t, is
one who fulfils all that is expected of him, one who is
blameless--towards man, but especially towards God. But if God expects
such and such conduct in men it is because of what He Himself is. His
requirements express His character. God Himself therefore is believed
to be righteous, incorruptibly and awfully righteous. But a great
{138} strain is put upon this belief in the 'wild and irregular scene'
of this world, the Governor of which appears so often indifferent to
the sufferings of His most faithful servants. Thus the righteous cry
out to God to vindicate Himself, and God's righteousness is, in the Old
Testament, largely identified with God's vindication of His own
character by righteous acts or judgements accomplished in the past or
expected in the future; acts of such a character as that in them the
wicked and insolent are put to confusion, and the meek and holy
justified and exalted. Such righteous judgement is expected to
characterize the kingdom of the Christ. Of course, in the general
lowering of moral ideals among the Pharisaic Jews, the idea of
righteousness suffered with all else. The righteous came to mean those
who strictly keep the outward Jewish law; and God's righteousness was
identified with His expected vindication of those who keep the law,
i.e. the pious Jew, at the coming of the Messiah[9]. Our Lord, and His
disciples after Him, were engaged in nothing so much as in deepening
the idea of righteousness again. Especially it is something much more
than the mere observance of outward ordinances. {139} It was, in fact,
the fundamental error of the Jews to confuse the two. Righteousness in
man must be real likeness to God, and God's righteousness is His holy
character which He is now once more manifesting in the gospel of His
Son; a character which is still shown in acts of justice[10], in
punishing the wicked and rewarding the righteous, but which manifests
itself also more especially as love, and by gracious promises of
forgiveness and acceptance[11]. Thus, in Rom. i. 17, 18, the present
'revelation of divine righteousness' is a gracious manifestation which
is put in contrast to the 'revelation of divine wrath,' the place of
which it is intended to take. And yet, though the quality of mercy is
made emphatic, it is not isolated. God's righteousness is not mere
good nature. It would not be rightly revealed by any mere ignoring or
passing over of sin. God's mercy is inseparable from