From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: As most of you will remember, we are dealing with the 17th verse in the 14th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. This great statement. Let me read to you the 17th verse then in the 14th chapter of Romans, and also the two following verses. "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith we may edify one another."

Now here we must remember the Apostle takes this argument that he's been conducting with regard to these things indifferent, namely, what meats the Christian should eat or not eat, and what days he should observe or not observe. The Apostle suddenly lifts up the whole argument and puts it in its great context in these words of the 17th verse. He says, you've got to remember that what after all matters is the kingdom of God. They'd been in danger as we've seen of forgetting that.

So he now says, quite apart from the intrinsic merits of these particular points, what we must never do is to regard them just in and of themselves and isolate them from the whole context in which we find ourselves, which is the kingdom of God. So the great thing is that we must always understand the teaching concerning the kingdom of God and remember that as Christians, we are now in that kingdom. That it's entirely different from everything else, and that it has its own laws, its own ways, and indeed its own way of thinking.

So what he's really telling them is that they must learn to think in this new way. Of course he's already been saying that in a sense at the beginning of the 12th chapter, you remember, where he says, "be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." This is really another way of saying all that. We've got to think in a new way in this kingdom of God to which we now belong.

And so we've been trying to apply this, indeed the Apostle makes us do so. He says the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. Now we've been suggesting that this is a general principle. Not only does it apply to meat and drink, eating and drinking, but it applies to many other things also. And it's important always for us to know what the kingdom of God is not. And I emphasize particularly that we must never represent it as being something small or something merely negative. That surely is the emphasis that comes out here.

There's a sarcastic element here. The kingdom of God, he says, is not eating and drinking. You seem to be reducing it to that. It's too small, it's too negative. So we must start with that negative. But you don't start with that, you don't stop with that. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but... and now we turn to the positive. What is the kingdom of God? What is it that we've always got to keep in the forefront of our minds? What is it that must govern and control the whole of our thinking?

Well, his answer is it is not eating and drinking, but it is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now the question before us is this: what does this mean? What is the meaning of these three terms? How are we to understand them? It's a question which has caused division amongst the commentators. There is a division: on the one hand you have John Calvin, Charles Hodge, Shedd, and people like that; and on the other hand you've got Robert Haldane and a modern commentator, Professor John Murray, taking different views as to the way in which we are to understand the three terms.

Now as I've often pointed out as we've been working our way through this epistle, it's always interesting when you come across a disagreement between Charles Hodge and Robert Haldane. They were in a sense contemporaries and they were both great Christian men, great reformed teachers, and men of profound understanding and learning. And generally they're in such entire agreement about most things. But now and again we found that they disagree, and here is another example of their disagreement. And as I say, you've got a modern commentator like Professor John Murray agreeing with Robert Haldane at this point rather than as he generally does with Charles Hodge, whom he tends to follow so closely.

Now what is the different point of view? Well, here is the question if you like in a nutshell: are these terms, and especially the term righteousness, to be taken here in the way that they have been used right through this epistle? Or do we have to say that here they are not to be used in that sense? You remember generally in this epistle, the term righteousness means the righteousness of God, the righteousness which is from God, the righteousness which God gives us.

You remember how that was the whole burden and nerve of the argument in the first three chapters, where the Apostle turns in the third chapter for instance. Here is one of the great turning points, verse 20 of chapter three, "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ" and so on. It was introduced, you remember, in the 17th verse of the first chapter. But there is that great turning point, and from there on this term righteousness is used in that sense.

And the same applies to the term peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Well now, that is the view that is taken by Calvin and Hodge and others. But then you've got Robert Haldane and his followers at this point who take an entirely different view. They say no, here the term doesn't mean that, it doesn't carry its usual connotation in this epistle. Here it is used as descriptive of men and women. It has an ethical sense.

So they say what the Apostle is saying here is this: that the kingdom of God is rectitude, right behavior in us, and harmony and joy. Now you see this is an interesting and obviously a very important matter. Which of these two is right? Do we change the meaning that has been given to righteousness right through at this point? The argument is that the Apostle here is dealing with conduct and behavior, and therefore he is describing the characteristics of the members of the church and using the terms in this ethical sense.

Well now, what have we got to say about this? Well, I have, if I may use such an expression, greatly enjoyed myself as I've looked into this matter. And it seems to me that I've got to say that there is a sense in which I agree with both and yet at the same time say that both are wrong. Now let me expound what I mean. The argument is that this is, I say, either the use of the term in its general objective sense of the righteousness of God in Christ which he puts to our account in justification and so on, or else that it is this more ethical description of Christian people.

And those who take that second view say, but surely the 18th verse proves this: "For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men." And still more they say in the appeal in the 19th, "Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith we may edify one another." Well now let me put some considerations to you. It seems to me to be quite clear that the Apostle is concerned here to remind these Romans that they must not give the impression or tend to think again that it is what they do that makes them Christians.

I'm sure that is included. It must be. And it is to that extent that I agree with the teaching of Calvin and Hodge about this statement. He's undoubtedly doing that. There was this tendency creeping into the thinking of both parties in the church at Rome over these questions. There was the tendency almost to say that it's what you do about eating and drinking and observation of days that really decides whether you're a Christian or not. You remember how the stronger ones were despising the weaker ones, and the weaker ones were tending to judge the stronger ones.

And this was becoming central. So that I think that there is this element in it, that he is reminding them that they mustn't drop back to that old thinking which thinks that what a man does or doesn't do is what determines whether he's a Christian or not. That's there. But I disagree with Calvin and Hodge when they suggest that that is the main emphasis here, or that it is the only emphasis. Because I want to show you that it isn't.

Now another thing which we can lay down surely as a proposition is this: it cannot be right to say that the kingdom of God consists in our ethical behavior. And after all, what the Apostle is saying is what the kingdom of God is. He's giving one of his definitions of the kingdom of God. And you see Professor John Murray therefore says that the kingdom of God is rectitude and peaceableness or harmony and joy. Now that seems to me to be something which we've got to exclude completely for the reason that the kingdom of God can never be described or defined in terms of our ethical behavior. For to do that is again virtually to go away from the faith position.

Now it's another thing to say that the citizens of the kingdom of God should behave in a given way. That isn't what the Apostle is saying. He says the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So I would rule out that teaching of Haldane and his followers entirely for this reason: that it's saying that the kingdom of God is our ethical behavior, which seems to me to deny the teaching concerning the kingdom everywhere in the scriptures.

Another argument which I would bring forward is this: you must have noticed the parallel between what we are told here and what we are told in the first two verses of the fifth chapter of this great epistle. There you read this: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access into this faith wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Justified by faith, the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, there's your righteousness. Then peace with God, there's the second term. And the third term, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, there is your joy in the Holy Ghost.

Now the Apostle has put the three things together there at the beginning of the fifth chapter, where he's summing up as it were, winding up his whole argument about justification by faith only. And here again he states it once more. This is therefore parallel to that. And it seems to me to be very important in our interpretation of this particular statement. So I go on to say that as I understand it, the 18th verse and the 19th are not just a repetition of the 17th verse, or a further definition of what the Christian man is.

I regard verses 18 and 19 as deductions drawn from the 17th verse. The 17th verse makes the big statement, lays down the big proposition. And then he draws two things out of that. He says the man who realizes this and lives in this way and is governed by this thinking is one who is acceptable to God and approved of men. And then comes the appeal: let's go on doing this. "Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith we shall edify one another."

So I regard the verses 18 and 19 as deductions from 17. Not mere elaboration of 17. That is a part of the argument of Haldane and others, that the 18th verse in particular is just to say the same thing again as he said in verse 17. I don't think so. I think it's a deduction and leads to an appeal which is based upon it. And in the 17th verse, what we have is the grounds of the appeal. In other words, to me this 17th verse is a general statement of the character or the characteristics of the kingdom of God and its citizens.

In other words, in this verse, I'm arguing that he is not dealing here with ethical relationships but with personal relationships. Of course our personal relationships and our view of our personal relationships will show themselves in our conduct and in our behavior, in our ethical living. But that isn't what he's dealing with here. I'm suggesting that what he's trying to show us is this: is that these Romans had rather forgotten their whole position and their entire relationship to one another, and that that is the source of all their troubles.

They were reducing the whole matter of the kingdom of God to attitudes towards certain details and certain practices. And that was the essence of their trouble. They'd become so involved in the minutiae that they were missing the whole thing. I've quoted it before, it's the same thing as our Lord had said about the Pharisees: they tithe mint and rue and anise and cummin and forget the weightier matters of the law. I suggest that this is an exact parallel statement. And the Apostle is saying that they mustn't do this, that they've forgotten what is the essential characteristic of the kingdom and all who belong to the kingdom. And they're guilty of this reducing of it to the level of these details and minutiae.

Now in other words, what seems to me to control our interpretation here is this: is that the Apostle is ridiculing the attitude of these people, and is indeed showing a measure of impatience with it. I've been trying to bring this out as we've dealt with this verse on previous Friday evenings. I again introduce this whole element of sarcasm. I think he does this quite deliberately. He says, don't you realize what you're doing? He's impatient with them. He says, how can you possibly be guilty of this? You couldn't possibly be guilty of behaving in the way that you're doing with regard to these matters of indifference, if you always remembered the great characteristics of the kingdom and what should be the characteristics of the people who belong to the kingdom.

That is why I said at the beginning that in a sense I accept both and reject both of these alternatives that are put before us by the commentators. Now let me produce some supporting evidence in this way. I suggest that what the Apostle is doing here is really the same thing exactly as he does twice over in the Epistle to the Galatians. Now go to Galatians 5. Let's read the first six verses of the Epistle to the Galatians.

Here I think we've got the same kind of argument. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Now don't you feel it coming out? You see the Apostle, remember, was a preacher and he was a teacher and he was a pastor. And there's an element of feeling here. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage." "Behold, I say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."

Now remember, he's writing here again to believers. These Galatians are believers, but these false teachers, these Judaizers had come in and said yes, that's all right to believe in Christ, but you've got to be circumcised as well. They bring in some detail, and if you haven't got the detail you're all wrong. He says, do you realize what you're doing? Christ shall profit you nothing if you do that. "For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."

"For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." You see, he takes them from this detail of circumcision. He says that isn't it. It's this: "We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." Then here is the pronouncement: "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."

You see, he ridicules this talk about circumcision and this great preoccupation about it. It was the very center of the preaching of these Judaizers. Circumcision, you've got to be circumcised, this is everything. And that's how he deals with it. In Christ Jesus, if you like, in the kingdom of God, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but faith which worketh by love. He's put it into its context. He's ridiculed it. He's shown how false this is, all this preoccupation with circumcision.

That, you see, he felt this so strongly that he has to come back to it at the very end of his epistle. So in chapter six of the Epistle to the Galatians, he comes to it again and finishes with it. Start reading at verse 12. "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh," these were the circumcision people, "they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. That's their motive. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh."

Then one of these flights again: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." A new creature, a new being, a new creation, something absolutely new, not on detail here or there. The whole thing, you see, the same thing exactly. Lifts it right up, shows the bigness of it all and shows with contempt the smallness and the pettiness of this wrangling about these details.

"And as many," he says, "as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." And then I like this 17th verse: "From henceforth let no man trouble me." No more of this nonsense, says the great Apostle. No more wasting of my time over this. "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit."

Now there I think is exactly the same thing as he's doing here in Romans 14:17. Let's have an end of this nonsense, he says. You seem to be making this the big thing in the church. This is the essence of Christianity. The kingdom of God is a matter of eating and drinking. No more of this, says the Apostle. It isn't that. It's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

So you see, what he's really telling them is that they're in grave danger of forgetting their whole position as Christians, owing to this preoccupation with these details and with these attitudes towards conduct and so on. Very well. I suggest therefore that this is not merely an ethical description. Not merely a description of the kind of life that Christians are to live. It includes that, but it's much more than that, it's much bigger than that. I say you miss the whole element of greatness, you miss the element of sarcasm and of contempt and of ridiculing the thing out of court, if you say that it means the kingdom of God is rectitude and peaceableness and joy. Oh no, the kingdom of God is infinitely bigger than that. It is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

In other words, he's saying that the strong and the weak in the church of Rome are in error over this matter. Now I don't think there's any suggestion here that they were ethically wrong. Those who were eating the meats offered to idols were not doing anything that was ethically wrong. And the ones who didn't eat those meats, they were not doing anything that was ethically wrong. That isn't their trouble at all.

The trouble with them was not that they were being unrighteous in their attitude towards one another. The trouble was very much more serious than that. They were making their attitude towards these detailed questions determinative of their whole position. They were so emphasizing these things as in the end, as I say, virtually to say that this is what makes a man a Christian at all. And that is the thing that the Apostle cannot tolerate. He's not merely telling them to behave in a better way with regard to one another. What he's telling them to do is to correct their thinking on both sides and to realize that they're reducing the whole idea of the kingdom of God to something small and petty and mere detail.

Very well then. The deduction which we draw is this in interpreting this word righteousness: that the Apostle is in a sense giving us a definition of the Christian. And what he's saying is this: you've got to get hold of this whole notion of righteousness. What is it? Well, you can put it like this: the Christian is not merely one who is right in certain respects or here or there. That's the impression they were giving.

Should a Christian eat these meats and take this drink? Should he observe these days or not? In other words, if you listen to them in their discussions, you would have said, oh well of course a Christian is obviously one on the one hand those say who does eat these things. He's been emancipated. He sees through it all. He knows that the idol is non-existence and therefore there is no harm in eating these meats. That's what makes a man a Christian is that he sees that.

But then the other weaker brother says no, no, the Christian is a man who realizing that that meat has been offered to the idol doesn't eat it. He's got enlightenment to show him that. And so you see you listen to them and you begin to think, oh well this is what makes a man a Christian. It isn't that, says the Apostle. That's the old type of thinking. What decides whether a man is a Christian or not is not his view about these particular things. What is it then?

Well, he says the Christian is a man who's got hold of this teaching concerning righteousness. He doesn't think any longer in details. How does he think? He thinks like this: the Christian is a man who has been declared righteous by God. Justification by faith only. God who justifieth the ungodly. All the argument as I say leading up to the end of chapter four and the beginning of chapter five.

This is how the Christian thinks of righteousness. Not in little details here and there, but in this whole matter of his standing before God and the declaration of God that he accounts this man as righteous. Not only that, he is a man who knows that he has been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that God has put this robe of righteousness upon him. Not only that, he is a man who has been born again. He has been born of the Spirit.

And because of that, he's in an entirely new realm. He was in the flesh, he's now in the Spirit. But another way of putting all that is this: is to say that he now belongs to the realm of righteousness, whereas before he didn't. Now I want to bring out this point because to me it is the key to this interpretation that I'm giving you of this 17th verse. So I want to show you how the Apostle really has defined the whole thing for us himself in chapter six of this epistle.

Let me read again from the 17th verse of chapter six to the end of the chapter. "But God be thanked," he says, "that you were the servants of righteousness," that's what... you were the servants of sin, that's what you were. But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Now that's a great statement, we have dealt with that. He says you were at one time the servants of sin. But now you've been poured into a new mold. You remember that was our word. They've been poured into the mold of this teaching. They've been delivered into the mold. So they're new men.

And now listen: "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." You see, this is a translation, a transformation. There's been this great change. They were the servants of sin, but they've been made free from that and they've now become the servants of righteousness. This is just another way of saying that they're now in the kingdom of God. So you see it is still not a question of detailed behavior. It is that they have become the servants of righteousness.

Well then he goes on: "I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh." This is an apology for using an illustration. "For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." Then here is a great statement: "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness." What does that mean? Well it doesn't mean that every action they performed was bad and wrong and evil. No, no. What he means is this: you had nothing to do with righteousness. You were not in the realm of righteousness at all. You were outside. You were free from righteousness.

