The Righteousness of God – Part III

We do not have to look far to see that Jesus is our standard of righteousness. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and rose again to make right that which was wrong. It is because of Jesus and His work on the Cross that we can be justified and made right with God. No human action, effort, or intervention, can make us right with God. As sinners, we are an abomination to the Lord. The whole thrust is to be made right with God. In a quest for righteousness, our Lord Jesus found the perfect solution. A solution known as ‘Imputed Righteousness’. Before we go into the details of imputed righteousness, let’s understand what “imputed” means. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, impute means to credit or ascribe something to a person. Righteousness means to be in the right standing, or right position, before God. When put together, imputed righteousness means right standing or right positioning has been credited to us. “ Imputed righteousness is a concept in Christian theology proposing that the "righteousness of Christ...is imputed to [believers]—that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith." It is on the basis of Jesus' righteousness that God accepts humans. This acceptance is also referred to as justification.” (Wikipedia). We need the righteousness of Christ imputed to us because we have no righteousness of our own. We are sinners by nature, and we cannot make ourselves righteous. We need Christ’s righteousness imputed or credited to our account before God. Our own attempts at goodness are not good enough. We need an imputed righteousness, and for that, we look to Christ. On the cross, Jesus took our sins upon Himself and purchased our salvation. We have “been justified by his blood” Romans 5:9 “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Justification is the imputation of His own righteousness. II Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Jesus, the son of God, is righteous by virtue of His very nature. By God’s grace, “through faith in Jesus Christ,” that righteousness is given “to all who believe”. Romans 3:22 “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:” This is known as imputation: the giving of Christ’s righteousness to sinners. In the parable of the wedding banquet, we find this concept. Guests are invited to the king’s celebration from every street corner All the guests have something in common: they were given a wedding garment to wear in the banquet hall. In a similar way, we, as guests invited into God’s house, have been given the pure white robe of Christ’s righteousness. We receive this gift of God’s grace by faith. We were lowly and despised sinners. Christ took on our sin, which was imputed to him, and we took on his righteousness, which was imputed to us. Now we stand justified because the righteousness of Jesus credited and applied to us. Dr Ashwin Drummond laddertoheaven.co.in