Earlier text: Christianity Needs Not the Support of the State“To BLESS” means “to mark with blood.” The word comes from the old English bloedsian, which in turn goes back to the old English blod, or blood. The early association of the word was with the idea of sacrifice or consecration. In other words, the way to “bless” anything was to sacrifice or consecrate it to God. The mark of blood was the sign of such consecration. What richer blessing can we know to-day than to be given over wholly to God? And what other way is there of accomplishing this than by the spending of blood, which is the life? When Abram was blessed by God, he was set apart, consecrated, for closest fellowship with God; and Abram was to be a blessing to the whole world by bringing the whole world into that same precious fellowship. But that blessing was made possible only by blood,—the outpoured life of Abram’s Seed, the Saviour who reunites God and His children. God’s blessing of men, and men’s blessing of each other, would not seem to differ essentially except in God’s greater power to bless. The method is the same,—freely spent life for the good of others. Every soul that fails thus to pass on God’s blessing and be a blessing to his brothers fails of the only life-purpose God would have us consider.—Sunday School Times. Expediency
By Chas. G. Finney
EXPEDIENCY.—Law in the form of commandment is a revelation or declaration of that course which is expedient. It is expediency revealed, as in the case of the Decalogue, and the same is true of every precept of the Bible; it reveals to us what is expedient. A revealed law or commandment is never to be set aside by our views of expediency. We may know with certainty that what is required is expedient. The command is the expressed judgment of God in the case, and reveals with unerring certainty the true path of expediency.—Rev. Chas. G. Finney. The Hour of His Judgment.
1. In what time of the world's history are we living? "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to THE TIME OF THE END; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4. NOTE.—Following the evidence Biblically, from whatever standpoint we will, we are brought in every case to the same conclusion; namely, that we are in "the last days," "the time of the end." More than twelve lines of prophecy clearly show that we are nearing the end of earth's history. A score or more of special signs, pointing conditions in the political, the social, the physical, the religious worlds, add their united and cumulative testimony that the end of the ages is upon us, and that the dissolution of earth's present drama is soon to close in awful tragedy and sublime triumph—tragedy for the wrong, triumph for the right. And we may "know" this is so. Nay, more, the great Teacher has commanded us to know. "When ye shall see all these things, KNOW THAT IT IS NEAR, even at the doors." Matt. 24:33. And again and again His apostles have told us the same thing, as, for instance, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day [the great day of God's judgment] should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. 5:4. It is upon those who shall say, "Peace and safety" that "sudden destruction cometh," "and they shall not escape." Verse 3. God has done His part to enlighten us regarding "present truth;" are we setting it aside for "cunningly devised fables"? Condition of the Religious World.
2. What is declared to be the condition of the professedly religious world in the last days? "This KNOW also, that IN THE LAST DAYS perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, but DENYING THE POWER THEREOF: from such turn away." 2 Tim. 3:1-5. "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Rev. 3:15-17. NOTE.—Such passages might be greatly multiplied. It is a sad, sad fact that from all parts of Christendom goes up the cry that
"The church has fallen, the beautiful church,
And her shame is her boast and pride."
Higher criticism has unsettled the faith of millions in the Bible, and the religious profession is all that marks the difference between professed Christians and the world. The POWER of Godliness lies in the creative, regenerating energy of the Gospel, but the basic facts of the Gospel—the incarnation, the atonement, the resurrection—are set aside, and evolution has come in to take their place. Pleasures, in a more refined form perhaps, but equally selfish and sensuous, are what the many are seeking as truly as the people of the world are seeking them. The same sins ascribed in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, quoted above, are the sins which possessed the pagan world in the days of the apostle. See Rom. 1:28-32. Jesus truly said of these days: "And because iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound, the love of many [the many] shall wax cold." Matt. 24:12. Division in belief, in great essential truths, characterizes the professed church of Christ, till her creeds are as numerous as her costly towers, and the only successful efforts at union are brought about by the ignoring of great essential truths of the Bible. 3. What is bound to follow when such conditions exist? "Where envying and strife is, there is CONFUSION and every evil work." James 3:16. 4. What is God's desire concerning His children? "That they all may be ONE; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be ONE IN US: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that THEY MAY BE ONE, even as We are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." John 17:21-23. God's Desire Concerning Babylon.
5. How does Inspiration designate the present divided condition in the religious world? God does not use the term "Babylon," meaning "confusion," as a term of condemnation, but to show the division and confusion which exist among His followers who ought to be ONE. 6. What has ever been God's purpose concerning Babylon? "Take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. . . . We would have HEALED Babylon." Jer. 51:8, 9. NOTE.—The origin of earthly Babylon (or Babel, meaning confusion) is found in Gen. 11:1-9. It is here shown, in connection with the cuneiform records left us, that Babylon's origin was in the perversion of God's plan. To glorify Him is His purpose; glorify self, said Babylon. Scatter abroad is His command; keep together and make us a name, says Babylon. So they built a tower and glorified themselves, and called it Bab-il, the "Gate of God." That was their means of salvation instead of simple faith in God. But God called their effort, their plan, their perversion of His ways, Babylon, confusion. And the perpetuation of Babylonian ideas are the same to-day. 7. What message has God given for the healing of present-day Babylon? "AND I SAW ANOTHER ANGEL FLY IN THE MIDST OF HEAVEN, HAVING THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL TO PREACH UNTO THEM THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH, AND TO EVERY NATION, AND KINDRED, AND TONGUE, AND PEOPLE, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, FEAR GOD, AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM; FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS COME: AND WORSHIP HIM THAT MADE HEAVEN, AND EARTH, AND THE SEA, AND THE FOUNTAINS OF WATERS." Rev. 14:6, 7. NOTE.—Angels of God heralded the Gospel when Christ was born. God's messengers of heaven cooperate with God's messengers and servants of earth. Spiritual forces, clad in power and light, are coworkers with every true child of God. Heb. 1:14. Spirits of evil are cooperating with all the forces of evil in the perversion and opposition of truth. (There will be many references to the above scripture.) "The everlasting Gospel." "The POWER OF GOD unto SALVATION to every one that BELIEVETH." Rom. 1:16. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ["there is a new creation," A.R.V.]." 2 Cor. 5:17. NOTE.—Not in the fables of evolution or the slow progress of ages of reincarnations or the scientific "divine immanence" in every man, or in the dreamy vagueness of "Christian Science," does God give us to hope, but in the CREATIVE POWER of His Gospel is His reform message for this time founded. 11. How far will this message go? To every part of the world's Babylon, "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." 12. What is one emphatic demand of that message? 13. Who alone should be given glory? "GIVE GLORY TO HIM."
"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name." Ps. 96:8. NOTE.—It requires no spiritual perception to see that in the present plans and desires of men to save or comfort the sinful the creature is glorified rather than the Creator. God is no longer to many a personal Father, but an abstraction. His word is no longer spirit and life, but a more or less fabulous tradition. The higher critics, Mrs. Eddy, the apostles of new thought, the speculators in evolution are glorified, while the Gospel message of the Bible is set aside. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils," and turn to the living God.7 14. What reason is given as to why we should fear God? "For THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS COME." 15. What did Paul say of the judgment in his day? "He hath APPOINTED A DAY, in the which He WILL judge the world." Acts 17:31.
"He reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and JUDGMENT TO COME." Acts 24:25. NOTE.—When the message of Revelation goes to the world it will not be to proclaim a judgment afar off, one to come, but a judgment impending. This message began at the close of the prophetic period of Dan. 8:14, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Those days ended in 1844. See SIGNS OF THE TIMES of Jan. 8, 1908. The cleansing of the sanctuary represented Christ's closing work, when "the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets." Rev. 10:7. The close of every probationary work is a judgment, and even thus the Gospel shall close. Rom. 2:16. That judgment will precede its execution at the second coming of Christ; for the righteous dead are not raised and then judged; but their cases are first examined, then adjudged; those "accounted worthy" have part in the first resurrection, and are raised immortal. Luke 20:35; 1 Cor. 15:51, 52. That investigation and determination of cases began in 1844, naturally with the first of the sleeping dead, and will proceed till the case of the last of the living is decided. That time we know not. "Be ye also ready." 16. What should we do in view of that judgment? 17. What only is true worship? "Thou shalt WORSHIP THE LORD THY GOD, and HIM ONLY shalt thou SERVE." Matt. 4:10.
"Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do NOT the things which I say?" Luke 6:46.
"If ye love Me, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS." John 14:15. 18. Whom are we to worship? THE CREATOR. "Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." 19. What is the distinguishing mark between the true God and the false gods? 20. What special memorial of His creative works and sign of His recreative, sanctifying power has the Creator given? "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord [Jehovah] thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, THE SEA, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: WHEREFORE the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11.
"Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might KNOW that I am the LORD that SANCTIFY them." Eze. 20:12. NOTE.—He only who recognizes the true power of the Gospel can be a true Sabbath-keeper. He only can know the true rest—wrought by the creative power of God—there is in Christ Jesus. 21. What then does that Gospel message comprehend? Every positive truth of the saving, sanctifying power of God. It means the giving up of all human devices, the setting aside of all creeds, and the submission of every tradition of theory or practise to a "Thus saith the Lord." "Old-fashioned," "out-of-date," "antiquated," "the religion of a book," "the worship of a book," "Jewish," and many other kindred terms of reproach will be heaped upon it; nevertheless the religion of the Book is what regenerates and saves men from sin. It may be the weakness and foolishness of God, but it is stronger and wiser than men. 1 Cor. 1:25-31. What Rejection of God's Message Means.
22. How did ancient Babylon respond to God's desire? "We would have healed Babylon, but SHE IS NOT HEALED: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country." Jer. 51:9. 23. How does modern Babylon treat God's message, and what is the result? "And there followed another angel, saying, BABYLON IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN, that great city, BECAUSE she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her FORNICATION." Rev. 14:8. 24. What does God call those who unite with the world, and what is their attitude to Him? "Ye ADULTERERS and ADULTERESSES, KNOW ye not that the FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD IS ENMITY WITH GOD! whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." James 4:4. 25. What is the duty of the Christian and the Christian church regarding the world? "LOVE NOT THE WORLD, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 1 John 2:15-17. 26. To whom alone is God's church lawfully united? "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I AM MARRIED UNTO YOU." Jer. 3:14.
"I was an HUSBAND unto them, saith the Lord." Jer. 31:32.
"I have espoused you to ONE HUSBAND, that I may present you as a CHASTE VIRGIN TO CHRIST." 2 Cor. 11:2. 27. What does God call a union of His church with the world? 28. What has always been the tendency of the church which became backslidden from God? "Wo to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that TAKE COUNSEL, BUT NOT OF ME; and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; that walk to GO DOWN INTO EGYPT, and have not asked at My mouth; to STRENGTHEN THEMSELVES IN THE STRENGTH OF PHARAOH, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt." Isa. 30:1, 2.
"Wo to them that go down to EGYPT FOR HELP; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they LOOK NOT UNTO THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, NEITHER SEEK THE LORD!" Isa. 31:1. NOTE.—Egypt and Assyria are types of civil powers. The principle is the same, whatever the nation or government. 29. What will be the final result of such union? "Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion." Isa. 30:2.
"Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both HE THAT HELPEth SHALL FALL, AND HE THAT IS HELPED SHALL FALL DOWN, AND THEY ALL SHALL FAIL TOGETHER." Isa. 31:3. 30. What will inevitably follow when modern Babylon chooses her own way instead of God's way? "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich thru the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." Rev. 18:2-5. See editorial, page 8. [The next reading is on the third part of God's great reform message, Rev. 14:9-14.] A Message from God to a Needy World.
