That is the righteousness, which is not our
own, but God's; the righteousness which comes by faith; not to trust
in ourselves, but in God; not to please ourselves, but God; not to do
our own will, but God's will. That is the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, which God set His seal on and approved, when He exalted Him
far above all principality and powers, and set Him at His own right
hand for a sign to all men, and angels, and archangels; that
righteousness means to trust and to obey God even to the death.
3. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
This may seem a puzzling speech at first. We shall understand it
best, I think, by considering who the prince of this world was in our
Lord's time, and what he was like. A little before our Lord's time
the Roman emperor had conquered almost the whole world which was then
known, and kept all nations in slavery, careless about their doing
right, provided they obeyed him and paid him tribute; nay, forcing
them and tempting them into all brutal and foul sin and ignorance,
that he might keep up his own power over man.
But now the Lord of all the earth, and the Prince of men's hearts and
thoughts, was come to visit that poor enslaved and sinful world.
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