Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

In the book of Romans, Paul is describing God’s action toward a believing sinner in view of the shed blood of Christ. It is as if God were holding court with the infinite value and benefit of the propitiatory sacrifice and resurrection of Christ only and ever before Him. No other apostle will be called upon to set this forth fully as does Paul. Of course it could not be stated by the Old Testament writers in its fulness and clearness; for our Lord had not then offered Himself, and all the Law and Prophets could do was to declare sin temporarily “covered” (Heb., kaphar) from God’s sight; and so the Old Testament believer was one who rested on what God would do, in view of these types and shadows and promises.

John the Baptist, however, pointing to Christ, said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” something that had never before been! Therefore, after the cross, it is written, “Once in the consummation of the ages, hath He [Christ] been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”

In the Old Testament, we repeat, sin is covered,—which is the meaning of the word kaphar, “atonement,”—used only in the Old Testament, and there constantly (some 13 times in one chapter—Leviticus 16), to express the covering from God’s sight of sin: though the sin remained untaken away until Christ died. In the New Testament, therefore, sin is said to be put away by Christ’s sacrifice.66

God can, therefore, not only forgive the sinner, but also proceed to declare the believing sinner righteous, not at all meaning that he has any righteousness of his own, or that “the ‘merits’ of Christ are imputed to him” (a fiction of theology); but that God, acting in righteousness, reckons righteous the ungodly man who trusts Him: because He places him in the full value of the infinite work of Christ on the cross, and transfers him into Christ Risen, who becomes his righteousness.

We may look at the term God’s righteousness from God’s own side; then from that of Christ; and, finally, from that of the justified sinner.

1. From. God’s side, the expression “God’s righteousness,” must be regarded as an absolute one. It is His attribute of righteousness. It can be nothing else. He must, and ever will, act in righteousness, whether it be toward Christ, toward those in Christ, or toward those finally impenitent, whether angels, demons, or men.

2. From Christ’s side, it is His being received by God into glory according to God’s estimation of His mediatorial work. Our Lord had said that when the Spirit would come, He would “convince the world . . . of righteousness, because I go unto the Father, and ye see me no more” (John 16); and He had said, “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work Thou gavest me to do. And now, Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17). In answer to this prayer Christ was “raised from the dead through the glory of the Father” (Romans 6:4), and was “received up in glory” (I Timothy 3:16). Now our Lord was man, as well as God. And when the Father glorified Him “with His own self,” with that glory Christ “had with Him before the world was,” it was as man that God thus glorified Him. So that, at God’s right hand, Christ set forth publicly the righteousness of God; for (a) as the slain Lamb He shows the holiness of God and God’s righteousness fully satisfied,—since God had “spared not His own Son” when sin had been laid upon Him. The truth of God as to the wages of sin had been shown in Christ’s death; thus the majesty of the insulted throne of God had been publicly vindicated, so that Christ’s being raised and “received up in glory” set forth the righteousness of God; for it were unrighteous that Christ should not be glorified! And (b) Christ not only thus set forth the righteousness of God, but being God the Son, as well as man, He was that righteousness! Christ dead, risen, glorified, is the very righteousness of God!

3. From the believer’s side, the justified sinner’s side, what do we see? The amazing declaration of God concerning us is, “Him who knew no sin God made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21). The saints are said to be the righteousness of God, in Christ. Of course self-righteousness simply shrivels before a verse like this! All is in Christ: we are in Christ—one with Him!

The expression “God’s righteousness” then signifies:

1. God Himself acting in righteousness (a) toward Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him as a man in the place of absolute honor and glory; (b) in giving those who believe on Christ the same acceptance before God as Christ now has, inasmuch as He actually bare their sins, putting them away by His blood, and also became identified with the sinner—was “made to be sin for us” and, our old man was thus “crucified with Him.” Just as it would have been unrighteousness in God not to raise His Son after His Son had completely glorified Him in His death; so it would also be unrighteous in God not to declare righteous in Christ those who, deserting all trust in themselves, have transferred their faith and hope to Christ alone.

2. Thus Christ, now risen and glorified, is Himself the righteousness of believers. It is not that He acted righteously while on earth, and that that is reckoned to us. This is, we repeat, the heresy of “vicarious law-keeping.” He was indeed the spotless Lamb of God; but He had no connection with sinners until His death. He was “separate from sinners.” “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone.” It is the Risen Christ who is our righteousness. “Christianity begins at the resurrection.” The work of the cross of course made Christianity possible; but true Christianity is all on the resurrection side of the cross. “He is not here, but is risen,” the angel said.

