What is Righteousness?

1. Review
a. WE NEED righteousness—Mat 5:20
(1) You and I are not righteous in ourselves, not in any sense of the word.
(2) Rom 3:10-11—all are sinners, Ps 58:3—we are sinners from birth
(3) We are, in and of ourselves, unholy, unclean, unrighteous creatures. We are really fit for neither heaven nor earth.
(4) Our sin offends the Holy God we serve, and our rebellion spits in His face, even as He makes His offers of Love.
(5) WE have no righteousness, our accounts in heaven are overdrawn, overdue, overloaded, and impossible for us to pay.

b. Not only are we loaded down with sin, we are completely destitute of merit—we have none of the holiness which is required for us to see God. We don’t just owe a lot, we have no assets. We are like the guy who was so in debt, that the only asset he could list on a financial statement was the unused portion of his credit card limit.
(1) God, in His infinite love, desires to save us, but in order to save us, He has to find some way to pay for our sin, and supply our missing holiness, otherwise His own sense of justice would be corrupted.
(2) If God were like us, we would say He had an impossible dilemma—but nothing is impossible with God! Mat 19:26, Mark 10:27, Luke 1:37 ""For with God nothing will be impossible.""
(3) God, indeed, had a plan worked out before the world was made, as we have seen, and that plan included paying for sin and supplying righteousness—1 Pet 1:18-21

c. On the other side of the coin, there are believers in Christ who have been saved, who have had their sins paid for, and these believers are overcome with guilt about sins that are already done away with and gone
d. If you are a believer in Christ, if you have been born again, if you have put all of your faith and trust in Christ for salvation, then the Law, Sin, Guilt, etc., these have no hold on you.


2. 3:21 “…the righteousness of God …”
a. Author of God’s Righteousness imputed to our account—God is the author of Righteousness—Phil 3:9, Isa 45:8, 2 Cor 5:21
(1) This is not some plan hatched in a theological seminary.
(2) Calvin, Luther, and Knox did not sit down one day over a pot of coffee and say, “Imputed Righteousness—that’s it!”
(3) This is the plan and mystery of God from before the foundation of the world, manifested and brought forth in our time—Mat 25:34

b. Nature of God’s Righteousness imputed to our account—this is IMPUTED Righteousness.
(1) Imputation is one of the most important words in the New Testament—the entire fourth chapter of Romans is dedicated to expositing the concept of imputed righteousness.
(2) Imputed Righteousness is righteousness which we did not earn
(3) Imputed Righteousness is not naturally ours
(4) Imputed Righteousness is God’s righteousness put to our account
(5) Once righteousness is imputed, the account is forever closed.
(6) The Source of the Righteousness of God— Righteousness that God wrought on our behalf through the righteous life and infinite being of our Savior.
(a) Here is the problem for man—we have two choices, and only two, on our ownè Perfection, Perdition, We can only do one of those, and since we are born sinners and rebels against God, our only viable choice is Perdition.
(b) Here is the Glory of the Person of Jesus Christ—He is NOT a CREATURE ! He can live a perfect life and still undergo the penalty of the broken Law. He can withstand the punishment due sin and still come out alive!--
(c) Christ fulfilled every precept of the Law—He lived a life of perfect conformity to God’s will.
(d) Rom 3:28-31—The Law is upheld and recognized as Holy and True—Isa 42:21,
(e) Heb 4:14-15—He had no sin, He knew no sin, He did no sin, yet Christ suffered the penalty of the Law.
(i) By His infinite Being
(ii) By His absolute power and righteousness

c. Extent of God’s Righteousness imputed to our account—it is total!
(1) The righteousness of God is infinite, as the One who wrought it on our behalf is infinite.
(2) This is not some righteousness wrought for a temporary fix, the blood of Christ covers all our sins—Heb 7:25, Jn 10:27-28

d. Duration of God’s Righteousness imputed to our account—There is no end to the Righteousness of God. ‘everlasting righteousness,’ Daniel 9:24, Psa 119:142, Isa 51:6-8, Heb 9:12
e. Influence of God’s Righteousness imputed to our account
(1) God’s imputed righteousness destroys the guilt of Sin—Heb 9:26
(2) God’s imputed righteousness is the basis of our fellowship and relationship with Him—Eph 2:13
(3) This righteousness has eternal consequences —Heb 9:27-28
(4) This righteousness enables us to live for Christ—Col 1:13-14 , Eph 5:8

How could such an idea as that of a vicarious everlasting righteousness, to meet all the demands of a BROKEN LAW, have ever entered into the conception of men and angels? If it could have suggested itself to the highest created intelligence, and had the question been asked of all the host of heaven standing around the throne of God, ‘on His right hand and His left,’ Who shall work this righteousness? what answer could have been given?

All must have stood silent before their Maker. As no one in heaven, nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book with the seven seals, neither to look thereon, —

so no one, neither man nor angel, nor all the elect angels together, could have wrought the righteousness necessary for the justification of a sinner.

He alone who is Emmanuel, God with us, who alone could open that book and loose the seals thereof, could ‘bring in this everlasting righteousness,’ of which it may be truly said that eye had not seen it, nor ear heard it, neither had it entered into the heart of man, till God revealed it by His Spirit. (Haldane)


3. Application
a. If you are saved, you are saved by grace alone through the Holy Life and blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ—
(1) There are no hoops for you to jump through.
(2) Anyone trying to make you jump through hoops is fooling himself, and trying to deceive you.
(3) If you are saved, you are not living a life based on acceptance through performance—you are accepted in the Beloved, and you are sealed and safe.
(4) God wants you to live for Him, but the relationship is changed—you are not the criminal in the courtroom, you are the judge’s son in the Living Room!
b. If you are lost, you are in desperate shape!
(1) You have no righteousness
(2) You can get no righteousness by any natural means at your disposal.
(3) If you will not believe in Christ, there is no hope for you.