23. With the believers in Christ, them who have their righteousness
in him, there should follow in this life on earth the fruits of
upright living, in obedience to God. These fruits constitute the good
works acceptable to God, which, being works of faith and wrought in
Christ, will be rewarded in the life to come. But Paul has in mind
the individuals who, rejecting faith in Christ, regard their
self-directed lives, their humanly-wrought works, which conform to
the Law, as righteousness availing in the sight of God. His reference
is to them who so trust, though wholly ignorant of Christ, for whose
sake, without any merit on our part, righteousness is imputed to us
by God. The only condition is we must believe in Christ; for he
became man, died for our sins and rose from the dead, for the very
purpose of liberating us from our sins and granting us his
resurrection and life. Toward the heavenly life we should tend, in
our life here walking in harmony with it; as Paul says in conclusion:
"Our citizenship is in heaven [not earthly and not confined to this
temporal life only]; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ."
If we have no knowledge, no consciousness, of this fact, it matters
not how beautiful and praiseworthy our human, earthly righteousness
may be, it is merely a hindrance and an injury. For flesh and blood
cannot help relying on its own righteousness and arrogantly boasting
in this strain: "We are better, more honorable, more godly, than
others. We Jews are the people of God and keep his Law." Even
Christians are not wholly free from the pernicious influence of human
holiness. They ever seek to bring their own works and merits before
God. I know for myself what pains are inflicted by this godless
wisdom, this figment of righteousness, and what effort must be made
before the serpent's head is bruised.
24. Now, this is the situation and there is no alternative: Either
suffer hell or regard your human righteousness as loss and filth and
endeavor not to be found relying on it at your last hour, in the
presence of God and judgment, but rather stand in the righteousness
of Christ. In the garment of Christ's righteousness and reared in him
you may, in the resurrection from sin and death, meet Christ and
exclaim: "Hail, beloved Lord and Saviour, thou who hast redeemed me
from the wretched body of sin and death, and fashioned me like unto
thy holy, pure and glorious body!"