The Righteousness of God
Professor George B. Stevens, D.D., LL.D.
Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Conn.
| Alike in the Old Testament and in the New—in the sermons of the prophets, the sayings of Jesus, and the letters of the apostles—we hear the note of righteousness—the righteousness of God himself, the righteousness which he requires of men. What does it mean? Mere formal definitions do not greatly aid us. If it be said: It is the rightness of God, the harmony of his will with his nature, his correspondence with what he ought to be, we have still to ask: What is his ethical nature? What does his character require? The common view of God's righteousness has been that it was a name for the law and penalty side of his nature, in contrast with his mercy or grace—the retributive, vindicatory aspect of his character, from which his love is to be sharply distinguished. But it is quite certain that this is not the biblical conception. The righteousness of God stands in no contrast to his mercy, but rather includes it. There is no such thing as a rivalry in him between punitive justice and forgiving love. Forgiveness and salvation, as well as his just judgments upon sin, flow forth from the divine righteousness. He is "a righteous God and a Savior." "Thy righteousness," says the Psalmist, "is like the mountains of God; thy judgments are a great deep; thou savest man and beast." So far is righteousness from denoting an unconditional necessity to punish that it often denotes exactly the contrary. "Deliver me from guilt, O God of my salvation," prays the penitent, "and my tongue shall sing of thy righteousness." "Answer me in thy righteousness, and enter not into judgment with thy servant." Here righteousness means exemption from judgment; that is, the exact opposite of the common popular and dogmatic conception of it.
God's
righteousness is equitableness.
It is seen no less in protecting the innocent than in
condemning and punishing the
guilty. It is the foe of
partiality, cruelty, and
oppression. It is absolute fairness in the treatment of
men. If it involves hostility to
their wrongs, it involves
equally defense of their rights.
In righteousness are united
graciousness and uprightness,
goodness and severity.
Jeremiah's description of the
character of Jehovah is that he
is one who exercises, and
delights in, loving-kindness,
judgment, and righteousness in
the earth.
Such being the Old
Testament conception of God's
righteousness, it is easy to see
what is the nature of a
corresponding righteousness in
man. Of him the righteous God
requires not only that he shall
"do justly," but that he shall
"love mercy," and the nation
which will reflect his character
in its administration must, says
Isaiah, "relieve the oppressed,
judge the fatherless, and plead
for the widow."
We note here,
throughout these various
descriptions and allusions, the
firm conviction that the will of
God is stable and consistent,
incapable of being moved from
the strict line of rectitude and
fairness by capricious passions
on his own part, or by appeals
or entreaties on the part of his
worshipers. Unlike the deities
of other ancient religions,
Jehovah has a fixed and
changeless moral character. This
he will never lower, qualify, or
change. In this ethical nature
all his purposes and acts are
grounded. Hence there can be no
arbitrariness, or fickleness,
or partiality with him. With
him, as the New Testament says,
is no variableness, nor shadow
cast by turning. His perfections
suffer no eclipse. Justice and
judgment are the eternal
foundation of his throne.
If
now, as we have seen, justice
and mercy are so closely akin;
if, indeed, the righteousness of
God includes his grace, then it
would naturally include also his
disposition to forgive. And we
find that it is so. The
Israelite appealed to the divine
righteousness not only in
expressing the consciousness of
his sin, but equally in
expressing his hope of
forgiveness. God is a righteous
judge in acquitting—upon
appropriate conditions-as well
as in punishing the impenitent.
The "righteous acts of Jehovah,"
which Samuel recounts to the
people, are the manifestations
of his undeserved goodness which
he showed to them and to their
fathers, notwithstanding their
rebellion and sin. "Deliver me
in thy righteousness, and save
me," is the Psalmist's prayer.
He is confident of salvation
because God is righteous. He
knew well the truth which is
still heard resounding in one of the
latest of our New Testament
books: "God is righteous—to
forgive."
