"Therein Is The
Righteousness Of God Revealed"
Rom.1:17
The gospel
of Christ is the revelation of God's righteousness, without which no one can be
saved. That righteousness which is revealed in the gospel is both the rightness
and rectitude of God's character and the righteousness which Christ wrought out
for his elect by his obedience to God as our Mediator, by which we have been
justified.
THIS IS CALLED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
BECAUSE ALL THREE OF THE DIVINE PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD HAVE AN INTEREST IN IT.
We worship one God in the trinity of his sacred Persons (I John 5:7) and
rejoice to know that all three of the Divine Persons are engaged in the
salvation of our souls (Eph. 1:3-14). Our salvation was purposed in eternity by
God the Father, purchased in time by God the Son, and performed in us by God
the Holy Spirit. God the Father sent his Son into the world to work out
righteousness for his elect. That having been accomplished by Christ's life and
death as our Substitute, our heavenly Father, the Judge of all the earth,
approved of it, accepted it, and imputed it to us. God the Son is the One who
performed righteousness for us, as our Representative and Substitute before
God. In his life he obeyed the law's precepts for us. In he
death he satisfied the law's justice for us. Christ is "THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS." And all who believe have been made the righteousness of
God in him. God the Holy Spirit reveals the righteousness of God in Christ to
chosen, redeemed sinners through the preaching of the gospel. He works faith in
their hearts, enables them to lay hold of Christ, and pronounces the sentence
of justification in their consciences. The Holy Spirit of God, in his work of
conviction, shows us our need of Christ's righteous- ness, shows us how that
Christ accomplished righteous- ness, and gives us faith to trust Christ's
righteous- ness. And he does this by the preaching of the gospel.
Aren't you thankful that God sent someone
to preach the gospel to you in the power of the Spirit? You were without
Christ, ignorant of the righteousness of God in him. But now you are in Christ.
You have been made the righteousness of God in him. Will you not do what you
can to send this gospel to your fellowman? Without it they are, as you once
were, lost, without Christ, being ignorant of the righteousness of God.
Don Fortner