The Righteousness of Saints Part V

 

The Righteousness of Saints Part V

 

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.

 

 “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets” (Romans 3:21). The law of Moses had the promise of the Seed of Woman, who was to bruise the serpents head, that is Satan’s Head (Genesis 3:15). And the prophet Daniel gave the promise of Him who was to come, that He would: (1.) finish the transgression, (2.) make an end of sins, (3.) make reconciliation for iniquity, (4.) bring in everlasting righteousness, (5.) seal up the vision and prophesy (6.) anoint the most holy (Daniel 9:24).

 

According to the ancient prophesy of Daniel, Messiah was to “make reconciliation for iniquity”. Our Lord Jesus taught His disciples to be reconciled to one’s brother, it is written: “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). The offender was to go to the person who had been offended, and in some way, put an end to the enmity that had been stirred in the heart of the one who was grieved. In this way the offended party is said to have been reconciled to the offender. The offended party had to be reconciled so the offender was to use all means necessary to reconcile the person he had injured. When satisfaction had been accomplished by adequate reparation the person who had been injured is said to be reconciled, and the person who did the injury is said to be reconciled to him.

 

The race of men, as represented in Adam, had insulted and given injury to the holiness, honor, integrity, dignity, wisdom, truth, and glory of God by disobedience. Mankind in Adam had defamed all the glorious attributes of the God of the universe, whose glory is the end and His will the law of this universe. But in spite of all the heinous evil and contradiction that was offered to the Divine Majesty, the love of God for His elect was never diminished. The love of God is commensurate with His nature in its immutability and eternality. The constant love of God for His elect is without variation although the love of the elect for God is subject to the variations of the corrupted nature of the natural man. Our love for God is imperfect, as our faith is imperfect, but the object of our love and faith is perfect. We, the elect of the Father are in Christ Jesus who is that object of our love and faith. It is Christ Jesus who has loved the Father with all His heart, soul, mind and strength, and has loved His neighbor as Himself and not we ourselves (Mark 12:30-31).

 

It was not the love of God that was injured by the treachery of man; but it was the truth, holiness, and justice of God that had been questioned and set at naught by the disobedience of the creature. All the actual sins of men are of the same degrading insinuations as the original sin of mankind in Adam. The actual offenses of men are of the same evil nature, offer the same offense, contradict the Divine Majesty in the same way and are worthy of the eternal ruin in everlasting torments of the soul and body that the justice of God demands and will in the day of judgment inflict on all those who set at naught the counsel of God.

 

The injury of the truth, holiness, and justice of the Divine Majesty was the offense that Messiah came into this world to reconcile. The truth, holiness, and justice of God has pronounced a curse upon all or any of those who give injury to His glory, slight His Majesty, deny His claims on mankind, or question His authority. All such offenses are worthy of death, natural death, and eternal death which the scriptures call the second death, as it is written: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death” (Revelation 2:7) “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:7) “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Revelation 20:7) “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

 

The sins of the elect of all ages were imputed to our Lord Jesus Christ, those sins were charged to Him and they were made to meet together on the Head of the church of God, that is Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus bore those sins in His own body on the tree (I Peter 2:24). The justice of God poured out all its fury on the body and soul of the God-man, as it is written: “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 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. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:8-12) He exhausted the penalty of Divine justice, and turned the wrath of God away from the children of the covenant, as said the Holy One by the prophet: “Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together” (Isaiah 27:4). And another of the prophets has said: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him” (Hosea 14:4). Our Lord Jesus Christ made peace by the blood of His cross: “ And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).

 

Through the perfect moral rectitude of His Character, the infinite dignity of His Person and offering  the most strict obedience of the law of God, our Lord Jesus Christ as the Head of the church of God has offered more glorious obedience and thereby the most immense honor for the law of God than the offense of the elect offered dishonor through their disobedience. Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God has magnified the law of God and has honored the law of God more by His glorious Person’s obedience than all the election of grace of all ages could ever have dishonored that law, as it is written: “The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable” (Isaiah 42:21).

