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Christ's Righteousness, Our Righteousness

O LORD... deliver me in your righteousness – Psalm 31:1

This study is the conclusion of this entire series. Our righteousness is from God, and this is one of the great revelations of Scripture. In this study, our memories of Christ’s perfection will be refreshed, and the true nature of our righteousness will be revealed.

A Sinless Saviour or a Sinless Mankind

Jesus is our perfect Lord. He was without sin (Hebrews 4:15); His life was in total conformity to the Father's will and plan. God is holy (1 Peter 1:16), and can have nothing to do with sin. Related to this, Jesus needed to be the perfect, unblemished sacrifice – once for all (Hebrews 9:14). If He Himself was marred by sin, He would first have needed to sacrifice on His own behalf (Hebrews 9:25-26). And this process would have had to have been repeated over and over, just like it was under the Old Covenant.

But this would not do – Jesus' death is once for all, which required Jesus to be perfect. If Jesus is anything less than a sinless Saviour, then we have no hope. But why all this fuss? Because we are so imperfect, that's why. God's plan is a perfect one, not because it requires us to be perfect (such a plan would be doomed to fail), but because it caters for our imperfections. Christ is our sinless Saviour; and we don't want it any other way.

We are saved through Christ's righteousness (Romans 1:17).

I might take a detour here in order to illustrate a point. God always leaves open the possibility of us being saved by our own righteousness. (This is the path that the Jews took – Romans 9:31-10:3.) This path could be called the "works model" of salvation.

Consider Romans 2:14-15. Read it carefully, because a great many disciples are very confused about this verse. For those who do not hear God's message, their conscience is their law. Everyone knows that stealing is wrong (except those whose consciences are seared – 1 Timothy 4:2 – but even they did know at one point.) It is, in fact, very reasonable that people will be judged by their conscience if they never had the opportunity to hear God's message – conscience is the law which God gives to all men.

But who has never offended their conscience? The answer is obvious: Not even one (Romans 3:10). In other words, if we forget the Bible, forget discipleship and forget being baptized and praying and repenting etc., and if we make our conscience alone the standard, who would pass the test? No one – not in the entire history of mankind (James 2:10). So, is God unjust? Not at all (Romans 9:14). Everyone will be judged only according to "what they know", and that is fair, through and through.

The only alternative to accepting Jesus' righteousness is to rely on our own, but this is no alternative at all. Salvation cannot be by works – our works lead to condemnation.

A Substitute Offering

Maybe some of you have always been confused by this. "Christ's righteousness is well and good for Him, about what about me? If I'll never measure up, how will I be saved?" The fact that we are saved by grace alone (Ephesians 2:5b-9) goes to the heart of our insecurities, especially if we trust in ourselves, instead of in God. The basis of our salvation is also the basis of our righteousness. What is true righteousness? From where does it stem? These are the most crucial questions for a disciple to get right, because, yes, there will be a test (Romans 2:16).

Righteousness is from God, and not from ourselves. It is time to read Romans 1:17 carefully: "In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'" Paul can say that our righteousness is "by faith from first to last" because righteousness is 100% about accepting Jesus, and 0% about us being perfect, because we never can be. And this fact, brothers and sisters, is the big one, the climax, the grand turismo.

True righteousness if from God alone, and nothing said has ever been truer.

If you remember one fact from this series, remember this, because it's the most important. As disciples, we tend to know that if we trust in God instead of ourselves, our life will be far more effective (or fruitful), and we'll also be far more happy. But the truth is deeper than that. If we trust in ourselves, our salvation is in jeopardy. Righteousness is from God, and God alone. A moment's reflection should convince you that you really don't want it any other way. We spend so much time thinking about our own sin, when our focus should be God's righteousness. Is it our perfection that saves us, or God's righteousness? Which do you prefer: The works model (which is man's idea, to be a 'good person'), or salvation by grace alone (which is God's plan)?

