Lesson 5 MAN'S NEED OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

       Lesson 5

MAN'S NEED OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

    MAN HAS ever accused God of injustice in regard to His dealings with the human race. Man declares that He is not a God of Love or Justice, because He created man in the face of the fact that He knew he would fall.

    Man questions God's right to send one man to Hell and another to Heaven.

    Can God justify Himself in the face of these age-old accusations ?

    The Father-God had a right to create man just as a good man and a good woman have a right to give life to a child.

    Adam was the master of himself. He did not have to yield to Satan unless he chose to do so. He was no "missing link," but he was instead the crown of God's creation, standing in the full light of perfect knowledge.

    We have seen that man was created for joy and peace; and that sin, sickness, sorrow or death had no place in God's original plan. These present conditions of society and the world are not normal.

    God has vindicated Himself and stands acquitted before the human race because He did not leave man in this condition, but provided a Redemption which man could enjoy through faith in Jesus Christ, that would answer man's every need.

A Three-Fold Problem

    Man's need can only be met by his receiving Eternal Life, the Nature of God. God, however, cannot impart to man His very nature and give him the privilege of sonship, until He can do so on legal grounds.

    Therefore, as the Father-God undertakes the redemption of man, independent of man's own works, the first problem He faces is man's need of Righteousness.

    The Book of Romans, which gives us the legal side of our Redemption in Christ, voices this need in the 26th verse of the third chapter. The footnotes of the American Standard Version read: "That He might be righteous and the righteousness of him that hath faith in Jesus."

    This was the problem. Man must be given righteousness. God must have a legal right to declare spiritually dead man, a child of Satan, righteous.

    Man's need of righteousness involved a threefold problem.

    First, God must be righteous in His dealings with man. His transgression must not be overlooked, and the penalty must be paid.

    Second, God must act towards Satan on grounds of absolute justice. God must redeem man from his authority on legal grounds.

    Third, He must not only be just to man and to Satan, but His actions must also be according to His own righteousness. Righteousness is the very foundation of His throne, and the standard must not be lowered. There must be legal grounds on which God can justly judge the human race and compel them to pay the penalty of sin if they reject His Sin-Substitute.

The Penalty of Man's Sin

    When Justice made her demand that man pay the penalty of his crime, man was unable to pay even the interest. There was no mitigation for the crime that man had committed. It was High Treason, an unpardonable sin.

    The penalty of man's sin was Hell!

    Knowing the nature of man's sin, we can understand the reason for Hell. Man is eternal. Angels are eternal. When men and angels become criminals, they become eternal criminals.

    Man is a spirit, and there must be an eternal spirit home for man.

    When man became a spirit criminal, it was necessary that after death he be taken to jail, to await the White Throne Judgment. After judgment, at which time he receives his sentence, he must then be committed to the federal prison.

    Hell was not prepared for man (Matthew 25:41). Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.

    God intended originally that man should live on the earth eternally. The earth was made for this purpose, and man possessed an eternal human body: but when he sinned and became mortal, it was necessary for Hell to be fitted for his confinement.

    Being an eternal criminal, there must be a place of eternal restraint for him. There must be a prison; the criminals must be segregated. If they were permitted to roam indiscriminately through eternity, they would demoralize the new heaven and earth.

    We have jails, state prisons, and federal prisons for the criminals who break the laws of man, with life imprisonment for habitual criminals.

    Who can raise a protest against God if He has a prison in which are incarcerated the men who violate the laws of Heaven, and who are eternal criminals?

    The universal human believes in some kind of Hell or place of confinement for punishment after death, and this testimony is not easily ruled out of court. There is no type of testimony so convincing to a jury and judge as the testimony of universal human consciousness.

God's Justice Toward Satan

    God, in restoring righteousness to man, must not take advantage of Satan. Adam's sin of High Treason gave Satan a legal right to rule creation, and made man his legal subject and slave. God, in His omnipotence, is stronger than Satan, but He must strip him of his authority in such a way that he is dealt with justly. The plan that is to be enacted must be upon unquestionably legal grounds.

God's Justice Toward Man

    In dealing with man on the grounds of justice, God must recognize the transgression and see that the penalty is paid. Man's redemption must be legitimate, thus allowing the redeemed man to maintain his self-respect, knowing that he was justified on legal grounds.

    When man sinned, he became a partaker of Satan's nature; and, as a result of his transgression, he must be incarcerated in Hell. Someone must go there and pay his penalty so that man can be given Eternal Life and a standing before God as though he had never sinned.

    This redemption will free man from the penalty of going to Hell. If he refuses it, and persists in his union with Satan, then he must share the fate of such a one.

 What the Redemption Must Include

    The penalty of Adam's transgression must be adequately paid, so that man can be delivered from Satanic dominion. There must also be placed into the hands of man a weapon of defense and offense. Man must be given authority by which he can meet Satan and conquer him in honorable combat.

    A resurrection of man's physical body and Immortality must be granted, because human at the beginning had a perfect human body. Man must now be given an immortal body over which death can have no dominion or authority.

    Again, there must be a restoration of the earth to the Edenic glory and beauty; it must be on such a basis that there can never again be a recurrence of Satanic dominion.

    Man's redemption must include a New Creation, receiving God's Life or Nature, a perfect righteousness, and a perfect reconciliation of fellowship, so that man will feel at home with God once more.

     God must be able to give him a son's place in His heart, as well as in Creation, so that righteousness, Sonship privileges, and the fullest fellowship will be man's eternal rights. No redemption that does not give these three great blessings will reach man's needs. God, Himself, Must Provide a Redeemer

    This redemption for man that will restore righteousness to him, must emanate from God. No man himself could meet the demands of Justice on behalf of the human race; for every man born of natural generation is a broken, helpless slave, in the hands of an enemy who rules him, and who has the authority to cast him into Hell. No man can stand before God for himself, for the whole human race is under indictment. Therefore, there is not a man who can represent the human race before God.

The Requirements of the Redeemer

    This Redeemer must be a man. This man, however, must not be born of natural generation. He must be conceived in such a manner that He will not be a subject of Satan. He must not possess within His spirit nature, spiritual death.

     He must stand before God as the first Adam stood . . . in righteousness, possessing the same dominion and authority.