3. Thus Christians find themselves spoken of as the righteousness of God in Christ. Not as “righteous before God,” for that would be to think of a personal standing given to us, on account of Christ’s death, rather than a federal standing, as in Him, united to Him,—which we are! John Wesley said a wise thing indeed: “Never think of yourself apart from Christ!”

Now to be or become “righteous before God”; to have or obtain a standing that will “bear God’s scrutiny,” is the fond dream of very many earnest Christians. But however stated, and by whomsoever stated, that idea of our obtaining a “standing before God” falls short, and that vitally, of Paul’s gospel of our being made the righteousness of God in Christ. It denies that we died with Christ; and that we have been made dead to the whole legal principle in Christ’s death (7:4). Thus it leaves us under the necessity of “obtaining a standing” before God; whereas believers federally shared the death of Christ, and Christ Risen is Himself now our standing!

Negatively, then (as Paul begins to declare in his first recorded discourse. Acts 13:39), “Every one that believeth on Him is justified from all things”;—“justified in His blood” (Romans 5:9); and

Positively, Christ was “raised for our justification” (4:25): that we might receive a new place, a place in a Risen Christ,—and be thus the righteousness of God in Him, as one with Him who is that righteousness.

God declares that He reckons righteous the ungodly man who ceases from all works, and believes on Him (God), as the God who, on the ground of Christ’s shed blood, “justifies the ungodly” (4:5). He declares such an one righteous: reckoning to him all the absolute value of Christ’s work,—of His expiating death, and of His resurrection, and placing him in Christ: where he is the righteousness of God: for Christ is that!

Does Christ need something yet, that He may stand in acceptance with God? Then do I need something,—for I am in Christ, and He alone is my righteousness. If He stands in full, eternal acceptance, then do I also: for I am now in Him alone,—having died with Him to my old place in Adam.

Earnest and godly men, wonderfully used of God, have brought out, as did the Reformers, that we are justified by faith, not works: without, however, going on to show, as does Paul, our complete deliverance, in Christ, from our former place in Adam, and from the whole principle of law.

The Reformation statements were as follows:

Luther: “The righteousness of God is that righteousness which avails before God.” This means a “substantive righteousness,”—a quality bestowed which “avails.” But I am not in these words seen as dead, and now in Christ only.

Calvin: “By the righteousness of God I understand that righteousness which is approved before the tribunal seat of. God.” Here again is a quality, not Christ Himself, who is made righteousness unto me, and I myself “of God,” in Him (I Corinthians 1:30). And according to Calvin I must stand before God’s “tribunal”! But Christ at the cross met all the claims of God’s “tribunal,”—and that forever; and I am now in Christ Risen!

Again, Calvin, writing on
II Corinthians 5:21, concerning our being made or becoming “the righteousness of God in Christ,” says: “In this place nothing else is to be understood than that we stand supported by the expiation of Christ’s death before the tribunal of God.” Here is still the thought of a future (or present) “tribunal.” Only the negative side—expiation of guilt, is brought out. But this text in
II Corinthians is positive: we are God’s righteousness in Christ! Believers are not seen by Calvin as having died with Christ, and having no connection at all with Adam’s responsibility to furnish a righteousness and holiness before God’s “tribunal.” Believers, says Paul, are not now “in the flesh” in their standing,—they are seen by God in Christ only! (Romans 8:9). Calvin) and all the Reformers, and the Puritans after them, placed believers under the Law of Moses as a “rule of life”; because they did riot see that a believer’s history in Adam ended at the cross. But Paul, in Galatians 6:15, 16, says that those in Christ are to walk as “new creatures”: they are a new creation! “And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them!” This is God’s prescription for your walk, whatever men may teach!

We do quote Luther, that great man of God, in connection with Chapter Seven, in the expressions of his wonderful personal faith, as saying: “These words, ‘am dead to the Law’ (Galatians 2:19) are very effectual. For he saith simply, ‘I am dead to the Law’; that is, I have nothing to do with the Law . . . Let him that would live to God come out of the grave with Christ.” (Luther on Galatians; in which book is often shown a vigor and boldness of faith hardly to be matched since Paul!)

Dr. Scofield in his note on Romans 3:21, says that the righteousness of the believer “is Christ Himself, who fully met in our stead and behalf every demand of the Law.” Yet Scripture says that the Law was given to Israel; and that Gentiles are “without law,” as contrasted “with Israel,” who were “under the Law.” Paul’s words to us in Romans 6:14: “Ye are not under law, but under grace,” do not mean that we were once under law (as were the Jews) and have now been delivered; but rather mean that we, having died with Christ (our old man crucified with Him, and our history in Adam closed forever before God), are not placed at all under law! It is unfortunate that Dr. Scofield goes on to quote beloved Bunyan: “The believer in Christ is now, by grace, shrouded under so complete and blessed a righteousness that the Law from Mt. Sinai can find neither fault nor diminution therein. This is that which is called the righteousness of God by faith.”

