“It is the perfection of perfection” by Horatius Bonar

“The imputation of the first Adam’s sin to us, and of the last Adam’s righteousness, are placed side by side. (Romans 5:12-21)

The transference of our guilt to the Divine Substitute, and the transference of that Substitute’s righteousness or perfection to us, must stand or fall together.

This righteousness of God was no common righteousness.

It was the righteousness of Him who was both God and man; and therefore it was not only the righteousness of God, but in addition to this it was the righteousness of man.

It embodied and exhibited all uncreated and all created perfection. Never had the like been seen or heard of in heaven or on earth before.

It was the twofold perfection of Creatorhood and Creatorship in one resplendent centre, one glorious Person; and the dignity of that Person gave a perfection, a vastness, a length and breadth, a height and depth, to that righteousness which never had been equalled, and which never shall be equalled for ever.

It is the perfection of perfection; the excellency of excellency; the holiness of holiness.

It is that in which God pre-eminently delighteth. Never had His law been so kept and honoured before.

Son of God and Son of man in one person, He in this twofold character keeps the Father’s law, and in keeping it provides a righteousness so large and full, that it can be shared with others, transferred to others, imputed to others, and God be glorified (as well as the sinner saved) by the transference and imputation.

Never had God been so loved as now; with all divine love and with all human love.

Never had God been so served and obeyed, as now He has been by Him who is ‘God manifest in flesh.’

Never had God found one before, who for love to the holy law was willing to become its victim that it might be honoured; who for love to God was willing not only to be made under the law, but by thus coming under it, to subject Himself to death, even the death of the cross; who for love to the fallen creature was willing to take the sinner’s place, to bear the sinner’s burden, to undergo the sinner’s penalty, to assume the sinner’s curse, to die the sinner’s death of shame and anguish, and to go down in darkness to the sinner’s grave.”

–Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness; or, How Shall a Man be Just with God? (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1873/2020), 70-71.