God's righteousness but man's: whereas, the whole point on which the Apostle insists in this expression is, that it is God's and not man's I would also state that it is not inherent righteousness-an expression of questionable character as to any consistent meaning. Indeed, on this subject, it is rather a contradiction in terms. “Righteousness” is indeed used for the quality which is disposed to judge and act righteously; or at least “righteous” is. As we say, a righteous man. But, in general, certainly righteousness is a relative term; that is, it refers to conduct towards another. Hence, inherent righteousness is a very loose expression, as inherent conduct towards another is evidently very little exact. However, to take it as it is meant, as the quality by which man is disposed to be righteous, although this cannot be separated from the righteousness here spoken of (because if Christ is our righteousness, He is our life also; it is a justification of life), yet here we have nothing to do with inherent righteousness. The question of Job, “How can man be just with God?” is that to which the Epistle to the Romans gives an answer. When it is said the Jews were going about to establish their own righteousness, and did not submit to the righteousness of God, it is clear that it is not submitting to inherent righteousness. So when it is said, “Now the righteousness of God is manifest,"— “to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness” —these words cannot apply to inherent righteousness. It is righteousness before God which the Epistle treats of. But farther, this is viewed, on the other hand, and for the very reason that righteousness before God is treated of, as applied to or judged of in the person who is to be accounted righteous. The man is accounted righteous -righteousness accounted to him or reckoned to him.
Thus, when it is said, faith was imputed to him for righteousness, it is not the distinct substantive value of his faith which was reckoned as righteousness in itself and then imputed to him, but that he was accounted righteous, held for righteous before God, because of his faith. The why or how remains, A believer in Christ is justified through faith; he is reckoned righteous; yet it is not the value or strength of his faith which is accounted as itself equivalent to righteousness, and then imputed(-yet it is said for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe (who believe)-but that he was accounted, and we are accounted, righteousness on the ground of believing. That is, the meaning of imputed righteousness is not a substantive righteousness, apart from the person, and afterward reckoned to him, but the condition of the person in God's sight. God views him as righteous, though he be not such as would entitle him to it by reason of anything inherent. It is righteousness reckoned to him, but not thought of apart from him, but his standing before God. They are in righteousness in God's reckoning, though they are not intrinsically so. Hence it is imputed or reckoned. The whole difference lies in this. The meaning of imputed righteousness is not a quantity of righteousness apart from the person and afterward reckoned to him in the present sense of the word, as I impute anything to a person, but the state or condition before Him in which God sees the person. I beg the reader to remark that I am examining the force of the scriptural expression, “imputed righteousness” —not the scripture doctrine.
From all I have said, there may or may not be a quantity of righteousness outside a person put to his account. But the meaning of imputed righteousness is the character or quality in which the person appears in God's sight, not the cause of his so appearing. It proves it is not inherent, for then there could be no more reckoning of it. Why he is reckoned righteous remains to be proved. The not seeing this has produced insurmountable difficulties where such passages as “his faith was imputed to him for righteousness” had to be considered; for then, if a certain thing in its own value was put to the person's account and reckoned to him, faith was the valuable thing for the worth of which he was so accounted, and in truth it was inherent. So, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sin is covered: Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin. It is not merely that Haggai does not impute the sin done, but He does not view him as in sin, but as in righteousness; for innocence there is no question of. Hence it is not δικαίωμα when imputed righteousness is spoken of, but δικαιοσύνη not an act or sum of things done, but a state. He is reckoned to be in the state of δικαιοσύνη. Δικαιοσύνη is imputed to him. As the Thirty-nine Articles express it, “We are accounted righteous before God;” so in Rom. 4:33For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Romans 4:3), “It was counted to him for righteousness.”
Here, as we have remarked, it cannot be the value of something reckoned to Abraham, but the state in which he was reckoned or accounted to be: so we read, (ver. 11,) “Righteousness might be imputed to them also.” Here nothing is spoken of as that which is there to be imputed, and the passage as clearly as possible shows that the meaning of the phrase, “Righteousness imputed to them,” means they were accounted to be righteous. Of 21-33 I have spoken. -Faith is still here the thing imputed. (Galatians in. 6.) It is again faith which is imputed for righteousness.
There are eleven passages in Scripture which speak of imputing righteousness or for righteousness; in nine of them faith is imputed for righteousness; so that here it does not mean the value of the thing done which is imputed, or our faith would be the merit. They are Rom. 4:3, 5, 9, 10, 22, 23, 243For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Romans 4:3)
5But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)
9Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 10How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. (Romans 4:9‑10)
22And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; (Romans 4:22‑24); Gal. 3:66Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. (Galatians 3:6); and James 2:2323And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23). The others, where it is said, righteousness is imputed, are Rom. 4:66Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, (Romans 4:6), 11. In Rom. 4:66Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, (Romans 4:6) it is, God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Here, clearly no positive external thing is imputed or put to another's account, but a man is reckoned to have δικαιοσύνψ. Verse 11 leads us to exactly the same result. The Gentile believers were to be reckoned righteous, because faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness when he was uncircumcised. These are all the passages. An analogous passage (Rom. 2:2626Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? (Romans 2:26)) gives the same sense-the circumcision is counted for uncircumcision. That is, the man is accounted circumcised when he is not. Thus, though a person is reckoned to be in a state which he is not de facto in, a quantum of righteousness read/ outside himself reckoned to him is not the meaning of imputed righteousness. It means the state in God's sight of the person so accounted righteous. Righteousness imputed to a man is the same as the man's being accounted righteous.
(Continued from page 195).
(To be continued.)