The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 528

the beauty and harmony of which, iu the person of Adam, tho father of our race, the touch of moral evi I l1ad defaced and destroyed, appeared again in him, the "second Adam," in all its sinless, faultless perfection, absolutely free from the taint of evil. 1'!. nd this not as a development, but as a new Divine revelation; not as the consum- mate product of moral forces inherent in om nature, but as a supernatural phenomenon, a miracle, in the sphere of man's moral life. In him the "righteousness of God" appeared, embodied and illustrated in human form. Our faith in this historic fact rests on different grounds. I. The angelic testimony (Luke i. 35). 2. The direct testimony of tbe Father (Matt. iii. 17 ; xvii. 5). 3. His declarations respecting himself (John "iii. 29, 4G; xiv. 30; xv. 10; xvii. 4). 4. The witness of his enemies (Judas, Herod, Pilatc and his wife, the Roman centurion). 5. The apostolic testimony (Acts iii. 14; 2 Cor. v. 21; Heh. vii. 2G; 1 Pet.. ii. 22; 1 John ii. 1; iii. 5). 6. The pro- found impression left on our spirits by a careful study of the Gospel records. The absolute sinlessness of Jesus is one of the foundation-stones ill the fabric of Christian doctrine, and to doubt or delly it is to Ulldermille and destroy the whole, But his righteousness means more than faultless personal character. It includes the positive fulfilment of the Fatl,cr's purposes and of the work the Father had given him to do. "I have glorified thee on the earth," etc. (John xvii. 4). "Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and ofiering," etc. (Hcb. x. 5-10). His was a righteousness wrought. out through all the patient obedience of a blameless life, consummated in the vicarious shame and sorrow of the cross. .As the sunbeam receives no contamination from the foulest thing Oil which it may chance to fall, so did he pass triumphantly through all the evil of the world and go back to the bosom of the Father with a purity as unsullied as that in which he came. "Declared to be the Son of God with power, accordillg to the spirit of holiness, by the resurreclioll from the dead" (Rom. i. 4). · II. How HIS BIGHTEOUSlfESS BECOMES OUIIB. 1. As the ground of our forgiveness. Faith in him as our righteous "Advocate with the Father" delivers us froJll condemnation. W c believe ill no " transferellce of a moral quality." As a man's sills are bis own and not another's, so whatever of virtue there may be ill him belongs to himself alone. But is it incredible that God should deal with sinful men ill the way of mercy because of the perfect righteousness of "the man Christ Jesus"? "He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. v. 21). There is an instinctive witness in our souls to the fact that if "grace reigns" towards us it must be "through righteousness." This is God's answer to that instinct: " By tbe righteousness of Ollc the free gift came upon all men unto justificatioll ol life" (Rom. v. 18). 2. As the inspiring cause of our pe1·sonal sanctification. The gospel is God's method of making men righteous, not a scheme by virtue of which he reckons them to be so whell they are not. Faith in Christ's mediatorial work as the ground of forgivelless draws the soul irresistibly into living Ryropathy with himself, It is impossible to dwell in fellowship with him without sharing his spirit and becoming "righteous even as he is right.eons." Not more surely does the prepared surface receive the picture the sun's rays paint upon it, than does the reverent, trustful, loving soul reflect his image. "We all, with opell face beholding as in a glass," etc. (2 Cor. iii. 18). Thus does his riahteousness 0 become ours. 3. As the rectifying power in the general life of the world. " A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of his kingdom," alld wherever he reicrns the discords of the world are resolved into a. blessed hannolly. He is the Creator or":, the new heavens alld the new earth, wherein <lwelletb righteous- ncss."-W. Vera. 23, 24.-The omnipresent God. It is an essentially l1catben concept.ion of O,c Deity agaillst which these grand words bear witness. Thero were two false ten- dencies of the heathen mind to which the Hebrew faith was a perpetnal rebuke-one was that of thinking of the Deity as dwelling remote from the ways of men," throned in sequestered sanctity," too lofty to take any interest in tho alfairs of earth; the other that of localizing and limiting the Deity, conceiving of him ns exercising fl partial jurisdiction, as belonging to a particula.r place and people. The God of the Jews was no mere distant abstraction, but an cvcr-pre~ent, ever-active power; not the God of Olle llation only, but of the" whole earth." Consider- ClI. xxm. 1--40.] TllE noorr OF 'l'IIE PlWPllE'l' Jl<.:HEMIAI:I.