THE time is short. It is but a little while, and the Lord Jesus shall come in His glory. The judgment shall be set and the books shall be opened. "Before Him shall be gathered all nations . . . that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (Mat 25:32; 2Co 5:10). The inmost secrets of all hearts shall be revealed; "and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man" will stand together on a level at the bar and will see each other face to face, and one by one will have to give account of themselves to God before the whole world (Rev 6:15). Thus it is written, and therefore it is true and sure to come to pass.

And what does each of you intend to say in that hour? What is the defense you are prepared to set up? What is the answer you propose to give? What is the cause you mean to show why sentence should not be pronounced against you?

Verily, beloved, I do fear that some amongst you do not know. You have not thought about it yet—you have resolved to think about it some day soon; or you are not quite clear about it at present; or you have made out some ingenious, plausible scheme, which will not stand the touchstone of the Bible. Oh, what a fearful case is yours! Life is indeed uncertain; the fairest or the strongest here may [perhaps] be taken next—you cannot make an agreement with death—and yet you cannot tell us what you are resting upon for comfort.

In the great Day there will be no [lack] of witnesses: your thoughts and words and actions will appear written in the book one after another. Your Judge is a searcher of hearts. And yet, in spite of all these facts, too many of you sleep on as if the Bible were not true; too many of you know not how or why you are to escape God's wrath and condemnation.

I. First, then, I am to show you, you must have some righteousness. The Bible says plainly, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom 1:18). "The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (1Co 6:9). "The cursed shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (Mat 25:46). "Have on the breastplate of righteousness," says Paul to the Ephesians (Eph 6:14). And how shall any one presume to say that he can enter into heaven without it!

But I wish here to expose the folly of all those who talk in a loose and general way about God's mercy. Men will often say, when urged to think about their salvation, "Indeed I know I am not what I should be; I have broken God's Law very often; but He is very merciful, and I hope I shall be forgiven." Now, I am bold to say, beloved, this is an immense delusion, a refuge of lies that will not stand being compared with Scripture; and more than this, it will not last one instant in the fire of trial and affliction.

Have you not ever heard that God is a God of perfect holiness—holy in His character, holy in His laws, holy in His dwelling place? "Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel," says the Book of Leviticus, "and say unto them, 'Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy'" (Lev 19:2). "He is a holy God," says Joshua (Jos 24:19). "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb 12:14). And the Book of Revelation, speaking of heaven, says, "There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth" (Rev 21:27). And will you tell us in the face of all these texts that man, corrupt, impure, d e filed—as the best of us most surely is—shall pass the fiery judgment of our God and enter into the heavenly Jerusalem by simply trusting in the mercy of his Maker, without one single rag to cover his iniquities and hide his natural uncleanness? It cannot be: God's mercy and God's holiness must needs be reconciled, and you have not done this yet.

And have you never heard that God is a God of perfect justice, Whose laws may not be broken without punishment, Whose commandments must be fulfilled on pain of death? "All His ways are judgment," says the Book of Deuteronomy: "a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He" (Deu 32:4). "Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne" says David (Psa 89:14). "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets," said Jesus: "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the l a w, till all be fulfilled" (Mat 5:17, 18). I cannot discover any place which says the Law is now let down and need not be fulfilled; and how, then, can I teach you that it is enough to look to God's mercy? I read of only two ways in the Bible: One is to do the whole Law yourself; the other is to do it by another. I tell you then, God's mercy and God's justice must be reconciled; and this you have not done yet.

You tell us fairly you are not what you should be, but you say that God is merciful. I answer you this will not stand before the Bible: the wages of sin is death; he that offendeth in one point is guilty of all. God . . . will have His demands paid in full: your debt must be discharged by yourself or by someone else. Choose which you please, but one thing at least is certain—payment must be made. God is indeed all love: He willeth not the death of any sinner. But however small your iniquities may be, they cannot possibly be put away until the claims of His Law have been satisfied to the uttermost farthing. By some means then, you must have righteousness, or else it is clear you cannot be saved.

