Resting on His Blood and Righteousness
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B. B. Warfield on why the gospel is needed for believers:
There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be trust as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.
B. B. Warfield, Works 7:113
posted by JT at Monday, January 14, 2008
11 Comments:
Amen.
And so we sing..."My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name."
As we grow in holiness, may these words become sweeter and sweeter as we come to experience more and more the truth that is in them.
Thanks for this - btw is there a typo? Should it be "It is just as true after we have belived?"
Amazing Grace! Amazing Love! Amazing Savior and Lord!
The Gospel never ceases to embrace the heart of those who are saved, and to be a sweet aroma for the soul.
Thanks so much bro. I am going to use this in an upcoming teaching at the church...
Another hymn:
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
This hymn has at least 7 verses and was written by Nicolaus L. Zinzendorf (1700-1760) and translated from German into English by John Wesley (1703-1791)
Thank God for the Gospel--the best news this sinner has ever heard!
This quote from Warfield reminds me of Brian Vickers' book, Jesus' Blood and Righteousness: Paul's Theology of Imputation. Brian claims that the expression "blood and righteousness" speaks of Jesus' "passive" (blood) and "active" (righteousness) obedience. I have not yet checked my copy of Warfield's works for the quotation, whether he regards the expression as Vickers does. I wonder, however, whether Vickers is correct with his claim. Until I read Vickers' book, I had never come upon anyone else who made the claim. Instead, in all my encounters of uses of "his blood and righteousness," I have found that it is a hendiadys, expressing a singular idea by way of two words. In other words, both "blood" and "righteousness" refer to Christ's obedient sacrificial redeeming death. "Blood," itself, is a metonymy for Christ's sacrificial death. "Righteousness," refers to Christ's one act of righteousness, his obedience, that will make many righteous (Romans 5:18-19). What is this one act of righteousness? Contextually, is it not Christ's sacrificial death?
""Righteousness," refers to Christ's one act of righteousness, his obedience, that will make many righteous"
If this is so, then could Christ have simply been born, and then die, and not have to live the life He lived, which was sinless, and under the law, where He kept the whole law perfectly in thought, word, and deed.
I believe Christ's fulfilling of the law perfectly is imputed to us. And our sins are blotted out on the Cross when Jesus cried "It is Finished!".
Thanks for the quote! I'm busy making final tweaks and such to the lesson I'm giving to my girls tonight...this'll be a great addition!
donsands,
If this is so, then could Christ have simply been born, and then die, and not have to live the life He lived, which was sinless, and under the law, where He kept the whole law perfectly in thought, word, and deed.
No, what I said does not imply the inference that you have extracted from my comments. Would it be reasonable for me, however, to infer that you assumed that my comments denied the teaching of Christ's active obedience? Reading my comments will show that such an inference is not present. I commented only upon the expression Christ's blood and righteousness as a hendiadys, expressive of one thing, rather than as expressive of two. My comments came about because of the use of the expression in various hymns and gospel songs that the church has sung throughout the years, such as a couple of pieces noted by others, in comments above.
I have re-read Warfield's comments in which he used the expression. Warfield offers no hint whether he took the expression to refer to anything other than Christ's atoning sacrifice.
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