The righteousness of God that is revealed through the Gospel was witnessed in the Old Testament, before it was manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 03:21).
There were numerous ceremonial records and Old Testament prophecies about the dispensation of the Gospel, the Ministry of Justice and the Spirit (II Corinthians 3.8.9).
Nearly seven hundred years of the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the justice of the Gospel, God spoke of the righteousness by which we are saved through the prophet Isaiah, as we see for example in Isaiah 46,13.
"I bring my righteousness, and it is not far, and my salvation will not tarry, but I will establish salvation in Zion, and in Israel my glory.
This promise was made to those who are hardhearted and who are far from justice, that is, to all sinners (Isaiah 46.12).
It is not a promise for righteous people but for the unjust, that is, for sinners, which is the condition of every man before God.
That is why our Lord Jesus Christ declared that he did not come to this world for the righteous, but for the unjust, not for the sake of it, but for the sick.
He came for the unjust to make them righteous, and for the sick, to heal them.
As for this salvation by grace, which is by the righteousness of Christ, which is ascribed to us in justification, God said that He would bring it to completion, because Judah would come out of captivity in Babylon, being delivered by Cyrus, king of the Media, His eternal counsel to be fulfilled in the future as the good promises of salvation that were made to Israel (is 46:10).
Because of what would be done by Cyrus it is said that Babylon would be bent over and her idols would be placed on pack animals, to be brought out of Babylon, and would be a burden to these animals as they were to the Babylonians, because not only they could undo them, but it would also lead them to that ruin.
But as for Israel, instead of being a burden to them, God had been carrying them in his lap, since he had formed them in the womb, and until his old age would remain the same for them, because he would carry them, carry and deliver them. , because he was a father to his people (Isaiah 46.3, 4).
Who then could God be compared to? With idols? With these that are a burden for men, instead of carrying them, to find relief and peace?
What can not respond and rid someone of their tribulation?
The offenders of Israel were therefore, summoned by God to consider this truth and bring it to memory forever.
To always remember the things passed down from antiquity, bringing to mind the great deeds of the Lord in relation to Israel, and certainly this referred to what he had done with them from the patriarchs to his days; to recognize that there is no other God, but only He, and that there is no one who can be compared to Him, the only one who can justify us and save us from bondage to sin.