Now it is at once evident that such a statement as Bunyan’s leaves “the Law from Mt. Sinai” master of the field, lord over us. According to this the Law remains Inspector General of those in Christ! We are not “discharged” from it. We are still on earth, under legal trial, men “in the flesh.” The gospel, however, is that we are, in Christ, not under the law-principle at all! “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” Those who believe are not now under law, but under grace, being “in Christ.” We are now in a Risen Christ, who as such “lives unto God”; and it is unthinkable that He is under law! The Word of God says that Christ was “born of a woman,”—thus reaching the whole race; and “born under the Law, that He might redeem them that were under the Law,”—that is, Israel. But to maintain that the Risen Christ is “under law” in Heaven, is both to deny Scripture (Romans 6:4) and also to close our eyes to the manner of His risen life (6:10). Christ in Heaven lives under no legal conditions, but freely, in love unto God. And God has sent forth “the Spirit of His Son”—mark that!—into our hearts. This means not only the witness that we are adult sons (huioi) of God, but that the very same emotions of relationship and nearness to the Father belonging to Christ, God’s Son, are ours—witnessed in our hearts by the Spirit of His Son!

We find hardly any writers except indeed certain devoted saints among the “Friends of God” of the fourteenth century; and later, certain among the mystics like Tauler, Ter Steegen, Suso and the “prince of German hymnists,” Paul Gerhardt; together with many early Methodists; and in the nineteenth century, certain of those remarkable men whose followers were later called “Plymouth Brethren,” who have seen or dared believe our complete deliverance before God from Adam the First: that is, from our former place “in the flesh,” “under law.” The last, the Brethren, indeed speak with more Pauline accuracy. But these earlier saints, though much persecuted, exhibit marvelously in their lives and testimony that heavenly freedom of those taught of God their place in Christ! Hear one of them singing:

“Thou who givest of Thy gladness
Till the cup runs o’er—
Cup whereof the pilgrim weary
Drinks to thirst no more—
Not a-nigh me, but within me
Is Thy joy divine;
Thou, O Lord, hast made Thy dwelling
In this heart of mine.

“Need I that a law should bind me
Captive unto Thee?
Captive is my heart, rejoicing
Never to be free.
Ever with me, glorious, awful,
Tender, passing sweet,
One upon whose heart I rest me,
Worship at His Feet.”

—Gerhard Ter Steegen.

The Law was given to man in the flesh; not to those on resurrection ground. Our relationship now to God is that of standing in the same acceptance as Christ; and we have the same Spirit of sonship as Christ!

Now, Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, and the life that He now liveth, He liveth unto God. And He lives unto God as man. He is God; but He is also a Risen Man.

It is into this Risen Christ, thus glorified, that God has brought us.67

We do not need therefore a personal “standing” before God at all. This is the perpetual struggle of legalistic theology,—to state how we can have a “standing” before God. But to maintain this is still to think of us as separate from Christ (instead of dead and risen with Him), and needing such a “standing.” But if we are in Christ in such an absolute way that Christ Himself has been made unto us righteousness, we are immediately relieved from the need of having any “standing.” Christ is our standing, Christ Himself! And Christ being the righteousness of God, we, being thus utterly and vitally in Christ before God, have no other place but in Him. We are “the righteousness of God in Christ.”

Not to the cherubim, not to the seraphim, not to the elect angels, has been given such a place as this! They may be sinless,—they are. They may be holy,—they are. They may be glorious,—they are. But they are not “the righteousness of God”; for they are not in Christ. They were never cut off, as we have been, by a death that ended completely their former history and standing, and then placed in Christ!

And so we come to a verse the very reading of which has been used to save and bring into the light thousands:

Verse 22: God’s righteousness, moreover, through faith concerning Jesus Christ unto all them that believe—If it were man’s righteousness, it would be through something man accomplished. But it is God’s righteousness; it is apart from out right-doing—that is, law-keeping altogether; for keeping law would be the only way man could get a righteousness of his own.

But the moment we mention righteousness here, people can hardly be restrained from the notion that they are to have a new quality bestowed upon them. Since they have themselves lost this quality of righteousness, they are anxious to get it back,—the consciousness of it. But this is really self-righteousness,—and that at its worst.

For we read here the words, “through faith in [or concerning] Jesus Christ.” And people rush to talking of Christ’s “merits” becoming theirs, being “imputed,” or reckoned to them: so that they are, thereby, in a righteous state!

