The Righteous Man's Excellency
Solomon was a man of renown, the wonder of his world. He discoursed of trees from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that springs out of the wall (1 Kgs 4:33). The Proverbs are profound and holy maxims, given by the Spirit of God and written by one who was both a king and a preacher. A great part of this book sets forth the difference between the godly and the wicked, the happiness of the one and the misery of the other. The text speaks in praise and commendation of a righteous man: "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour" (Prov 12:26).
1. I begin with the first word, righteous. There is a twofold righteousness. First, there is a civil righteousness: a person is righteous in this sense when adorned with the moral virtues of prudence, justice, and temperance, keeping free from legal penalties and avoiding open scandal. This righteousness is valid in the court of human judgment, but it is insufficient for salvation. What shines in the sight of the worker may be worthless in the sight of the judge. Under the fair leaves of civility, the worm of unbelief may be hidden. Many a person decked with morality has since descended into hell. A bull may be tied with ribbons and wear a garland on his head, yet still go to the slaughter. For all that, it is to be wished, for the honor of this age, that more civil righteousness could be found in the world.
2.) There is also a gospel righteousness. This is, first, an imputed righteousness, that is, when Christ's righteousness is made over to us. In Adam we were criminal persons: "In whom all have sinned" (Rom 5:12). If the head plots treason, the whole body is guilty. But "Christ is made to us righteousness" (1 Cor 1:30). Indeed, it is this righteousness alone in which we can stand before the justice of God: "This is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness" (Jer 23:6). This righteousness is a coat without seam, which not only covers us but adorns us. It is as truly ours to justify as it is Christ's to bestow.
Second, there is an imparted righteousness, which is the infusing of the seed and habit of grace into the soul, the making of a person inwardly holy. A person is righteous in this sense when a change of heart has been worked in him and he is transformed by the renewing of his mind (Rom 12:2). Such a one is not another man, yet he is a new man (2 Cor 5:17). The faculties are not new, but the qualities are, as the strings of a viol are the same while the tune is altered.
Righteousness is extensive in its subject: it has a spreading power throughout the whole person. "The God of peace sanctify you wholly" (1 Thess 5:23). A child of God is regenerate in every part, though only in part.
2. He is more excellent. Excellency is the ennobling of a person, a gradual elevation above others. The righteous man is more excellent, that is, he is a better man. The Hebrew word for excellent signifies abundant, as if the Spirit of God had said: the righteous has more abundant worth in him, more intrinsic goodness.
3. Than his neighbor. "Neighbor" is not to be taken strictly here, as one who lives nearby in physical proximity. Rather, by neighbor is meant any person who is unrighteous and has not the fear of God before his eyes: he is more excellent than all who are not righteous.
The text has two general parts. First, the subject: the righteous. Second, the predicate: he is more excellent than his neighbor.
Solomon seems, as it were, to place the righteous and the wicked in a pair of scales. The one weighs as heavy as pure gold; the other weighs lighter than the dust of the balance.
Doctrine: He who is truly righteous is far more excellent than any wicked person in the world whatsoever. I say truly righteous to exclude the hypocrite, who has only a form and slight tincture of piety (2 Tim 3:5), what Ambrose called a "divine profession," but does not know the grace of God in truth (Col 1:6). He has nothing of religion but the name (Rev 3:1), and religion often suffers because of him. But he who is really righteous is the excellent person and has a superiority over all others (1 Sam 15:28).
To illustrate this proposition, I will do two things. I will show, first, in what respects the righteous man is more excellent, and second, why he is more excellent.
1. In what respects a righteous man is more excellent than another. This appears in three respects: in respect of what he is, what he has, and what he shall have.
1.) A righteous man is more excellent than a wicked one in respect of what he is.
1. He is more richly endowed with wisdom (Prov 4:7). He has a keen discernment, mixing the serpent's prudence with the dove's innocence. "He that is spiritual judgeth all things" (1 Cor 2:15). Just as the soul in the eye is the reason it sees, so the Spirit of God in the mind is the reason it savingly understands. The anointing of the Holy Spirit illuminates and clears a Christian's sight: "The same unction teacheth you all things" (1 John 2:27), especially in the essentials of salvation. The saints are compared to wise virgins (Matt 25:2). Sensual people often have a greater reach in worldly matters, but they have no insight into the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:14). A swine may see an acorn under the tree but cannot see a star. David, being divinely illuminated, grew "wiser than his teachers" (Ps 119:99). A righteous man is wise in three ways.
