law and justice ; a righteousness wherein we may stand before him without spot or blemish.]
This righteousness is to be apprehended by faith —
[In no other manner can it be apprehended. It exists not in us, but in the Lord Jesus Christ ; whose it is, and by whom it is imputed to us ; and who is therefore called, " The Lord our Righteousness a." If it be said, that, though it is Christ's righteousness, and not ours, we yet may earn by our good works an interest in it ; I answer, that we may as well earn salvation itself, as earn an interest in that righte- ousness whereby we are saved. The effect will be the same in either case : salvation will be of works, and not of grace ; and every person who shall be saved, will have a ground of glorying in himself, as having purchased that whereby he is saved. But the Gospel salvation utterly excludes glory ingb: and " it is by faith, on purpose that it may be by grace0." In truth, any attempt to purchase it would utterly make it void ; and, however glorious it be in itself, it would profit us nothing d. The Apostle, in our text, carefully excludes all his own righteousness from bearing any part in his salvation, and declares his reliance to be only and exclusively on that righteousness which is of God through faith in Christ. We say, then, respecting this righteousness, that it is " the righte- ousness of God .•" it is the " righteousness of God without the law:" it is " the righteousness to which both the law and the prophets bear witness .-" it is " the righteousness ol God by faith of Jesus Christ : and it is unto all, and upon all, them that believe6"]
All who are united to Christ by faith, shall be saved by it —
[By faith we are united unto Christ ; and become one in law with him, even as a wife becomes one with her husband : and exactly as " he was made sin for us who knew no sin ; so we, who had no righteousness of our own, are by faith made the righteousness of God in himf." There is no exception of persons : all, whether Jews or Gentiles, and whether their sins have been of greater or less enormity, shall be equally accepted, if only they believe in him : for " his blood cleanseth from all sin&;" and "all who believe, shall be justified from all things11."] Such being the way of salvation, as stated by the Apostle, let us notice,
II. His feelings in relation to it —
a Jer. xxiii. 6. b Rom. iii. 27. c Rom. iv. 16.
d Gal. v. 2—4. e Rom. iii. 21, 22. f 2 Cor. v. 21.
g 1 John i. 7. h Acts xiii. 39.