But we shall see in Romans 4:5 that God accounts righteous the believing ungodly as such; not those who are first to be in any wise “changed,” and then reckoned righteous; not those to whom certain “merits” of Christ are to be given, so that they are thereby righteous—not at all. But the believing ungodly are to be reckoned righteous—while they are still ungodly: it is that fact that makes the gospel!

Justification is God’s reckoning a man righteous who has no righteousness,—because God is operating wholly upon another basis, even the work of Christ. If Christ fully bore sin for man, and has been raised up by God, a believing man has reckoned to him by God all that infinite work of Christ!

Thus, no change in the ungodly man is necessary for justification.68 He believes, certainly. But faith is not a “meritorious” work. It is simply giving God the credit of speaking the truth in the gospel about Christ. It is Christ’s shed blood, and that alone, which is the procuring cause of God’s declaring an ungodly man righteous: while God’s grace is the reason for it. Our faith is simply the instrumental condition. God counts our faith for righteousness, because by it we give God and Christ the full glory of our salvation. Faith in God also brings the heart into His light; for, when “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” the heart, in thus believing, is turned to God directly, in the simplicity of a little child. When Adam sinned, he fled from God; when a sinner believes, he comes back!

Now concerning this chiefest revelation of Romans, we must go to Scripture only. It will never do to accept men’s writings as “authorities’” or as “standards,”—as men call them. For to do this is not to interpret the Scriptures, but to proceed along Romish lines. Nor will it do to rely on men’s devotedness to God, however real, as proof of their reliability in statements of Divine truth.

Take the Reformers: God brought them back, in principle, to the Scriptures as their only guide. (Would that there were the same devotedness and zeal today!) But, after mounting up to Heaven as it were, in personal grasp and use of the truth of justification by faith apart from all works, yet the Reformers put Christians back under Moses as a “rule of life,” under law I “What is required? and what is forbidden?” in this Mosaic commandment, or that, is the burden of Christian living, according to this theology.

Godly and earnest men have thus held; but the only question is, what are the words of Scripture? We must “prove all things” men write, in the light of Scripture: for God says we are not under law: and that the “rule of life” is, that we are a new creation (Galatians 6:15, 16). Is the Pauline revelation that we died with Christ from all earthly “religious principles” (Colossians 2:20), (such as God declares the Mosaic system now to be: Galatians 4:9)—is this glorious fact once set forth in all the reformed “standards”? By no means! Believers were not seen by the Reformers as having had their history ended at the cross, and being now wholly in a new creation. Neither did the Puritans enter into this truth. This Pauline doctrine was not fully recovered until God wrought,—again in a reviving, almost a Reformation power, through godly and devoted servants of His, 300 years after Luther and Calvin. Truth is truth: and those seeking God’s truth welcome it wherever they find it! Revealed Truth belongs to the whole Church, to every believer. Those attached to, and entrenched in tradition, will always be found fighting for that.69

Simple faith, then, receives “God’s testimony concerning His Son,” and rests there. They used to say of Marshall Field in Chicago, “His word is as good as his bond.” It was no credit to the merchants that trusted Mr. Field, but it was a great credit to him! It gave him the public honor of his integrity.

God’s righteousness, moreover, through faith concerning Jesus Christ—Here we must study carefully. The King James Version reads, “by faith of Jesus Christ.” “Through faith” is more accurate, as the preposition is, dia, “through,’” as the Revised Versions, both English and American, read. Concerning the form, “of Jesus Christ,” see Mark 11:22, Acts 3:16, Galatians 2:16, Jas. 2:1 where the same Greek construction appears.

The expression “faith concerning Jesus Christ,” literally, “faith of Jesus Christ” must be regarded either as:

1. Faith in the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ, as set forth at the beginning of the Epistle, involving of course appropriation of Christ with all His benefits for oneself; or,

2. Trust in Christ. But Christ has already died for sin, for the world; and trust, here, would mean relying on Christ to do something for the soul; either to put forth power to deliver; or, as they say, to become one’s “personal Saviour”; or, “to see one through to the end,” or the like. This is in accordance with man’s gospel: “Jesus Christ will save you if,”—rather than in accordance with Paul’s gospel of believing God’s Word concerning Christ as having accomplished for us a work that was finished once for all on the cross.

3. The rendering received by many today in certain circles which would make “the faith of Jesus Christ” mean Christ’s own believing on our behalf! which, they explain, is “exercising His own mighty faith,” instead of calling upon the strengthless hearts of men to believe. But this avoids our responsibility to believe God. They quote here Mark 11:22: “Have faith in God,” as, “Have the faith of God”; a grotesque, unbiblical, impossible meaning! Our Lord said, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” He did not say, “I will believe for you.” Again He did say, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He [the Father] hath sent” (John 6:29).

