The Righteousness of Saints Part I

 

 The Righteousness of Saints Part I

 

Revelation 19:8

 

  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

 

When the church of God was in her minority as minor children (Galatians 4:2) and under the tutelage of the Law of Moses, it was said to her: “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us” (Deuteronomy 6:25). However this is not the case under the Covenant of Grace. The righteousness of saints under the New Testament is the righteousness of God, as it is written: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17).

 

This righteousness is absolutely perfect righteousness because it is the doing and the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. And because it is the doing and dying of the Christ of God it is absolutely without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. It is the robe of righteousness that is the wedding garment of the church of God (Matthew 22:11-14), as it is written: “ That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). In fact the justifying righteousness of the church of God is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens for Jesus Christ Himself is that justifying righteousness as saith the prophet Jeremiah: “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6). And as is fitting the church is called by the name of Her Husband: “In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness” (Jeremiah 33:16).

 

The righteousness of God is not the essential righteousness of God Himself, it is not  that righteousness in which God Himself is righteous. The righteousness of God is that perfect righteousness that resides in our Lord Jesus Christ, which He established by His perfect moral rectitude in all His thoughts, words and deeds, as He lived on the earth as the Mediator of the everlasting covenant and the Surety and Substitute of the People of God. And it is His perfect obedience unto death even the death of the cross. The perfect obedience of Christ is the outward manifestation of the indwelling righteousness that is the righteousness of God. That righteousness is demonstrated by His thoughts, deeds, and words. Our Lord Jesus as the Substitute and Surety of the people of God fulfilled the Law of God to its jot and tittle in the room and stead of His beloved people. He fulfilled that law both in its precept and penalty as it is written: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18).

Our sinless Lord Jesus lived perfectly all the days of His life, without sin in thought, word, or deed, in the room and stead of His people and for His people. He did this so that He, as Man and Mediator under the law of God (Galatians 4:4), having fulfilled the law of God might have His perfect obedience charged to the account of all who are His people. His people are those who the Father gave Him in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world for whom Christ Jesus lived and died under the law of God. Those who were given to Christ of the Father are the elect of God and they were chosen to salvation before the world began (Ephesians 1:3-6; II Thessalonians 2:13).

 

These chosen ones are in union with our Lord Jesus from eternity past; as the head in human anatomy is in union with the body, as it is written: “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). And as in human anatomy the members of the body are joined one to another being many members but one body so also is Christ, it is written: “ For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (I Corinthians 1:12-13). And as in human anatomy the members of the body are joined one to the other; so also are they in union with one another in our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is written: “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Romans 12:5). Believers are the members of His body the church, they are His seed, and as Christ Jesus was chosen of the Father, His seed and members were chosen in Him (Isaiah 42:1). In all that Christ Jesus did and said on the earth as the Head Representative of His people, His people were in Him by that union through which they are His members.

 

Because of the eternal union of Christ (the Head and Representative of the church of God) and that church who is His body, the law and justice of God sees them as one and God treats them as one, for they are one in the reckoning of God. As it is written: “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32).

 

Because of the everlasting union of Christ Jesus the Head of the church and His wife which is the church, God is justified in imputing the sins of the church to Christ Jesus, and God is justified in imputing the righteousness of Christ to the church, for they are one in God’s sight. As it is written: “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). This introduces a question, and that question is how can God be just while He justifies the ungodly, and how can God be just while He condemns the just? For He spared not the holy one, but delivered Him up to punishment and death for the guilty (Romans 8:32).

 

Without consideration of the eternal union of Christ and His people, the principle written in Proverbs 17 would hold true, in proverbs 17 it is written: “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 17:15). Because of the union (that oneness) that eternally exists between Christ and His church it is just that  God “justifieth the ungodly” (the wicked) as it is written “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5). And because of that same union (or oneness) it is just that God condemned the just and punished Him who in His own person was not guilty for it is written: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (I Peter 3:18). Blessed be God who found a ransom and a means of deliverance for the guilty: as it is written “Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24). And through His infinite wisdom God devised means that His children who were condemned for their sins might be delivered, as it is written: “yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him” (II Samuel 14:14). And God accomplishes this through the substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. As saith the apostle Paul: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33).

