The last study we had here was an effort to get as plainly as possible before this people, the difference between satanic belief and the faith of Jesus Christ; the difference between justification by works under the heading of justification by faith—the difference between that and justification by faith as it is. That was the effort; that was the aim. And you will remember how it was done. And that brought us to the subject that is ever before us now: that we must have the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness.

And this can be, as we have found, only according to God’s idea of righteousness and not our own, and in order to have God’s idea of righteousness instead of our own, we must have the mind that can comprehend it, and that alone is the mind of Jesus Christ. Whoever has not the mind of Christ itself, whoever has not yielded up himself and all that he has and is and received the mind of Christ instead, does not know, and he cannot know what righteousness by faith is; he cannot know what justification by faith is. He may profess it; he may assent to it; he may claim it, but he cannot know it, for no man can know it with the natural mind.

Let us turn now and read from the Bible where it says so. 1 Corinthians. 2:14:But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.

That is just the way the righteousness by faith has been treated by hundreds of people who profess to believe it.

(Elder Lewis Johnson: "The priests of the State church in Scandinavia preach it that way.")

Yes, the Catholics all preach it that way. With the natural mind it belongs that way. And it will always be that way with the man who has not the mind of Christ. But the man who has not that mind does not know it. He thinks he is straight; he thinks he has got the righteousness of God which is by faith. And yet what he has is not so good but what he has to do ever so much himself in order to patch it up and complete it; but yet he thinks that that is righteousness by faith. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

How can a man then know the righteousness of God with the natural mind? Now, I just appeal to you. I do not care who you are, whether you have ever heard of Christ before in your life. Now just take that verse as it reads; how can a man know the righteousness of God for himself with the carnal mind—the mind of Satan, for that is what the carnal mind is. Now, can that man do it? [Congregation: "No."] Can the mind of Satan know the righteousness of God?

Again: the righteousness of God as expressed in letters, in words, in the ten commandments is the law of God. Now all agree with that; there is not a Seventh-day Adventist that will not agree with that. The difficulty is, so many people try to get the righteousness of God out of the law by the law. Some try to get it—No. They actually get it without the law, by the faith of Jesus Christ, which is "unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference." "For now …’ (and that means now!) "Now the righteousness of God without the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference." Romans 3:21, 22.