4. Finally, some have thought to render, “the faith of Jesus Christ” as His faithfulness to us; which is not the meaning of the Greek, is out of place, and is contrary to the apostle’s usage.

We believe that the first meaning we have indicated—that is, faith in the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ as set forth at the beginning of the Epistle, is the true one here; for it accords perfectly with this first great expansion in Chapter Three, of the announcement of Chapter 1:1-3, “the gospel of God concerning His Son”: the power of which is that “therein is revealed God’s righteousness on the principle of faith.”’

Faith is not trust, and must be carefully distinguished therefrom, if we would have a clear conception of the gospel. Faith is simply the acceptance for ourselves of the testimony of God as true. Such faith, indeed, brings one into a life of trust. But faith is not “trusting,” or “expecting God to do something,” but relying on His testimony concerning the person of Christ as His Son, and the work of Christ for us on the cross. So faith is “the giving substance to things hoped for.” After saving faith, the life of trust begins. In a sense that will be readily perceived by the spiritual mind, trust is always looking forward to what God will do; but faith sees that what God says has been done, and believes God’s Word, having the conviction that it is true, and true for ourselves.

In saving faith, then, you do not trust God to do something for you: He has sent His Son, who has borne sin for you. You do not look to Christ to do something to save you: He has done it at the cross. You simply receive God’s testimony as true, setting your seal thereto.70 You rest in God’s Word regarding Christ and His work for you. You rest in Christ’s shed blood.

It is
GOD that justifieth (8:33), as it is God against whom we sinned. And it is God whom we find in Chapter 3:25 setting forth Christ on the cross as a righteous meeting-place (between the sinner and God) through faith in His blood. And again: “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him [God] that justifieth the ungodly” (on the ground, of course, of the blood of Christ). “Righteousness shall be reckoned unto us who believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (4:5 and 24). This, it seems, is what the Lord meant in His last public message to the Jews, John 12:44: “Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me.” Faith, indeed, lays claim to Christ and possesses Him, but it is through believing the testimony of God the Father concerning His Son.

And this seems to me the meaning of the words in Chapter 3:22, “through faith concerning Jesus Christ.” Peter also says not only that we have “the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 3:21), but: “through Him [Christ] ye are believers in God, that raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God” (I Pet. 1:21). Thus also, he says, “Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God” (I Pet. 3:18).

We must remember that it is the “gospel of God” (Romans 1:1) in its general aspect, which we are now studying; and that it is “concerning His Son.” Christ says also in John 5:24, “He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me hath everlasting life and cometh not into judgment.”

Now we believe concerning Jesus Christ: (a) that He is the Son of God, (b) that He has put away sin by His blood (as Paul will soon show); and© that He is and has become through simple believing our very own, so that what He has done was really done for us.

You may say, this is simply “believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Yes; but it is believing God concerning Christ. In Chapter Four we find that Abraham believed God, and righteousness was reckoned unto him. We also “believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.” Here the faith is in God, and is made possible by His raising Christ, upon whom He had placed our sins. Sanday says: “‘By faith of Jesus Christ’: that is, by faith which has Christ for its object.” In the gospel of God concerning Christ, God announces not only Christ’s person as Son of David, and Son of God; but also His finished work, that He has been set forth by God as a propitiation, a righteous meeting-place between the sinner and God. It is therefore God whom the sinner believes; and in believing God he appropriates Christ, and His saving work.

There is another question in this 22nd verse which must be answered. The King James Version adds, after “The righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all,” the words “and upon all them that believe.” The Revised Version omits “and upon all.” This, we believe, is the correct reading. The righteousness of God is not put “upon” any one. That is a Romish idea,—still held, alas, among Protestants who cannot escape the conception of righteousness as a something bestowed upon us, rather than a Divine reckoning about us. But the best authorities omit these words “and upon all,” as do the oldest manuscripts, and both the English and American Revised Versions. The words, “God’s righteousness through faith concerning Jesus Christ unto all them that believe,” describe it all, and fully.