The decision we must make is to leave our humanistic plans in the dust, and embrace God's perfect plan – perfect because it is tailored for sinners like me and you. To say it another way: There are two kinds of righteousness: self-righteousness (which is no righteousness at all), and righteousness from God, which is pure and perfect. The choice is yours. Am I saying to forget about your sin? Well, God does (Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12), so why can't you? In truth, if your focus is God's righteousness, instead of your sin, you'll actually become more sensitive, but less guilted out, about sin than ever before. This study, you see, is an invitation to be freed from guilt (1 John 1:7) and shame (Romans 10:11) by being delivered by God's righteousness (Psalm 31:1).

Digging Deeper

Let's deepen our understanding of this concept of true righteousness. In both Hebrew and Greek, the word for righteousness means strikingly the same thing. It means to fulfil the obligations of a relationship. If I turn up to work on time, work diligently, and never skimp, lie or cheat, then chances are that I'd be acting righteously toward my boss. And if my boss paid me what was right, wasn't harsh etc., we'd have a righteous relationship. I'm aware that the English word is not used in this way, but this is what the Biblical term means (and that's what counts).

God is righteous (Ezra 9:15, Psalm 119:137), meaning that He never fails to love, never fails to keep His promises, never fails to treat people how they deserve (there's a scary one). He is perfect in justice, perfect in grace. We are unrighteous (Romans 3), both in our human relationships, and, most importantly, in our relationship with God. This is not to say that we always fail, but we do from time to time – and if we fail even once, we're gone (James 2:10). We owe God our lives and souls, and yet we sin – and all sin is ultimately against Him.

But it's God who makes the rules, right? And He decided before the beginning of time that He would accept substitutory payments. Through Jesus' death, a substitutory payment was made for our unrighteousness. Now, all sin will be punished, since God is righteous, it's just that our punishment falls on Christ instead of on us. You see, God's grace and His justice were brought together in perfect harmony at the cross. It is not as if God's wrath is in conflict with His love. God is an absolute unity – and to think anything less is surely in error. It doesn't take long to realise that the cross shows us God's wrath just as powerfully as it shows us His love. To see the cross and not see God’s wrath is to miss the point entirely.

But there's another clause which God put in place. He decided that:

If we just met one particular article of righteousness, then that would be enough for us
to be considered righteous in His sight, due to the mercy made available by the cross.

And we already know what that article is. Read Genesis 15:6 with new understanding: "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited to him as righteousness." There's a reason it's quoted so many times (Romans 4:3, 22-24; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23). It's because it reveals the incredible plan and wisdom of God. If we meet that one, all important requirement of faith, then, through the mercy of the cross, we receive the righteousness of God. The perfection of Christ nullifies our imperfection; we are infused with his righteousness – His since the dawn of time, and now ours forevermore.

Conclusion

I hope I didn't lose you. Now, hopefully, we know what it means for Noah to be righteous (Genesis 6:9), not to mention Abel (Matthew 23:35), Job (Job 12:4), Joseph (Matthew 1:19), and many others. Now we even know that, yes, James 5:16b does apply to us! A man is righteous because God has given him righteousness from Himself (Job 33:26). You are righteous, because the Lord within you is righteous (Zephaniah 3:5a) – it is not from yourself, it is from God. So continue in faith and hope and you will be declared righteous on the final Day, not because of the great things that you've done, but because the righteousness of Jesus will actually stand in place of your unrighteousness.

Some think that when we're baptized, Jesus just clears our name. But that's not the whole story. He doesn't just clear our name, He gives us His name in exchange, because we enter His very own family (Romans 8:15-17, Ephesians 2:19). Christ's righteousness is our righteousness – embrace this truth, and find true freedom in Him. Paul, writing to a church seeking self-righteousness, had this to say: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1) Especially not the slavery of seeking self-righteousness.

I hope that these studies have been an inspiration to you, that they have sparked in you a new appreciation and a deeper love for our wonderful Saviour, that they have called you to drink more deeply from the wellspring of the Word, and that they have brought you to a deeper understanding of your oneness with Christ.

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