For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Christ the end of the law
I. In what sense?
1. As its great antitype.
2. Its only sacrifice.
3. The source of its moral power.
II. For what end? To secure--
1. Pardon of sin.
2. Holiness of life.
III. Unto whom?
1. Every one.
2. That believeth. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. The end of all law is righteousness--the production of the most perfect results.
1. In the natural world the use of the law is to perpetuate results essential to its well-being, e.g., the circulation of the atmosphere, ebb and flow of tide, alteration of seasons, motions and influence of planets, etc.
2. The great aim of law in the moral world is to regulate conduct so as to produce a righteous character. The aim of the law of Moses was to lead to a higher life (Rom_7:10).
(1) The ethical element in the Mosaic law discovered to man the havoc made by sin (Rom_7:7; Rom_7:11; Rom_7:13).
(2) The ceremonial element shadowed forth the remedy. The sacrifices and festivals were intended to show the necessity for the expiation of sin, by the atonement of Christ.
II. In Christ we have the grand end of both the ethical and ceremonial law--righteousness and holiness. Law depends for itsauthority upon the personal character of the lawgiver. The character of Christ was like His law--holy, just, and good.
1. From Christ proceeds the moral law by which sin is discovered to us. His character is a constant reproof to us. His words bring home the consciousness of violated law.
2. In Christ is the only remedy for sin. The arrangements of the ceremonial law terminated in Him--the shadow retired when the substance appeared. In His life and death He fulfilled the duties and endured the penalties of the law, thus vindicating the righteousness of God and providing a complete righteousness for sinful man.
III. Faith in Christ is accepted as a perfect obedience to the law. Law is powerless punitively when the end for which it exists is attained. We disarm the law by obeying it. All our unaided efforts to obey law--while in a state of lawless unnature--are futile. It is like running alongside a parallel pathway into which we are vainly trying to turn ourselves. Faith, and faith only, is the means of junction. This puts us into the position in which law would place us. The end of all law being the production of the most perfect results, this very end is answered when we believe in Jesus. For Christ, and all He has, becomes our own. “He is made unto us, of God, wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.” “The law and the gospel are evidenced in man’s moral nature. The law the ideal of its life, the gospel the life of its ideal.” Lessons:
1. It is hopeless to attempt to attain righteousness by law, because of our moral inability to obey all its requirements.
2. Faith in Christ is the only and universal way of obedience. (J. S. Exell, M.A.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I.What is implied in these words.
1. That the law of God has been universally broken (Rom_3:10-12).
2. That, therefore, every man is under the curse of that law (Gal_3:13; Rom_2:8-11).
3. That, in order to be saved, this curse must be removed and sins remitted.
4. That no man of himself can remove this curse or obtain this remission of his sins.
5. That notwithstanding God cannot recede from His claims, nor abate one jot or tittle of what His holy law demands, either in penalty or precept.
6. That every person who would obtain salvation must look out for such a righteousness as shall be answerable to all the claims of the law, be perfectly satisfactory to God, and therefore available for his justification and peace.
II. In what way is “Christ the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth”? Consider--
1. The general purport of Christ’s coming (Psa_40:6-10; Heb_10:1-14; Isa_42:6-7; Isa_42:21; Dan_9:24; Jer_23:5-6; Jer_33:15-16; Isa_53:6, cf. 1Pe_2:24; 2Co_5:21).
2. The special character of His mediation. We must consider it as substitutional. We must behold Him rendering unto God, for those whom He represented, a perfect obedience to the law which they have broken, and suffering to its full and utmost extent the curse which they have incurred. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness--not by abrogating its authority, or lowering its requisitions, to meet the exigencies of our lapsed condition--but rather by asserting its full obligation and satisfying all its equitable claims. This is the great glory of the gospel--that God can be just--in exacting every claim of the law and in punishing every sin of those whom He saves to its full desert--and yet the justifier of them that believe in Jesus.
III. To whom is this provision available, or who are benefited thereby. “Every one that believeth,” and no more. But we must ascertain--
1. The testimony given in Scripture to this truth. We are again and again told that faith alone is the means appointed by God for granting the efficacy of this provision to the souls of men.
