AS THEY ARE ALL INTERESTED IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST JESUS.
II. AS BY THE INFLUENCES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THEY HAVE AN INHERENT RIGHTEOUSNESS WROUGHT IN THEM.
III. BY ABOUNDING IN WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE PRAISE AND GLORY OF GOD. Here two cautions are necessary, to prevent mistakes.
1. Virtuous actions do not constitute a person inherently righteous, but declare him so; as good fruit is rather a declaration of the goodness of the tree, than the thing which constitutes that goodness. Therefore,
2. Virtuous actions cannot be said to be necessary to salvation, in the same sense in which inherent holiness is so. It is possible that, where holiness is implanted, life may be so quickly taken away that there shall be no room for its discovering itself by the outward behaviour. Taking these cautions along with us, the necessity of works of righteousness, though not as a ground of our justification, yet, as an evidence of it, can never be too strongly asserted. Every motive, whether from interest or gratitude, whether from the beauty of religion or the pleasures of a virtuous life, still remains in full force. We further observe, that the reward of saints hereafter shall bear some proportion to their progress in holiness here below. (J. Erskine, D. D.)
A righteous people
The prophet here predicts the elevation of the Church to its normal or ideal state, a change of which we may already see the rudiments, however far we may get from its final consummation. (J. A. Alexander.)
