Good to see you all today. Glad
to see you out in the house of the Lord where the gospel is
preached. This is a marvelous privilege we have to sit under
this message, the one we heard from our brother Bill this morning
and the one I hope to deliver here. It's great to know the
grace of God in Christ. Well, as you can see, the title
of this message is The Righteousness of God. Y'all know that's a comprehensive
subject there, don't you? I know those of you who sit under
the gospel know that's a comprehensive subject. And I don't plan to
exhaust it in any way. You can also see I've chosen
three scriptures there. We'll be looking at three different
contexts here. Let me start out with a comment
from John here. John said in the last book of
his epistle, he said, there were many things which Jesus did to
which they should be written every one. I suppose that even
the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Amen. That was his final words. But
then look with me back at John 20 in verse 30. He said, and
many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples,
which are not written in this book, but these, these that are
recorded are written that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life
in his name. Of course, the book John's referring
to is the Bible as he knew it at that time, the canon of scriptures
that he had, and the one we have in our hands. He's writing to
his generation and ours. It's the record that God has
left us. Throughout this record, there is one theme, there's one
prevalent truth, one foundation, which everything that's recorded
rests on. That foundation is what Christ
has done to save His people. It's what Christ has done to
honor God in the salvation of ungodly sinners. It's what Christ
has done to make it right, to make it just for God to declare
sinners like you and me righteous in His sight. That foundation
of everything that's recorded is summarized in this single
phrase, the title of my message, the righteousness of God. Now
we know some familiar scriptures that speak of the righteousness
of God. Romans 1.16 says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, the
power of God and the salvation, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Romans 3.22 after he said, by
deeds of law no flesh will be justified but now, the righteousness
of God. without the law was manifested.
And in Romans 10, 3, they were ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness and not
submitted to the righteousness of God. So we're familiar with
this term. We look at these verses quite often. Let me talk about this righteousness
in general for a minute, and then I'll tell you what I plan
to do in this message and another one or two. First of all, this
righteousness is always referred to in Scripture as the righteousness
of God. It's never referred to as the
righteousness of Christ. We call it Christ's righteousness,
and it's okay to do that as long as you know He's God the Son
incarnate, because it has to be one who's God to establish
the righteousness of God. Although Christ, the Son of God,
produced this righteousness, you'll never hear it or see it
written in Scripture as the righteousness of Christ. It's always the righteousness
of God. And I have an explanation for
that. I think I can tell you, you might disagree with this
explanation, you might accept it, I don't know. Because it's
owned by the triune God. It's what God has done to save
His people. God the Father provided this
righteousness of God. He provided it by appointing
Christ to be the substitute and surety of His people. So He provided
it. He provided it in Christ. God
the Son, incarnate, produced this righteousness by His obedience.
incarnation, suffering, and death. And God the Spirit promotes this
specific righteousness and no other. He promotes this righteousness
alone. So the Spirit of God will not
point sinners to any other supposed righteousness. He'll not speak
of Himself, even His work in sinners, to bring them to faith
and repentance and love of the brethren. He won't speak of His
work. He glorifies Christ. He points sinners to Christ and
His righteousness alone. It's God's righteousness because
God the Father provided it, because God the Son produced it, and
because God the Spirit points sinners to no other righteousness
but this one. So although we might crawl at
the righteousness of Christ, and like I said, it's okay to
do that as long as you know that he's God and man in one person,
because it took the God-man to produce this righteousness. Now
also, this is not God's essential righteousness. You know, God
is righteous. He is inherently righteous. He's
righteous in all that he does. He's righteous in his being.
He's righteous in his word. He's righteous in his character,
but God's inherent righteousness is essential. Righteousness can't
be communicated to centers. We can't, we can't have that
righteousness. And this is a righteousness we'll
see in this message that can be communicated. God can't give
us His essential righteousness. There's no way for Him to do
that. The righteousness of God that we'll be talking about and
looking at here is a righteousness worked out in the body and soul
of Christ. It's the product of Christ's
obedience unto death. This is why Christ became incarnate.