And here, too, the
righteousness which God requires
in men corresponds to that which
dwells forever in his own
nature. The "righteousness"
which is often defined as
consisting in the determination to inflict punishment
and secure vengeance, is not the
righteousness which the Old
Testament commends. A man would
not be righteous if he were not
also benevolent. And yet, we are
often told that punitive justice
is the supreme excellence, alike
in God and in man. This is to
ascribe to the God of all grace
a character which the prophets
would condemn as unworthy to
constitute "righteousness"
even
in a man.
When we turn to the
letters of Paul, we meet
questions of interpretation on
which it would be inappropriate
to enter here. But if in the
mind of the apostle
righteousness is, on the one
hand, a judicial quality, which
must express itself in the
condemnation of sin, it is also
a gracious quality—a name for
the fidelity or trustworthiness
of God, his faithfulness to his
own nature and promises. What if
we are unrighteous, that is,
unfaithful to our obligations to
God? exclaims the apostle; he
will not be unrighteous in
return, unfaithful to his
gracious will and promise; our
failure to keep covenant with
him will but set his
faithfulness—or, as Paul calls
it, his "righteousness"—in the
higher relief.
Only once in the
gospels is the phrase
"righteousness of God"
attributed to our Lord, and in
that case it denotes, not an
attribute of God, but the
righteousness which God requires
in men: "Seek first God's
kingdom and righteousness," and
of the nature and requirements
of that true righteousness the
Sermon on the Mount—where this
phrase occurs—is the exposition. Once also, it may be added,
Jesus is said to have spoken of
God's wrath. He saw it
illustrated in the woes and
tribulations which should
overtake the Jewish people at
the destruction of their sacred
city.
Once in the fourth gospel
are the words "Holy Father," and
once also the words "O righteous
Father," heard on the lips of
Jesus in prayer. The context
makes their meaning clear. First
of all, it is evident that it is
the righteousness of a Father to
which our Lord alludes, and what
does he ask the Father in his
righteousness to do? To
guard from evil his disciples:
"Holy Father, keep them;" and to
sustain by his love those who
have learned to recognize the
Father in the Son: "Righteous
Father, these have learned that
thou didst send me; they have
known thy name through me; keep
them by the power of that love
wherewith thou lovest me." The
righteousness of God is here the
basis of an appeal for all his
gracious benefits: "In thy
righteousness grant to my
disciples thy protecting care
and paternal love."
Such are
some of the biblical
representations of the
righteousness of God. But we are
not dependent upon such
allusions and descriptions for
our ideas of the subject. There
has lived one in our world in
whom the righteousness of God
was reflected and interpreted— In whose life the law appears
Why should we not go directly to
Christ and learn from him, who
alone knew the Father, what are
the moral qualities and
dispositions of God? Why not
find in his life and life-work
the test and measure of the
various conceptions of God's
righteousness which have
obtained in Christian thought
and teaching?
Had theology
pursued this plan, I cannot help
thinking that many conceptions
of the subject which have been
widely accepted, and many of the
inferences which have been
derived from these conceptions,
would never have become current.
How would it fare, for example,
with that idea of the
righteousness of God which makes
it to consist in the sacred
honor of a private dignitary who
takes offense at sin and must
have reparation? Did Jesus
represent God in terms of
sovereignty and chivalry and
codes of honor? Did he conceive
God's attitude toward the sinner
as that of offended dignity
demanding satisfaction, or as
that of an enraged creditor
clamoring for the settlement of
back debts?
Who would not feel
the incongruity of attributing
to Jesus the conception of God's
righteousness as consisting in
an unconditional necessity to
punish—together with the
corollary that this punitive
justice is the primary
attribute, the most fundamental
quality in the character of God?
Certain it is that such ideas,
which have been so widely
influential in Christian
theology, were never derived
from Jesus in the first
instance; to me it seems equally
evident that they cannot be
harmonized with his conception
and consciousness of God. They
are more probably to be
explained by the influence of
feudalism and of Roman and
Germanic law. But these sources
yield religious ideas foreign,
and often radically contrary, to
the Christian faith. It cannot
be too urgently insisted that
the Christian conception of
God is, primarily, Christ's
conception.