II. I promised in the second place to show you that we have no righteousness of our own, and therefore by ourselves we cannot be saved. Look at the Law of God and measure its requirements. Does it not ask of every man a perfect, unsinning obedience from first to last, in thought and word and deed, without one single failure in the slightest jot or tittle? And where is the son or daughter of Adam who can say, "All this I have performed"? I would even take the case of the best Christian among ourselves, and ask him if he can name a single day on which he has not sinned in many things. Oh, how much he would tell you of wandering in his prayers, of defilement in his thoughts, of coldness toward God, of want of love, of pride, of evil tempers, of vanity, of worldly-mindedness!

Some tell us that repentance and amendment will enable us to stand in the great Day. But the Bible does not warrant it. No doubt, without them none of you will enter into the kingdom of heaven; but they cannot put away your sins nor endure the severity of God's judgment.

Some say they put their trust in well-spent lives: they never did anybody any harm. They have always done their best, and so they hope they shall be accounted righteous. Beloved, this is miserable trifling. Let them tell us of a single day in which they have not broken that spiritual law laid down in the Sermon on the Mount. What! Never thought an unkind thought? Never looked an unchaste look? Never said an uncharitable thing? Never coveted? Or let them tell us of a single hour in which they have not left undone something it was in their power to do . . . is it not clear, then, that they do not read the Scriptures, or neglect their precepts if they do; and so at any rate, they are not doing their best?

Some tell us that they hope sincerity will carry them safe through their trial. They may not perhaps have quite clear views, but still they have always meant well, and so they hope to be accepted. I cannot find there is any place for them in heaven.

Lastly, some tell us that they go through all the forms and ordinances of religion and build their claim to righteousness on that. "Hath not God commanded us," they say, "to honor His Word, His house, His ministers, His sacraments? All this we do, and surely He will accept us." I cannot find it written.

Now, I wish to show you plainly that we have nothing of our own. The doctrine may seem hard and disagreeable, and yet there are few who do allow it at one important period in their lives, if they never did before. I mean the hour of death. Mark then how anxious almost every one becomes, whom God permits to keep possession of his senses. The Judgment Day appears then in its true light. Man feels naked and empty. He knows he is about to be asked that awful question, "What hast thou to say, why thou shouldst not perish for this long list of sins?" And if he has not furnished himself with the only answer that can be given, the view before his eyes cannot possibly look anything else than dreary, black, and hopeless. In short, both Scripture and your own experience prove most fully that nothing we can do will stand God's examination.

"But what are we to do?" perhaps you will ask. "You seem to have shut us up without hope. You told us first that we must have some righteousness, and now you have told us further that we have not any of our own. What are we to do? Which way are we to turn? What would you have us say? To whom are we to look?"

III. I promised in the third place to tell you how God can be a just God and yet show mercy and justify the most ungodly. The Lord Jesus Christ has done what we ought to have done and suffered what we ought to have suffered. He has taken our place and become our Substitute both in life and death, and all for the sake of miserable, corrupt, ungrateful beings like ourselves. Oh, is not His name then rightly called, "The Lord our Righteousness"?

Christ was accounted as a sinner, and therefore punished for us; we are accounted as righteous, and therefore glorified in Him. He was accounted as a sinner, and therefore He was condemned; we are accounted as righteous in Him, and therefore justified.

God's Law has been satisfied, and now we may be saved. Sin has been punished, and now sinners may go free. God has shown Himself a just God, and yet He can be the Savior of guilty men.

Beloved, are not these things wonderful? Are not these glad tidings to the laboring and heavy laden? The Lord Himself is our Righteousness . . .this shall be our defense and plea, when earth and its works are burned up, and the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and the Chief Shepherd shall appear to judge the sons of men. Who shall lay anything then to the charge of those who have laid hold on Christ? Shall any one presume to say they have not done everything required? "The Lord," we will answer, "is our righteousness."

