August 8

I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. - Psalms 71:16.

NOW, we may consider this as done with regard to man, by our avowals. We are not to be ashamed of the Saviour’s words. He requires us not only to believe with the heart but to confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus, and to hold fast, not only the reality of our faith, but the profession of it. A Christian is “always to be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him,” and to proclaim before enemies the truth of God.

In this Christians are lamentably deficient in our day. “The righteousness of God by faith” we consider as the method of a sinner’s acceptance before God. It was this in which the reformers were so agreed. They differed as to church government, as to the decrees of God, and various other things; but there was no difference here. Here they took their ground and stood firm, and, rather than deny or conceal it, they were willing to go to prison and to death. Let us also act in the same way, and, when we have opportunity, mention his “righteousness and his only,” especially when we meet with those who are awakened and converted. Let us mention his righteousness in a way of encouragement, and his righteousness only.

Let us, in answer to the question, “What must I do to be saved?” say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” They feel themselves ready to perish; and, as Solomon says, wine must he given to such; and this wine must not be diluted by qualifications and conditions, but is to be administered purely as we have it in the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! We may refer them at once to the refuge set before them’ in the gospel. We may tell them, if they think not themselves too good, he does not think them too bad, to be saved. And if they do not exclude themselves, they are not excluded by any declarations of Scripture from hope. We may, therefore, say,-

“Let not conscience make you linger,

Nor of fitness fondly dream:

All the fitness he requireth

Is to feel your need of him.”

“Come, and welcome,”-the title which Bunyan gave to one of his books. “Come, and welcome; he is able, he is willing.” In this way we should mention his righteousness. But we consider this as done with regard to God. And if we are asked, How is this to be done with regard to him? how are we to mention his righteousness, and his only? we answer, In all our intercourse and dealings with God in a way of salvation. And there are cases in which in our dealings with him we should make mention of his righteousness, and of his only.

The first is, in our transactions with him under convictions of sin. Oh, what are the views and feelings of a man then! How eagerly does he inquire, “How shall I come before the Lord, and bow my knees before the Most High?” And what would he do then but for the divine testimony? What would he do if he did not hear a voice, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”? “We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” “I have nothing to plead,” may the man say, “why the law, which is holy, just, and true, should not be executed upon me, but as One died for all, and as that One is more than they all, what might have been accomplished by their destruction is more than answered by his death.” Well, therefore, may the Christian say, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And, Secondly, The Christian may make mention of his righteousness, and his only, in all the fresh discoveries of guilt. These will be many. He will not only discover sin on common occasions, but in his most holy things; not only in the week, but on the Sabbath; not only on ordinary Sabbaths, but on sacramental Sabbaths: so numerous and affecting will be his views of his imperfections and his deserts too, that he will feel a broken and a contrite heart,-that he will relinquish all self-confidence, and feel self-abashed and self-abandoned; but not so as to lose his strong consolation and good hope through grace, and his union with his Lord and Saviour. “If any man sin,” says John, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Therefore he feels “boldness and access by the faith of him.”