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1. "The righteousness of God" is His truth, justice, holiness, wisdom, and love blended in eternal perfection, and embraces infinite hatred to sin with infinite love to the sinner. It is at once the terror of every guilty conscience, and the hope of every true penitent.

2. The world before and since the days of Luther has been making the same mistake as he at first made. It has so felt the need of righteousness as to make desperate efforts to attain unto it, now soaring to inaccessible heights, and then delving to unknown depths, while the blessing itself has been ever within reach.

I. MEN, UNTIL THEY COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST, ARE EVERYWHERE VAINLY ENDEAVOURING TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS.

1. If it had been possible for any man to succeed, surely it had been Paul. Constancy, conscientiousness, self-denial, lofty motives, a blameless life, etc.; and yet, when viewed in relation to the object sought, how utterly vain! Solomon's experiment ought to have been sufficient to satisfy all voluptuaries of the vanity of earthly things, and Paul's failure ought to convince all self-righteous moralists that righteousness is not attainable by "the deeds of the law."

2. But the truth can only be known, or wisdom taught, by experience. And so Paul's experiment, in all its essential features, has been made again and again. Luther in his way repeated the experiment with the same result. These men remind one of the old alchemists, who, vary their experiments as they might, and imitate the colour of gold as they did, yet the base metal remained base metal after all.

3. And yet multitudes continue to "go about to establish their own righteousness." It is impossible to avoid a feeling of mingled respect and pity for them. This feeling filled Paul's heart (ver. 1). "Going about to" is old English for "trying at." They were eager, restless, painstaking, ready to employ every means in order to secure it. But an April day might sooner establish its character for constancy, and the wide ocean its character as a refuge; the raven with its croak, and the owl with its hooting, establish theirs for melody; the farthing rushlight its right to rule the day; every little pool its claim to be considered a fountain; the bramble its pretensions to be king over the forest, than these misguided souls succeed in establishing their own righteousness. They are endeavouring to forge a key to unlock the grave, to build a lifeboat to swim in a sea of fire, to construct a ladder to scale the skies, to hush the thunders of Sinai by filling their ears with wool, to stop the lightning of God's wrath by gossamer threads of human goodness, to arrest the course of Divine justice by piling up little heaps of stones in their path. God pronounces "our righteousness" — not our wickedness — to be "filthy rags."

4. No man ever established his "own righteousness" to his own satisfaction. This sky was never without a cloud, this sun without a spot, this life without a defect. It was the consciousness cf this that quickened the steps of Saul of Tarsus in his persecution of the early disciples, and prompted him to a deadlier revenge. In proportion to a soul's consciousness of what sin is will be its misery at the sight of it. God has set our sins "in the light of His countenance"; and when we remember that there may be impurity in a look, and murder in a desire, the very thought of "establishing our own righteousness" is the wildest of fancies, the wickedest of delusions!

5. And men thus court failure, because they are "ignorant of God's righteousness," both of what it is and what it requires. The whiteness of the snow, the morning light, the blue heavens, are figures that inadequately represent the righteousness of God. "The heavens are not clean in His sight." God is so "glorious in holiness" that the angels cover their faces and their feet with their wings. Being thus essentially and absolutely righteous, what mere outward propriety or thin crust of goodness could satisfy Him? Motives as pure as the light, and ways as straight as a mathematical line, do but indicate what God requires of men if He enter into judgment with them. This they do not understand nor realise, nor that if God's love is holy, His righteousness is tender, merciful, long-suffering to the vilest offender. If men knew that they had only to ask of Him, and He would cover them with the robe of His righteousness, they would desist from all their vain efforts to "establish their own righteousness." His righteousness is unknown by men, and hence —

II. THEIR INSANE REFUSAL TO SUBMIT UNTO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD —

1. For the very reason, in most instances, that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." And yet this glorious fact is the very essence of saving truth. Salvation by faith in Christ is taught in type, prophecy, history, promise, and doctrine. The same God "who lights one world by another, and sustains one life by another," purposes to save all who truly repent and believe by Christ's obedience, death, resurrection, and intercession. And yet infidels stigmatise the doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ as absurd, cruel, immoral, and many professedly Christian teachers speak of justification by the righteousness of another in disparaging terms. And if it were true that men might be saved by faith in Christ without a change of heart and life; if the caricature of this doctrine of justification set forth by its enemies were correct, then nothing more monstrous could be conceived.

2. Let, however, the apostles term rebuke their ignorant presumption. Men have to "submit themselves to the righteousness of God." Is God or man to be Supreme? When man submits to God the cause of difference is removed, the moral distance between man and God is annihilated. A revolution has taken place. Repentance, justification, regeneration, conversion, reconciliation, adoption, sanctification are words which represent the various aspects of the one great reality, and do not exaggerate the greatness of the change that is experienced. The understanding is enlightened, the conscience rejoices in God's righteousness in condemning sin and sinners, the will returns to its true allegiance, and the heart casts away its idols and loathes its sin.

3. It should not be lost sight of that it is to the righteousness of God that men have to submit — not to His caprice, nor to His will, divorced from purity and goodness. And so in the very act of submission man acquires a nobleness which in his condition of wilful independence had been impossible. It never can be degrading or injurious to submit to righteousness. As righteousness is the glory of God, when man submits to it it becomes his also.

4. As Christ was hated by Scribes and Pharisees on account of His goodness and purity, and as the Jews who searched the Scriptures for eternal life had no sooner discovered that it centred in Christ than they refused to come to Him that they might have life, so submission to the righteousness of God seems more difficult because it involves an acknowledgment of and delight in the fact that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Yet this exactly meets man's case as a sinner. Christ has satisfied every requirement. God's righteousness is established. His vindication is complete, and in the act of showing mercy "His truth and justice receive their brightest manifestation."

5. The blessing which is received is also retained by faith. Faith first joins us to Christ, and by faith the union is perpetuated. We set no limits to God's power, but the eternal inheritance is reserved for those who are kept by it through faith. "The just shall live by faith." The righteousness of Christ is not only appropriated and retained by faith, but it must also be attested, shown, illustrated. And thus, while sinners become righteous through the righteousness of another, yet, as the Apostle John says, "He that doeth righteousness is righteous." This, by His indwelling Spirit, He enables believers to do.

(F. W. Bourne, D.D.)

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KJV: Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

WEB: Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved.