It’s a very distracting thing, to walk without our own righteousness, but this tests our humility in the fact that we have “the old man,” and that we are willing to endure whatever it takes to be right with God, and have Him for our own. We know it is more than well worth of knowing sin and being forgiven, in order to know His righteousness and holiness and love. To know something just by words, or just knowing about something, is a far cry from knowing something through experiencing it and becoming a part of it! No matter how this all sounds, I find there is much importance in knowing that having to endure the sin nature is surly worth all involved, in order to be as God wants us to be.
He knew we would have to deal with the sin nature (old man) in His way, so that experiential-knowledge in Him could have its way. Regardless of all things, the way everything is going is how God knew it would go; and by the fact that He is allowing it so, manifests that it is how He chose it all to be, or He would have chosen a different way to do it all! It’s obvious He wants everything done only one way—and that way is the way it is going. “He that doeth righteousness is righteous” (1Jo 3:7). “He that doeth righteousness is he that being convinced of the insufficiency of his own righteousness, and of the excellency and suitableness of Christ's righteousness, renounces his own, and submits to His” (John Gill).
NC
He knew we would have to deal with the sin nature (old man) in His way, so that experiential-knowledge in Him could have its way. Regardless of all things, the way everything is going is how God knew it would go; and by the fact that He is allowing it so, manifests that it is how He chose it all to be, or He would have chosen a different way to do it all! It’s obvious He wants everything done only one way—and that way is the way it is going. “He that doeth righteousness is righteous” (1Jo 3:7). “He that doeth righteousness is he that being convinced of the insufficiency of his own righteousness, and of the excellency and suitableness of Christ's righteousness, renounces his own, and submits to His” (John Gill).
NC
Exclusive Source
Salvation is a deliverance wrought by the divine work on the Cross, so as to bring us out of one position into another. It is true we are morally changed, but we want more than that (morality has only to do with interaction between men and is not necessarily godliness; one can be morally good but not godly, but one godly will be morally good—NC). But supposing I have the new life, with its desires after holiness, what is the effect? It gives me the consciousness of all the sin that is in me. I want to be righteous, but then I see that I am not righteous (within myself, because of the indwelling old man or sin nature—NC); and I bow under the power of indwelling sin (not intentional sin but unavoidable sin—NC), and of the knowledge of such holiness which I have learned to desire, only to find out that I have not got it (my own righteousness—NC).
I say, what is the good of my knowing holiness in this way, if I have not got it? It is no comfort to me. Here we have been speaking of God’s righteousness; but when I look, I find I have no righteousness. Where can I find a resting-place for my spirit in such a state as this? It is impossible; and the very effect of having this new life, with all its holy affections and desires after the Lord Jesus, brings me to the discovery of the lack of what this new life cannot itself impart (self-righteousness—NC). I have got the hungers of this new life—all its holy and righteous desires; but the thing yearned for (self-righteousness—NC) I have not got.
It is the desire of my new life. I say, Oh that I could be righteous; but then I am not righteous (within myself—NC). In that way the Father meets us with a positive salvation. He meets us and quickens us into the desire and want of holiness, giving us a new life and nature capable of enjoying it when we get it. But that is not all. When I have got that new life, have I got the thing I want? No, I strive, and think, Oh! If I could get more of this holiness, but still I have not got it. I may hate sin, but the sin is there that I hate (the sin-source, the old man—NC).
I may long to be with my Father, to be forever in the light of His countenance, but then I see that I have got sin, and know that the light of His countenance cannot shine upon my sin; I want a righteousness fit for His presence, and I have not got it. It is thus God meets us at the Cross. He not only gives the life and nature that we want, but He gives us the thing that we want (Christ’s righteousness—NC); and not only so, but in Christ He gives us both the perfect Object and Life.
We have borne the image of the first Adam, in all the consequences of his sin and ruin, and we shall bear the image of the Last Adam. But the Father lays down first this great truth for our hearts, “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly” (1Co 15:48). It is what we are now! There I find what my heart as quickened by God wants; and I learn what blessedness is in Christ, by whom the Father has revealed it to us. He has given us a righteousness in the Lord Jesus, who is the blessed accepted Man in the presence of the Father (the Father gives all, in that a righteousness in Christ is more infinitely blessed than a righteousness of our own—NC).
Now, as regards my soul and eternal life, the Father has come and brought us into this position, making the Lord Jesus to be my “righteousness” and “my Life” (1Co 1:30; Col 3:4). He has brought me in, by faith and in the truth of my new life, into this wondrous position in Christ. The realization of it is another thing, and may be hindered (temporarily—NC) through failure or infirmity (trials—NC). You begin to search, perhaps in yourself, and find such and such a thought contrary to Christ. But I say, That is the old man (unintentionally sinning, yet in the light of continuous forgiveness - 1Jo 1:9. The Father knows that this is the sin nature and not us in our new nature - Rom 7:17, 20—NC). If you take yourself by yourself, there is no righteousness before God, and therefore you cannot stand an instant in the Father’s sight. I must look at the Lord Jesus to see what I am, and I say, “As the heavenly, such are they that are also heavenly”; and this is what I am in the presence of my Father. There is no veil: we are to “walk in the light, as He is in the light” (1Jo 1:7 – to me walking in the light is knowing you are forgiven in spite of the old man’s sins—NC).
—J N Darby
MJS daily devotional excerpt for May 3
“The fact is that it is the old life which is in the way of the new life and its full expression. It is the natural life which obstructs the course of the divine life. Thus what has been done for us has to be done in us, and as it is done in us that life becomes more than a deposit, more than a simple, though glorious possession; it becomes a deepening, growing power, a fullness of expression.
“You may have been in the fires and have been having a pretty hard and painful time in your spiritual life, but that only means that God has been preparing you for something more. No, God is not a God who believes in bringing everything to an end. He is always after something more. And if He has to clear the way for something more by devastating methods (Cross), well, that is all right, for it is something more that He is after. There is so much more, far, far transcending all our asking or thinking.” -T. A. S.
