Thee Have I Seen Righteous
Genesis 7:1
“And the
Lord said to Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the arch; for thee have I
seen righteous in this generation.”
Notice Dear
Reader, it is not written, thou art righteous; but, thee have I seen righteous.
There is a very great difference, for if the Lord had said; Noah, thou art
righteous before me; it would have been a righteous person that had caught the
eye of Jehovah. Isaiah nullifies all such notions in 64:6 of his prophecy. “But
we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,
and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away.” Reader, have you been taught of God that you are a miserable sinner from
the top of your pitiful sinful head to the sole of your corrupt foot? Those whom the Lord of
life has loved he teaches that lesson. In very faithfulness Jehovah of Hosts
allows his covenant children to experience their sinner-hood and the effect is always
to drive them to their eternal Father through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Noah and all his house had suffered the
effects of the fall along with the rest of Adam’s sons and daughters. “For there
is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not,” (Ecclesiastes
7:20). Isaiah did not write; but you are all as an unclean thing, and all your
righteousnrsses are as filthy rags, no, even the great prophet of Messiah,
included himself when he wrote; all we like sheep have gone astray. Daniel the
Prophet confessed “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done
wickedly, and have rebelled, even in departing from thy precepts and from thy
judgments,” (Daniel 9:5). The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome, “…I am
carnal, sold under sin,” (Romans 7:14). The Psalmist wrote “Enter not into
judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified,”
(Psalm 143:2). Sad but true “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in
himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps,” (Jeremiah 10:23).
Our Lord said to the Jews “…ye will not come to me that ye might have life,”
(John 5:40). Noah might have said, as did David, “Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me,” (Psalm 51:5).
How then could God, who cannot lie,
say of Noah, “thee have I seen righteous”? How is the Lord our God, “a just God
and a savior” (Isaiah 45:21)? How is God just, while he “justifieth the ungodly”
(Romans 4:5)? Can you explain how “Mercy and truth are met together;
righteousness and peace have kissed other” (Psalm 85:10)? Do you know what
means God hath devised “that his banished be not expelled from him” (II Samuel
14:14)? The answer to these questions lies in the person and finished salvation
of the “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jeremiah 23:6)
The God of holy writ looked upon
Noah dressed in the royal priestly garments of salvation purchased by the blood
of Jesus Christ; for Isaiah’s prophecy runs thus “I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord, my soul, shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a
bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with
jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). Noah along with all the children of promise (Galatians
4:28; Romans 9:7, 8) had been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, and had been predestined to the adoption children, according to the
purpose and grace of God; in Jesus Christ, (Ephesians 1:3-5; 3:11; II Timothy
1:9). All the children of promise, have been given to Christ, of the Father,
from everlasting, (I Corinthians 1:30; Jeremiah 31:3; John 17:2, 6-10) they
have been in federal union with Christ from all eternity, all that Christ did
while here on the earth he did as the federal head of the children promise, and
in their name and all that he did is laid to their account, or imputed to each
individual of the group at the time appointed of the Father. When that
everlasting righteousness is laid to the account, of the covenant children,
life eternal must ensue, for, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my
judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord,” (Leviticus
18:5).
All that our Lord Jesus Christ did,
he did, while in union with his elect, and all that the individual members of
the church ever did; they did while in that same union. Because of the federal union
that has been in existence since the elect were chosen in Christ: which was
before the world was made, there is a just transference from the one to the other.
The holiness of the federal head Jesus Christ, may justly be imputed to the body
and the sins of the body may justly be imputed the head. For, “He hath made him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21). And “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree:” (Galatians 3:13).
Noah, like all the chosen of the
Father, are predestinated to receive all the blessings of the covenant of grace
in Jesus Christ. All the elect including Noah, are predestined to be made the
righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, Noah was made, not righteous, but Noah
was made righteousness; Noah was made the righteousness of God in Christ.
Therefore, when God looked upon Noah in Christ; he did not see Noah dressed in
a righteous garment of his own making, but he saw Noah dressed in the robe of
righteousness established by Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness of God. It
is the righteousness that Jesus Christ established, it is the righteousness
that God the Father provided for the children of promise through the mediation
of Jesus Christ, it is the righteousness that God the Father requires, it is
the only righteousness that God the Father will accept as the justifying
righteousness for any individual, and the righteousness of God is only received
by faith.
Persons who believe themselves
righteous through their own works of righteousness, are only self righteous;
and shall find that “the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself
upon it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it,”
(Isaiah 28:20). In our day, as in the past there is great “zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge.” For persons, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth,” (Romans 10: 2-4). We must be clothed in the
righteousness which is in Christ Jesus, who is “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah
23:6), and he is, the very righteousness of God, or we must perish to all
eternity.
Oh, Spirit of Christ, our most sovereign and
glorious LORD, would you turn the hearts of many of those who are lost in the blindness
of free-will works religion to the Sovereign Christ of the scriptures. In the
day of thy power make thy people willing, according to thy word: in the Name of
Christ; Amen.
A.J.Ison