It's why he walked under the law. It's why he laid down his
life for his sheep. He was made under the law to
redeem them that were under the law. Christ came to save sinners. Winston quoted part of this in
his prayer. Look at 1 Timothy 1.15. He said, This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. And if anybody could
see the chief of sinners, if I'm looking at the chief of sinners,
it's when I look in the mirror, because I know me a lot better
than I know you. And I know if there's any who
could be called the chief of sinners, it would be this man.
And Christ came to save sinners by establishing the righteousness
that sinners need but cannot by any means produce. All are
sinners by nature. All stand in need of salvation. All stand in need of righteousness.
Look at Romans 3.23. It says, For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. All sinned in Adam. We're sinners by nature. And
we sin in ourselves continually. We continually come short of
the glory of God. That means we continually fail
to measure up to any obedience in ourselves, the best of our
obedience. We fail to measure up to any
obedience by which God could declare us righteous in ourselves. We need a righteousness we don't
produce. All are sinners by nature and
by practice. And God declares sinners righteous
who by nature and by practice are altogether ungodly. The scripture
says that Christ died for the ungodly, Romans 5, 6, and that
God justifies the ungodly, Romans 4 and verse 5. So, if we're sinners
by nature and sinners by practice, and God himself declares all
to be ungodly, here's the question to be answered. How can God save
those sinners, those who are sinners in all that we do? How
can He save those whom He Himself declares ungodly and be just,
be doing right when He does it? How can He save us and be just
in saving us? What makes it right for God to
save and eternally bless one sinner? and yet condemn and eternally
punish another sinner when both sinners are equally deserving
of God's eternal wrath and equally unable within ourselves to deliver
ourselves from condemnation or gain the least of God's favor.
We say it this way quite often. How can God be just and justify
an ungodly sinner like me or you? How can he do that? Well,
something outside ourselves, something apart from our obedience,
must make it right for God to save us, must make it right for
God to keep us and eternally bless us. That something, in
one phrase, is the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says
sinners are made the righteousness of God in Him. Legally accounted
righteous based on Christ's righteousness alone. and that righteousness
imputed. This term, this doctrine, this
foundational theme of the Bible, the righteousness of God, is
the most single important piece of information sinners can know
and understand. Now, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't
get any debate out of anybody who sits under the gospel to
that statement. It's the most single piece of
information sinners need to know and understand. What I plan to
do in this message and another, maybe three, maybe four, I don't
know how many it's going to take here, but I've got some scriptural
reasons why the righteousness of God is the single most important
piece of information we can understand and see from the scriptures.
Why? Today I'm going to give you three
reasons why, but like I said, I've got several listed and I
don't know how many messages those will take me here, so we'll
just call this a little series, if you will. Let's look at the
first reason why the righteousness of God is the most important
single piece of information sinners need to know and understand.
is because it's God's standard of judgment. Now, a lot of you
recognize that first scripture, that Acts 1731. And let me tell
you, I told you I've got several reasons here, and I tried to
put these in an order that I thought was Most important on down to,
all of them are important, but the most important. And I think
this is the most important reason why we need to understand this
phrase, this term, the righteousness of God. Because this is what
God judges, saved and lost, based on. It's the standard of judgment.
Look at Acts 17, verse 30 and 31. God now commands all men everywhere
to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
raised him from the dead. God will judge this world, and
He'll judge this world in righteousness, and He'll judge them by that
man whom He's ordained. That man, of course, is Christ,
the God-man. This scripture is speaking about
the end when God will render the final judgment of this world. And He assures all men that it
will be the righteousness Christ worked out by His obedience unto
death that will be that standard of judgment. How does He do it?