2. Why we can be benefited in this way of faith, and in no other? It is enough to say that God hath declared it. But we need not let the subject rest here. Man is utterly lost, helpless, and undone. Nothing that we can do can avail for our salvation. Our help and hope are based upon One, who only is mighty to save. It is therefore evident that the only way in which we can be benefited by what another has done for our salvation, must be by believing in Him for the execution of such an interposition, and for the advantage of the blessing procured thereby.
3. What is the nature of that faith by which we become interested in this righteousness. It is the act of a soul made willing in the day of God’s power, under a clear discovery of its lost condition, and a clear perception of the mediation of Jesus, by which it is brought to rely on that mediation, and to plead that righteousness with God for its pardon and peace (chap. 10:10; Heb_11:1).
4. To what extent is this truth to be carried in the justification of the sinner before God? To the full extent for which it is designed for that purpose. It takes in the sinner’s whole case--sins, guilt, condemnation, and deserved wrath. It brings him a full and complete deliverance and justification from all. Nay, more, it invests him with theperfect righteousness of Christ, as a perfect fulfilment of the law by which he stands accepted with God.
IV. What are the importance and advantages arising therefrom. Hereby--
1. The law is established in all its authority, obligations, and claims.
2. God is honoured and exalted in the possession and exercise of all His perfections.
3. A sure and certain way of life and salvation, of pardon and peace, is opened for guilty men.
4. A sure provision is made for a loving, devoted, and delightful obedience to the will of God.
5. There is afforded to the soul a sure rock for its present safety and a firm foundation for its future security, even for ever.
6. The Church of God is provided with an unerring test by which to try every doctrine proposed for her acceptance, and an indomitable weapon by which to conquer every antichristian foe. (R. Shittler.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. The proposition. “Christ is the end of the law.” The end of a thing is either mathematical or moral. The mathematical end is the utmost part of a thing, in which the length or continuance is determined; as a point is the end of a line, death the end of life, the day of judgment the end of this world. The moral end of a thing is the scope and perfection of it. Now Christ is the end of the law both ways.
1. The mathematical end of the ceremonial and moral. Of the ceremonial by a direct signification, of the moral by an accidental direction. The ceremonies signified Christ and ended at Him. Properly, the moral law leads sinners to the curse, but by account to Christ, as the disease leads to the medicine or physician.
2. He is also the moral end of both. For He is the body of those ceremonies and shadows, and He perfectly fulfilled the Decalogue for us, and that three ways.
(1) In His pure conception.
(2) In His godly life.
(3) In His holy and obedient sufferings, and all for us.
For whatsoever the law required that we should be, do, or suffer, He hath performed in our behalf. Therefore one wittily saith thatChrist is Telos, the end, or tribute, and we, by His payment, Ateleis, tribute-free, we are discharged by Him before God. Christ is both these ends, but principally the last is here understood.
II. The amplification “for righteousness.” When thou art come to Christ thou must not cast away the law, but use it still to make thee more to cling unto Christ and as a rule of righteous living. Christ is the end of the law, not the killing, but fulfilling end; not to end, but to urge thy obedience. When the merchant is come aboard his ship by boat, he drowns not his boat, but hoists it up into his ship; he may have use of it another time. Or as a nobleman neglects not his schoolmaster when he is come to his lands, but prefers him. So certainly, if the law (though sharp) hath brought thee to Christ, thou canst not but love it for this office; if thou doest not, thou hast not Christ. Yea, it will be the delight of a man to be then doing, when Christ is with him, as Peter then willingly and with success cast out his net. Without Christ the law is an uncomfortable study; but with Him, nothing more delightful. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)
Christ the end of the law
Consider--
I. Christ in connection with the law. The law is that which we have cause to dread; for the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things thatarewritten in the book of the law to do them.” Yet, like the fascination which attracts the gnat to the candle, men by nature fly to the law for salvation. Now, what has our Lord to do with the law?