 

The Godhead of Jesus Christ is the principle glory of His Person and it is by His Godhead that His efficacy in all that He undertakes is upheld. Whatsoever our Lord Christ undertakes in His Person, the Majesty of both natures is involved. The success of His undertaking is dependent upon the glory of His Majesty as God-man and Mediator of the everlasting covenant of grace. As man, Christ Jesus stood in man’s place before a Thrice Holy God. As God-man Christ Jesus obeyed the law of God to its jot and tittle, thereby rendering perfect obedience to the covenant of works, that is the Old Testament. Jesus Christ has fulfilled the covenant of works, He has obeyed the law gloriously in the stead of the people of God, 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. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-20).

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God has fulfilled the law and the prophets in the room and stead of His elect. He has perfectly and gloriously obeyed and honored the law and prophets to the extent that the truth, holiness, and justice of God are reconciled for the iniquity of the elect. There is no trace of enmity from the law and justice of God for the iniquity of the elect. The law of God is fulfilled, the justice of God is satisfied, and God has promised: “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:11). Christ Jesus was to make and has made reconciliation for iniquity.

 

The law of God has been fulfilled, the justice of God has been satisfied and if that were everything that was to be accomplished there should still be no peace between God and elect sinners, for in our innate condition we are enmity against God in our hearts. It is written: “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister” (Colossians 1:21-23). It is by the blood of Christ that the enmity of our hearts is put away, and is replaced by faith and love. The enmity of the carnal mind (Romans 8:7) toward the law of God, is overcome by the law being written on the hearts of the people of God, as it is written: “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (II Corinthians 3:3). The law of God becomes the governing principle in the hearts of the children of God. In all things the children are either checked by their conscience according to the law written, and through the indwelling Spirit of Christ, or there is the comfort and assurance that comes from obedience in our walk with God through Jesus Christ.

 

Before the further pursuit of the subject at hand it is incumbent upon the writer to address some words in the verse just cited. The words are: “if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel”. Some have taken these words as proof that it is possible that the children of God can lose their standing in grace, lose their citizenship among the saints of God, and be lost forever. To briefly answer this cavil, it is only necessary to consult the covenant as stated in Psalm 89, as it is written: “My mercy will I keep for him (Christ Jesus, here called David: writer) for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed (the church of God: writer) also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah” (Psalm 89:29-37). Since God has sworn by His holiness that the seed of Christ (His people, the election of grace who were given him of His Father before the foundation of the world) shall endure forever, it is as clear as a sunbeam that those who forsake the doctrine of Christ were never His (Matthew 7:21-23). Our Lord Jesus has promised that His sheep shall never perish, for He gives His sheep eternal life which is never ending, as it is written: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one” (John 10:26-30). Those who believe that it is possible that the people of God may fall into condemnation in spite of Romans 8:1 slight the integrity of the stewardship of Christ. They question the devotion of Christ to the will of the Father and they doubt the Mediatorial ability of our Lord Jesus Christ. These things show that all who believe the false doctrine of the final apostasy of the true people of God are not anchored in the Rock of Ages, but in the works of men. Now we must return to the subject.

 

The scriptures inform us that the carnal mind is enmity against God, as it is written: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). Because of this it is necessary that children of God must be renewed in the spirit of their mind, as it is written: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). And we are instructed by the scriptures that our hearts are wicked, as it is written: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9). In the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden the heart of man was filled with darkness this darkness must be overcome by light. Therefore God in great grace and mercy gives light: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6). Darkness is not only ignorance of the things of God but it is a stubborn resistance to and hatred of the doctrine of the gospel, the Sovereignty of God, His election of grace, His predestination to the conformity to Christ, the importance of His being the center and circumference of the universe, His justification of sinners by the righteousness of Jesus Christ and His pardon by the blood of Christ. In summary, it is the sinners opposition to everything in God. The scriptures call this opposition a hard and stony heart.

 

This hard and stony heart must be replaced with  new heart, a heart of faith and love of God and His salvation, as it is written: “ A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). And again it is written: “And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jeremiah 32:39-40). God will visit the elect in this world and put His Spirit in them, as it is written: “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). Where the Spirit of God is in the heart He gives grace, the grace of the Spirit, as faith, hope and love, as it is written: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (love: writer) (I Corinthians 13:13). Where these three exist, there the enmity is subsided, although as long as the children of the covenant are in the body of flesh the sin in the flesh will be a trouble to them, so that they cannot do the things they would, as it is written: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17).

 

AJ 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.