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Judges vi . 29 , an altar so named by Gideon , because God said to him , ** Peace be to thee ; * and Jehovah-Shammah , Jehovah is there , Ezek , xlviii . 35 , the name of the predicted city . Many personal appellatives among the Hebrews were constructed on the same principle , as Elijah , my God Jah ; Zedekiah , the righteousness of Jah ; Biel , the living God , 1 Kings xvi . 34 , the name of a Bethelite who rebuilt Jericho , That the name Jehovah
our righteousness , meaning " Jehovah will give us justification through him , or in his time , " should be used a 3 descriptive of the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom , can seem strange to no one , whatever view of the nature of those blessings , and the person of him through whom they were bestowed , he may adopt . Dr . S ., whilst acknowledging that " if the person of the Messiah were indubitably ascertained to be only human , " which we think that it is by abundant evidence , " this appellation would be merely a descriptive proposition , * ' maintains that " there is a consideration which
especially belongs to the very phrase of this passage , " corroborating the evidence for considering the nam 6 as strictly expressing the nature of Christ , which he supposes to be furnished by other parts of Scripture . This consideration is , that " righteousness ( or justification ) is the capital blessing of the gospel , " and " is most definitively attributed to Jesus Christ . Every other righteousness is disowned and rejected in comparison with his . " We should think this the very reason why the promise of righteousness or justification from God through him should be expressed , as being of eminent
importance , by a descriptive name . But , perhaps , Dr . S . means by justification being definitively attributed to him , that it is attributed to him rather than to God the Father , that it originated with him , and is his peculiar work . Let us then see how far the passages to which he himself refers in the New Testament a ^ ree with this notion : Philipp . iii . 9 , " And be found in him , not having mine own righteousness , which is of the law , but that which is through the faith of Christ , the righteousness which is of God by faith . " 1 Cor . i . 30 , " Christ Jesus , who of God is made unto us wisdom , and
righteousness , and sanctification ; " add 2 Cor . v . 21 , " For he hath made him to be sin ( treated him as a sinner ) for us , who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness o /" God in him , " might obtain justification from God through him . It is strange to say , in the face of these passages , that the righteousness or justification belongs to Christ essentially as distinguished from the Father . To us they appear to agree most exactly with the
interpretation of " Jehovah our righteousness , " as a descriptive name of the Messiah given above . It may be added , that in the second passage , Jer . xxxiii . \( 5 , some have supposed , not without considerable probability in their favour , that the epithet is ' given to Jerusalem , and that the learned Dr . Blayney ( whom Dr . S . does not condescend to notice ) translates the words , * ' Jehovah shall call his name * our righteousness . ' "
The argument in Section xxvi ., on Dan . vii . 9 , 10 , 13 , 14 , is so fanciful , that even Dr . S . himself would hardly attribute to it much independent value , and we are sure that none of our readers will think it needs refutation . In the book of Revelation , the visionary scenes of which are every where expressed in language imitating , or borrowed from , the ancient prophets , the account of the vision of our glorified Lord contains some of the same words , and one descriptive circumstance , ( " his head and his hair
were white like wool , " of radiant brightness , ) the same as Daniel has used in representing " the Ancient of days , " who is manifestly the Supreme Being himself . This is called so definite and strikinq a coincidence , «« that the latter cannot but be regarded as designedly alluding to the former . "
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246 £ ) r . ?/ . P . Smith ' s Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/30/
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