Righteousness you see is not an ethical quality in the believer in this way in which the Apostle uses it. It is a realm to which they belong. They belong to the realm of righteousness. Before they didn't. They were the servants of sin, and they had nothing to do with righteousness. They were free from righteousness. Then he goes on: "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin," from the realm of sin, from the ultimate control of sin, "and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Now there is to me the key to this whole matter. They now belong to the realm of righteousness. They didn't before. They belonged before to the realm of sin. It's in that sense the kingdom of God is righteousness. Not merely righteousness in me. That's something I've got to work out. But the first thing is that I am put into the realm of righteousness. It's the kingdom of God is the realm and the sphere and the reign of righteousness. Not of sin. This is the interpretation of this 17th verse of the 14th chapter.

Now the Christian you see is a new man and he's in this new realm. So now he views all matters of conduct and of behavior, not primarily in terms of particular actions, but rather in terms of his conformity to the kingdom to which he belongs and to the King of the kingdom. This is the difference. You see, he realizes now that this is his fundamental commandment: be ye holy for I am holy.

In other words, the great distinction is the distinction between holiness and morality. And that's the thing they were tending to forget in Rome. They were tending to drop back to the level of thinking in terms of morality. Morality is always concerned about particular actions and about being legally right. All the moral man is concerned about is to be right in this respect and that and the other, and not to be wrong in this respect and that respect and the other. He thinks in terms of actions, and what he is is the summation of what he does and what he doesn't do. This is a legalistic conception.

That isn't the way the Christian thinks about these things at all. That's what they were tending to do in Rome. It was this question of eating meats or not or of drinking and not drinking, and observation of days or not observing days. They were falling back to that old way. They were falling from this liberty that they've got in Christ, this new way of thinking.

But that's morality. Holiness is quite different. Holiness is always concerned primarily about the whole man. Not the parts, not the details, not the particulars, but the whole man, his state and his condition. Be ye holy for I am holy. This is the thing that he is concerned about and not merely with his actions. The Christian man in other words is a man who is not content with being right here or there. He wants to be right everywhere.

Now can't you see that hymn we've just been singing by Joseph Lavater? It puts this thing so perfectly. His desire there expressed is not merely that he might be right on this point and not wrong on the other point. He's not looking at details. This is his prayer: "O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, and all things else recede." Here's a man who's got a conception of righteousness. He wants to be rid of everything that's wrong. He wants to be wholly right. He's interested in holiness. It's a big thing, it's a positive thing.

And the moment you see this, you're no longer interested in these little details. The other man, the moral man, of course, the merely ethical man, he says, "Oh, I'm right here, I'm right there," and so on, and imagines that he's therefore all right. But he isn't. And that is the tragedy with regard to that man always.

So I again put it like this to you: that the Christian is not primarily concerned about detailed rightness, but he is profoundly concerned about being well pleasing to God and right in the sight of God. Take the Apostle Paul himself. He'd been in that old position. He didn't do this, he didn't do that. He'd tell you about it in that bit of autobiography in Philippians 3. But he's emancipated from all of that. What he wants now is this: "that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection," no longer mine own righteousness which is after the law, but the righteousness of God which is by faith through Jesus Christ.

Or indeed as our Lord has put it there in that beatitude in Matthew 5:6: "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness." You're no longer thinking of whether you should eat this or drink that. You're no longer thinking of days and seasons and these particular details. You want to be wholly righteous. You hunger and thirst after righteousness to be entirely right. This is the thing.

In other words, this is the essence of Christianity as our Lord puts it there in the beatitude. This is a portrait of the Christian man. And you're no longer looking at details, but you're looking at a whole person, an entire personality, and he hungers and he thirsts after righteousness. Or let me put it like this to you: the kingdom of God is righteousness. Yes, the Christian is a man who realizes the truth about the people of God.

And once you begin thinking of yourself in terms of being one of the people of God, you're emancipated out of these small, petty, minute arguments about whether this is right or that is right and wrong and so on. Now listen to the way that this is put by the Apostle Peter, for instance, in the first epistle and in the second chapter beginning at verse 9. The kingdom of God is righteousness, "but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

This is the thing that interests the Christian. He's one of the people of God. He's a citizen of the kingdom. And it's a kingdom of righteousness. You see the total outlook is different. It's not merely ethical righteousness. It's this whole concept of himself as a citizen belonging to this great kingdom. Very well.

