Christ the End of the Law

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, November 19th, 1876, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth."–Romans 10:4.

YOU REMEMBER we spoke last Sabbath morning of "the days of the Son of
man." Oh that every Sabbath now might be a day of that kind in the most
spiritual sense. I hope that we shall endeavour to make each Lord's Day
as it comes round a day of the Lord, by thinking much of Jesus by
rejoicing much in him, by labouring for him, and by our growingly
importunate prayer, that to him may the gathering of the people be. We
may not have very many Sabbaths together, death may soon part us; but
while we are able to meet as a Christian assembly, let us never forget
that Christ's presence is our main necessity, and let us pray for it
and entreat the Lord to vouchsafe that presence always in displays of
light, life and love! I become increasingly earnest that every
preaching time should be a soul-saving time. I can deeply sympathize
with Paul when he said, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved." We have had so much preaching, but,
comparatively speaking, so little believing in Jesus; and if there be
no believing in him, neither the law nor the gospel has answered its
end, and our labour has been utterly in vain. Some of you have heard,
and heard, and heard again, but you have not believed in Jesus. If the
gospel had not come to your hearing you could not have been guilty of
refusing it. "Have they not heard?" says the apostle. "Yes, verily:"
but still "they have not all obeyed the gospel." Up to this very moment
there has been no hearing with the inner ear, and no work of faith in
the heart, in the case of many whom we love. Dear friends, is it always
to be so? How long is it to be so? Shall there not soon come an end of
this reception of the outward means and rejection of the inward grace?
Will not your soul soon close in with Christ for present salvation?
Break! Break, O heavenly day, upon the benighted ones, for our hearts
are breaking over them.

The reason why many do not come to Christ is not because they are not
earnest, after a fashion, and thoughtful and desirous to be saved, but
because they cannot brook God's way of salvation. "They have a zeal for
God, but not according to knowledge," We do get them by our exhortation
so far on the way that they become desirous to obtain eternal life, but
"they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Mark,
"submitted themselves," for it needs submission. Proud man wants to
save himself, he believes he can do it, and he will not give over the
task till he finds out his own helplessness by unhappy failures.
Salvation by grace, to be sued for in forma pauperis, to be asked for
as an undeserved boon from free, unmerited grace, this it is which the
carnal mind will not come to as long as it can help it: I beseech the
Lord so to work that some of you may not be able to help it. And oh, I
have been praying that, while this morning I am trying to set forth
Christ as the end of the law, God may bless it to some hearts, that
they may see what Christ did, and may perceive it to be a great deal
better than anything they can do; may see what Christ finished, and may
become weary of what they themselves have laboured at so long, and have
not even well commenced at this day. Perhaps it may please the Lord to
enchant them with the perfection of the salvation that is in Christ
Jesus. As Bunyan would say, "It may, perhaps, set their mouths a
watering after it," and when a sacred appetite begins it will not be
long before the feast is enjoyed. It may be that when they see the
raiment of wrought gold, which Jesus so freely bestows on naked souls,
they will throw away their own filthy rags which now they hug so
closely.

I am going to speak about two things, this morning, as the Spirit of
God shall help me: and the first is, Christ in connection with the
law–he is "the end of the law for righteousness"; and secondly,
ourselves in connection with Christ–"to everyone that believeth Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness."

I. First, then, CHRIST IN CONNECTION WITH THE LAW. The law is that
which, as sinners, we have above all things cause to dread; for the
sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Towards us
the law darts forth devouring flames, for it condemns us, and in solemn
terms appoints us a place among the accursed, as it is written, "Cursed
is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the
book of the law to do them." Yet, strange infatuation! like the
fascination which attracts the gnat to the candle which burns its
wings, men by nature fly to the law for salvation, and cannot be driven
from it. The law can do nothing else but reveal sin and pronounce
condemnation upon the sinner, and yet we cannot get men away from it,
even though we show them how sweetly Jesus stands between them and it.
They are so enamoured of legal hope that they cling to it when there is
nothing to cling to; they prefer Sinai to Calvary, though Sinai has
nothing for them but thunders and trumpet warnings of coming judgment.
O that for awhile you would listen anxiously while I set forth Jesus my
Lord, that you may see the law in him.

Now, what has our Lord to do with the law? He has everything to do with
it, for he is its end for the noblest object, namely, for
righteousness. He is the "end of the law." What does this mean? I think
it signifies three things: first, that Christ is the purpose and object
of the law; secondly, that he is the fulfillment of it; and thirdly,
that he is the termination of it.

