Christ Declares Righteousness for
Remission of Sins
"We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10.
To declare righteousness is to speak
righteousness. God speaks righteousness to man, and then he is righteous.
The method is the same as in the creation in the beginning. "He spake,
and it was."
Christ
is set forth to declare God's righteousness for the remission of sins, in
order that He might be just and at the same time the justifier of him who
believes in Jesus. God justifies sinners, for they are the only ones who
need justification. The justice of declaring a sinner to be righteous lies
in the fact that he is actually made righteous. Whatever God declares
to be so, is so. And then he is made righteous by the life of God given him
in Christ.
The
sin is against God, and if He is willing to forgive it, he has the right to
do so. No unbeliever would deny the right of a man to overlook a trespass
against him. But God does not simply overlook the trespass; He gives His
life as a forfeit. Thus He upholds the majesty of the law, and is just in
declaring that man righteous who was before a sinner. Sin is remitted - sent
away -from the sinner, because sin and righteousness can not exist together,
and God puts His own righteous life into the believer. So God is merciful in
His justice, and just in His mercy.
This
act of mercy on the part of God is eminently just, because in the first
place the sin is against God, and He has a right to pass by offenses against
Him. Further, it is just, because He gives His own life as an atonement for
the sin, so that the majesty of the law is not only maintained, but is
magnified. God is just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. All
righteousness is from Him alone.
Righteousness
is the free gift of God unto every one who believes. True faith has Christ
alone as its object, and it brings Christ's life actually into the heart;
and therefore it must bring righteousness.
Waggoner on Romans, pgs. 73, 74 |
