is that to which the law leads, or he has abolished the law, so that every one that believes may be justified.
(5) For Moses descriheth the righteousness which is of the law. That is, concerning the righteousness which is of the law, Moses thus writes. In the last clause of the preceding verse it was clearly intimated that faith was the condition of salvation under the gospel. ' To every one, without distinction, that believeth is justification secured.' On this the apostle connects his description and contrast of the two methods of jus- tification, the one by works and the other by faith, with the design to show that the former was in its nature impracticable, while the other was reasonable and easy, and adapted to all classes of men, Jews and Gentiles, and should therefore be offered to all.
The righteousness which is of the law. The word rendered right- eousness may here again be variously explained. 1. The method of jus- tification, or of becoming righteous. This suits the context ; ' Moses describes the legal method of justification thus.' But this does not agree so well with the clause "which is of the law." 2. It may mean that excellence which arises from obedience to the law, and which is opposed to that which is obtained by faith. The righteousness which is of the law is, then, that which consists in legal obedience. 3. It may have its appropriate and familiar sense, the state of one who is free as to the de- mands of justice or law. In the former sense it means that which actu- ally answers those demands, in the latter it expresses the condition of one who is just, as in Isa. 5 : 23, " Who take the righteousness of the righteous from him." In this view the phrase " righteousness which is of the law," or rather the words thus translated, mean the justification, or state of justification, which arises from the law. This, then, would be opposed to that which arises from faith. It is evident that this word was of such 'large import, as used by the apostle, that sometimes one and sometimes another of its phases was in his mind, and that these are changed repeatedly in the same passage. Thus, in the passage before us, it is easy to understand the righteousness which is of the law, and righteousness which is by faith, as meaning the justifying excellence or merit which is obtained in the one instance from the law, and in the other by faith. But this does not so well answer in the immediately suc- ceeding verse, " The righteousness which is by faith speaketh in this wise;" where the meaning would seem to be, the method of justifica- tion by faith says or demands simply cordial belief and open profession. The passage quoted by the apostle is Lev. 18 : 5, " The man that doeth those things shall live by them." The language of Moses is an accurate description of the legal method of justification. The man who did all that was required by the Mosaic institutions would, on the ground of his obedience, be rewarded with all the blessings which that economy pro- mised. And the man who should do all that the law of God, by which he is to be ultimately tried, demands, would live on the ground of that obedience. It is plain that the word live is used, in its familiar biblical