First, then, our Lord Jesus Christ is the purpose and object of the
law. It was given to lead us to him. The law is our schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ, or rather our attendant to conduct us to the school
of Jesus. The law is the great net in which the fish are enclosed that
they may be drawn out of the element of sin. The law is the stormy wind
which drives souls into the harbour or refuge. The law is the sheriff'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. This is the object of the law: it empties that
grace may fill, and wounds that mercy may heal. It has never been God's
intention towards us, as fallen men, that the law should be regarded as
a way to salvation to us, for a way of salvation it can never be. Had
man never fallen, had his nature remained as God made it, the law would
have been most helpful to him to show him the way in which he should
walk: and by keeping it he would have lived, for "he that doeth these
things shall live in them." But ever since man has fallen the Lord has
not proposed to him a way of salvation by works, for he knows it to be
impossible to a sinful creature. The law is already broken; and
whatever man can do he cannot repair the damage he has already done:
therefore he is out of court as to the hope of merit. The law demands
perfection, but man has already fallen short of it; and therefore let
him do his best. He cannot accomplish what is absolutely essential. The
law is meant to lead the sinner to faith in Christ, by showing the
impossibility of any other way. It is the black 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.

Look how the law is adapted to this; for, first of all, it shows man
his sin. Read the ten commandments and tremble as you read them. Who
can lay his own character down side by side with the two tablets of
divine precept without at once being convinced that he has fallen far
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. "I was alive without the law once," said the
apostle, "but when the commandment came sin revived and I died." Our
comeliness utterly fades away when the law blows upon it. Look at the
commandments, I say, and remember how sweeping they are, how spiritual,
how far-reaching. They do not merely touch the outward act, but dive
into the inner motive and deal with the heart, the mind, the soul.
There is a deeper meaning in the commands than appears upon their
surface. Gaze into their depths and see how terrible is the holiness
which they require. As you understand what the law demands you will
perceive how far you are from fulfilling it, and how sin abounds where
you thought there was little or none of it. You thought yourself rich
and increased in goods and in no need of anything, but when the broken
law visits you, your spiritual bankruptcy and utter penury stare you in
the face. A true balance discovers short weight, and such is the first
effect of the law upon the conscience of man.

The law also shows the result and mischief of sin. Look at the types of
the old Mosaic dispensation, and see how they 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. Every type pointed to our Lord
Jesus Christ. If men were put apart because of disease or uncleanness,
they were made to see how sin separated them from God and from his
people; and when they were brought back and purified with mystic rites
in which were scarlet wool and hyssop and the like, they were made to
see how they can only be restored by Jesus Christ, the great High
Priest. When the bird was killed that the leper might be clean, the
need of purification by the sacrifice of a life was set forth. Every
morning and evening a lamb died to tell of daily need of pardon, if God
is to dwell with us. We sometimes have fault found with us for speaking
too much about blood; yet under the old testament the blood seemed to
be everything, and was not only spoken of but actually presented to the
eye. What does the apostle tell us in the Hebrews? "Whereupon neither
the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had
spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took
the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and
hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people saying, this is
the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover
he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the
ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and
without shedding of blood is not remission." The blood was on the veil,
and on the altar, on the hangings, and on the floor of the tabernacle:
no one could avoid seeing it. I resolve to make my ministry of the same
character, and more and more sprinkle it with the blood of atonement.
Now that abundance of the blood of old was meant to show clearly that
sin has so polluted us that without an atonement God is not to be
approached: we must come by the way of sacrifice or not at all. We are
so unacceptable in ourselves that unless the Lord sees us with the
blood of Jesus upon us he must away with us. The old law, with its
emblems and figures, set forth many truths as to men's selves and the
coming Saviour, intending by every one of them to preach Christ. If any
stopped short of him, they missed the intent and design of the law.
Moses leads up to Joshua, and the law ends at Jesus.

Turning our thoughts back again to the moral rather than the ceremonial
law, it was intended to teach men their utter helplessness. It shows
them how short they fall of what they ought to be, and it also shows
them, when they look at it carefully, how utterly impossible it is for
them to come up to the standard. Such holiness as the law demands no
man can reach of himself. "Thy commandment is exceeding broad." If a
man says that he can keep the law, it is because he does not know what
the law is. If he fancies that he can ever climb to heaven up the
quivering sides of Sinai, surely he can never have seen that burning
mount at all. Keep the law! Ah, my brethren, while we are yet talking
about it we are breaking it; while we are pretending that we can fulfil
its letter, we are violating its spirit, for pride as much breaks the
law as lust or murder. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one." "How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" No, soul, thou
canst not help thyself in this thing, for since only by perfection thou
canst live by the law, and since that perfection is impossible, thou
canst not find help in the covenant of works. 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.