I know people argue that “unto all” describes the “direction of the blessing”; and “upon all” those who (as they put it) have the blessing actually “conferred upon them.” But please notice the present passage is setting forth the fact of a new, present revelation—God’s righteousness by faith in Christ, as over against man’s legal righteousness. Since we find this righteousness is God’s accounting or holding righteous a man who believes, rather than a conferment of a quality upon a man, we must read the passage thus. It sets forth this present by-faith righteousness. It is God accounting a man (even as he is, “ungodly”—4:5) righteous in His sight. Do not destroy the gospel by adding to Romans 3:22 words which evidently have been supplied by some one ignorant of the truth. It is simply “God’s righteousness through faith about Jesus Christ.”71

Righteousness is a court word. Righteousness is reckoned by God to them that believe. The faith of the ungodly man who believes is “counted for righteousness” (4:5).

The words that close verse 22, “for there is no distinction,” should be joined with verse 23: “for all sinned, and are falling short of the glory of God.” Pridham well says, “The all-important point to be regarded here is the complete setting aside of the creature-title.” That there is no difference as to the fact of sin, between Jews and Gentiles, is, of course, primarily before us in the words “no distinction.” Exactly the same expression is found as to the availability of salvation in Chapter 10:12: “no distinction between Jew and Greek.” We may well apply it to everybody, as does Pridham in his “no creature title.” There is no distinction between sinners—between great offenders and small, with respect to this matter of sinnership. Not the degree of sin, but the fact of sin is looked at here. If you should visit a penitentiary, you would find some imprisoned for terrible crimes, and others for lesser offences, but you would find, in the eyes of the law, no innocent men!

Verse 23: for all sinned, and are falling short of the glory of God—Note the difference in the tenses: “all sinned” is in the past tense, while “falling short” of God’s glory is stated in the present tense. When Adam had once sinned, in Eden, he continually fell short, outside of Eden, as did all his race, by him and after him.

While it is true, as both the old Version and the Revised translate, that “all have sinned”; yet I am more and more persuaded that inasmuch as the Spirit of God uses in verse 23 the same Greek word and tense as in Chapter 5:12, hçmarton: that is, “all sinned” (aorist, not perfect, tense), God is looking back even here at Adam’s federal headship involving us all. He looks at the race as fallen and lost and gone, in their federal head; and then as individually continuing in sins.72

As a natural consequence, all that race “are falling short” of His glory. This “falling short” may mean (1) to fail to earn God’s holy approbation (compare John 12:43); or (2) to come short, because of the loss of all spiritual strength through sin (Romans 5:6), of that estate God prescribed for and must demand of man; or (3) guilty inability to stand before Him or in His glorious holy presence. Probably all these and more are included in the thought. We know that those now justified by faith in Christ “rejoice in hope of the glory of God,”—meaning that state of being glorified together with Christ, which is the high, heavenly hope of the Christian. It is in and through Christ alone that sinners ruined in Adam, and daily falling short of the glory of God, find redemption from sin’s guilt and deliverance from its power.

How sad and awful, then, man’s condition! Suppose I should say, for example, to a New York audience, “Let us all go down to the Battery and jump across to England.” Some vigorous young man might jump over twenty feet, ‘but he would “fall short” of England. And some little old lady might not jump one foot. But all would “fall short” of the coast of England. And, for that matter, the one who leaped the farthest would be in the deepest water! Paul, the chief of sinners, leaped to the farthest distance of self-righteousness, only to cry, “Wretched man that I am” and to find he must put his faith only in Christ!

We now come to the greatest single verse in the entire Bible on the manner of justification by faith: We entreat you, study this verse. We have seen many a soul, upon understanding it, come into peace.

Verse 24: Being declared righteous giftwise by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus—God having brought the whole world into His courtroom and pronounced them guilty (vs. 19),—“under sin,” now exhibits Himself in absolute sovereign grace towards the guilty!

Being declared [or accounted] righteous—Justification, or accounting righteous, is God’s reckoning to one who believes the whole work and effect before Him of the perfect redemption of Christ. The word never means to make one righteous, or holy; but to account one righteous. Justification is not a change wrought by God in us, but a change of our relation to God.

Declared righteous giftwise—The Greek word dorean means, for nothing, gratuitously, giftwise, as a free gift. Paul, for example, uses the same word in reminding the Corinthians of his labors to make the gospel “without charge.” “Freely [dorean] ye received, freely give,” said the Lord to the twelve (Matthew 10:8). “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely” (dorean),—for nothing (Revelation 21:6); and it occurs in almost the very last verse of the Bible:

“Let him take of the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). Perhaps the most striking use of this word, dorean, is by our Lord: “They hated me without-a-cause” (dorean) (John 15:25). The cause of the hatred was in them, not in Christ. Turning this about: the cause of our justification is in God, not in us. We are justified dorean—freely, gratis, gratuitously, giftwise, without a cause in us! This great fact should deliver just now some reader who has been looking within, to his spiritual state, or feelings, or prayers, as a ground of peace.

