Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

XIV.

Everlasting Benefits-Righteousness.

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children; to such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them.-Verses 17, 18.

THE term "righteousness" is applied to the Most High in Holy Scripture, in various senses; but principally to God the Father in His invariable rectitude as a Ruler, and to God the Son in His perfect obedience as a surety. The former is eternal-" from everlasting to everlasting." The latter, being accomplished in the time of Christ's earthly life, is strictly "to everlasting"-as the Psalmist here expresses it, "unto children's children." The effects of that righteousness, however, are equally applicable to all who lived before, as to all who lived, or shall live, after it was finished. righteousness is as absolutely necessary for the salvation of the former, as of the latter; and we may justly consider the Psalmist to speak here of "righteousness" equally with the "mercy" of the Lord, as "from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him," as well as unto their “children's children;" for the Scripture testifies of the Lord Jesus, that He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. xiii. 8.

That

The rectitude of Jehovah's government stands as a fundamental doctrine to the whole volume of inspiration. The Law, the Histories, the Psalms, the Proverbs, the Prophecies, the Gospels, the Epistles, and the book of Revelation, all maintain the wisdom, the integrity, and the benevolence of the King, who ruleth in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. Dan. iv. 35. It is the province of faith to maintain this doctrine in the face of all appearances to the contrary, and in opposition to all the cavillings of men. If we yield to these, we possess no true faith in God. The question of Abraham, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Gen. xviii. 25, lies at the foundation of all our present peace, and of all our future hopes. If it once be even conceived in thought that the High and Holy One, in any, the slightest, particular, ever deviated from the path of strictest rectitude, immediately our religion is overthrown, our confidence is shaken, our misery is commenced, the sun is fallen from the moral heavens, and gross darkness envelopes us on every side. But God forbid the thought. The very supposition is abhorrent to the mind. "Let God be true, and every man a liar." There is no unrighteousness with Him. The day is coming when each man's apparently tangled web of life, shall appear to have been wound up rightly to its minutest thread. The loom of time, with all its perplexing machinery, is working out one grand design, to be displayed through all eternity; and angels, with archangles, and the Lord's redeemed, will gaze thereon with holy admiration; and the harpers of heaven, when they behold it, will sing this song of Moses and the

Lamb: "Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, thou King of saints." Rev. xv. 3.

If ever, Reader, when trials beset, and perplexities surround thee, when disappointments befall, and expectations are thwarted, thou feelest tempted to question the allotments of Providence, and to be envious at the prosperity of others, remember that danger is very near thy soul. Thou standest on slippery and forbidden ground. Asaph confesses that when he ventured to tread thereon, his "feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped." But he hastily retreated. He turned away his eyes from the further contemplation of the chequered scenes of earth. He went into the sanctuary to gain fresh instruction, and the result was, that he became thoroughly ashamed of his murmuring thoughts. His conscience smote him, and he felt self-condemned. He grieved that he should have given way, even for a moment, to entertain the slightest doubt of the rectitude of God's dispensations. And, therefore, at the very commencement of his seventy-third Psalm, he gives this emphatic testimony against all gainsayers: "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart." Bear thou similar testimony to thy own tempted spirit, and against all the questionings of others. Begin every argument by saying with Asaph: "Truly God is good;" and shut up every argument by saying again with him: "It is good for me to hold me fast by God, to put my trust in the Lord God."-Last verse, Prayer-book version.

"The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." Clouds and

66

darkness may be round about Him, but "righteousness and judgment are the basis of His throne." Psa. xovii. 1. Hold fast, therefore, by God. Retain to thy dying hour this allimportant truth of the righteousness of thy heavenly Father. Never let it go; for "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" in God. "Though thy fig-tree do not blossom, nor fruit be in thy vines; though thy olives should fail, and thy fields yield no meat; though the flock be cut off from thy folds, and there be no herd in thy stalls;" yea, and though every one of these should prosper abundantly with thy neighbor, yet hold fast this truth, “the Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works ;" and then, with the tried, but triumphant Prophet, thou also shalt be enabled to add: "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation." Hab. iii. 17, 18.

The second meaning of this term, "righteousness," may be considered as that which the Psalmist has here more especially in view-the perfected obedience of the Lord Jesus as a Surety, thus foretold by the prophet Daniel: “He shall bring in everlasting righteousness." Dan. ix. 24. The words are remarkable. To "bring in," implies that it was new-that no such thing had been seen on earth before as an "everlasting righteousness." The goodness, or innocence, of our first parents in the garden of Eden, soon gave way before temptation-it was not everlasting. The goodness of all the children of men is but as the morning cloud, and as the early dew it passeth away. There is no everlasting righteousness but that of the Lord Jesus Christ. He voluntarily condescended to be born under the Law, and to render

to all its requirements a complete and perfect obedience. The first Adam dishonored the Law of God, and Jesus, the second Adam, “magnified the Law, and made it honorable." As a Divine Person in human form rendering it obedience, He exalted that Law immeasurably, so that "the Lord is well pleased for His righteousness' sake." Isa. xlii. 21. He was perfectly holy in His own nature, and needed no righteous acts whatsoever for His own benefit. But it was for our benefit, and for the glory of the Lawgiver, that He fulfilled each iota and tittle of that Law. Every thought of His heart was in full accordance with its holiness. Every word of His lips was in perfect harmony with its justice. Every action of His life was in complete fulfilment of its benevolence. And thus He demonstrated to the universe, that the Law which the devil had impugned, and which man had broken, was "holy, and just, and good." Rom. vii. 12. A perfect man had never appeared on earth after Adam fell; and therefore a perfect righteousness had never been presented to the Divine Lawgiver by any in human form. But at length Christ, the perfect man, appeared on earth, and presented a complete and perfect righteousness unto God. He rendered an undeviating obedience to His Law, and so "brought in" an everlasting righteousness into the world. And since He ascended into heaven, there has not been found another born of woman, fulfilling, like Him, the whole law of righteousness. "All have sinned," as before, so after, Christ, "and come short of the glory of God"; and "Christ is the end," the grand and only end," of the law,

« IndietroContinua »