The law also shows us our great need–our need of cleansing, cleansing
with the water and with the blood. It discovers to us our filthiness,
and this naturally leads us to feel that we must be washed from it if
we are ever to draw near to God. So the law drives us to accept of
Christ as the one only person who can cleanse us, and make us fit to
stand within the veil in the presence of the Most High. 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, and all is well in the chamber of
the soul. The law kills, the gospel makes alive; the law strips, and
then Jesus Christ comes in and robes the soul in beauty and glory. All
the commandments, and all the types direct us to Christ, if we will but
heed their evident intent. They wean us from self, they put us off from
the false basis of self- righteousness, and bring us to know that only
in Christ can our help be found. So, first of all, Christ is the end of
the law, in that he is its great purpose.

And now, secondly, he is the law's fulfillment. It is impossible for
any of us to be saved without righteousness. The God of heaven and
earth by immutable necessity demands righteousness of all his
creatures. Now, Christ has come to give to us the righteousness which
the law demands, but which it never bestows. In the chapter before us
we read of "the righteousness which is of faith," which is also called
"God's righteousness"; and we read of those who "shall not be ashamed"
because they are righteous by believing unto righteousness." What the
law could not do Jesus has done. He provides the righteousness which
the law asks for but cannot produce. What an amazing righteousness it
must be which is as broad and deep and long and high as the law itself.
The commandment is exceeding broad, but the righteousness of Christ is
as broad as the commandment, and goes to the end of it. Christ did not
come to make the law milder, or to render it possible for our cracked
and battered obedience to be accepted as a sort of compromise. The law
is not compelled to lower its terms, as though it had originally asked
too much; it is holy and just and good, and ought not to be altered in
one jot or tittle, nor can it be. Our Lord gives the law all it
requires, not a part, for that would be an admission that it might
justly have been content with less at first. The law claims complete
obedience without one spot or speck, failure, or flaw, and Christ has
brought in such a righteousness as that, and gives it to his people.
The law demands that the righteousness should be without omission of
duty and without commission of sin, and the righteousness which Christ
has brought is just such an one that for its sake the great God accepts
his people and counts them to be without spot or wrinkle or any such
thing. The law will not be content without spiritual obedience, mere
outward compliances will not satisfy. But our Lord's obedience was as
deep as it was broad, for his zeal to do the will of him that sent him
consumed him. He says himself, "I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea
thy law is within my heart." Such righteousness he puts upon all
believers. "By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous";
righteous to the full, perfect in Christ. We rejoice to wear the costly
robe of fair white linen which Jesus has prepared, and we feel that we
may stand arrayed in it before the majesty of heaven without a
trembling thought. This is something to dwell upon, dear friends. Only
as righteous ones can we be saved, but Jesus Christ makes us righteous,
and therefore we are saved. He is righteous who believeth on him, even
as Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
"There is therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus," because they are made righteous in Christ. Yea, the Holy Spirit
by the mouth of Paul challengeth all men, angels, and devils, to lay
anything to the charge of God's elect, since Christ hath died. O law,
when thou demandest of me a perfect righteousness, I, being a believer,
present it to thee; for through Christ Jesus faith is accounted unto me
for righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is mine, for I am one
with him by faith, and this is the name wherewith he shall be
called–"The Lord our righteousness."

Jesus has thus fulfilled the original demands of the law, but you know,
brethren, that since we have broken the law there are other demands.
For the remission of past sins something more is asked now than present
and future obedience. Upon us, on account of our sins, the curse has
been pronounced, and a penalty has been incurred. It is written that he
"will by no means clear the guilty," but every transgression and
iniquity shall have its just punishment and reward. Here, then, let us
admire that the Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law as to penalty.
That curse and penalty are awful things to think upon, but Christ has
ended all their evil, and thus discharged us from all the consequences
of sin. As far as every believer is concerned the law demands no
penalty and utters no curse. The believer can point to the Great Surety
on the tree of Calvary, and say, "See there, oh law, there is the
vindication of divine justice which I offer to thee. Jesus pouring out
his heart's blood from his wounds and dying on my behalf is my answer
to thy claims, and I know that I shall be delivered from wrath through
him." The claims of the law both as broken and unbroken Christ has met:
both the positive and the penal demands are satisfied in him. This was
a labour worthy of a God, and lo, the incarnate God has achieved it. He
has finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made
reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness.
All glory be to his name.