By His grace—We get our word “charity”—from the Greek word translated “grace” here (charis). True, our word “charity” has been narrowed down in our poor thought and speech to handing out a dole to the needy. But as used by God, this word grace (charis), means the going forth in boundless oceans, according to Himself, of His mighty love. who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” The grace of God is infinite love operating by an infinite means,—the sacrifice of Christ; and in infinite freedom, unhindered, now, by the temporary restrictions of the Law.

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus—Remember that everything connected with God’s salvation is glad in bestowment, infinite in extent, and unchangeable in character. Christ’s atoning work was the procuring cause of all eternal benefit to us. Concerning the Greek word translated “redemption” here (apolutrôsis) Thayer says: “Everywhere in the New Testament this word is used to denote deliverance effected through the death of Christ from the retributive wrath of a holy God and the merited penalty of sin.”

The effect of redemption is shown in Ephesians 1:7: “In whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” Otherwise we were unpardoned and exposed to Divine wrath for ever. Compare Colossians 1:14: “In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins”; as also Hebrews 9:15: “A death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant.” Here Thayer’s interpretation of this word “redemption” is again excellent: “Deliverance from the penalty of transgressions effective through their expiation.”

Before you leave verse 24, apply it to yourself, if you are a believer. Say of yourself: “God has declared me righteous without any cause in me, by His grace, through the redemption from sin’s penalty that is in Christ Jesus.” It is the bold believing use for ourselves of the Scripture we learn, that God desires; and not merely the knowledge of Scripture.

Verse 25: Whom God set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood, unto showing forth His [God’s] righteousness in respect of the passing over of the foregoing sins in the forbearance of God—This verse looks back to the whole history of human sin before it was judged at the cross,— the vast scandal (so to speak) of the universe!—a holy God letting sin pass for four thousand years, from Adam to Christ. God had been righteous in thus passing over73 human sin, both in pardoning without judgment, the sins of the Abels, Enochs, Noahs, and the patriarchs,—even all whom He knew as believing Him; and not only so, He was righteous in forbearing with the impenitent. His enemies: for He purposed both sending Christ to become the propitiation for the whole world; and He would also deal in due time in righteous judgment with those rejecting all His goodness.

But now, in the gospel, His righteousness in all this is publicly shown forth; and the ground of it all seen—even the Lamb “foreordained, indeed, from the foundation of the world, but now manifested,” and sacrificed. At the cross was sin seen at its height; and also the righteousness of God in dealing in judgment74 with it. It was not until the gospel that all this was manifested. Although God had been dealing righteously in the past ages, it was first seen clearly when He judged human sin openly in the Great Sacrifice: where His own Son was not spared!

Whom God set forth a propitiation—Let us consider now this word “propitiation,” concerning the meaning of which there is much uncertainty in many hearts.

Inasmuch as Christ died for our sins “according to the Scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3), we must go to those Scriptures (Old Testament, of course) to find what is there set forth concerning His death.

Now the two goats, on the Great Day of Atonement, represent two great effects of Christ’s sacrifice. To quote: “Aaron shall take the two goats, and set them before Jehovah at the door of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for Jehovah, and the other lot for Azazel” (“removal”—the goat of removal of sins)75 (Leviticus 16:7, 8).

On the great Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) the high priest presented before Jehovah these two goats: one was slain, and its blood brought by the high priest into the tabernacle, through the holy place, and past the second veil into the holy of holies. There the high priest sprinkled the blood upon “the mercy-seat” (the covering of the ark of the covenant, where the Shekinah glory of God’s presence was above the cherubim), and also before the mercy-seat, seven times. This was the blood of the goat upon which the lot fell “for Jehovah”; therefore we have here first the holy and righteous claims of the throne of God as to sin completely met. The golden covering of the ark was called the “mercy-seat” (Hebrew, kapporeth). In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this golden covering of the ark is always called by the same Greek word, hilastçrion,76 which we find translated “propitiation” here in verse 25; and “mercy-seat” in the only other New Testament occurrence of the word, Hebrews 9:5.

Does “propitiation” (hilastçrion), here in Romans 3.25, then mean that the death of Christ made expiation for human sin? Or does it mean also that Christ, having thus died, therefore becomes to the soul the “mercy-seat” where God in all His holiness, and the sinner in all his guilt, may meet?