Nor does the idea of
God's righteousness as being
primarily retributive, accord
better with the apostolic idea
of God. We do not read in the Johannine writings: "God is
punitive justice, and he who is
similarly determined to punish,
dwelleth in God and knoweth
God." Nor does Paul's
description of what is highest
in man, because most Godlike,
run thus: "Though I speak with
tongues, and know all mysteries
and have all faith, but have not
an uncompromising determination
to punish, I am nothing. And now
abideth faith, hope, and
retributive righteousness—these
three, and the greatest of these
is retributive righteousness."
But what is the idea of God's
righteousness which shines out
in the life of Jesus, and how
does he illustrate and enforce
it? We must find our answer in
our Lord's own character which
is to us the human transcript
and interpretation of the
character of God. What attitude
did "Jesus Christ, the
righteous," take up toward sin
and sinners?
It is evident, in
the first place, that he keenly
discerned and exposed the sins
of men and turned upon them the
revealing light of holiness and
truth. With what a piercing
glance did he penetrate to the
lurking selfishness in the
thoughts of men! He could detect
the taint of hypocrisy in the
prayers of the self-righteous,
the intolerance which often
underlay religious zeal, the
envy and meanness which sought
to cloak themselves in an
ostentatious generosity. In the
presence of Jesus Christ sin
stands exposed in all its
heinousness and
hatefulness—plain, unmistakable,
false, it stands revealed in the
white light of his radiant
holiness, and because revealed
condemned.
Law, righteousness,
purity—does he not know and
illustrate what these are? They
are the very breath of his own
inner life. They are enthroned
in his every thought. They
preside over his every act. Here
is one who knows sin as no other
ever knew it—who
judges it as God judges. His eye
discerns its blighting, soul-destroying power. He sees it
black against the pure radiance
of the eternal love.
Now, what
effect did this vision of sin
have upon Christ? Did he turn
away in mingled indignation and
loathing? Did he summon
forthwith the penalties of
retributive justice? Did he
cry: "Here is an insult to
heaven which demands reparation? Here is an infinite evil which
calls for an infinite
punishment?" On the contrary we
find that Jesus displayed toward
men, even the worst and wickedest of them, a feeling so
singularly fraternal that he has
won for himself the peerless
title of the Brother of mankind.
Despite all this sin which his
heart deplored and his purity
condemned, his great, holy love
yearned for these sinners and
refused to despair of winning
them.
Here is the divine
peculiarity—the strange,
transcendent wonder of Christ.
To him nothing truly human was
alien and the human still
lived—even if it only smouldered—in
the ashes of a seemingly ruined
life. He was one whose
righteousness displayed itself,
not in fury and penal woes, but
in a divine, consuming passion
for men's recovery. His holiness
did not remove him from other
men, but drew him to them and
made himone with them. His
purity came into our world, not
to blast, but to purify. His
ideal of Godlikeness was found
in service and self-giving. His
holiness stoops to conquer, and
he knows that even human
malignity must, at last, break
itself upon his divine patience.
His perfection finds its chief
expression in ministering, in
being servant of all, in giving
his life a ransom for many.
Jesus knew that in all this he
was doing the will and illustrating the nature of God. It
was because he knew that he came
forth from God and was going
again to God, that he took a
towel and girded himself for the
service of men.
Such was the
attitude toward sin and sinners
of him who interprets God out of
his own intimate and
incomparable knowledge and
fellowship. Is not his
revelation true to the prophetic
word: "A righteous God and a
Savior"? Not, be it observed, a
Savior notwithstanding the
fact that he is a righteous God,
but a God who saves just because
he is righteous—who would not be
true to himself, who would not
be just to his own perfection,
if he were not a Savior. Is it not
plain that through Jesus Christ
there speaks to us, and to all
mankind, a God who answers
perfectly the prophet's
description: "I that speak
in
righteousness, mighty to save"?
