Thus the thought of righteousness as a Divine attribute meets us at every turn, and its explicit mention not infrequently. St/catos el, cries the angel to the Eternal in the Ai^ocalypse (Rev 16\ where the thought is chiefly of His sternness to the wicked [cf. 15^ 16'' 19^] in delivering His saints). Yia.Tr]p SiKCLLe are Christ's own words in prayer (Jn 17-''), where the thought is primarily of God's gracious mercy and faithfulness in revealing His love to His chosen ones. S'lKaios occurs again in 1 Jn P in a similar sense of ' true to his loving- nature.' 'If we confess our sins, he is f aithf ill and rightzous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' In exactly the same way righteousness is predicated of Christ through- out as One who is consistent in His mercy to ithe penitent, and loving in His necessary sternness to the obdurate. ' If any man sin, we have an advo- cate with the Father, Jesus Christ tlie rigliteous ' (1 Jn 2^) ; 'They that have done good (shall come forth) unto the resurrection of life ; and tliey that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment. . . . My judgment is righteous' (Jn 5-«f). Yet ' I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me . . . the word that I spake . . . shall judge him in the last day' (12-17.4S) Christ, that is to say, seeks but to save the wicked, in His love for them ; but if they will not have His mercy, they are self-doomed.
The Divine part througliout is tliat of absolute love : ' God is love,' — that sums Him up in a word ; and that is the newness of the Christian teaching {\^^^ 15'-) which transforms the notion of what makes goodness in deed. Our whole duty is to love God, which involves obedience to Him (1 Jn 5^), and is declared to be the only means of knowing Him (4'^). The love of God necessarily carries with it the love of man (4''- '-■ ^") ; it is the love of God, shown by sending His Son to die for the world, which teaches us to love other men (3^'' 4^- '"), and the one love must be as catholic as the other (cf. Jn 12^^). Elsewiiere, in emphasizing the inwardness of all true righteousness, Christ shows that it depends on God's nature as Spirit. ' God is Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship in spirit and truth' (4^^). And the corollary is that true worship is independent of locality and ceremonial (v.^^), — though this is not to be taken as implying that all ceremonial may be safely cast aside.
But it is by developing Christ's teaching about the second or spiritual birth that St. John especially marks both the essential inwardness and the con- tinuous growth of righteousness. The locus clas- sicus for this is the Lord's discourse given in 3'^'-\ where the eternal life given by the second birtii is brought into immediate relation with His own pre- existence and resurrection (vv.^'^"i''). This chapter is illustrated in the First Epistle, where he writes:
' Every one that lovetli is b.^gotten of God ' (4'^).
' Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God ' (5^).
' If ye know that he (probably Christ) is right- eous, ye know that everyone aLso that doeth righteousness is begotten of him ' (2-").
But here we notice a further point. Christ ' was manifested to take away sins ; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not . . .'; the righteous man is ' he that doeth righteousness, . . . even as he is righteous. . . . Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed •abideth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God' (1 Jn 3"'-''). At first sight this seems inconsistent with P- **, where the Apostle tells us, ' If we say that we have no sin, we de- ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins ..." Clearly, in the former passages, sin is thought of as a lasting state of rebellion against God ; in the latter, it is treated rather as an act due to weakness. He that is born of God cannot deliberately rebel against God, as long as the new life is in him ; cf. Jn 13^** ' Ye are clean, but not all' (Christ excepts only Judas, v.") ; 15^ ' Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you' ; for, as He goes on to say, this cleanliness of heart comes from the union of Himself with the disciple, effected by love. ' Abide in me and I in you. . . . He that abideth in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit ; for ajiart from me ye can do notliing ' (v ■*'-, cf. 17-^'^^). Here we have explicitly stated Avhat is implicit in the Synoptic Gospels, namely, that only by the union of love with tlie risen Christ (cf. 8^^- ^- 15'^"'^) can \ve do righteousness, receiving more and more of ' his fulness . . . and grace for grace' (P"), having already in us the eternal life which is to be consummated at the last day (cf. 17* 20*'). This is the general meaning of Igs-io '. (The Holy Spirit), when he is come, will convict the world in respect of . . . righteousness . . . because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more' ; that is to say, the Holy Spirit will not only reveal Christ's righteousness to the world, l)ut will show men the infinite possibilities wiiich are tiieirs in union with Him, because Christ is henceforth alive for evermore with the Father, having conquered death and sin. All this implies,