By the resurrection from the dead. See, that last phrase in
that verse 31 says He's assured all men of what? That He's going
to judge this world in that righteousness that Christ worked out. The one
that He raised from the dead. That's going to be the standard
at the judgment. Christ's righteousness. The righteousness
He produced by His obedience unto death. How does Christ's resurrection
from the dead assure all men that the righteousness He established
at the cross always has been and always will be God's standard
of judgment? I'm going to answer, it's a rhetorical
question of course, most questions that come from up here are, but
I'm going to answer that. Christ's resurrection is a declaration
that Christ, by his obedience unto death, has fulfilled God's
law and satisfied his justice. Another way we say that is Christ's
resurrection is a declaration that his death satisfied law
in its precept and in its penalty. Christ satisfied the law's demand
for obedience. That's the precept of the law.
How did He do it? He did it by perfect, continual
obedience from the cradle to the cross. The Scripture says
of Christ, He did no sin. He knew no sin. He was holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He offered Himself
without spot to God. And why is it important that
we know that Christ was without sin? Why must we know that He
was undefiled with sin, that He is the unblemished Lamb of
God? It's important that we know that.
We've got to know that Christ was not a sinner. that he was
not contaminated by sin because if he were a sinner, if he were
contaminated by sin, his death would have just been the result
of sin, just like any other sinner who sins. He couldn't have been
the substitute of sinners. He would have been disqualified
as a substitute if any sin had been found in him. If he was
a sinner, he could not bear the legal guilt, the penalty, the
punishment of those he was given to represent, because he'd be
bearing his own legal guilt and punishment. But Christ was not
a sinner. He was perfectly, continually
obedient from the cradle to the cross. He satisfied the law's
demand for obedience. He satisfied the precept of the
law. Now, because Christ satisfied
the precept of the law, he could and did substitute himself in
the place of others. Because he satisfied the law's
precept, he could and did bear the legal guilt of others. Because
he satisfied the law's precept, he could and did suffer the punishment
due to those he was given, due unto his sheep. By the sinless
sacrifice of Christ, and as a substitute for those he was given, he also
Not only satisfied the precept, but he satisfied the penalty
of the law. Look at Isaiah 53 verses 4 through 5. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. How did Christ bear our griefs
and carry our sorrows? He bore them by imputation. The
sins of His people were charged to Him. They were accounted to
Him. They were imputed to Him. Look at 2 Corinthians 5.21. God the Father hath made Him,
God the Son incarnate, to be sin for us who knew no sin. Christ knew no sin, but God made
Him sin. He laid the sins of His people
on Him. He charged the sins of His people
to Christ that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The sins of Christ's sheep were laid to His charge and He bore
their legal guilt. Their sins were imputed to Him.
They were charged to His account. And He answered those charges
completely. That last phrase I underlined
in Isaiah 53 is speaking of Christ's satisfaction to divine justice
with His stripes. You don't see it right now, but
I had underlined the phrase, with His stripes we are healed.
That last phrase is speaking of Christ's satisfaction to divine
justice. The stripes of Christ have forever
healed those He died for from the punishment of divine justice. They're forever healed. Divine
justice will never come to any sinner Christ died for and say
of that sinner, you owe me a death of punishment. It can't do that. God will never demand the eternal
death of any sinner Christ bore the sin of. They have forever
been delivered from the legal guilt, from the penalty, from
the punishment of sins. Christ bore their sins in His
body on the tree, and He satisfied justice on their behalf. Their
ransom is paid. We sing a song, one verse that
says, we are redeemed, the price is paid, hallelujah, what a Savior. How can we know that Christ's
obedience unto death satisfied the law and justice of God, satisfied
the law in its precept and its penalty? Well, God declared it.
He declared it when He raised Christ from the dead. Christ's
resurrection is a declaration of several things from God. First
of all, that Christ has upheld Not established, upheld. This
standard has been in place since before time began. But Christ,
in His obedience unto death, established, I mean, upheld Christ's
standard of judgment. And it's a declaration that law
and justice are satisfied. It's a declaration that righteousness
is established in the earth. It's a declaration that every
sinner Christ died for is justified, that God declares them righteous
based on Christ's imputed righteousness alone. And it's a declaration
that by that righteousness worked out in the body and soul of Christ,
that God will judge men both now and at final judgment. That's
the standard of judgment. Look at Romans 10.4. Paul writes, "...for Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."
