(Article for publication week of 8-15-2012 AD)
The Lord Jesus Christ is the righteousness that God requires for His people. Our own righteousness will not do, but the righteousness of Christ will give us that which we need for a right standing before God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our true righteousness. Being truly God, and truly Man in One glorious Person, He was able to work out a righteousness that was acceptable to the Thrice Holy Jehovah. Since He was made of a woman, but not of a man, He was not tainted by Adam’s Fall as every other man is. His humanity was joined to His Deity in such a way as He could by His active and passive obedience obey the law of God for His elect people. Being truly God, His righteous life is properly called the righteousness of God, the righteousness that is truly imputed to His people (Romans 3:21-26).
The Lord Jesus Christ is our (when I use the pronoun “our” I am talking to believers) whole righteousness. The righteousness that Christ provides His people is in strict accordance with the law of God. God requires that we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and none of us have ever done that. But Christ did love God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, and His obedience is accounted to the credit of His people. God requires that we love our neighbour as ourselves, and none of us have ever done that. But Christ did truly love His neighbour as Himself. Christ always treated everybody right. Again, the obedience of Christ is counted as the believer’s very own. God declares that His people have perfectly obeyed the Ten Commandments because Christ obeyed them, and His obedience is imputed to us.
Furthermore, Christ is our whole righteousness because He underwent the wrath of God and was punished for our sins. He was the Righteous Who bore the sins of the unrighteous (I Peter 2:24, e.g.). The believer in Christ has a righteous record with God because Christ by His death, burial and resurrection took away all our sins, and by a sinless life gave us a sinless record.
But then, Christ is our sole righteousness. Get this now- salvation is not a joint venture between God and sinners. Salvation is of the Lord! God will have none of your righteousness, for it is all filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). You must be justified by the righteousness of Christ Alone. I once heard a pretty well known preacher on the radio claim that justification was by us doing all we can, and then Christ would make up the difference. That is not the gospel. It is another gospel which is not another (Galatians 1:6-7). Sadly, this is what multitudes of professing Christians vainly imagine, that is, that their own works or merits helps save them. Christ is a true believer’s sole righteousness. Note well, our text says,” the LORD our righteousness.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the believer’s whole and sole righteousness. Look to Christ Alone for you true justifying, saving righteousness.
If you will contact me this week I will send you absolutely free a back issue of the Free Grace Broadcaster, edited by my dear friend and fellow servant, Elder Jeff Pollard, pastor of Mt. Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida. This particular issue is on the theme of Imputed Righteousness and has some wonderful messages by Charles Spurgeon and others. I can be reached by phone at 601-927-5070 or by email at brickfloyd@bellsouth.net. May the Lord bless all my dear readers.
“In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is the name whereby He shall be called, ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ ”. (Jeremiah 23:6). This is a wonderful prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the preceding verse will show. Even as the Lord gave dire prophecies to Israel and Judah through His prophet Jeremiah, He also gave to the true believers among them the promise of the coming of His Son Who would be their true righteousness.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the righteousness that God requires for His people. Our own righteousness will not do, but the righteousness of Christ will give us that which we need for a right standing before God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our true righteousness. Being truly God, and truly Man in One glorious Person, He was able to work out a righteousness that was acceptable to the Thrice Holy Jehovah. Since He was made of a woman, but not of a man, He was not tainted by Adam’s Fall as every other man is. His humanity was joined to His Deity in such a way as He could by His active and passive obedience obey the law of God for His elect people. Being truly God, His righteous life is properly called the righteousness of God, the righteousness that is truly imputed to His people (Romans 3:21-26).
The Lord Jesus Christ is our (when I use the pronoun “our” I am talking to believers) whole righteousness. The righteousness that Christ provides His people is in strict accordance with the law of God. God requires that we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and none of us have ever done that. But Christ did love God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, and His obedience is accounted to the credit of His people. God requires that we love our neighbour as ourselves, and none of us have ever done that. But Christ did truly love His neighbour as Himself. Christ always treated everybody right. Again, the obedience of Christ is counted as the believer’s very own. God declares that His people have perfectly obeyed the Ten Commandments because Christ obeyed them, and His obedience is imputed to us.
Furthermore, Christ is our whole righteousness because He underwent the wrath of God and was punished for our sins. He was the Righteous Who bore the sins of the unrighteous (I Peter 2:24, e.g.). The believer in Christ has a righteous record with God because Christ by His death, burial and resurrection took away all our sins, and by a sinless life gave us a sinless record.
But then, Christ is our sole righteousness. Get this now- salvation is not a joint venture between God and sinners. Salvation is of the Lord! God will have none of your righteousness, for it is all filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). You must be justified by the righteousness of Christ Alone. I once heard a pretty well known preacher on the radio claim that justification was by us doing all we can, and then Christ would make up the difference. That is not the gospel. It is another gospel which is not another (Galatians 1:6-7). Sadly, this is what multitudes of professing Christians vainly imagine, that is, that their own works or merits helps save them. Christ is a true believer’s sole righteousness. Note well, our text says,” the LORD our righteousness.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the believer’s whole and sole righteousness. Look to Christ Alone for you true justifying, saving righteousness.
If you will contact me this week I will send you absolutely free a back issue of the Free Grace Broadcaster, edited by my dear friend and fellow servant, Elder Jeff Pollard, pastor of Mt. Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida. This particular issue is on the theme of Imputed Righteousness and has some wonderful messages by Charles Spurgeon and others. I can be reached by phone at 601-927-5070 or by email at brickfloyd@bellsouth.net. May the Lord bless all my dear readers.
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