1.) To know himself. Take the most brilliant wit, the subtle politician who can dive into the mysteries of state: even he is acutely blind to his own heart. There are such depths and deceits, such inward pollutions, that he cannot find them out. He dresses himself by the flattering glass of self-love, does not see the evil that is in him, and will not believe it. The worse he is, the less he feels it. Hazael could not imagine he would be so wicked when he came to be king (2 Kgs 8:13).
But a soul spiritually enlightened sees what the natural man does not. He sees legions of vain thoughts. He sees how his grace is streaked with corruption, his humility stained with pride, his faith mixed with unbelief. His very duties are what Augustine called shining sins. He sees so much of his own heart that he dares not trust it.
2.) A righteous man is wise to know Jesus Christ. The natural man hears of Christ by the hearing of the ear, but does not truly know him: "What is thy beloved more than another beloved?" (Song 5:9). Those who journeyed with Paul heard a voice but saw no man (Acts 9:7). In the same way, the unregenerate person hears the minister set forth Christ as altogether lovely, hears a voice but sees no man, and perceives none of Christ's radiant beauties. Christ is a treasure, but a hidden treasure. His surpassing excellence, Calvin observed, is unknown precisely because it is hidden. But a gracious soul has the veil taken off and sees the astonishing excellencies of Christ: "Unto you that believe he is precious" (1 Pet 2:7). His merits, graces, and benefits are precious. A righteous man has Christ's eye-salve to see his tried gold (Rev 3:18).
When Zeuxis had painted a celebrated piece, Nicostratus fell into admiration of it and praised it highly. An ignorant man standing by asked what rare excellence he saw in it. Nicostratus replied: "If you could see with my eyes, you would admire it as well as I." So if a carnal man could see with a spiritual man's eyes, he would wonder at those surpassing beauties in Jesus Christ that he now makes light of.
3.) A righteous man is wise to discern the times (1 Chr 12:32): "The children of Issachar were men that had understanding of the times." The world cries out, "Glorious times!" but a righteous man has a discerning eye. He can see when the wicked make void God's law and when religion is crucified by those who cry "Hosanna" to it (Ps 119:126). He is wise enough to keep from the contagion of the times. "These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins" (Rev 14:4). A person divinely qualified is wiser than to run himself into snares or go to hell for company. He is wise to salvation: "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments" (Ps 111:10).
2.) A righteous man is of a more excellent birth. Alexander claimed to be the son of Jupiter, but every true Christian is truly high-born: he is born of God (1 John 3:9). This surpasses being descended from princes or born of royal blood. David thought it no small honor to be the king's son-in-law (1 Sam 18:18). How infinitely greater, then, is it to be regenerated by the Spirit and enrolled among the firstborn of heaven! The righteous man traces his lineage to the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:9). He bears the noblest coat of arms, the eagle and the lion, for he is near of kin to the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Isa 40:31; Prov 28:1).
3.) A righteous person is of a more excellent beauty. How eagerly worldly beauty is pursued, and what does it amount to? "Beauty is vain" (Prov 31:30). The finest features and the most lovely complexion are nothing but well-colored earth. But a righteous person has a celestial beauty shining in him. He is adorned with knowledge, love, and meekness, graces of such radiant splendor that they attract even the angels. A good Christian bears some image and resemblance of that sparkling holiness which is in the Deity (Ps 110:3). Christ is infinitely taken with the spiritual beauty of his church: "Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem" (Song 6:4). Tirzah was a picture of delight, and Jerusalem was the chief city of Judea, the star and light of all the Eastern world (Ps 48:2). This was a figure setting forth the radiance of the church's glory.
Verse 5 adds, "Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me" (Song 6:5), as if Christ were saying: "O my spouse, such resplendent light shines in your face that I can scarcely bear it; I am wounded by the delightful darts of your beauty." One eye of a believer draws Christ's heart: "Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes" (Song 4:9). Jerome renders this "thou hast wounded me." A saint's beauty never withers; it outlives death. True grace, like colors laid in oil, cannot be washed off (2 Pet 1:4).
