"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:"Romans 3:10
What then is the righteousness of the Scripture, and who is the righteous man before God? The answer is direct. None but the Lord Jesus Christ. He, and he only, is set forth under this title; and he alone is the Righteousness of his people. It is high treason to talk of any other; and it is equally high treason to talk of any comparative statement between man and man concerning righteousness. The account from heaven is, "All have sinned, and come short of God's glory. The whole world is become guilty before God.
And by the deeds of the law can no flesh be justified before God." Hence, therefore, it undeniably follows that Christ is the only righteousness of his people; and he is what Scripture declares his name is, and shall be, JEHOVAH our Righteousness. (Jer. xxiii. 6.)
Now then the conclusion from this statement of Scripture is evidently this--if Jesus be the only righteousness of his people, either this is my righteousness, or I have none at all. Wholly sinful in myself, and wholly righteous in him I must be; or I have no part nor lot in this matter. If there be not in me a total renunciation of every thing the mistaken calculation of men calls righteousness, yea, more than this, if there be not a full and unreserved confession of universal sin and unworthiness in me, I cannot be wholly looking for acceptance to, and living wholly upon, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord my righteousness. And the gospel knows no mixture, no mingling the righteousness of the sinner with the righteousness of the Saviour. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Blessed and happy souls who, from a deep conviction of the total corruption and depravity of their own nature, are resting all their high hopes of acceptance and justification before God in the perfect and complete righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ; who behold him, and accept the authority of JEHOVAH for this well-grounded confidence of beholding him, and rest with full assurance of faith in him, as the Lord their righteousness; and to whose spirits the Holy Ghost bears witness that "he is made of God to them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor. i. 30, 31.)
Robert Hawker
An excerpt from:A CAVEAT AGAINST UNSOUND DOCTRINES
By Augustus Montague Toplady
And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. 1 Tim. 1:10
He goes on to style the blessed Jesus our hope. Ask almost any man, "Whether he hopes to he saved eternally?" He will answer in the affirmative. But enquire again, "On what foundation he rests his hope?" Here too many are sadly divided. The Pelagian hopes to get to heaven by a moral life and a good use of his natural powers. The Arminian by a jumble of grace and free-will, human works, and the merits of Christ. The Deist by an interested observance of the social virtues. Thus merit-mongers, of every denomination, agree in making any thing the basis of their hope, rather than that foundation which God's own hand hath laid in Zion. But what saith Scripture? It avers, again and again, that Jesus alone is our hope: to the exclusion of all others, and to the utter annihilation of human deservings. Beware, therefore, of resting your dependence partly on Christ, and partly on some other basis. As surely as you bottom your reliance partly on the rock, and partly on the sand; so certainly, unless God give you an immediate repentance to your acknowledgment of the truth, will your supposed house of defence fall and bury you in its ruins, no less than if you had raised it on the sand alone. Christ is the hope of glory. (Collossians i. 27.)-Faith in his righteousness, received and embraced as our sole justifying obedience before God; and the love of Christ (an inseparable effect of that faith), operating on our hearts, and shining in our lives; are the most solid evidences we can have below of our acceptance with the Father, and of our being saved in Jesus with an everlasting salvation.
WITHOUT FAULT BEFORE GOD
There is no flaw in God's account. God looks upon weak saints in the Son of His love -- and sees them all lovely. Ah, poor souls! You are apt to look upon your spots and blots, and to cry out with the leper not only "Unclean! unclean!" but "Undone! undone!" Well, forever remember this -- you stand before God in the righteousness of Christ; upon which account you always appear before the throne of God without fault; where you are all lovely, and where there is no flaw in you. "For they are without fault before the throne of God" (Rev. 14:5).By Thomas Brooks
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