Righteousness, Peace, and Joy

The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17.

How much did our dear Saviour bear, what pains did he take with his first disciples, to teach them the nature of his kingdom? Their notions were carnal and worldly: his kingdom spiritual and heavenly.
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Behold, take special notice, “The kingdom of God is within you,” (Luke 17:21.) It consists in nothing carnal, or external. Its blessings are inward, spiritual, and substantial. (1st.) Righteousness. This the devil robbed us of. Glory to Christ, he restores it to us. He gives us a better righteousness than we lost. We lost but a creature’s righteousness, but we gain the righteousness of God’s only Son: the righteousness of God and man in one Christ. Satan ruined us by sin, Christ saves us by righteousness. The kingdom of God is established in righteousness, upon the ruins of sin and Satan. The subjects of this kingdom are all righteous, (Isaiah 60:21.) As we possess this kingdom in our hearts by faith, so Christ’s righteousness is called the righteousness of faith. For we receive it by faith. We do nothing to work it out. It is the gift of righteousness, (Romans 5:17.) O how gloriously are our souls arrayed in the righteousness of the King of saints. Let us glory of this righteousness ONLY. For the more we believe of it in our hearts, the more we live in the spirit and temper of righteousness in our lives. (2d.) PEACE. We were once at peace with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and at war with God. Now we are in his righteous kingdom, and righteous in his Son. We are at peace with God, and at war with them. “The effect of this righteousness is peace and quietness, and assurance for ever,” (Isaiah 32:17.) (3d.) JOY IN THE HOLY GHOST in the Holy Ghost. Being righteous in Jesus and at peace with God, the Holy Ghost gives us the joy of this. He teaches us to joy in all Jesus is to us, and has done for us. Yea, “he fills us with all joy and peace IN BELIEVING,” (Romans 15:13.) Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, “Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear,” Hebrews 12:28.

Preserve, O God, from snares of sin,
Thro’ my remaining days;
And in me let each virtue shine,
To my Redeemer’s praise.

- excerpt from William Mason's A Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God, Volume 2, November 6