4.) A righteous man's thoughts are more excellent. Thoughts are the firstborn of the soul. Sinful thoughts rise out of a corrupt heart like sparks out of a furnace; an unsanctified imagination is Satan's workshop (Mic 2:1). But "the thoughts of the righteous are right" (Prov 12:5). A righteous man's thoughts have taken wing and flown to heaven: "When I awake, I am still with thee" (Ps 139:18). God is a saint's treasure, and where else should his mind be but upon his treasure? A righteous man stands on the heights of Mount Tabor, delighting himself in Jehovah. He contemplates the beauty of holiness, the love of Christ, and the felicity of glorified saints; his thoughts are among the cherubim. While the soul meditates on Christ it is filled with holy and sweet raptures, caught up into paradise, already in heaven before its time: "My meditation of him shall be sweet" (Ps 104:34).
As Bernard wrote in his Meditations, nothing in this life is felt more sweetly, nothing so separates the mind from love of the world, and nothing so strengthens the soul against temptation, as the grace of contemplation.
5.) A righteous man's desires are more excellent. He spreads the sails of his desire to receive the fresh breathings of God's Spirit (Song 4:16). I do not deny that a bad man may have some faint wishes after the best things. Those who deserted Christ cried, "Lord, evermore give us this bread" (John 6:34). But a righteous man's desires are of a different kind altogether.
1.) He desires Christ for himself, not only for his gifts but for his beauty, not only as he is a Savior but as he is "the Holy One" (Acts 3:14).
2.) He is unsatisfied without Christ. The richest food, golden cups filled with sapphires and diamonds, will not content him without Christ. As Bernard observed, the more ardently you desire something, the more keenly you feel its absence. The two Marys were not satisfied with the linen clothes lying in the sepulchre unless they saw the body of Jesus (John 20:5). Likewise, it is not the linen on the communion table or the elements of bread and wine that will satisfy a believer; he must meet with Christ himself, whom his soul loves.
3.) He desires still more of Christ and would be swallowed up in the sweet ocean of his love. Here is a desire that God himself has raised in the soul, and he will open the breast of mercy and satisfy it (Ps 107:9).
6.) A righteous man's discourse is more excellent. His tongue is tuned to the language of heaven. What does the wicked man talk about? His trade and his profit, like the fish in the Gospel that had a piece of money in its mouth (Matt 17:27). "He that is of the earth speaketh of the earth" (John 3:31). And too often corrupt communication flows from the wicked; their mouth is like a drain through which all the filth of the house runs out (Eph 4:29). These lepers need to have their lips covered (Lev 13:45).
Sinners in ordinary conversation bring out Scripture as the Philistines brought out Samson, to make sport, as though the Bible were a jester's prop and a joke were worth nothing unless seasoned with the salt of the sanctuary. Luther said that those whom God intends to destroy he lets play with Scripture. But in this the righteous man is more excellent. "The tongue of the just is as choice silver" (Prov 10:20). As Cartwright observed, Solomon is teaching us what value to place on the speech of the righteous, and how eagerly it should be sought, like silver refined seven times. Gracious words drop like silver from a righteous man, enriching the souls of others: "The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious" (Eccl 10:12). In the Hebrew the word is grace. His words are not like vinegar to corrode, but like salt to season others (Col 4:6).
The Latin word for the roof of the mouth is the same word for heaven; a godly man's mouth is full of heaven. He speaks as if he had already been there. The holy conversation of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus brought Christ into their company (Luke 24:15): "they communed together, and Jesus himself drew near and went with them." Such savory speech drops from holy lips that God keeps a record book to write it down: "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened, and a book of remembrance was written" (Mal 3:16). It is reported of Tamerlane that he kept a register of the names and good deeds of his soldiers. God in the same way registers the speeches of his people, so that they shall not be lost.
7.) A righteous man is of a more excellent spirit. "An excellent spirit was found in Daniel" (Dan 5:12). "My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him" (Num 14:24). A wicked man has "the spirit of the world" (1 Cor 2:12). He is of an atheistical spirit; Lucian is his Old Testament and Machiavelli his New. But a person invested with grace has a richness of spirit.
1.) He is of a sublime spirit. He relishes the things of God. A person elevated by grace sets his feet where others set their hearts. Clothed with Christ the sun of righteousness and crowned with the graces as glittering stars, he has the moon beneath him. The world may have his glance, but Christ has his love. He dwells below but trades in the Jerusalem above (Rev 12:1). A true saint is occupied with higher matters: gaining the love and favor of God, pressing after glory and immortality, looking no lower than a crown. He feeds, as the birds of paradise, on the dew of heaven. He is employed in angels' work, lifting up God's name in the world, and is a living instrument of God's praise.
