In the acts of the apostles we read of an altar with this inscription, "To the unknown God!" St. Paul, taking occasion from this circumstance, tells the Athenians, "Him whom ye ignorantly worship, preach I unto you." In the whole frame of nature, says a truly sublime writer, every heart, every creature, every affection, every action, is an altar with the same kind of inscription, "To the unknown Beauty!—To the unknown Righteousness!—To the unknown Jesus!" This is the eternal standard of truth, order, righteousness and perfection, to which every being in nature ignorantly moveth; this is that which all understandings, all hearts, cannot but admire and adore. But blessed above all beings are those, whose hearts are spiritual altars, with the righteous person of Christ engraven upon them by the finger of God, flaming with the fire of Heavenly Love, and bearing this radiant inscription, "To the known and experienced Beauty and Righteousness of that Jesus, whom we know; that Word of Life, which our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, our hands have handled, and spiritually embraced!" And this leads me, in the second place, to inquire what we are to understand by Christ's being called "Our Righteousness."
II. Under my first head, I observed to you from Scripture, that God created all things "in and by Jesus Christ;" and that "without him, was not any thing made that was made." Man, in particular, was "created in the Image of God:" Christ is "the Brightness of the Father's Glory, and the Express Image of his Person:" and, therefore, man was created in Christ.
Man in himself, in his outward nature, was but an empty vessel, till the Christ of God became his fulness and perfection. His outward form was from the dust of the earth; but his inward spirit was the breath of the Most High. The Image of God, even Christ himself, was his first, his sole Righteousness and perfection; the infallible instructor and enlightener of his understanding, the unerring guide and director of his will. The Name by which the Son of God was known to him, was "The Lord his Righteousness." Angels themselves know no other Righteousness, than the Righteousness of God in Christ.
The fall of man, or "Original sin," (as our church article with great truth and propriety expresses it) "is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil." We have already seen what this original righteousness was, which man possessed in a state of innocence, viz. that it was Christ, "the Lord his Righteousness," in him. This is what Adam lost—This is what Christ alone can restore.
Man in his present fallen state, without Christ, must be naturally inclined to evil; he has no righteousness of his own. And he can no more be saved by any exertion of his own natural powers, than he can see by the utmost stretch of his organs of sight, without the light of the sun.
Here then a serious and inquiring mind may be ready to ask—How is this Blessed Redeemer to become my Righteousness? I feel the force of these Scripture truths you have mentioned, and experience in my soul the dreadful consequences of an original apostasy—But I know not, whether Christ is my Righteousness, or not. I know not, whether I have the least traces of his Righteous Image in my soul.
"Hath Christ, then, been so long time with thee, and yet hast thou not known him?" Every little rebuke of conscience; every emotion of kindness, tenderness, and love; every sympathetic feeling of the prosperity or distress of thy neighbour; every sensibility of admiration, esteem, and joy, from contemplating a truly wise and virtuous character; every fervent desire of imitating what is good and excellent in others; every weak aspiration after holiness and perfection; nay, every little feeling of the restless cravings of thine own nature, every little longing after happiness unpossessed; all, all is Christ, speaking within thee, and waiting and watching to reveal himself in Righteousness to thy soul. Nothing, therefore, is wanting, on thy part, but a calm and quiet resignation of thyself, and all that is within thee, to his sovereign disposal, to redeem, purify, and restore, to do every thing that is necessary to be done, and which he alone can do, for thy salvation.
Thus have I endeavoured to give the plain and obvious meaning of the text. Distinctions upon distinctions have been multiplied; books upon books have been published, to tell us that we are to be justified by the Personal Righteousness of Christ outwardly imputed, and sanctified by the inherent graces of the Holy Spirit; that one must necessarily precede the other; and that we must be perfect in Christ by Justification, before we can have the least spark of Holiness by Sanctification. This is, indeed, travelling in the broad and popular road; and such kind of preaching might be to the "praise of men." Let systems be written upon systems, and comments upon comments; let preachers oppose preachers, and hearers wander after this or that form of godliness; but may Heaven in mercy preserve us from taking up our rest, or placing our dependence upon any thing less than an intimate and experimental knowledge of "The Lord our Righteousness" revealing himself, with all his holy heavenly tempers, virtues, and dispositions, in our hearts! May we never rest satisfied with a nominal profession of Christianity, a nominal acquaintance with Christ, or a nominal remission of sins; for, surely, we are not warranted, by Scripture, to look upon ourselves as redeemed by Christ, and born again of him, till by a total purification, a complete deliverance from all the evil tempers and passions of our fallen life, he hath obtained a full and peaceable possession of our whole nature, erected his Throne of Righteousness in our hearts, and by the effectual working of his Holy Spirit brought us to the "measure of the stature of that Fulness, which is in Himself."