IN Rev. 14:6-14 is a most solemn message, wonderful in its comprehensiveness, world-wide in its application, and mighty in its reception. Its first two parts are briefly set forth in our Bible-reading on pages 6 and 7. We plead with our readers to unite with us in its earnest study. Why? 1. It is found in God's Book, His revelation to men of His will and His means for saving men. That of itself should be a sufficient reason why it should be studied. 2. It is found in the closing part of God's Book, in `the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass.'' Rev. 1:1. The servants of Christ Jesus should most assiduously seek to learn what the revelation of Jesus Christ is for them. Mighty dangers are set before the church in that Revelation. Shall they `shortly come to pass'' upon us, and we know not the time of their visitation, when we might know? 3. There is a blessing in this great threefold message of God to the doer of it; for thus it is written: ``Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein; for the time is at hand.'' Rev. 1:3. Do you desire that blessing? Do you so little desire it that you will not take time to read, receive, and do it? Then can you expect the blessing? God sends His blessings to take the place of sin's curses in your life. Do you prefer the curses of sin to the blessings of Eternal Goodness? 4. That great Threefold Message of Rev. 14:6-14 is a needed message now. It fits the time, the place, the needs. It is the divine prescription of the Great Physician for the sin-sick world's diseases. Is not this true? Let us face the situation as it is. We each may belong to some church. We love that church. We love her past history. We are proud of her associations, her institutions, her organizations, her schools, her hospitals, her great men, her wealth and influence in the world. Even so were the Pharisees Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, in the days of Jesus. But before the truth of the first coming of the Son of God all the glories of the earthly paled into insignificance. The question now is not as to the greatness, the glory, or the past history of your church or creed. ``Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father,'' The great question is, ARE ALL THESE THINGS I LOVE RELIGIOUSLY, AND AM I, IN HARMONY WITH GOD? It matters not what God has wrought thru us or our church in the past, despite its errors, but how stands that church now? How do I stand now? Do I love the church more than I love God? Do I love the traditions of the church more than I love the word of God? Do I prefer the commandments of men to the commandments of God? Christ is coming, the KING OF KINGS; am I prepared to meet Him? If He should come into my church to-day and preach as of old, `Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? . . . But seek ye first *His kingdom*, and *His righteousness*, and all these things shall be added unto you,'' would I respond with a hearty, `Amen''? There are many closer truths than this in the Gospel of God; do we love them? Christ wanted a united church; we are sure He did; for His whole agonized prayer in John 17 pleads for it. Only so is the church a true witness for Him and His mission when they are one as He and His Father are one, when all speak the same thing. John 17:21-23; 1 Cor. 1:10. But His professed church is hopelessly divided. Many of her teachers who have vowed to be true to Him repudiate His incarnation, the virgin birth, the vicarious atonement, and the resurrection. Is there not need of a message of certitude? Over the great doctrines of the second coming of Christ, the nature of man, the law of God, the Sabbath, religious liberty, the prophecies of God's word, there is great difference. Is it not time that all these views were brought to the word of God and there weighed in the balances of the sanctuary? The word tells us that this condition of division and uncertainty is Babylon, confusion. It is true; isn't it? ``confusion worse confounded.'' It is also a lamentable fact that the former high standard of morality maintained and demanded by the churches has been greatly lowered. The dances, the card-tables, the theaters, the races, witness the presence of multitudes who have made baptismal vows to God. O, is it not the fulness of time that a great message like that of Rev. 14:6-14 should ring out to church and world to bring souls to God? a message before which creeds would crumble, traditions wither, and all the glory of man be laid in the dust before the majesty of the truth of the Infinite God? By repeated messages of living truth, by repeated record of typical cases in the history of the race, God warns and entreats. Like causes will produce like results. Like sins will meet like judgment. Like union with the state or the world will reap like destruction to both. And praise be to God, like turning from all of the earthly and turning to Jesus Christ will bring the blessed salvation of the everlasting Gospel. “WE do not set expediency over against right, as it is sometimes used; for there is a right expediency. The root meaning of the word is the loosing, or releasing, of the foot, from ex, out, and pedis, foot. Expediency is defined as ‘the quality of being proper, suitable, and advantageous under given circumstances; fitness to meet the requirements of a particular case; advantageousness; advisability; desirableness. That which is most practicable or best to be done, all things being considered.’ (‘Standard Dictionary.’) To this kind of expediency no one should object. That expediency which serves self-interest as opposed to the right is another matter. The duty of man is to do right. The Christian should know no other standard than simple righteousness. In an ethical or moral sense every expedient should be in harmony with the revealed will of God; for it is always and only expedient for him to follow that in all questions involving morals. Yet there are times when he needs to discern between expediency and principle. A good Christian for years may have carried his grist to mill on horseback with the corn on one side and a stone on the other to balance; but there comes a time when he sees that it would be better for both beast and man to throw away the stone and divide the corn into equal parts on either side of the horse. And with some minds here would come a struggle between principle and expediency. ‘Father did that way and so did grandfather,’ he soliloquizes; ‘would it be right to change?’ He has done the thing so long it seems sacred, and he clings still to the precedent as does the old judge to his unhealthy wig and antique dress. The above is an exaggerated illustration of many things in the cause of God. Red tape is wound and unwound when Christian expediency ought to cut it in twain or to relegate it to entire oblivion. A certain cumbersome mode of procedure is followed in a certain church. It was the best that the men saw who inaugurated it. It was successful, not because of its form, but because of the personality of the man behind it. But others get to looking upon the thing, and think how fine it would be to do the same in all associated churches. It is adopted; followed for a time, and comes to be regarded as semi-sacred. By and by some bold spirit sees a shorter, better, simpler way of doing things, and, contrary to precedent, he adopts it. It is Christian expediency so to do; but precedent-lovers are ready to stone him for his good sense in loosing his feet from the heavy clay of a well-worn rut. Here is a certain method of missionary work thru which great results have been obtained, not because of the method, but because of the burdened Christian soul behind the method; but men praise the thing, adopt it generally, and hope for success in the dry form. After awhile it becomes ‘sacred,’ and ‘must not be changed; it would be wrong to do it.’ Yet it has not a scintilla of sacredness in it, and Christian expediency would say that if it was not best for the time and the occasion, set it aside9 and adopt the best method for that time and circumstances. This does not mean that we should build a new cart for the ark and haul it with oxen. That is a matter of the revealed will of God, which to the Christian is always expedient. But when no moral principle is involved, expediency—the best way—will set aside the time-frazzled (the time-honored) custom and method and adopt one befitting the occasion. It will not clothe the new child of God’s thoughts in the hampering, hindering, liturgical skirts of a dead past. It will listen still to the words of the angel, who stood by the empty sepulcher of the Prince of Life, not to honor the thing, but to direct to the Master—‘He is risen;’ ‘He is not here;’ ‘behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him.’ Thank God, He lives; but has left the sepulcher. He also left there the grave-clothes; He has gone out where men need Him. Let the follower of the risen Christ hold it ever expedient to do right, to follow the revealed will of God in all things; but at the same time let Christ’s servant lift his feet from the mire of ‘usages,’ and seek to know by divine illumination the best way, the quickest way, the easiest and simplest way, to do God’s work the most effectually. And it is the revealed will of God that ‘all things be done decently and in order,’ even so the Master left the grave-clothes of the past. Luke 24:12. THE lesson in Romans last week showed us that the knowledge of sin is by the law of God. The law reveals the sin. The law demands perfect righteousness. By the works of the law no one is justified or made righteous, because no one has kept the law. Therefore no man can be fitted to dwell in the perfectly righteous kingdom of God unless a way be found to bring him into harmony with the law of God. But a way has been found to accomplish this very thing, as is clearly set forth in the following verses which form the basis of the study this week: "But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God thru faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace thru the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation, thru faith, in His blood, to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season: that He might Himself be just, and the Justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay: but by a law of faith. We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? is He not God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also: if so be that God is one, and He shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision thru faith. "Do we then make the law of none effect thru faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law." Rom. 3:21-31. "Apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested," and this righteousness or right-doing is witnessed by both "the law and the prophets." Here is presented a righteousness to which the law testifies that it is right; the law of God that man has violated can find no fault with this right-doing. Then this is just the righteousness that we