The righteousness of God which
Jesus reveals includes, at once,
the divine self-assertion or
respect and the divine
disposition to save. Why should
these be separated and
contrasted? Each is necessary to
the other. If God were
indifferent to sin, if he did
not repudiate and condemn it,
there could be no motive to
salvation. Sin would be
disregarded, passed over,
condoned. But a God who will
save must be a righteous God. To
him sin is hateful; it is an
intruder, a foreign element in
his world. Therefore all the
resources of the divine wisdom
and love must be employed for
its eradication. Yes, he who
comes forth from God to seek and
to save the lost will be, must
be, above all things the
messenger and representative of
the divine righteousness. It has
not been sufficiently considered
that the very idea of a real
moral salvation, of a recovery
of the lives of men into harmony
with God, is possible only
because God is essentially
holy, and is itself an
expression and proof of his
righteousness.
Christ brings to
men a stern message concerning
sin. He will make no compromise
with moral evil. His attitude
toward it is not that of
easy-going good nature. His
salvation is from sin to
holiness. The righteousness of
God is satisfied with nothing
less than a Godlike life. The
all-inclusive requirement is
that men become sons of their
Father; that is, morally kindred
to him in their spirit and
action. No requirement could so
voice the divine righteousness
as this, that salvation is
Godlikeness.
Hence salvation is
no mere fiat, or decree, or
other formality, but recovery
from sinning. In order to be
saved, sin must be repented of,
repudiated, and forgiven.
Righteousness demands not merely
more correct opinions, however
true or important, nor any mere
passive acquiescence in some act
done on our behalf; such views
make salvation too easy. Men are
not saved by any mere theory
about Christ, his life or his
death, but—to use the bold and
realistic language of Paul—they
are saved by dying to sin with
Christ on his cross, being
buried with him out of sight of
the sinful world and rising with
him into the heights of his own
holiness. We must repeat the
life of Christ in ourselves;
take up the cross of service and
self-giving and
follow after him; make ourselves
at home in his world; learn
something in experience of
what Paul meant when he said:
"For me to live is Christ"—that
is a real salvation; that is the
righteous life in the eyes of
God.
What a manifestation of the
righteousness of God is seen in
the fact that Jesus consecrated
himself in life and in death to
procure our actual moral
deliverance from evil! It is the
whole saving work of Christ in
teaching and labor, in suffering
and death, which reveals and
attests the holiness of God, and
the verdict of that holiness
upon sin is this, that it can
never be forgotten or
overlooked, but must be repented
of, forsaken, and forgiven.
All
that Christ does for men, in
teaching, labor, and suffering,
is done for them because sin is
an evil and accursed thing,
separating them from fellowship
with God and their own true
destiny. And when, to win men
from sin to holiness, he enters
into deepest sympathy with
them, bears their woes upon his
compassionate heart, and endures
the most bitter griefs and
tortures in his anxieties and
labors to bring them to God—then
those sufferings with and for
them become the supreme
revelation of his estimate of
sin. The cross shows what holy
love will do to save men from
sin. It is therefore the truest
measure of sin's evil and the
symbol of God's estimate of it.
The blood of Christ seals God's
condemnation of sin and proclaims the supremacy of that
saving righteousness which will
stop at no labor or suffering in
order that men may be recovered
to harmony with itself.
God
condemns sin most of all in the
very act of saving men from it.
God makes manifest his
righteousness in Christ, not by
the infliction of penal or
quasi-penal suffering, but by
his own divine self-sacrifice
and passion in consequence of
sin. How does a mother make
manifest her estimate of the
evil of a reprobate son's course
of life? By insisting upon his
imprisonment? By punishing one
of her other children? Or by
her deep sympathy and sadness,
her prayers and tears, her
loving labors and entreaties-by
the Gethsemane of her mother's
heart?
By his vicarious
suffering with and for sinners
Christ has condemned sin and
exalted righteousness. Would you
see what sin is? Look on the
cross! See how sin regarded and
treated incarnate love. Would you
learn what righteousness is?
Look again on the cross! See
what holy love will do and
suffer to raise men out of the
curse of sin into harmony with
itself.
Here, for my mind and
heart, lies the holy mystery of
Christ's cross and passion.
Hence the cross is the symbol of
the most precious truths of our
faith. It summarizes what is
central in the saving work of
Christ, because it expresses
what is supreme in the bosom of
eternal Love. God forbid that we
should glory, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ!
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