 

God the Father made Christ Jesus to be sin for us, the church of God. The Father did this by (1.) imputing the sin of all the individual members of the church of God to Jesus Christ. And by (2.) condemning our Lord Jesus for those sins that were on Him, as the Surety of His people. For He bare our sins in His own body on the tree as it is written: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24).

 And (3.) the Father sentenced His only begotten Son to death under the Law of God as the Surety of His people. And (4.) God the father executed the sentence of the law upon His only begotten and well-beloved Son. In that the Father spared Him not, as it is written: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32) And again it is written: “ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:10). And (5.) by burying the body of Christ out of sight “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time (when He shall come again in Mediatorial glory: writer) without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).

 

The church of God is made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ by the Father’s act of imputing the righteousness of Jesus Christ to each individual member of the body of Christ which is His church. The reward for the perfect righteousness (which is the justifying righteousness of the church) is eternal life, as it is written: “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). The  capstone of the justification of the people of God was the death and resurrection of Christ, for until that was accomplished the debt of death was actually unpaid. In the blood shedding and death of Christ the sin of all the church of God was put away forever. In the resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ at the right hand of God in eternal glory, God the Father publicly and eternally acknowledged that the work of redemption had been finished by His well beloved Son and the sins of His elect would be remembered no more. “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

 

The righteousness of God which was established by Jesus Christ in His actions as Mediator of the everlasting covenant and which is the perfect moral rectitude of the character of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness that the God of heaven and earth will accept. It is the righteousness of God. It was established by God the Son in the person of Jesus Christ. And it is the only righteousness that God the Father will find perfect in the day of judgment. However it was said unto Noah: “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1). Since Noah was counted righteous in the sight of God, there arises a question. If Christ’s righteousness is the only justifying righteousness that justifies in the sight of God, with what righteousness was Noah Justified? The fact is that Christ Jesus had not yet been born, nor lived a perfect life under the law of God as the public representative and covenant Head of the people of God, nor had He been crucified, buried, risen, nor seated at the right hand of God. Christ Jesus had not yet (in His person) established that perfect righteousness that is the justifying righteousness of the people of God.

 

The God of the Bible inhabiteth eternity for He is the high and lofty one, as it is written: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15). And He calleth those things that are not as though they were, He calleth those things that are not in being, as though they were in being “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). In the judiciary of God, Christ Jesus Stood before the God of heaven as a Lamb as it had been slain from the foundation of the world, as it is written: “ And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (Revelation 5:6). And again: “ And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the beast; writer), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).

 

In the will and purpose of God, and according to the covenant of God, all the works of our Lord Jesus Christ as Man and Mediator were finished before the world was framed.

And according to the psalmist, the issues from death belong to the Lord, as it is written: “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death” (Psalm 62:20). The righteousness that was wrought by Jesus Christ had been effective from eternity past and God used that righteousness as it pleased Him. He justified whomsoever He would; Noah being one of those persons God would justify by the righteousness that Christ Jesus would eventually accomplish in His Mediatorial office. For in the purpose of God, Christ Jesus had finished all that God had promised that the seed of the woman (Christ Jesus) would do. It is written: “Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it” (Isaiah 43:13). And again: “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10). And by the same prophet: “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand” (Isaiah 14:24). The will of God in anything is the virtual accomplishment of that particular thing, as God has willed so shall it be.

 

God justified the people of God in Christ Jesus in that He chose them “in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4), “accepted them in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:6), and joined them in one spirit in Christ (I Corinthians 6:17). All the members of Christ (believers in Christ ) are members in particular of the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:27). And where the Head is there the body is also, what the Head does the body does also. All the members of Christ were crucified with Christ as was the case with the apostle Paul (Galatians 2:20). They were buried with Christ, were quickened with Christ, raised up together with Christ, and made to sit together with Christ in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:12-13). Christ Jesus is seated in the heavens at the right hand of God and the whole church of God is “made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” as it is written: “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).

 

Some may object, saying, we are justified by faith, so that we could not have been justified before we had believed. Faith receives the righteousness of God by which the saints of God are and have been justified in Christ Jesus from everlasting being chosen, accepted, and accounted one with Him. The children of the covenant of God are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Faith is the vehicle through which the saints of God know they are the heirs of God. And how do they know? The people of God know that they are the people of God because they believe God, As it is written: “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Galatians 3:6-9). “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).

 

A J Ison

 

See the writer’s blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com hear the true gospel preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.