"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." " It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? Complete justification in Christ, and all of God. God gave His Son to bear our iniquities. God raised Him from the dead in perfect righteousness for our justification, to be our everlasting righteousness. Believing God we are reckoned righteous; all sins as completely put away from us, as to any charge against us, as they are put away from our Substitute who once bore them on the cross beneath the wrath of God. "For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that be liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, in Jesus Christ our Lord," (Rom. 6:11.)
Dead to sin, dead to law, and alive to God, but not in the flesh, but in Christ; old things are passed away, all are new, all of God—wholly a new creation. Nothing else avails. Every theory of old-man recovery or amendment—utterly a mistake. Every effort to establish our own righteousness—utterly against the gospel. We cannot either understand or submit to the righteousness of God, until we own that we have none, and by works of law can have none. Let us see how distinctly this is brought out. "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law..... For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Rom. 9:30-10:4.)
Now simply, what had the Gentiles found that gave them peace? They had found, to their unspeakable joy, that Christ had fulfilled all the righteous claims of God. How blessed! Have you found this, that God sees you in Christ, and Christ to be your righteousness? Faith looks at Christ, and says, God has made His Christ to be my everlasting righteousness. What can I want more? They had not attained to righteousness in themselves. They were not made righteous in the flesh, nor the flesh made righteous by anything imputed to it. This is the grand secret that the flesh, man as in the flesh, man as a child of Adam, had to be entirely set aside—and in Christ, is an entirely new position, a new standing. Here in Christ alone can we find the righteousness which is of faith, the righteousness of God.
Now contrast the effort of Israel. They were in ignorance of the need of this new creation. They were seeking righteousness by works of law. Even Nicodemus was ignorant of man's true state and need. They had and have no idea of the need to pass from law, and sin, and flesh, to Christ, and find all in Him who revealed the righteousness of God to faith. And thus being ignorant of God's righteousness, they went about to establish their own, and thus refused to submit to the righteousness of God. By so doing they rejected the gospel, they rejected Christ.
We thus find in these verses that to seek to establish the old man—man as a child of Adam, the first man, in any way—is to be ignorant of the righteousness of God, and really to reject Christ. How is it with us, for surely this is a personal matter both in the first and second aspects of justification? Do we truly own the atoning death of the Lord Jesus as the basis of the righteousness of God, in justifying us from all sins?
Then secondly, as to complete righteousness, perfect fitness to appear in the presence of God, in. what and how is God righteous in bringing us into His holy presence in righteousness suited to Himself? There can only be one answer to that question. In one word it is in Christ.
But we must again press the question, Is it legal righteousness? Is it the responsibilities of the old man, my own old self, made good? In no wise, or it would not be in Christ, a new creation. Man was placed under law, where man only transgressed the law, and man under law is man under its curse. (Gal. 3) True, Christ became a curse, died the accursed death of the cross, to redeem them that were under the curse of the law. In this consists the righteousness of God, in forgiving them that believe.
But then, there are two human thoughts as to righteousness in which to appear before God. The Romanist, or infused righteousness; and the Puritanic, or Christ's keeping the law, or, as it is commonly called, the righteous fulfillment of law imputed to man for his justification. But mark, both these are to make up for the defects of the old man, and make him fit for heaven. And, therefore, both these are alike utterly wide of the mark, and unscriptural. It would not be a new creation at all; but a repairing the sad defects of the old man.
Let us take the following illustration. You wish to cross the Atlantic. There are two vessels. One of these ships is utterly rotten and worthless. There are even holes in the bottom. It is a serious matter to trust yourself in that ship. The owner proposes to put or place copper sheathing to cover every hole. But the ship is rotten, and worthless in every timber. Such is man, utterly worthless, a mass of rottenness. Well, the owner says, I will replace new timbers, infuse as it were new life and strength into it, but it is the old ship still. Do you not see that both these proposals are to repair the old ship?
Here is the second vessel, wholly new. She has the strength of iron, and not a flaw or a hole in her bottom. She needs no repairs. In which of these would you cross the Atlantic? These two vessels illustrate a man in the flesh, and a man in Christ—or theology and scripture. How little is this understood! A man in the flesh, under law he breaks it, and flaws and defects abound. The Romanist would infuse by sacraments, &c, goodness, or inherent righteousness into man, and in one way or other he may hope for righteousness to be infused into him, until he is fit or suited for heaven. Vain hope. At last he has to be put into the fires of purgatory, and there to stay in all its imaginary horrors he knows not how long. We utterly reject such a denial of the righteousness of God. It is the pagan denial of the gospel.
But is the imputation of Christ's righteousness to make up all the defects of the old man, man in the flesh under law, any more scriptural than the other or Romish error? Is not the root-mistake the attempt to improve and give a standing to the old man? A careful examination of Rom. 4 will show that it is in believing God we are reckoned righteous. That is real justification, accounted righteous before God. Christ was raised from the dead in view of this very thing.
But Christ risen is a new order of things; the beginning of the creation of God—the new creation. As to the old rotten ship, the cross did not improve it, but was the end of it, as it is said, " Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Heb. 9:26.) Have we really laid hold of this fact by faith? The cross is the end of man's world in the flesh—the entire end, with not a shadow of a hope of improvement to man, Here I come to my end, the end of self. All now must be Christ. No more what I am to Him for righteousness, but what He has done, and what He is for me. The old ship " I" is set aside, condemned. It is now the new vessel—all new; it is Christ. Not “I," but “Christ."
Still many would fear they would lose something if they gave up the thought of the imputation of Christ's righteousness as making up their defects so as to stand before God in law fulfilled, though by Him. If the old vessel has to float you across life's Atlantic, then put on the patches of copper; but if the new vessel, then it is new, and of God, and needs no patches. Or take a scriptural illustration. " No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse." (Mark 2:21.) For fifteen centuries this old garment had been worn, until it was all rags and tatters, as we say. Man was seeking to establish his righteousness under and by law. Did Christ glorify God, in keeping the law, in order to be sewed on to the old garment of man under law? Why, the law was given for a totally different purpose, that sin might be seen to be what it is in open transgression. (Gal. 3:19, Rom. 5:20.) To seek to mend the old garment then by the perfect righteousness of Christ, would make it worse. For it is seeking to help man to stand before God under law, on the principle of law. The garment must be entirely new, apart from the old one, even the righteousness of God, apart altogether from law. It must be the new vessel, that is Christ.
Surely when God was in Christ in all the fullness of His love calling man to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, this was the very last testing and proof of the old garment. What did it find in man but the most deadly enmity in the heart of men, ending in the murder of the Son of God. Thus ended the trial of man in the flesh. Has it not been thus with you? How you have longed to find some good in yourself! How you have struggled, but all in vain. Still you found sin and evil desires. Oh what bitterness of soul to find such weakness, such sin; and in the flesh nothing but sin. Can you say, " For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not"? Why not then have done with the old garment, and all patching up yourself under law, and nave done as to your standing before God with the old vessel? Do we not in our very baptism publicly profess this very truth, death with Christ? Read Rom. 6, and ask yourself the question, have I taken this place? There is also another very general mistake.