1. He is its purpose and object. The law is our schoolmaster, or rather our attendant to conduct us to the school of Jesus; the great net in which the fish are enclosed that they may be drawn out of the element of sin; the stormy wind which drives souls into the harbour of refuge; thesheriff’s officer to shut men up in prison for their sin, concluding them all under condemnation in order that they may look to the free grace of God alone for deliverance. It empties that grace may fill, wounds that mercy may heal. Had man never fallen, the law would have been most helpful to show him the way in which he should walk: and by keeping it he would have lived (Rom_10:5). But since man has fallen, a way of salvation by works has become impossible. The law is meant to lead the sinner to faith in Christ, by showing the impossibility of any other way. It is the dog to fetch the sheep to the shepherd, the burning heat which drives the traveller to the shadow of the great rock in a weary land. The law is adapted to this; for--
(1) It shows man his sin. Who can lay his own character side by side with it without seeing how far he has fallen short of the standard? When the law comes home to the soul it is like light in a dark room revealing the dust and the dirt which else had been unperceived. It is the test which detects the presence of the poison of sin in the soul. A true balance discovers short weight, and such is the first effect of the law upon the conscience of man.
(2) It shows the result and mischief of sin. The types were intended to lead men to Christ by making them see their unclean condition and their need of such cleansing as only He can give. Men put apart because of disease or uncleanness were made to see how sin separated them from God; and when they were brought back and purified with mystic rites, they were made to see how they can only be restored by Christ, the great High Priest. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.”
(3) It teaches men their utter helplessness. Such holiness as the law demands no man can reach of himself. “Thy commandment is exceeding broad.” “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” “How can he be clean that is born of a woman?” In grace there is hope, but as a matter of debt there is none, for we do not merit anything but wrath. The law tells us this, and the sooner we know it to be so the better, for the sooner we shall fly to Christ.
(4) It shows us our great need. The law is the surgeon’s knife which cuts out the proud flesh that the wound may heal. The law by itself only sweeps and raises the dust, but the gospel sprinkles clean water upon the dust. The law kills, the gospel makes alive; the law strips, and then Jesus Christ robes the soul in beauty.
2. Christ is the law’s fulfilment.
(1) God by immutable necessity demands righteousness of His creatures, and the law is not compelled to lower its terms, as though it had originally asked too much; but Christ gives the law all it requires. The law claims complete obedience, and Christ has brought in such a righteousness as that, and gives it to His people. Only as righteous ones can we be saved, but Christ makes us righteous, and therefore we are saved.
(2) Jesus has thus fulfilled the original demands of the law, but since we have broken it there are other demands. God “will by no means clear the guilty,” but every transgression shall have its just punishment. Here, then, Christ is the end of the law as to penalty. The claims of the law both as broken and unbroken Christ has met: both the positive and the penal demands are satisfied in Him.
(3) Not only has the penalty been paid, but Christ has put great honour upon the law in so doing. If the whole race had kept the law it would not stand in so splendid a position as it does now that the Son of God has paid obeisance to it. Who shall say a word against the law to which the Lawgiver Himself submits?
(4) The law’s stability also has been secured by Christ. That alone can remain which is proved to be just, and Jesus has proved the law to be so, magnifying it and making it honourable. He says, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” As to the settlement of the eternal principles of right and wrong, Christ’s life and death have achieved this for ever. “We establish the law, we do not make void the law through faith.”
3. Christ is the end of the law in that He is the termination of it in two senses.
(1) His people are not under it as a covenant of life. “We are not under the law, but under grace.”
(2) We are no longer under its curse. Jesus has given us all the righteousness it demands, and the law is bound to bless. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
II. Ourselves in connection with Christ--for “to every one that believeth.” To believe is not merely to accept a set of doctrines but to trust, to confide, to rest in. Dost thou believe that Christ stood in the sinner’s stead and suffered the just for the unjust, and that He is able to save to the uttermost? And dost thou therefore lay the whole weight of thy soul’s salvation upon Him alone? Then Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to thee, and thou art righteous. It is of no use to bring forward anything else if you are not believing, for nothing will avail--sacraments, prayers, etc. Observe--
1. There is no question raised about the previous character, for it is written, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” But, Lord, this man before he believed was a persecutor and injurious. Yes, and that is the very man who wrote these words. So if I address one who is defiled with every sin, yet I say if thou believest thine iniquities are blotted out, for the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin.