2.) He is of a noble spirit. He has the spirit of an heir and scorns whatever is dishonorable or base. He can deny himself but will not demean himself. He can be humble but not servile. He will not smooth over anyone's sins, which would be to wash the devil's face. He cannot prostitute himself to the lusts of men or flatter others to gain advancement (Job 32:21). A righteous man abhors being pulled away from truth for worldly advantage. It was said of Luther that he cared nothing for gold; his spirit was too noble to be bribed with money (as Melchior Adam records). A good man will not purchase the freedom of his person by the enslaving of his conscience: "not accepting deliverance" (Heb 11:35).
3.) He is of an invincible spirit. He bears afflictions without fainting or fretting. Though the archers shoot at him, his bow abides in strength (Gen 49:23–24). Those who lack a principle of grace "faint in the day of adversity" (Prov 24:10). They cannot bear a frown from a great man or digest a reproach. If the bough of a tree is rotten, the least weight hung upon it breaks it. But the righteous has the heart of a lion. He is not startled by the discourtesies of the world; he looks upon reproaches for Christ as badges of honor (1 Pet 4:14). When the Roman Catholics taunted Luther for his departure from their church, Luther replied: "I confess I am an apostate from you, but a blessed one. I am such an apostate as a magician is when he renounces his compact with the devil and betakes himself to Christ." Grace steels the heart with courage and fires it with zeal.
Gregory of Nazianzus said of Athanasius that he was both a loadstone and an adamant: a loadstone for the sweetness of his disposition, and an adamant for the invincibility of his resolution. When the Emperor Valens promised Basil great preferment if he would subscribe to the Arian heresy, Basil replied: "Sir, these speeches are fit to catch little children, but we who are taught by the Spirit are ready to endure a thousand deaths rather than suffer one syllable of Scripture to be altered." A righteous man is willing to take the cross for his inheritance, and with Ignatius to wear Christ's sufferings as a collar of pearl. "We glory in tribulation" (Rom 5:3). Paul rattles his chain and glories in it, as Chrysostom says, like a woman proud of her jewels. Gordius the martyr said: "It is to my loss if you spare me any of my sufferings."
How heroic and undaunted were the primitive Christians, who could scorn preferments, laugh at imprisonments, and snatch up torments as crowns! Their love for Christ burned hotter than the fire, so that the pagans cried out: "Truly great is the God of the Christians."
8.) The prayers of a righteous man are more excellent. Another may have more elegance in prayer; the righteous man has more sincerity. "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight" (Prov 15:8). A sinner's praying is howling (Hos 7:14), but the prayer of a righteous man is music in God's ears: "Let me hear your voice, for sweet is your voice" (Song 2:14). Maximinus, a persecutor, begged the prayers of the godly when he lay on his sickbed. "Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice" (Heb 11:4). The excellency of a righteous man's prayer is seen in two things: its noble exploits, and its gracious returns.
1.) By its noble exploits. Luther's prayer recovered Theodorus Vitus from a consumption after the physicians had given him up for dead. The prayer of the righteous has stopped the sun in its full course (Josh 10:13), divided the waters (Exod 14:15–21), overcome armies (Exod 17:11), cast out devils (Matt 17:21), opened prisons (Acts 12:9), and shut heaven (Jas 5:17). Prayer has had power with God (Hos 12:4). The Tyrians chained their god Hercules with a golden chain; the great Jehovah is held by the prayers of his people: "I will not let you go until you bless me" (Gen 32:26).
2.) By its gracious returns. When the tree of the promise is shaken by the hand of prayer, some fruit falls: "He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him" (Job 33:26). Prayer is the golden fleet the saints send out to heaven, which comes home richly laden with mercy. Sometimes God gives his people the very mercy they beg: "For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition" (1 Sam 1:27). Sometimes God gives them something better than they asked. They pray for temporal things, and he gives them spiritual. They pray for more health, and he gives them more grace. They desire the venison, and instead he gives them the blessing, paying them in a better coin.
What makes the prayer of a righteous man so excellent and effective comes down to three things.