Now, I have preached to very little purpose, beloved, if you do not this very morning ask yourselves, "Is the Lord my righteousness, or is He not?" . . . I know not that I can put into your heads a more important inquiry; and yet, I sadly fear too many of you will not think I am in earnest, or else you will suppose the question may be useful to your neighbors, but not so very necessary for yourself.

I say this much by way of warning, and I now repeat to every man, woman, and child: "Is the Lord your righteousness, or is He not?" I know that there are here two parties. One would reply, if honest, "I fear He is not"; and the other would answer, "I trust He is." I purpose, therefore, to conclude this sermon by a few words to each of these two classes.

First, then, I shall offer some counsel to those among you who are prepared to say: "The Lord Jesus is, we trust, our righteousness." I say then, and I think it safe to do so: "You have made a good profession. But I would have you daily search and see that you are not deceiving yourselves." See that your tongue does not lay claim to more than your heart has received and knows of. See that your life and lips are thoroughly agreed. Show all the world that He in whom you trust is your Example no less than your righteousness, and while you wait for His second appearing, endeavor daily to become more like Him. Study to be holy, even as He who has called you and washed you in His own blood is holy. Beware that you give the Lord's enemies no occasion to blaspheme. They are watching you much; you cannot be hid. Be always saying to yourself, "What shall I do, and how shall I behave, to show my gratitude to Him Who hath carried my sins and given me His righteousness?" But know ye for a certainty, if the world says, "What do these persons more than others?" If those who live with you cannot take knowledge of you that you are much with Jesus; if you have no fruit to show of any sort; if you are not habitually and daily sober, just, holy, temperate, humble, meek, loving, watchful, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, hungering and thirsting after righteousness; if you have none of these things, you are little better than sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, you are ruining your own soul, and in the Day of Judgment you will plead in vain the name of Jesus. The Lord will say, "I know you not; you never really came to Me."

It only remains now to speak to all among you who cannot say, "The Lord is our righteousness." Indeed, beloved, I am distressed for your condition. I cannot understand, I never can, what arguments you use to quench the striving of God's Spirit, to stop the prickings of your own conscience. In truth, I do suspect you never argue, you never reason. You shut your eyes and try to forget your own perishing souls. But know ye not that verse of the Bible which declares "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God" (Psa 9:17)—not ridicule, or insult, but simply all who forget. And know ye not the verse, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb 2:3). It does not say abuse, or disbelieve, or deny, but simply neglect. And this, I fear, is a charge you cannot turn aside.

Oh, think of death: it may be near at hand. Your careless indifference will alter then, but without Christ you will find a sting in that hour which no power of your own will ever remove. Think of eternity in hell: no merry companions, no comfortable gossiping, no noisy reveling at night, nothing but unchanging misery, unceasing torment, and unutterable woe. Think of thy judgment: your name will be called in turn, and you will stand in the sight of assembled millions—ministers, father, mother, wife, children, relations, all will see you—you will have to give account of your actions, and you know you will be condemned. But who will then pass sentence? Not an angel, not even God the Father; but the Lord Himself! Oh! Cutting and heartrending thought! The Lord Jesus, Whose blood and righteousness you now refuse, will pronounce your condemnation.

I know not anything that should prevent your salvation if you are willing . . . but mark, I will not promise you anything beyond today: "Now is the accepted time" (2Co 6:2). Thus far I can go, but one step further I cannot proceed upon sure ground. If you reject the counsel of God now, I cannot promise even the youngest of you another opportunity . . . tomorrow death may interfere, or Jesus may return to judgment, and it would be too late. Go home then, if you value your soul, and turn the words of the text into a prayer, and entreat the Lord to receive you and become your righteousness . . . Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly into every heart. Amen and Amen.

From "The Lord our Righteousness" in The Christian Race reprinted by Charles Nolan Publishers.

J. C. Ryle (1816-1900): Bishop of the Anglican Church. Revered author of Holiness, Knots Untied, Old Paths, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, and others. Born at Macclesfield, Cheshire County, England.