Moreover, not only has the penalty been paid, but Christ has put great
and special honour upon the law in so doing. I venture to say that if
the whole human race had kept the law of God and not one of them had
violated it, the law would not stand in so splendid a position of
honour as it does today when the man Christ Jesus, who is also the Son
of God, has paid obeisance to it. God himself, incarnate, has in his
life, and yet more in his death, revealed the supremacy of law; he has
shown that not even love nor sovereignty can set aside justice. Who
shall say a word against the law to which the Lawgiver himself submits?
Who shall now say that it is too severe when he who made it submits
himself to its penalties. Because he was found in fashion as a man, and
was our representative, the Lord demanded from his own Son perfect
obedience to the law, and the Son voluntarily bowed himself to it
without a single word, taking no exception to his task. "Yea, thy law
is my delight," saith he, and he proved it to be so by paying homage to
it even to the full. Oh wondrous law under which even Emmanuel serves!
Oh matchless law whose yoke even the Son of God does not disdain to
bear, but being resolved to save his chosen was made under the law,
lived under it and died under it, "obedient to death, even the death of
the cross."

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, "Think not that I
am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled." I shall have to show you how he has made an end of the law
in another sense, but as to the settlement of the eternal principles of
right and wrong, Christ's life and death have achieved this forever.
"Yea, we established the law." said Paul, "we do not make void the law
through faith." The law is proved to be holy and just by the very
gospel of faith, for the gospel which faith believes in does not alter
or lower the law, but teaches us how it was to the uttermost fulfilled.
Now shall the law stand fast forever and ever, since even to save elect
man God will not alter it. He had a people, chosen, beloved, and
ordained to life, yet he would not save them at the expense of one
principle of right. They were sinful, and how could they be justified
unless the law was suspended or changed? Was, then, the law changed? It
seemed as if it must be so, if man was to be saved, but Jesus Christ
came and showed us how the law could stand firm as a rock, and yet the
redeemed could be justly saved by infinite mercy. In Christ we see both
mercy and justice shining full orbed, and yet neither of them in any
degree eclipsing the other. The law has all it ever asked, as it ought
to have, and yet the Father of all mercies sees all his chosen saved as
he determined they should be through the death of his Son. Thus I have
tried to show you how Christ is the fulfillment of the law to its
utmost end. May the Holy Ghost bless the teaching.

And now, thirdly, he is the end of the law in the sense that he is the
termination of it. He has terminated it in two senses. First of all,
his people are not under it as a covenant of life. "We are not under
the law, but under grace." The old covenant as it stood with father
Adam was "This do and thou shalt live": its command he did not keep,
and consequently he did not live, nor do we live in him, since in Adam
all died. The old covenant was broken, and we became condemned thereby,
but now, having suffered death in Christ, we are no more under it, but
are dead to it. Brethren, at this present moment, although we rejoice
to do good works, we are not seeking life through them, we are not
hoping to obtain divine favour by our own goodness, nor even to keep
ourselves in the love of God by any merit of our own. Chosen, not for
our works, but according to the eternal will and good pleasure of God;
called, not of works, but by the Spirit of God, we desire to continue
in this grace and return no more to the bondage of the old covenant.
Since we have put our trust in an atonement provided and applied by
grace through Christ Jesus, we are no longer slaves but children, not
working to be saved, but saved already, and working because we are
saved. Neither that which we do, nor even that which the Spirit of God
worketh in us is to us the ground and basis of the love of God toward
us, since he loved us from the first, because he would love us,
unworthy though we were; and he loves us still in Christ, and looks
upon us not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in him; washed in his
blood and covered in his righteousness. Ye are not under the law,
Christ has taken you from the servile bondage of a condemning covenant
and made you to receive the adoption of children, so that now ye cry,
Abba, Father.

