Righteous man

“ And therefore the punishment of sin is the tribulation and the anguish of the soul, Rom. ii. 9. Secondly, The righteous man that perseveres in his righteousness shall certainly live. If a man be just, have a good principle, a good spirit and disposition, and, as an evidence of that, do judgment and justice (v. 5) , he shall surely live, saith the Lord God, v. 9. He that makes conscience of conforming in every thing to the will of God, that makes it his business to serve God and his aim to glorify God, shall without fail be happy here and for ever in the love and favour of God ”

“ I place my sole dependence upon an imputed righteousness, that righteousness wrought out by thee as my surety, in thy holy, meritorious life and death; believing thy testimony, that 'the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Just so must I go on, trusting in, resting upon, rejoicing in the Lord my righteousness. By one man's offence many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many, and I among others, be made righteous. ”

“ If the righteous man commit sin, his righteousness shall be forgotten.——Many, who by their profession appeared to be advancing, have quit their duty ere Christ hath come, and they will be dealt with as them who minted at duty, Psalm cxxv. ”

“ For the passage of Scripture decides the question in itself, seeing that it does not say, Then shall men stand, but "Then shall the righteous stand;" and they shall stand "in great boldness," because they stand in the power of a good conscience.
42. But in this world no one is righteous by his own righteousness,—that is, as though it were wrought by himself and for himself; but as the apostle says, "According as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." ”

“ He will judge righteous judgment (v. 5) : Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins. He shall be righteous in the administration of his government, and his righteousness shall be his girdle; it shall constantly compass him and cleave to him, shall be his ornament and honour; he shall gird himself for every action, shall gird on his sword for war in righteousness; his righteousness shall be his strength, and shall make him expeditious in his undertakings, as a man with his loins girt. ”

“ Wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will.”
ARTICLE XI. Of the Justification of Man.
“We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the homily of justification.” ”

“ And when the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which is neither quite lawful nor quite right, he will generally be found to have gained in amiability what he has lost in holiness. ”

“ But this righteousness of character is made manifest in righteous deeds. We know that God is a righteous God by what He has done, and by what He has promised to do, and the character of righteous men is likewise manifested in their acts. From these deeds come joy to the doer. Whenever a good man is able to redress some injury, or to make right some moral wrong—to put into exercise the love of right which is always latent within him—he feels joy. ”

“ The righteousnesse here mentioned is not the singular righteousnesse of this or that act, whereby a man is said to doe justly or righteously, which is called the righteousnesse of fact: but universall righteousnesse or the righteousnesse of Justification, whereby a man is freely acquitted from all his sins, and accepted of God as righteous unto life, which is called righteousnesse of the person. ”

“ Here are the two classes—the righteous and the unrighteous, and the righteous must be prepared by suffering and by rendering strict obedience to the commandments of heaven. It seems to be absolutely necessary in the providence of Him who created us, and who organized and fashioned all things according to his wisdom, that man must descend below all things. ”

“ Lord is righteous,” and the source of all righteousness. Man can not possess righteousness independent of God. It is beautiful to contemplate the righteous character of the Almighty as revealed in the holy Scriptures. It enables us to better understand our own nature when we are “filled with all the fulness of God.” The Savior in his prayer addresses God as “righteous Father.” John 17:25. The Revelator in his vision heard an angel proclaiming, “Thou art righteous, O Lord.” ”

“ The righteousness of God, the infinite rectitude and perfection of his nature. As he is what he is, so he is what he should be, and in every thing acts as becomes him; there is nothing wanting, nothing amiss, in God; his will is the eternal rule of equity, and he is righteous, for he does all according to it. 2. The righteousness of his government. He rules the world by his providence, according to the principles of justice, and never did, nor ever can do, any wrong to any of his creatures: Upright are thy judgments, the promises and threatenings and the executions of both. ”

“ As one that is employed for God to pursue his designs and secure and advance the interests of his glory. "He is my righteous servant, and as such justifies men." God has authorized and appointed him to do it; it is according to God's will and for his honour that he does it. He is himself righteous, and of his righteousness have all we received. He that is himself righteous (for he could not have made atonement for our sin if he had had any sin of his own to answer for) is made of God to us righteousness, the Lord our righteousness. ”

“ There is none righteous, none that has an honest good principle of virtue, or is governed by such a principle, none that retains any thing of that image of God, consisting in righteousness, wherein man was created ”

“ Now that pernicious and pestilent opinion of man's own righteousness, which will not be a sinner, unclean, miserable, and damnable, but righteous and holy, suffereth not God to come to his own natural and proper work. ”

“ This may serve to refute the Papists and others, who as soone as they reade that any one is called righteous in the Scriptures, presently conclude that a man may fulfill the whole law, and stand upon his own merits before God.
2. To comfort the godly, who sometimes fall through infirmity. For if they continually labour to please God, God in mercy accounts them righteous. ”

“ he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous.' Christ is our righteousness, not that we should escape punishment, still less escape being righteous, but as the live potent creator of righteousness in us, so that we, with our wills receiving his spirit, shall like him resist unto blood, striving against sin; ”

