Must not the self-righteous moralist then stand con- founded before God ?
[Surely it is no light matter to pour contempt on the righteousness of God, as though it were insufficient for us without " the filthy rags of our righteousness f." It is no light matter to reject the united testimony of the law and the pro- phets, of Christ and his Apostles. And as the guilt of such conduct is great, so is also the danger : and whosoever persists in it must irremediably perish £.]
On the other hand, should not the self-condemning sinner receive encouragement from this subject ?
[It is well to condemn ourselves, but not to despond. Twice is it declared in the text, that this righteousness is for " all" who will believe in Christ'1. And is it not sufficient for all? Let all then " set to their seal that God is true." Let them honour the righteousness of Christ by their affiance in it; and it shall be " manifested" to their consciences, no less than in the Scriptures themselves, that it is complete in itself, adequate to our necessities, and effectual for all who rely upon it.]
f Isai. Ixiv. 6. s Rom, ix. 30—32.
h Compare Acts xiii. 38, 39. with Isai. i. 18. and Rom. v. 20, 21.
Rom. iii. 24 — 26. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus : whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness : that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
THE whole plan of the Gospel takes for granted that we are in a lost and helpless condition. Its pro- visions are suited to such, and to such only. Hence the Apostle proves at large that " we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God ;" and then he states, in the plainest and strongest, manner, the method which God has proposed for our restoration to his favour.
The words of the text will lead us to shew,