RIGHTEOUS, RIGHTEOUSNESS
RIGHTEOUS, RIGHTEOUSNESS 533
what St. Paul exi)lains so fully, that God sees us as we are beconiinj^ 'in Christ,' rather than as we are; but St. John does not analyze forgiveness as St. Paul does, anil throughout he looks rather at the eternal fact tiian the temporal process.
3. St. Paul. — In St. Paul's Ejjistles Suaioj gener- ally bears tiie same meaninif as elsewhere in the NT, and so is associated \\ilh 6atos and 07105 (cf. Tit 1", Ko 7'-). However, once at least he seems to revert almost unconsciously to the Pharisaic idea of the dinaios as one who conforms to law ; for in Ko 5' he ai)parently dilierentiates between the 'righteous' and the 'good' (dyaOos) man in much the same way as the (inostics afterwards called tlie God of the OT 'righteous' (meaning 'just'), and the God of the NT 'good.' This is not his usual custom, however ; indeed, in Eph 5" he couples dyadwavvy} anil diKaioavvri ; and in Ko 7^" he puts diKaia between ayla and dyad-q.
In Ko 14^^ St. Paul tells us tiiat ' the kingdom of God is . . . righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,' — words which lemind us of St. Matthew. But, unlike the First Gospel, he often speaks of the righteousness of God. In the years ■which preceded his conversion, he had known all the suH'ering of a sensitive man who feels that, in spite of all his desire to keep God's law, he is constantly breaking it in act, and generally fail- ing to live up to the spirit of it. The salvation of his life had come to him in the conviction that God takes tiie will for the deed, and that in union with the risen Christ the human will is kept con- stantly true. This is the trutli that he has to work out intellectually in his Epistles. And he begins by showing that Christ had not lowered the standard of God's righteousness to meet human weakness, but raised it (cf. Ro 3-^'-''). God is and must be true to His righteous nature ; He is the righteous judge who will rew ard those who serve Him and punish those who do not. It is not the fact of God's righteousness that has been abolished by Christianity, but the old standard of service. This comes out very clearly in Ko 10. Israel, he says, were ignorant of God's righteousness (though they knew God's law, v.^), for ' Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness unto every one that hath faith ' (v.-*). The Jew had thought that he must ' ascend into heaven ' or ' descend into the abyss,' that is, make superhuman efi'orts to keep the Law. But the righteousness which is of faith saith, '. . . The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart ; that is, the Avord of faith which Ave preach.' ' For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation' (w.^^i"). It is not keeping the Law in act that God demands so much as 'faith working through love' (Gal 5*) ; 'the end of the charge is love out of . . . faith unfeigned ' (1 Ti P). 'For the whole law is fulffilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love tliy neighbour as thyself (Gal 5'^ cf. Ko W). Without love, the most wonderful of God's other gifts — even faith itself — or the most perfect acts of self-devo- tion, are vain and empty (1 Co 13'"^) : love is greater than faith {\'.^^), though it necessarily contains faith (v.^). Thus Mosaism is 17 5iaKovia TTji KaraKpiffecjs, V)ut Christianity i] diaKovia r^s diKaioavvrjs (2 Co 3^). God, 'the righteous judge,' shall give the crown of righteousness {i.e. perfect righteousness as a reward; cf. rdv (TTitpavov ttjs fw^j, Kev 2^", Ja 1'-) to all them that have loved His appearing (2 Ti 4^).
So St. Paul, though he constantly emphasizes the truth that ' faith is counted for righteousness ' (Ko 4^ etc.), never means by faith merely an intel- lectual belief, but that faith which is part of love, i.e. a response of the whole personality to God. There- fore it is obviously quite unfair to represent his
doctrine of justification by faith as entailing a legal fiction. The faith and the love must be actual in the believer, and must issue in action (2'^), and as they grow, so must action become more perfect ; it is not the action, howei'er, that constitutes righteousness in God's sight, but the faith and love. God views us sub specie (cternitatis : He looks on us as we shall be some day by virtue of our union \\itli Christ. St. Paul puts forward, in diHerent language, the truth which St. John expresses by saying that the man Avho is begotten of (iod cannot sin. As the believer beholds through faith 'the glory of the Lord,' he is 'transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit' (2 Co S'*). Christ is the Second Adam (KoS^-"^''); we are, by the mysterious union of love, ' in Christ Jesus, Avho was made unto us righteousness and sanctification ' (1 Co P"). ^^'e may ' become the righteousness of God in him ' (2 Co 5^^). ' I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me ' (Ph 4'^). Sometimes St. Paul's language touches that of St. John : ' If Christ is in you . . . (your) spirit is life because of righteous- ness ' (Ko 8'" ; cf. the opposition of Bdvaros and SiKaLoavvri in 6'^; cf. also 'reigning in life,' 5^", where x'^P'^os — God's gracious gift — is coupled with SiKaLOffvvqi).