2. There is nothing said by way of qualification as to the strength of the faith. He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, whether he is Little Faith or Greatheart. The link may be very like a film, a spider’s line of trembling faith, but, if it runs all the way from the heart to Christ, Divine grace can and will flow along the most slender thread. It is marvellous how fine the wire may be that will carry the electric flash. If thy faith be of the mustard-seed kind, if it be only such as tremblingly touches the garments hem, if it be but the faith of sinking Peter, or weeping Mary, yet Christ will be the end of the law for righteousness to thee as well as to the chief of the apostles.
3. If this be so then all of us who believe are righteous. We are not completely sanctified, but still, in the sight of God, we are righteous, and being justified by faith we have peace with Him.
4. The connection of our text assures us that being righteous we are saved (Rom_10:9).
Conclusion:
1. If any one thinks he can save himself, and that his own righteousness will suffice before God, I would ask, if your righteousness sufficeth, why did Christ come here to work one out?
2. For any to reject the righteousness of Christ must be to perish everlastingly, because it cannot be that God will accept you or your pretended righteousness when you have refused the real and Divine righteousness which He sets before you in His Son. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. What that righteousness is, spoken of in the text. Evidently that which is necessary in order to eternal life, and which infallibly leads to it (Rom_5:17; Rom_5:21). It is termed “The righteousness of God” (Rom_10:3; chap. 1:17), and said to be by faith (Rom_3:21-22; Php_3:9). It implies--
1. Justification (Rom_3:24; Tit_3:7); without which, as guilty condemned sinners, we can have no title to eternal life.
2. Regeneration or sanctification (see Php_3:9); spoken of Eph_4:17-24; Tit_3:5-6; Joh_3:5-6; without which we are not in Christ (2Co_5:17; Gal_6:15), and have no fitness for heaven.
3. Practical obedience (Eph_2:10); the grand evidence that we are righteous (Luk_1:6; 1Jn_3:7). As to the necessity of this, see Rom_2:6-7; Rev_22:14; and especially Mat_7:20-21.
II. Where and how this righteousness is to be found.
1. Not in, or by, the law.
(1) The moral law (Rom_8:3) which requires perfect obedience. This we have not paid, do not, and cannot in future, pay. Hence it finds us guilty, and has no pardon to give us; it finds us depraved, and has no new nature for us; it finds us helpless, and has no supernatural aid to impart.
(2) The ceremonial law. Its sacrifices could not remove sin (Heb_9:23; Heb_10:4). Its purifications could only impart a ceremonial cleanness, or remove “the filth of the flesh” (Heb_9:13; 1Pe_3:21). Its institutions respecting meats, days, etc. As they did not make the tree good, of course the fruit could not be good (Mat_12:16-19).
2. But wherefore, then, serveth the law? In Christ was the end for which the law was instituted; the moral law being chiefly to convince men of sin (Rom_3:19-20; Rom_7:7-8), and thus to be a “schoolmaster to bring them to Christ” (Gal_3:19-24), and the ceremonial law to shadow forth His sacrifice and grace. The end may mean--
(1) The scope; the law continually points to Christ; the moral law directs the sinner to Him who fulfilled and removed the curse of it, for that justification which itself cannot give; and the ceremonial law directs him to look from its sacrifices and purifications to the atonement and Spirit of Christ.
(2) The perfection, or completion (1Ti_1:5). Christ fulfilled the moral law in fully explaining its meaning, and freeing it from the glosses of the Scribes; in obeying it, in suffering its penalty, and in providing that it may be written in our hearts; He also answered in His person all the types and shadows of the ceremonial law.
(3) The period or termination (Rom_6:21). Thus the whole Mosaic dispensation gives way to the gospel (2Co_3:11), and its ceremonies are taken out of the way by Christ (Col_2:14).
3. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.”
(1) For justification, or righteousness imputed, is only to be found in His obedience unto death (Rom_3:24; 1Co_1:30; 2Co_5:21).
(2) Regeneration, a new creation, and entire sanctification are only to be found in Christ, by His Spirit and grace, who is made of God to us sanctification (Joh_1:14; Joh_1:16; 2Co_5:17; 1Co_1:30).
(3) Practical righteousness is likewise to be had in Him, His laws direct us how to walk; His promises and threatenings enforce His laws; His example allures us; and His grace enables us to walk in His ways (2Co_12:9; Heb_4:14-16).