all want to get. For if we can come into possession of it we will be brought into harmony with God's law and relieved entirely from condemnation. But from whence does this righteousness come, and what is the character of it? The text makes that matter perfectly plain. It is "even the righteousness of God thru faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe." Then the sinner may come to Christ and actually receive from Him the real righteousness of God. That is just what the text says, and that is just what the Gospel is for. The Gospel is for the one purpose of taking away the sinful life that man has lived and giving in its place the perfect life that Christ has lived. Note particularly that the text expressly says that this righteousness comes thru "faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe." The righteousness is God's righteousness, and therefore it will pass the inspection of the law and stand the test of the great judgment of God. And it is "unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction." "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God," and hence "there is no distinction." Both Jew and Gentile, he who thinks he has not sinned so very much, and he who regards himself as a great transgressor, are both alike within the promise. All may come to the great Fountain and receive as a free gift from our heavenly Father the perfect character that His own righteousness brings. Observe how the apostle repeats and emphasizes the fact that it is the righteousness of God that is given us in the Gospel. God has set Christ forth "to be a propitiation, thru faith, in His blood, to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season: that He might Himself be just, and the Justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." The righteousness of God is made to appear by the passing over of the sins by the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ, thru faith, is made to pass over the sinner, and there is left in the place of his sins the perfect character of Christ. The text repeats and emphasizes this great, soul-satisfying truth that we may have the righteousness of God Himself by accepting His Son Jesus Christ. This righteousness of Christ comes to us in "the passing over of the sins done aforetime." It is the sins of our past life that trouble, distress, and perplex us. And it is to wash away these sins that the Gospel of Christ brings us the righteousness of God thru the blood of the Redeemer. But observe that it is the sins done "aforetime," the sins of the past, that are thus destroyed. God provides for the sins of the past, and also provides for the life of the present, and in this way the future takes care of itself. For the future is always ahead of us. We never get beyond the present. In thus supplying His own righteousness for the sinner, and in thus providing him with the power to live the righteous life, the Lord will come into the judgment and show that He is just in permitting a person to have eternal salvation who had done wrong but who had accepted His pardon and cleansing. The Lord Jesus Christ was born into this world a babe; He lived in human flesh among men from infancy to manhood; He lived a perfect life all the way thru, and He lived all this life for us. And having lived this life of righteousness for each and every one of us, He offers it to us freely, and we may have it if we will accept it. Every individual, in looking over his past life, will find many things that he wishes had been different. We think that if we could only go back over the past and change this and that deed, how glad we would be. But we can not turn the wheels of time backward. And if it were possible to go back and live the life all over again we would make other mistakes that would likely be even worse than the ones we have committed. But the Lord has provided something better for us than any of this plan of living our lives over again. He sent His Son into the world to live the perfect life of God for us. Then He invites us to come to Him and accept that very life. He gives us the life of Christ freely, and from the time that we accept Christ we do not have to look any more at the imperfect life that we have lived, but we look ever at the life of Christ. Satan may come to us and say that we have been great sinners. He may point us to the evil deeds that we have committed. We must acknowledge that such is the case, but we can tell him that the life that he is holding before us is no longer our life. We have given that all up to the Lord Jesus, and He has given us instead His own perfect life. There can be no fault found with that. Even Satan himself can not pick a flaw in it. And having accepted the life of Christ by faith, we no longer look on our past life, but we devote ourselves to "looking unto Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith." We thank the Lord continually that our life now is the perfect life of the Son of God. This becomes our delight and our daily strength. Having thus received the free gift of the righteousness of God, and having been assured that this righteousness is in harmony with both the law and the prophets, the apostle concludes with these ringing words: "Do we then make the law of none effect thru faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law." The fact that God was under the necessity of giving up His own Son to die for man in order to free him from sin is the mightiest argument that could be made for the abiding authority of the law of Jehovah.