" 'No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,' Says the LORD." (Isa 54: 17)
Their Righteousness Is From Me Says The Lord:
God here says something very significant. It is also somewhat of a paradox. The paradox consists of the intertwining of two truths, inspeparably woven together and which if divorced from each other, brings ruin to the whole. The paradox is this: "Their righteousness" and "Is from Me". On the one hand, God speaks of the "righteousness" of His servants. He calls it theirs. However by saying this, God does not want it to be understood that this "righteousness" is something they themselves produce. They may and do in fact possess it, but they did and do not produce it. Let's dig deeper:
"Righteousness": Firstly, the KJV and NKJV, as well as the ASV and the AMP versions all render the term "righteousness". However, the NIV, and the NASB render this as "vindication". Strong defines the Hebrew word used here"Tsedaqah" as meaning, "Righteousness, justice, moral virtue". He does not use "vindication" as a defining word, so why the translators of the NIV and the NASB chose to insert "vindication", as opposed to the normal and consistent interpretation of "righteousness" is quite unknown to myself.
God says that His servants possess "righteousness". This is true of all true servants of God and His Son Jesus. The moment anyone comes to true faith in the person (the essential uniqueness and full Divinity of Jesus) and His work of substitutionary atonement on the cross, they are "saved". In biblical terminology, this is a saving from something and to something else. They have been saved from their sins -their ultimate penalty and progressively, their power. They have been saved to God and His righteousness. To be "saved" is the same thing as to be "justified" in God's sight. As we saw in the article entitled "James On Works", according to Paul, God justfies the sinner who "does not work but believes". God justifies sinners "by faith" and does so, "apart from", "without" and "not of" works - of any type or kind (For fuller treatment, see that article). In this - the initial, saving, justifying sense, the righteousness which saints possess, they did not in any way produce. It was and is imputed to them by God's graciousness, based solely on the merits of Jesus alone and His work of atonement alone. Because faith is the only thing which can vitally link any human being to the person and work of Jesus, we are said to be justified by "faith alone", because the foundation and basis of justification is Christ and His work, never our own. So it is, that in the first and most important sense - the justifying/saving sense, our righteousness is "from" God, as He said. But it does not stop there.
For Without Me You Can Do Nothing -Jn 15: 5
Jesus makes a profound, sweeping, categorical and foundational statment in John 15: 5. By it, He totally demolishes the popular and prevalent, yet highly erroneous and unscriptural doctrine of "free will". He says that apart from/without Him that we can do nothing! He did not mean that apart from Him and the gracious, life-giving enabling He supplies by His presence and indwelling Spirit we ar unable to tie our shoes, dress ourselves, drive our cars or eat or food etc., No, the very context shows He is speaking of spiritual realities. The very context has to do with our need to "abide in Him" - be vitally connected in living union and dependency upon Him, as the source of all "life" spiritually speaking, hence, all righteousness. Even as a branch cannot bear fruit apart from connection to the "vine", neither can we bear spiritual fruit apart from Him and the life and grace He both provides and supplies. Since He said without Him we can do nothing, and said it even in the context where He stresses our need to "abide in Him", He is saying we cannot even abide in Him without His own help! Furhermore, we could not "choose" to so abide apart from or without Him either! If bearing fruit is a natural consequence of "abiding", then abiding is the key. Since we cannot even "abide" of or by our own power or ability -hence, of our by our own free will, but wholly require and depend on Jesus and His grace even for that, then the doctrine of "free will" is decisively shown to be invalid and repudiated here by Jesus.
For "free will" to be true, it must be able to effect something on its own, of itself, by its own power. Jesus here denies "free will" in the context of righteousness. Apart from Him, we can do nothing...not even choose the right apart from Him and His grace. The way many who adhere to the unbiblical idea of "free will" in matters spiritual and pertaining to righteousness "interpret" Jesus here, we can do many things on our own initiative, or by our own choosing - hence power. So though He plainly said "nothing", they interpret Him to mean "many things". If we can do the most important thing by ourselves - which is to believe and be justified, and if we are capable of choosing to "abide" by our own free will, then since bearing fruit is a natural consequence to true abiding, if we can believe and choose to abide on our own, then manifestly, we do not NEED Jesus for anything. To be sure, we need an external "object" to believe in and a "vine" to be attached to. But that is it. If we are capable, by our own ability and power, of creating the belief which justifies us, and of choosing to abide - that which produces fruit in us, then in the final analysis it is we who can in fact do the most important things. Since Jesus stands objectively as the only Saviour and the only Source of and for righteousness or "bearing fruit", and this fruit is natural and inescapable for all who "abide in Him", then the crucial matter is the "getting into" Him as the "vine" in the first place. If we, by our own power, ability or choice can do that, then we can do those things most important. But Jesus plainly denies this, when He says "Without Me you can do nothing"! Thus, Jesus destroys the very foundation of "free will" in this context.
So it is, that the secondary aspect of "righteousness" - the good works which flow from all true faith, are produced in believers. They are done by believers. But they do not come from believers! They come from God - the only source of life and righteousness. "For it is God who is at work in you to both will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil 2: 13). Paul rebukes the Corinthians for assuming that they were responsible for spiritual qualities they possessed, but which Paul knew they did not of themselves produce. He says, "Who makes you different or superior to anyone else? And what do you have you did not receive? Now, if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" (1 Cor 4: 7). His point is unmistakeable! To take credit for what one possesses, but did not by their own power or ability produce is to sin by both ignorance and arrogance. The only alternative to boasting in or about one's self is to boast in God alone! Since we who believe and are saved, have been indwelt by the Spirit of the Risen Lord, having been regenerated and justified in His sight, empowered and predisposed by His grace to want to please Him, then when we are found to be "abiding" and thus, "bearing fruit", we can take nor assume any credit at all! Since we can do nothing apart from Him - which includes choosing or even wanting righteousness, then we produce none of the things we possess spiritually speaking! This is a humbling thought to be sure, but it is thr truth.
So herein is the paradox of righteousness: It comes to us. It is worked in us. It acts through us. In all of these senses, it can legitmately be said to be "ours". But it is not "of" us. It is therefore, "of" or "from" God! Is it any wonder Isaiah the prohet declared, "Lord You establish peace for us. For You also have wrought all our works in and through us" (Isa 26: 12).
In and by grace alone;
(c) Nov 2008, John M. Platanitis