robe" which is prepared for the prodigal, by which he is clothed and
unrighteous man, if man presents himself in his own true character as a
sinner, and does not mock God by pretending to be something less or better
than this.
For then the divinely provided righteousness comes in to cover the
unrighteous, and to enable God to receive him in love, and justify him
before earth and heaven.
In all this we find such things as the following; each of them bringing out
a separate aspect of the answer to the great question, "How can man be just
with God?"
1. The Justifier;--"It is God that justifieth." The sentence of acquittal
must come from His lips, and be registered in His books.
2. The justified;--Man, the sinner, under wrath, the ungodly, the
condemned.
3. The justifying fact;--The death of Him whose name is Jehovah our
righteousness.
4. The justifying instrument;--Faith. Not strong faith, or great faith, or
perfect faith, but simply faith, or believing. "We are justified by
faith."
5. The justifying medium;--The righteousness of God. This is the "best
robe" which is prepared for the prodigal, by which he is clothed and
beautified, and made fit to enter his Father's house, and sit down at
his Father's table. Christ is Himself our justification. In Him we
"stand." In Him we are "found." Him we "put on," and with Him we
are clothed, by Him we are protected as by a shield, in Him we take
refuge as in a strong tower.
"Found in Him." What then? Our own "self" has disappeared; and instead
there is Christ, the beloved Son in whom God is well pleased. Found in
ourselves, there was nothing but wrath; found in Him there is nothing but
favor. We are hidden in Christ. God seeks for us; and when at last He
discovers us in our hiding-place, it is not we that He finds, but Christ; so
complete is the exchange of persons, so perfect and so glorious the disguise.
Yet it is not a disguise which shall ever be taken off, nor of which we
shall have cause to be ashamed. It remains ours for ever. It is an everlasting
righteousness. 5
Jehovah is satisfied with Christ's obedience. He is well pleased with His
righteousness. And when we, crediting His testimony to that obedience and
that righteousness, consent to be treated by Him on the footing of its
perfection, then is He satisfied and well pleased with us.
Jehovah is satisfied, more than satisfied, with Christ's fulfilling of the law
which man had broken. For never had that law been so fulfilled in all its
parts as it was in the life of the God-man. For man to fulfill it, would have
been much; for an angel to fulfill it, would have been more; but for Him
who was God and man to fulfill it, was yet unspeakably more. So satisfied
is Jehovah with this divine law-fulfilling, and with Him who so gloriously
fulfilled it, that He is willing to pass from or cancel all the law's sentences
against us; nay, to deal with us as partakers of or identified with this law-
fulfilling, if we will but agree to give up all personal claims to His favor,
and accept the claims of Him who hath magnified the law and made it
honorable.