Chapter 4
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 righteousness, because He created man in the face of the fact that He knew he would fail.
Man questions God's right to send one man to heaven and another to hell. Can God justify Himself in the face of these age old accusations? Certainly God had a right to create man just as any good man and good woman have the right to give life to a child.
Adam was the master of himself. He did not have to yield to Satan unless he chose. He was no missing link, but he was 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, and sorrow, or death, had no place in God's original plan. These present conditions of society 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 that would cover every human need, which man could enjoy through faith in Christ.
A Tree-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 of righteousness and justice.
Therefore, as God, our Father, undertakes redemption of man independent of man's works, the first problem He faces is man's need of righteousness.
The book of Romans which gives to us the legal side of our redemption in Christ, voices this need in the 26th verse of chapter three. The footnotes of the revised 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 fallen man spiritually dead, a child of Satan, righteous.
Man's need for righteousness involved a threefold problem.
First, God must be righteous in His dealings with man. Man's transgression must not be overlooked, and the penalty must be paid.
Secondly, God must act toward Satan on the grounds of justice. God must redeem man from Satan's authority without taking advantage of him.
Third, He must not only be just to man and 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, grounds of righteousness and justice 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 is unable to pay even the interest. There was no mitigation for the crime that man had committed. It was by human, as well as by divine standards, 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 being (Hebrews 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:23), and there must be an eternal spirit home for him. When man became a spirit criminal and traitor, a jail became imperative and after judgment the Federal Prison became a necessity. 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 time criminals breaking the laws of man, and life imprisonment for the man found to be a habitual criminal. Who can raise a protest against God if He has a prison in which are incarcerated men who violate the laws of heaven, and who are eternal criminals.
The universal human believes in some kind of hell 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 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 done so on legal grounds, God's righteousness and justice must not be violated.
God's Justice Toward Man
In dealing with man on the grounds of justice and righteousness, God must recognize the transgression of man and see that the full penalty is paid. Man's redemption must be legitimate thus allowing the redeemed man to maintain his self-respect, knowing 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 domination. There must also be placed in 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 man at the beginning had a perfect human body. Man must now be given an eternal human body over which death can have no dominion or authority.
There must be a restoration of the earth to 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 (2 Corinthians 5:17) receiving God's life and nature, a perfect righteousness, a perfect reconciliation or 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 be the provider of Redemption. This redemption for man 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 himself, for the whole human race is under indictment; therefore, there is not a man who can represent the human race before God.
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 subject to Satan, or a subject of Satan. He must be free from spiritual death, sinless. He must stand before God as the first Adam stood in righteousness possessing the same dominion and authority.
He must walk on this earth as a man, perfectly pleasing to the Father. He must meet Satan in temptation as the first man and woman had met him, but he must not yield to Satan's will.
This man must act as man's substitute; man's sin, spiritual death itself, must be laid upon Him. The judgment of Satan must fall upon him. He must meet the demands of justice; in order to do this, he must go to Hell. He must remain there under judgment until every legal requirement of righteousness and justice is met. He must stay there and suffer until God could legally acquit every human being who takes him as Saviour and every human being who trusted in the blood covenant from the beginning.
Not only must this redeemer be free from Satanic dominion in His earth walk, but He must be a being greater than Satan, who after the penalty has been paid will be strong enough to conquer Satan, taking from him his Lordship and legal dominion over man (Colossians 2:15). He must annihilate death, bringing life and immortality to the broken bondaged human (Romans 2:7, 1 Corinthians 15:53, 1 Timothy 6:16, 2 Timothy 1:10).
No angel can act as man's redeemer, for an angel could not meet the demands of justice. No man could fill the requirements of justice for a redeemer because of his union with, and subjection, to Satan.
Only God is greater than Satan. Therefore, God and man must be united in one individual. The incarnation is the only answer to man's need of righteousness. Only the union of God and man will provide a redeemer who will walk in righteousness as a man with the ability to pay man's penalty and conquer Satan.
Deity must suffer for man. God had created man in the face of the fact that he would fall. The responsibility for such a creation rested upon God. He must provide a redemption. The only way for humanity to be given righteousness is the incarnation of God's own Son.
God's beloved Son must come out of the Father's bosom, lay aside His glory and majesty that He had enjoyed with the Father. He must come to earth, taking upon Himself the physical body of a human (Hebrews 2:14).
He must walk as a Son pleasing to the Father, and conquer Satan in His earth walk as a man. Then God must take men's sin nature, that hideous monstrous thing, spiritual death, and lay it upon the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son - His holy eternal Son. The Son must go under judgment and wrath and indignation of justice must be meted out toward Him.
When He has paid the penalty for man, He shall be made righteous, and that righteousness will become man's possession in Christ.
It was through that one man that judgment had come (Romans 5:12 & 18). Therefore, one man without sin shall be able on legal grounds to pay the penalty so the human race shall be declared free from guilt and unrighteousness if they confess the Lordship of the Incarnate One, Christ Jesus.
The conclusions of our lesson is this: Man's need of eternal life demands first, righteousness; and man's need of righteousness demands the incarnation, i.e. the Virgin Birth of the Redeemer.
Please note the scriptures covered in the lesson.
Scriptures revealing the unrighteousness of man:
Romans 1:18 "The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men."
Romans 3:10 "All under sin, none righteous, no not one."
Romans 5:16-18 "Through one trespass judgment came unto all men."
John 16:8 "Convicted of judgment."
John 16:11 "Of judgment because the Prince of this world hath been judged." Satan's judgment became man's.
John 3:36 "The wrath of God abideth in him."
Scriptures showing Hell as the place of confinement:
Psalm 9:17 "The wicked shall be turned into hell (Sheol)."
Rev. 20:13-15 "If any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the Lake of fire."
2 Peter 2:4 "But cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved unto judgment."
Scriptures showing the inability of man to redeem himself:
Ephesians 2:12 "No hope, and without God."
Isaiah 59:15-16 "God saw there was no righteousness, no man to act on man's behalf; therefore, His own arm brought salvation and righteousness to him."
Romans 3:20 "By works of the flesh shall no man be accounted righteous." (Footnote of Revised Version)
John 8:34 "He that committed sin is the servant of sin."
Ephesians 2:2-3 "Walking according to Satan."
Colossians 1:13 "Man in the authority of Satan."
Hebrews 2:12-15 "Satan holds the dominion of the realm of spiritual death and man in bondage to him."
Scriptures revealing that Christ, the Incarnate One, met the requirements of justice as man's Redeemer:
In His earth walk: John 8:29 "I do always the things that please my Father."
As man's sin substitute: 2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:4-6; Romans 4:25
As the conqueror of Satan: Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14-15; Philippians 2:9-10; 1 John 3:8
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