of Christ, and on the ground of a righteousness which is Christ's
and which naturally we do not possess. Herein lies the need of the
atonement.

b) The Righteousness and Justice of God.

In a certain sense these attributes are but the manifestation of
God's holiness. It is holiness as manifested in dealing with the
sons of men. Holiness has to do more particularly with the character
of God in itself, while in Righteousness and Justice that character
is expressed in the dealings of God with men. Three things may be
said in the consideration of the Righteousness and Justice of God:
first, there is the imposing of righteousness laws and demands,
which may he called legislative holiness, and may he known as the
Righteousness of God; second, there is the executing of the penalties
attached to those laws, which may be called judicial holiness; third,
there is the sense in which the attributes of the Righteousness
and Justice of God may be regarded as the actual carrying out of
the holy nature of God in the government of the world. So that in
the Righteousness of God we have His love of holiness, and in the
Justice of God, His hatred of sin.

Again Righteousness, as here used, has reference to the very nature
of God as He is in Himself--that attribute which leads God always
to do right. Justice, as an attribute of God, is devoid of all
passion or caprice; it is vindicative not vindictive. And so the
Righteousness and Justice of the God of Israel was made to stand
out prominently as contrasted with the caprice of the heathen gods.

(1) Scriptural statement of the fact.