For therein is the righteousness of God
revealed
By "the righteousness of God", is not meant the essential
righteousness of God, the rectitude of his nature, his
righteousness in fulfilling his promises, and his punitive
justice, which though revealed in the Gospel, yet not peculiar to
it; nor the righteousness by which Christ himself is righteous,
either as God, or as Mediator; but that righteousness which he
wrought out by obeying the precepts, and bearing the penalty of
the law in the room of his people, and by which they are
justified in the sight of God: and this is called "the
righteousness of God", in opposition to the righteousness of men:
and because it justifies men in the sight of God; and because of
the concern which Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, have in it.
Jehovah the Father sent his Son to work it out, and being wrought
out, he approves and accepts of it, and imputes it to his elect:
Jehovah the Son is the author of it by his obedience and death;
and Jehovah the Spirit discovers it to sinners, works faith in
them to lay hold upon it, and pronounces the sentence of
justification by it in their consciences. Now this is said to be
"revealed" in the Gospel, that is, it is taught in the Gospel;
that is the word of righteousness, the ministration of it; it is
manifested in and by the Gospel. This righteousness is not known
by the light of nature, nor by the law of Moses; it was hid under
the shadows of the ceremonial law, and is brought to light only
by the Gospel; it is hid from every natural man, even from the
most wise and prudent, and from God's elect themselves before
conversion, and is only made known to believers, to whom it is
revealed:
from faith to faith;
that is, as say some, from the faith of God to the faith of men;
from the faith of preachers to the faith of hearers; from the
faith of the Old to the faith of the New Testament saints; or
rather from one degree of faith to another; for faith, as it
grows and increases, has clearer sights of this righteousness, as
held forth in the Gospel. For the proof of this, a passage of
Scripture is cited,
as it is written,
( Habakkuk
2:4 ) ;
the just shall live by faith:
"a just", or righteous man is, not everyone who thinks himself,
or is thought by others to be so; nor are any so by their
obedience to the law of works; but he is one that is made
righteous by the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, which is
before said to be revealed in the Gospel. The life which this man
lives, and "shall live", does not design a natural or corporeal
life, and a continuance of that, for such die a natural death, as
other men; nor an eternal life, for though they shall so live,
yet not by faith; but a spiritual life, a life of justification
on Christ, of holiness from him, of communion with him, and of
peace and joy; which spiritual life shall be continued, and never
be lost. The manner in which the just lives, is "by faith". In
the prophet Habakkuk, the words are, "the just shall live"
(wtnwmab) , "by his faith"
(( Habakkuk
2:4 ) ); which the Septuagint render, "by my faith": and the
apostle only reads, "by faith", omitting the affix, as well
known, and easy to be supplied: for faith, when given by God, and
exercised by the believer, is his own, and by it he lives; not
upon it, but by it upon Christ the object of it; from whom, in a
way of believing, he derives his spiritual life, and all the
comforts of it.