III. By whom this righteousness is to be found. By “every one that believeth” (verses 5-10).
1. Its object is that God hath raised Christ from the dead. This--
(1) Demonstrated Him to be the Son of God (Rom_1:3-4), and, therefore, the only Saviour able and willing to save to the uttermost. Of this faith is persuaded, and, therefore, trusts in Him for salvation.
(2) Was the broad seal of heaven set to His doctrine, of which faith is so thoroughly persuaded as to lay it to heart and walk according to it.
(3) Was to show that His atonement was sufficient and accepted; of this faith is also persuaded and, therefore, relies solely on the propitiation in His blood for justification (Rom_3:23, etc.; Gal_2:16-20).
(4) Was that He might ascend, and intercede, and receive for us “ the promise of the Father,” for which faith thirsts and comes to Him (Joh_7:37-38).
(5) He rose and ascended as our Forerunner. This faith believes, and, consequently, anticipates immortality and glory. He rose to give evidence that He will judge all mankind (Act_17:31). Faith is persuaded of this, and prepares to meet Him.
2. Our faith, in these respects, must be such as will enable us to “make confession with our mouth,” therefore it must be “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (verse 10). As to the faith that does not part with sin, and give up everything that stands in competition with Christ, it is dead (Jam_2:20-26).
3. As to the origin of this faith (see verses11-17). It arises from the Word and Spirit of God (Act_16:14; Eph_2:8-9; Col_2:12). Therefore, hearing, reading, and prayer, are the important means. And in the exercise of that measure of faith we have received, however small, it will be increased. (Joseph Benson.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. The immutability of the law is a fundamental truth. This rests on its nature and the immutability of God. The evidence is found in nature and conscience.
1. This the Jews believed, and it lay at the foundation of their error, which was twofold.
(1) That the law was to be fulfilled by their own righteousness.
(2) That the form in which the law was immutable was Mosaism.
2. This error led--
(1) To the effort to establish their own righteousness.
(2) To their making righteousness consist in ceremonial obedience.
3. Paul taught--
(1) That the law is immutable.
(2) That it cannot be satisfied by our righteousness, but only by the righteousness of God.
(3) That Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
(4) Consequently the immutability of the law is consistent with its abrogation, because its abrogation is effected by its fulfilment.
The law is immutable so far as it demands righteousness as an indispensable condition of justification. But it is abrogated so far as it says, “Do this and live,” i.e., so far as it requires our own righteousness.
II. In what sense is Christ the end of the law.
1. Not in the sense of its completion. Telos never occurs in the sense of pleroma.
2. But in the sense of having made an end of it, abolished it. This He has done--
(1) In so satisfying its demands that it ceases to require our own personal righteousness as a condition of justification.
(2) In putting an end to the Mosaic institutions, so that obedience to that law is no longer necessary to salvation.
3. In the sense of being its aim or object. This means either--
(1) That the end of the law is righteousness. Christ is the end of the law because He is our righteousness; its design is secured in Him. So that it is by faith, not works, that the end of the law is to be attained.
(2) Or, Christ is the object aimed at in the law. It was designed to bring us to Christ.
III. Consequences.
1. Out of Christ we are exposed--
(1) To the inexorable demands of the law.
(2) To its awful curse.
(3) To its slavish spirit.
2. In Him we are righteous.
(1) We meet all the demands of the law by pleading what He has done.
(2) We are free from its curse as He was made a curse for us.
(3) We are delivered from the spirit of bondage again to fear and are filled with the Spirit of adoption.
Conclusion: As a result of faith in Christ our righteousness we have--
1. Peace with God, and peace of conscience.
2. Assurance of eternal life, as no one can condemn those whom God justifies.
3. A principle of obedience, for until we are reconciled there can be no holiness.
4. All the benefits of Christ’s triumph. Having obeyed and suffered for us as our representative, we share in all the blessings promised as His reward. (C. Hodge, D.D.)