“ But where is the righteous person thus scourged, judged, and recompensed? On the earth, even in this life, and in the world. The earth is not that seat which the Lord hath properly appointed for judgment or vengeance, neither is this life the day of the great assize; yet rather than sin shall be unpunished, yea, even in the elect, the Lord will keep a petty sessions in this life, and make the earth a house of correction.—Muffet.
The righteous are under the discipline though not under the curse, of the rod.—Bridges. ”

“ God will clear up the righteousness of their cause before men. It is with him, for he knows it; it is with him, for he will plead it. Or their reward for their righteousness, and for all that which they have suffered unrighteously, is of God, that God who judges in the earth, and with whom verily there is a reward for the righteous. Or their righteousness itself, all that in them which is good and right, is of God, who works it in them; it is of Christ who is made righteousness to them. In those for whom God designs a heritage hereafter he will work righteousness now. ”

“ This teaches us that the righteousness of the godly is the power which averts the destruction of the wicked, and keeps the world in existence. In this sense, therefore, the righteous are a foundation. ”

“ Standing, therefore, between these, and being neither good nor bad nor unjust, he can be called righteous in a sense proper to him, as the judge of the righteousness that corresponds to him, and that god will be lower than the perfect God, and his righteousness lower than His, because he is begotten and not unbegotten. ”

“ And do you seek first God’s righteousness? There can be no mistake as to what God’s righteousness is; for God’s righteousness must be Christ’s righteousness, seeing that He is the express image of His Father. Now do you ask yourselves, ‘How am I to be righteous in my station, as Christ was in His? ”

“ For each of us it is of the utmost importance to have a fixed and intelligent persuasion that righteousness is what we are made for. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness and made us in His image to widen the [218] joy of rational creatures. ”

“ Nothing that man will ever invent will absolve him from the universal necessity of being good as God is good, righteous as God is righteous, and holy as God is holy. ”

“ If you can deal, and trade, and visit, and ride, and be with the ungodly, and cannot see the difference between them and the righteous, if you are ever saved in any decent kingdom, it will be because you are totally ignorant. But if you can truthfully say, I love prayer, not swearing; I love truth, not lying; I love honesty, not dishonesty; I love God and His laws, you may be assured you are on the road to exaltation and eternal life. Let us sustain the kingdom of God; and if we do, we will sustain ourselves in truth and righteousness. ”

“ Because, instead of seeking God’s righteousness, and saying to themselves, ‘How shall we be righteous, even as our Heavenly Father is righteous, and how shall we teach this great people to be righteous likewise?’ they have sought their own pleasure, and lived in profligacy, covetous and cheating almost beyond belief ”

“ Now, therefore, may neither I myself be righteous among men, nor my son — for then it is a bad thing to be righteous — if indeed the unrighteous shall have the greater right. ”

“ Remember you are sons of men; mortal and dying, and that you stand upon the same level before God with the meanest of those you trample upon, and must yourselves be called to an account and judged. You are sons of men, and therefore we may appeal to yourselves, and to that law of nature which is written in every man's heart: Do you indeed speak righteousness? And will not your second thoughts correct what you have done?" Note, It is good for us often to reflect upon what we say with this serious question, Do we indeed speak righteousness? ”

“ The righteous, on the contrary, make no show; they lie hid, like a foundation, which is low and out of sight, but they are fixed in their resolution to cleave to God, established in virtue, and they shall be an everlasting foundation, immovably good. ”

“ If any of our people are found mixed up with these iniquities, let them be dealt with as the law of God directs, and let them be purged from our midst. Let righteousness, truth and integrity be maintained, and let God be honored and let the Gospel be sustained and the law of God upheld, and He will stand by the righteous. ”

“ For that which is called our righteousness, because, through it being inherent in us, we are justified; that same is the righteousness of God, because it is infused into us by God through the merit of Christ.
“Far, however, be it from a Christian man, that he should either trust or glory in himself and not in the Lord; whose goodness to all men is so great, that, what are truly his gifts, he willeth to be estimated as their merits.” ”

“ Where, then, can a man hide himself from Thy knowledge, O God? Our works are subject to our own choice and power To do right or wrong in the works of our hands; And in Thy righteousness Thou visitest the sons of men. He that doeth righteousness layeth up life for himself with the Lord; And he that doeth wrongly forfeits his life to destruction; For the judgements of the Lord are given in righteousness to every man and his house. ”

“ Understand now and believe the angel of righteousness, because his instruction is good.
16 For let a man be never so happy; yet if the thoughts of the other angel arise in his heart, that man or woman must needs sin.
17 But let man or woman be never so wicked, if the works of the angel of righteousness come into their hearts, that man or woman must needs do some good.
18 Thou seest therefore how it is good to follow the angel of righteousness. If therefore thou shall follow him, and submit to his works, thou shalt live unto God. And as many as shall submit to his work shall live also unto God. ”

“ The calamities of the righteous are preparing them for their future blessedness, and the wicked, while their days are prolonged, are but ripening for ruin. There is a judgment to come, which will rectify this seeming irregularity, to the glory of God and the full satisfaction of all his people, and we must wait with patience till then. ”

“ Now, what is the whole duty of man? To love mercy, to do justly, and walk humbly with God; and, when the Holy Spirit has brought about that result in your soul, God will look on you with a beneficent eye, with a smile of approbation, and its genial influence will sun your whole being, and you will walk in the light of it, even as the angels do in Heaven. "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God;" that is the whole duty of man—everything is included in that. ”