Isai. liii. 11. By his knmvledge shall my righteous servant jus- tify many ; for he shall bear their iniquities.
IT is not possible to conceive a more difficult ques- tion for unenlightened reason to resolve, or one in the resolution of which mankind are more deeply inte- rested, than this, How shall a sinner be justified be- fore God ? Every man feels himself a sinner, and
has, in a greater or less degree, a sentence of con- demnation within his own bosom. And the more he considers his state, the more he feels an anxiety to know how he may escape the punishment he de- serves, and secure the favour of his God and Judge. The words before us remove all doubt upon this subject: they represent Christ as God's servant, sent and commissioned for this very end, to justify sinners by the knowledge of himself; and, while they thus declare the means of our justification, they specify also the ground of it ; for however gratuitous this blessing is, as it respects us, it is altogether procured for us by the vicarious sacrifice of the Son of God.
Let us consider, then,
I. The means of our justification before God —
Christ is the person spoken of throughout this whole chapter : and here, as in the preceding chapter3, he is denominated God's " servant." This title belongs to him only in his mediatorial capacity ; for in his own nature, Christ is one with the Father, in glory equal, in majesty co-eternal. The appellation of " righteous," which is here applied to him, is of peculiar force in this connexion. He was eminently righteous above every creature in earth or heaven. Of fallen men, " there is none righteous, no, not one." And though the angels are holy, yet is their righteousness not originally of, and from, themselves ; it is the gift of God : nor is it immutable, seeing that many have fallen from it ; and the preservation of those who maintain their first estate, is also the effect of God's distinguishing grace : but Christ is essentially, eter- nally, and immutably righteous. Moreover, angels are righteous for themselves alone ; but Christ is righteous for us, having fulfilled all righteousness with the ex- press view to impute that righteousness to us, that so we may have a righteousness wherein to appear before God, and God may be just in justifying usb. The par- ticular application of the term " righteous" to him as justifying sinners, shews, that it is to be understood in
a vcr. 13. b Rom. v. 19. and iii. 26.