So I put it again that the Christian is a man who realizing that he's a citizen of the kingdom of God is primarily concerned about the glory of God and the extension of the kingdom of God and the well-being of all who are citizens of the kingdom of God. The Christian is unlike the Pharisee who was mainly concerned about ethical conduct and behavior and about appearing right outwardly, but whose inward part was full of ravening and of wickedness.

You see the Christian is not interested in these appearances and in correctness here and there. He's concerned about being clean within. This total righteousness, this utter purity. Or if you like, let's look at it in terms of the way in which our Lord Himself puts it in the third of the parables in Matthew 25. This seems to me to put it very well indeed. You remember "when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats."

And you remember the division. He shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

You see the point? The righteous are unconscious of their righteousness. But these people in Rome were very conscious of it. The strong man says, "I see through this, I've a right to eat this." The other man says, "No, he's unrighteous in doing that." You see they're regarding it from the standpoint of ethics and ethical conduct and behavior, and so they're self-satisfied and they can justify themselves. But the man who is a citizen of the kingdom of God, the righteous person, he's not aware of his righteousness. He's unconscious of it.

This is the glory of his whole position. And so you see we are told that the others shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. So the righteous person, the man who is a citizen of the kingdom of God, the man who realizes that the kingdom of God is righteousness, is a man who not so much does this or doesn't do that, but he is a righteous person.

Now this is the thing I trust that I'm making clear to you: that he is a righteous person. Which is put by the Apostle Paul again in the Epistle to the Ephesians in the fourth chapter. Listen, here it is once more, beginning at verse 17. "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness" and so on.

"But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," or holiness of the truth.

In other words, the Christian is a man who is righteous. He has become a righteous person. He is created anew in righteousness and holiness of the truth. It's not a matter of details. He is a righteous person, whereas before he wasn't. Or to bring this to a conclusion this evening: the kingdom of God is righteousness. The Christian, the citizen of the kingdom of God, is a righteous person. Over and above what he is in detail, he has been made a righteous person, which means this: that he is like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen to John putting it: "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." That's it. Jesus Christ the righteous. He is righteous. So is the Christian. Listen to that was 1 John 2:1. But let me remind you again of 1 John 2:29: "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him," which is John's way of saying this: if you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who is born of him doeth righteousness, because he's been made righteous.

But he puts this still more plainly in the third chapter and the seventh verse. "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." That's it. You see, he does righteousness because he is righteous. That's the right way to put it. You don't make yourself righteous by what you do. You are made righteous and then the appeal comes to you to show it in your conduct and in your behavior.

Now it was their failure to realize this that was causing all the trouble in Rome. They were here with the details and the minutiae and giving the impression that you make yourself righteous by what you do and what you don't do. It's all wrong. The kingdom of God is righteousness. The Christian is a righteous person. He is righteous and he doeth righteousness because he is righteous, even as he, the Lord Jesus Christ, is righteous.

So what the Christian is interested in is not that he does this or doesn't do that, he wants to be like Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God is righteousness, and not particular views and actions with regard to particular matters. So you see as the Apostle ridicules and deals with contempt with all this fuss and bother in the church of Rome over these matters of indifference. Very well, there it is with regard to righteousness. And God willing, we shall try to work it out in terms of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost next Friday night.

Let us pray. O Lord our God, we come to thee and see so much in us like those people at Rome of old. Lord have mercy upon us. Enlarge our outlook we pray thee. Give us to see that what we are is the thing that matters above all else. O enable us to rejoice in this: that we who were once free from righteousness have now been made righteous, that we are righteous as he is righteous. That thou hast given us this new birth and fashioned us anew that we may be made conformable to the image of thy dear Son.

O Lord, we pray thee that we may ever so see ourselves as citizens of this kingdom of righteousness. We know the day is coming when the righteous shall shine out in the heavens. Lord, help us to see that this is already in us and that thou art perfecting it in us, in order that we may shine in that great day as the children of the kingdom and children of God, and those who are like unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear us, O God, and bless us to that end.

And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us, now this night, throughout the remainder of this our short and uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and evermore. Amen.