Christ the end of the law
Christ was revealed to abrogate, to annihilate, utterly to abolish sin. Now, we all know what it is to have a thing abrogated. Certain laws have held good up to the first of January of this year with regard to the hiring of public carriages, but now are under a new law. Suppose a driver complies with the new law, gets his license, puts up his flag, gives the passenger his card of prices, and afterwards the passenger summons him before the magistrate for asking a fare not authorised by the old law; the magistrate would say, “You are out of court, there is no such law. You cannot bring the man here, he has not broken the old law, for he is not under it. He has complied with the requisition of the new law, by which he declares himself no longer under the old rules, and I have no power over him.” So he that believeth in Christ Jesus may be summoned by conscience when misinformed before the bar of God, but the answer of peace to his conscience is, “Ye are not under the law, but under grace.” “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The relation of the law to the gospel
(text and 1Ti_1:5):--The law of God may be viewed in a twofold aspect, to distinguish between which is to prove a safeguard against both the errors of legality and the errors of antinomianism. We must regard the law--
I. In relation to the righteousness which constitutes the title to its rewards.
1. When we strive to make this out by our own obedience, the aim is to possess ourselves of a legal right to heaven. We proceed on the imagination of a contract between God and man--whereof the counterpart terms are a fulfilment of the law’s requisitions upon the one side, and a bestowment of the law’s rewards upon the other. The one is the purchase-money--the other is the payment. They stand related to each other, aswork does to wages. Now this spirit of legality, as it is called, is nearly the universal spirit of humanity. They are not the Israelites only who go about to establish a righteousness of their own. There is, in fact, a legal disposition in the heart, and, long after the utter shortness of human virtue has been demonstrated, yet will man, as if by the bias of a constitutional necessity, recur to the old legal imagination, of this virtue being a thing of desert, and of heaven being the reward which is due to it.
2. Now, for man to establish a right by his righteousness, is in the face of all jurisprudence. Both the law and the gospel alike disown man’s legal right to the rewards of eternity; and if he be too proud to disown it himself, he remains both a victim of condemnation by the one, and a helpless, hopeless outcast from the mercy of the other. If man will persist in seeking to make out a title-deed to heaven by his own obedience, then that obedience must be perfect. Even if he have butcommitted one sin--there is the barrier of a moral necessity in his way, which itis impossible to force. The God who cannot lie, cannot recall His curse upon every one who continueth not in all the words of the book of His law to do them. And one of two things must happen. Either, with a just conception of the standard of the law, he will sink into despair; or, with a low conception of that standard, he, though but grovelling among the mere decencies of civil life or the barren formalities of religious service, will aspire no farther and yet count himself safe.
3. Now herein lies the grand peculiarity of the gospel. It pronounces on the utter insignificance of all that man can do for the establishment of his right to the kingdom of heaven; and yet, he must be somehow or other provided with such a right, ere that he can find admittance there. It is not by an act of mercy alone that the gate of heaven is opened to the sinner. He must be furnished with a plea which he can state at the bar of justice--not the plea of his own deservings, which the gospel holds no terms with; and therefore with a plea founded exclusively on the deservings of another. Now what we reckon to be the very essence of the gospel is thereport which it brings to a sinful world of a solid and satisfying plea; and that every sinner is welcome to the use of it. In defect of his own righteousness, which he is required to disown, he is told of an everlasting righteousness which another has brought in; and which he is invited, nay commanded, to make mention of. It is thus that Christ becomes the end of the law for righteousness.
II. As holding out a method by which we might acquire a rightness of character in the cultivation and the exercise of its bidden virtues. The legal right which obedience confers is one thing. The personal rightness which obedience confers is another. Obedience for a legal right is everywhere denounced in the New Testament, but obedience for a personal rightness is everywhere urged. For the one end, the law has altogether lost its efficacy; and we, in our own utter inability to substantiate its claims, must seek to be justified only by the righteousness of Christ. For the other end, the law retains its office as a perfect guide and exemplar of all virtue; and; we, empowered by strength from on high to follow its dictates, must seek to be sanctified by the transference of its bidden uprightness upon our own characters. It is no longer the purchase-money by which to buy your right of entry to the marriage supper of the Lamb; but it is the wedding garment, without which you will never be seated among the beatitudes of that festival. To be meet in law, and without violence done to the jurisprudence of heaven, we must be invested by faith with the righteousness of Christ. To be meet in character, and without offence or violence to the spirit or the taste of heaven’s society, we must be invested with the graces of ourown personal righteousness. (T. Chalmers, D.D.)