Again, Christ is the terminator of the law, for we are no longer under
its curse. The law cannot curse a believer, it does not know how to do
it; it blesses him, yea, and he shall be blessed; for as the law
demands righteousness and looks at the believer in Christ, and sees
that Jesus has given him all the righteousness it demands, the law is
bound to pronounce him blessed. "Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord
imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." Oh, the
joy of being redeemed from the curse of the law by Christ, who was
"made a curse for us," as it is written, "Cursed is every one that
hangeth on a tree." Do ye, my brethren, understand the sweet mystery of
salvation? Have you ever seen Jesus standing in your place that you may
stand in his place? Christ accused and Christ condemned, and Christ led
out to die, and Christ smitten of the Father, even to the death, and
then you cleared, justified, delivered from the curse, because the
curse has spent itself on your Redeemer. You are admitted to enjoy the
blessing because the righteousness which was his is now transferred to
you that you may be blessed of the Lord world without end. Do let us
triumph and rejoice in this evermore. Why should we not? And yet some
of God's people get under the law as to their feelings, and begin to
fear that because they are conscious of sin they are not saved, whereas
it is written, "he justifieth the ungodly." For myself, I love to live
near a sinner's Saviour. If my standing before the Lord depended upon
what I am in myself and what good works and righteousness I could
bring, surely I should have to condemn myself a thousand times a day.
But to get away from that and to say, "I have believed in Jesus Christ
and therefore righteousness is mine," this is peace, rest, joy, and the
beginning of heaven! When one attains to this experience, his love to
Jesus Christ begins to flame up, and he feels that if the Redeemer has
delivered him from the curse of the law he will not continue in sin,
but he will endeavour to live in newness of life. We are not our own,
we are bought with a price, and we would therefore glorify God in our
bodies and in our spirits, which are the Lord's. Thus much upon Christ
in connection with the law.

II. Now, secondly, OURSELVES IN CONNECTION WITH CHRIST–for "Christ is
the end of the law to everyone that believeth." Now see the point "to
everyone that believeth," there the stress lies. Come, man, woman, dost
thou believe? No weightier question can be asked under heaven. "Dost
thou believe on the Son of God?" And what is it to believe? It is not
merely to accept a set of doctrines and to say that such and such a
creed is yours, and there and then to put it on the shelf and forget
it. To believe is, to trust, to confide, to depend upon, to rely upon,
to rest in. Dost thou believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead?
Dost thou believe that he stood in the sinner's stead and suffered the
just for the unjust? Dost thou believe that he is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by him? And dost thou therefore lay
the whole weight and stress of thy soul's salvation upon him, yea, upon
him alone? Ah then, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
thee, and thou art righteous. In the righteousness of God thou art
clothed if thou believest. It is of no use to bring forward anything
else if you are not believing, for nothing will avail. If faith be
absent the essential thing is wanting: sacraments, prayers, Bible
reading, hearings of the gospel, you may heap them together, high as
the stars, into a mountain, huge as high Olympus, but they are all mere
chaff if faith be not there. It is thy believing or not believing which
must settle the matter. Dost thou look away from thyself to Jesus for
righteousness? If thou dost he is the end of the law to thee.

Now observe that 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, he raged and raved against
the saints and haled them to prison and sought their blood. Yes,
beloved friend, and that is the very man who wrote these words by the
Holy Ghost, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every
one that believeth." So if I address one here this morning whose life
has been defiled with every sin, and stained with every transgression
we can conceive of, yet I say unto such, remember "all manner of sin
and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." If thou believest in the
Lord Jesus Christ thine iniquities are blotted out, for the blood of
Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. This is the
glory of the gospel that it is a sinner's gospel; good news of blessing
not for those without sin, but for those who confess and forsake it.
Jesus came into the world, not to reward the sinless, but to seek and
to save that which was lost; and he, being lost and being far from God,
who cometh nigh to God by Christ, and believeth in him, will find that
he is able to bestow righteousness upon the guilty. He is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, and therefore to
the poor harlot that believeth, to the drunkard of many years standing
that believeth, to the thief, the liar, and the scoffer who believeth,
to those who have aforetime rioted in sin, but now turn from it to
trust in him. But I do not know that I need mention such cases as
these; to me the most wonderful fact is that Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to me, for I believe in him. I know whom I have
believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed to him until that day.

Another thought arises from the text, and that is, that 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 everyone that believeth,
whether he is Little Faith or Greatheart. Jesus protects the rear rank
as well as the vanguard. There is no difference between one believer
and another as to justification. So long as there is a connection
between you and Christ the righteousness of God is yours. 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 marvelous how fine the wire
may be that will carry the electric flash. We may want a cable to carry
a message across the sea, but that is for the protection of the wire,
the wire which actually carries the message is a slender thing. If thy
faith be of the mustard-seed kind, if it be only such as tremblingly
touches the Saviour's garment's hem, if thou canst only say "Lord, I
believe, help thou mine unbelief," if it be but the faith of sinking
Peter, or weeping Mary, yet if it be faith in Christ, he will be the
end of the law for righteousness to thee as well as to the chief of the
apostles.

