The Righteousness of Saints Part VI

 

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.

 

The righteousness of saints is the righteousness of God which was established by Jesus Christ through His Mediation of the everlasting covenant of grace and it is the righteousness that is imputed to the children of that covenant. The righteousness of God is the robe of righteousness which is the covering and the beautiful wedding garment of the church of God. It consists in the infinite dignity of the Person of Jesus Christ, the perfect moral rectitude of His character, His conduct according to absolute truth regardless of circumstances or persons, His perfect obedience to His Father unto death even the death of the cross, and His regard for the honor, glory, and goodness of the law of God. When the Man Christ Jesus walked in this world while He lived as a Man under the law of God, He fulfilled every precept of that law in thought, word, and deed. And in His death He fulfilled the penal portion of the law to its jot and tittle (Daniel 9:26; Matthew 5:17-18), on behalf of the children which God had given Him (John17:2; Hebrews 2:13).These are the children that God had given Him in the covenant as His bride (Revelation 21:10), whom He betrothed unto Himself forever (Hosea 2:19).   

 

In the covenant of grace, Jesus Christ the Son of God voluntarily obligated Himself to do all that was necessary to cloth His bride in a glorious garment of needle work of His production and present her in His comeliness to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Psalm 45:13-14; Ephesians 5:27; Ezekiel 16:14). These chosen ones of the Father were given to Jesus Christ as his bride, whom He would perfect in Himself, as it is written: “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). That perfection is not by the works of the law on the part of the children of the covenant, for it is written: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them” (Galatians 3:10-12). And they which are of faith are the children of Abraham, 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” (Galatians 3:6-7).

 

God justifies His elect through their union with Christ, both in His life under the law of God and in His death, for it is written: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death” (Romans 6:3). The whole election of grace, all the members of the body of Christ, the church of God, was in union with Christ Jesus in His death. Those who believe the gospel of God concerning His Son, do so because they were in Christ when He was executed in the room and stead of His people. Those who were in union with Christ in His death, are given the Holy Ghost as the spirit of faith, (II Corinthians 4:13) and as a spirit of life (Romans 8:2; Revelation 11:11). The children of God live and believe because of that union with Christ which brought Jesus Christ to His death. It was the union of the elect with Christ, that justified God in bringing His just and Holy Son to death in the room of the unjust, as 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). And it was the union of the Head of the church and the body that justified God in His justifying the ungodly, as it is written: “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). Those who believe in Jesus are the ungodly of the following verse: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5). It is because of the union of Jesus Christ and the church of God that Christ Jesus owns the sins of the church as His own: (see Psalm 38 throughout, Psalm 22 throughout, Psalm 69 throughout). Christ Jesus had no personal sin, “in him is no sin” (I John 3:5), “who knew no sin” (II Corinthians 5:21), He is “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), but He died under the penalty of sin, the sins of His people, His mystical body the church of God who in the reckoning of God is one with Him.

 

“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 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 5:18-21).

 

Reader give the “more earnest heed” (Hebrews 2:1) unto these words: God “hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”. So the work of reconciliation is finished. God reconciled the world of His elect unto Himself by not imputing the sins of the world of the elect to themselves. That is, God reconciled the world of His elect to himself by imputing their sins to Jesus Christ and not unto themselves. God punished His only begotten Son in the room and stead of His elect and by that punishment which He inflicted on His only begotten Son He satisfied His law and justice for the offenses of the elect. God would not impute sins to His elect, but He spared not His own Son, 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).

 

It is incumbent upon anyone who writes or speaks concerning the word of God in these dark days of prevailing Arminianism to diligently hold forth the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some suppose that Romans 8:32 supports the doctrine of the universal love of God, in that the words “delivered him up for us all” seem to refer to all men. But this thought is over turned by the fact that the Roman Epistle is written: “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7). The words “us all” of Romans 9:32 refer to that group of persons who share these common blessings. (1.) Those to whom the Apostle wrote were at Rome, the Roman epistle is for the church of God of All ages although in the days of the apostle it was written to those at Rome.  

(2.) Those to whom the epistle was written are beloved of God, and it must be declared that the love of God is eternal, immutable, and infinite. It is the love wherewith God the Father loved our Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:23-24). The love of God for His elect is in Christ Jesus: as it is written: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:33-39).

 

(3.) The Roman epistle was written to those who were called to be saints (the saints of God are sanctified ones, who were: “sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called” Jude 1:1). Those who are “sanctified by God the Father” are those who God has set apart, (“set apart” in Exodus 13:2) compared with (“sanctify” in Exodus 13:13) in His eternal decree of election in Jesus Christ. In whom they are preserved, that is they are withheld “reserved” (Jeremiah 50:20; Romans 11:4) from final ruin in their natural rebellion against God. They are called with the efficacious call of God the Holy Ghost. This effectual call (efficacious call) is not the general call of Matthew 20: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 20:14). Many are called with the general call, which is not effectual in that it does not bring salvation, it only increases the guilt of the one thus called. That is because they are made partaker of the Holy ghost (Hebrews 6:4) in that they are called with a call that should bring repentance but because of the hardness of their stony heart they will not hear. On the other hand, the stony heart of the elect of God are broken up by the Spirit of God by the hammer of the word preached (Jeremiah 23:29) and this is unto 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. 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 36:26-27).

 

(4.) These to whom the epistle of Romans was written were given Grace, as it is written: “grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7). This grace was given all the elect of God before the foundation of the world, as it is written: “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (II Timothy 1:8-10). Again it is written: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

 

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God” (II Corinthians 5:20). Our Lord Jesus Christ has finished the work of reconciliation, that is He has reconciled the justice of God by His cross death in the room and stead of the many brethren, who are the elect of the Father. “Now then” saith the “apostle we are ambassadors for Christ”. That is the apostles, and all those who know the truth of the gospel are the witnesses of God for the truth of the gospel, as it is written: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. 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: 10-13). It is the privilege of the children of God to give witness to the good tidings of the gospel to anyone who will to listen. And our message is that God is reconciled, through the cross death of Jesus Christ and now those who are given an understanding heart, who understand the gospel message are called upon to “be ye reconciled to God”. Lay aside all the previous religious idolatry and prejudice against the grace of God which accompany works religion and be reconciled God in Jesus Christ. “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). The children of God trust Jesus Christ alone all their salvation. They do not try to add to it, nor do they look to any other for eternal life (John 6:68).

 

“For he hath made him to be sin for us”. All the sins of the children of the covenant were laid on Jesus Christ who carried them up on the cross in His own body, 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). On the cross of Calvary He paid the last farthing to the justice of God and He put the sins of the church of God away by the sacrifice of Himself, as it is written: “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). These same children of God are promised all the blessings of the covenant of grace wherein they are made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. 

 

AJ Ison

 

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