The latter may be included; for the type is thus carried out; inasmuch as the blood was sprinkled upon the mercy-seat (Leviticus 16:14), the covering of the ark of the covenant, which was called the mercy-seat; the “mercy-seat” thus calling attention to the effect of the sacrifice as affording a righteous meeting ground between the sinner and God. But in Chapter 3.25 it was to show forth God’s righteousness that Christ was “set forth,”—the fact that God, though forbearing 4000 years, had not forgotten or abated His wrath against sin: so that it is Christ’?, actual death as an expiation of human sin that is seen here as showing God’s righteousness. We may well read, “God set forth Christ propitiatory”: thus showing Himself righteous, and also a gracious Justifier of sinners.

The other question connects itself with what we have just said: Should we regard our faith as making the propitiation actual? Of course, the expiatory death of Christ becomes effectual only for those who believe, who rest upon it. But the expiation was made to God for human sin and the propitiation effected, apart from any man’s faith therein! This is a plain fact of revelation. Christ “tasted death for every man.” “He gave Himself a ransom for all”—whether any avail themselves of it or not. Faith does not have any part in the propitiation, though it avails itself of it. Propitiation is by blood alone.

It is forgotten that our God is a consuming fire. Many there are who, in the blindness of unbelief of the last days, proudly say, “We reject the Jehovah of the Old Testament.” It is “the Jesus that loved little children,” and “went about doing good,” who “taught us to call God, Father”:—this is the one in whom people say they believe. But will you remember that this same Jesus is called in the Old Testament Jehovah’s Servant, and that under Jehovah’s smiting hand of wrath He poured out His blood on Calvary and was laid in a tomb, dead, and that it is this Jesus, the Son of God, dead and risen, upon whom you are called to believe?

Now, why did He thus die? or, if you wish, Why must He die, at all? Death is the wages of sin, and He had none! Why should He die?

The answer to this question, false teachers crowd to give you. But we must find the answer in what Scripture says, or risk our eternity! For Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and His death is His one saving act. Concerning His person, therefore, and His death, you must learn what God says from His own Word, and believe it. I find thousands of people ready to say, “Christ died for us, to save us”; thousands, I say, who speak thus, but who are able to give no account whatever of salvation; who exhibit, upon being questioned, the most awful ignorance of the character and attributes of God, and of where lay the necessity for Christ’s death, and what it really accomplished.

The shed blood on the Day of Atonement witnessed that a death had taken place. The person for whom the blood was shed could not approach or stand for a moment in the presence of the infinitely holy God. When the high priest came in before Jehovah on the Great Day of atonement, carrying the basin containing the poured out life blood of the slain goat, he swung the censer, and the cloud of incense filled the holy of holies, covering from all human sight or approach, the mercy-seat where dwelt, upon the cherubim, the Shekinah Presence of God. He approaches and sprinkles the blood upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat seven times, and retires.

Now, what does this witness? Not an angry, vengeful God,77 but infinitely the opposite—One who would send the Son of His bosom as the spotless Lamb to pour out His blood for us sinners, and then ascend to His God and Father,—and, unspeakable grace, now our God and Father also!

But, this laid-down-life witnesses that all approach to God on our personal part is impossible forever! To be made nigh unto God in the blood of Christ means that we come as those whose Substitute has been smitten unto death,—and that under forsaking and wrath by God Himself. There is peace through this blood, but a peace that leaves for us in our own right, no place whatever. Herein is the “offense” of the cross. Shall Christ be smitten for my sin? Then I deserve such smiting. Shall Christ be forsaken? Then I should have been forsaken. Shall Christ give up the ghost? Then all my hopes in myself have perished forever; for He who stood in my place has been smitten, forsaken; has died.

All this men hate and will not hear.

The essence of the truth concerning what men call “atonement,” is that God’s wrath fell upon Christ bearing our sins. Man’s unbelief has sought in every way to avoid or mitigate this awful truth. But if Divine wrath fell not upon Christ, it must fall upon us; for God can not let sin pass. The preacher must study the Scriptures until he sees for himself from God’s Word this most solemn of all Divine revelations: in the coats of skins—obtained by death as a covering for Adam and Eve in God’s presence; in Abel’s accepted sacrifice; in all the offerings of the patriarchs; and afterwards in those prescribed to Israel in Leviticus,—where neither remission of the penalty of sin to the offender nor the bringing of man into God’s presence was possible except through blood-shedding; and alike strikingly in the Psalms of Christ’s sufferings,—as 16, 22, 40, 69, 88, 102, 109; and in the prophets: “It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him,” “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him”; “Awake, O sword against My Shepherd, against the Man Who is My Fellow, saith Jehovah of Hosts”; and in the gospels—“The Son of Man must be lifted up”; “The cup [of what but wrath?] that my father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” “My God, My God Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Throughout the New Testament, as in the Old, this is taught, that God’s wrath for sin fell upon Christ upon the cross.