If this be so then, beloved friends, all of us who believe are
righteous. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ we have obtained the
righteousness which those who follow the works of the law know nothing
of. We are not completely sanctified, would God we were; we are not
quit of sin in our members, though we hate it; but still for all that,
in the sight of God, we are truly righteous and being qualified by
faith we have peace with God. Come, look up, ye believers that are
burdened with a sense of sin. While you chasten yourselves and mourn
your sin, do not doubt your Saviour, nor question his righteousness.
You are black, but do not stop there, go on to say as the spouse did,
"I am black, but comely."

"Though in ourselves deform'd we are,

And black as Kedar's tents appear,

Yet, when we put Thy beauties on,

Fair as the courts of Solomon."

Now, mark that the connection of our text assures us that being
righteous we are saved; for what does it say here, "If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." He who is
justified is saved, or what were the benefit of justification? Over
thee, O believer, God hath pronounced the verdict "saved," and none
shall reverse it. You are saved from sin and death and hell; you are
saved even now, with a present salvation; "He hath saved us and called
us with a holy calling." Feel the transports of it at this hour.
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God."

And now I have done when I have said just this. If any one here thinks
he can save himself, and that his own righteousness will suffice before
God, I would affectionately beg him not to insult his Saviour. If your
righteousness sufficeth, why did Christ come here to work one out? Will
you for a moment compare your righteousness with the righteousness of
Jesus Christ? What likeness is there between you and him? As much as
between an emmet and an archangel. Nay, not so much as that: as much as
between night and day, hell and heaven. Oh, if I had a righteousness of
my own that no one could find fault with, I would voluntarily fling it
away to have the righteousness of Christ, but as I have none of my own
I do rejoice the more to have my Lord's. When Mr. Whitefield first
preached at Kingswood, near Bristol, to the colliers, he could see when
their hearts began to be touched by the gutters of white made by the
tears as they ran down their black cheeks. He saw they were receiving
the gospel, and he writes in his diary "as these poor colliers had no
righteousness of their own they therefore gloried in Him who came to
save publicans and sinners." Well, Mr. Whitefield, that is true of the
colliers, but it is equally true of many of us here, who may not have
had black faces, but we had black hearts. We can truly say that we also
rejoice to cast away our own righteousness and count it dross and dung
that we may win Christ, and be found in him. In him is our sole hope
and only trust.

Last of all, for any of you 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. If you could
go up to the gates of heaven, and the angel were to say to you, "What
title have you to entrance here?" and you were to reply, "I have a
righteousness of my own," then for you to be admitted would be to
decide that your righteousness was on a par with that of Immanuel
himself. Can that ever be? Do you think that God will ever allow such a
lie to be sanctioned? Will he let a poor wretched sinner's counterfeit
righteousness pass current side by side with the fine gold of Christ's
perfection? Why was the fountain filled with blood if you need no
washing? Is Christ a superfluity? Oh, it cannot be. You must have
Christ's righteousness or be unrighteous, and being unrighteous you
will be unsaved, and being unsaved you must remain lost forever and
ever.

What! has it all come to this, then, that I am to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ for righteousness, and to be made just through faith? Yes,
that is it: that is the whole of it. What! trust Christ alone and then
live as I like! You cannot live in sin after you have trusted Jesus,
for the act of faith brings with it a change of nature and a renewal of
your soul. The Spirit of God who leads you to believe will also change
your heart. You spoke of "living as you like," you will like to live
very differently from what you do now. The things you loved before your
conversion you will hate when you believe, and the things you hated you
will love. Now, you are trying to be good, and you make great failures,
because your heart is alienated from God; but when once you have
received salvation through the blood of Christ, your heart will love
God, and then you will keep his commandments, and they will be no
longer grievous to you. A change of heart is what you want, and you
will never get it except through the covenant of grace. There is not a
word about conversion in the old covenant, we must look to the new
covenant for that, and here it is–"Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from
all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you,
and an new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I
will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,
and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." This is one of the
greatest covenant promises, and the Holy Ghost preforms it in the
chosen. Oh that the Lord would sweetly persuade you to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that promise and all the other covenant
engagements shall be fulfilled to your soul. The Lord bless you! Spirit
of God, send thy blessing on these poor words of mine for Jesus' sake.
Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Romans 10.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–231, 535, 647.
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Christ the Conqueror of Satan

A Sermon