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Clothed in Christ’s Righteousness, January 26
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.
Psalm 4:5
.
Paul realized his weakness, and well he might distrust his own strength. Refer-
ring to the law, he says, “The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to
be unto death.” He had trusted in the deeds of the law. He says, concerning his own
outward life, that as “touching the law” he was “blameless”; and he put his trust in
his own righteousness. But when the mirror of the law was held up before him, and
he saw himself as God saw him, full of mistakes, stained with sin, he cried out, “O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Paul beheld the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He heard the
voice of Christ saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me.” He determined to avail himself of the benefits of saving grace,
to become dead to trespasses and sins, to have his guilt washed away in the blood of
Christ, to be clothed with Christ’s righteousness, to become a branch of the Living
Vine. He walked with Christ, and Jesus became to him—not a part of salvation,
while his own good deeds were another part, but—his all in all, the first and last
and best in everything. He had the faith that draws life from Christ, that enabled
him to conform his life to that of the divine example. This faith claims nothing
for its possessor because of his righteousness, but claims everything because of the
righteousness of Christ.
In the gospel the character of Christ is portrayed. As He descended step by
step from His throne, His divinity was veiled in humanity; but in His miracles,
His doctrines, His sufferings, His betrayal, His mockery, His trial, His death by
crucifixion, His grave among the rich, His resurrection, His 40 days upon earth,
His ascension, His triumph, His priesthood, are inexhaustible treasures of wisdom,
recorded for us by inspiration in the Word of God. The waters of life still flow
in abundant streams of salvation. The mysteries of redemption, the blending of
the divine and the human in Christ, His incarnation, sacrifice, mediation will be
sufficient to supply minds, hearts, tongues, and pens with themes for thought and
expression for all time; and time will not be sufficient to exhaust the wonders of
salvation, but through everlasting ages, Christ will be the science and the song of the
redeemed soul. New developments of the perfection and glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ will be forever unfolding. And now there must be perfect reliance
upon His merit and grace; there must be distrust of self, and living faith in Him (
The
Signs of the Times, November 24, 1890
).
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