Christ is the end. He's the fulfillment of the law
for righteousness. He fulfilled that Mosaic law
in all its types, in all its pictures, and in all its demand
for obedience. He fulfilled it. and abolished
it by way of fulfillment. If you're looking for righteousness,
there's only one place to find it. You find it in Christ. If
you find yourself in need of righteousness, don't look within,
because you won't find the righteousness there. Look to Christ. The pursuit
of righteousness ends when a sinner believes in Christ. That is,
when the believing sinner finds their righteousness, all the
righteousness they need to stand before God and be declared righteous.
When a sinner finds his righteousness in Christ and Christ alone, their
pursuit of righteousness ends. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to them. He's the fulfillment of it. Christ's
resurrection from the dead is not just God giving life to a
dead body. It's God giving life to one who
died not as a result of sin, but God giving life to one who
died under the charge of sin, under the legal guilt of imputed
sin. Christ's death was not the result
of sin. He was not a sinner. He didn't
die for His sin. He died under the penalty and
punishment of sins of others charged to Him. He died because
the sins of His sheep were imputed to Him. And he was raised again
because he answered every charge. There are no charges against
Christ's sheep because he bore those charges in full and put
them away. The result of Christ's death
is righteousness. The result of Christ's death
is the righteousness of God. And the righteousness of God
is God's standard of judgment right now. always has been and
it will be at the final judgment. That's the first reason why the
righteousness of God is the most important single piece of information
sinners need to know because that righteousness is the standard
by which God judges men now and forever. Let's look at another
reason why the righteousness of God is the most important
single piece of information that sinners need to know and understand.
The righteousness of God is the only righteousness that is the
only righteousness that can be communicated to sinners. We've already looked at Romans
3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
As sinners, we have no righteousness within ourselves. We have no
righteousness of our own. We can't even make a contribution
toward righteousness. Romans 3 and verse 10 says, as
it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. None
have a righteousness of their own by which God can declare
them righteousness. Righteous. And all our attempts
to be righteous are filthy rags in the sight of God. Look at
Isaiah 64 and verse 6. He said, but we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags. And we all
do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. We're not righteous by nature,
and all our attempts to be righteous, all our attempts to be accepted
and favored by God are filthy in His sight. Now, we need righteousness. We don't have one of our own,
and we can't produce one of our own. God's standard of judgment
is righteousness. It's the righteousness of God.
How is this righteousness, this righteousness of God, how is
it communicated to sinners? How can we have a pardon? We
don't have any righteousness. The only righteousness there
is is the righteousness worked out in the body and soul of Christ.
How can we be partakers of that righteousness? How do sinners
become partakers of the righteousness of God? Well, they become partakers
the same way Christ became a partaker of sin, by imputation. The righteousness
Christ worked out is reckoned, it's accounted, it's imputed
to sinners. Look again at 2 Corinthians 5.21.
For God the Father made the Son to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
Like I said, we're made the righteousness just like Christ was made sin
by amputation. God laid on Him, He charged to
Him, Christ, the sins of His people, and He charges to sinners,
the sinners He died for, the sinners whose sins He bore. He
charges to us the very righteousness He worked out. Now some people
have a problem with how God communicates the righteousness He provided,
and the one that Christ established by His obedience unto death.
Some have a problem with how God communicates this righteousness
to sinners. But it's not a complicated issue.
It's not confusing. It's not ambiguous in the Scripture
in any way. It's plain and clear in the Scriptures.
Look at Romans 4 and verse 6. Paul gives us a commentary here
on what David was writing about in Psalm 32. And he says in verse
6 here, "...even as David also describeth the blessedness of
the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works."
The blessed man is the man to whom God imputes righteousness.
Is that unclear? Is that not plain? If God blesses
you, He's charged you with the righteousness of His Son. He
takes the righteousness Christ established by His obedience
unto death and charges it to the account of the sinner. And
because He imputes righteousness to the sinner, Because he charges
them with the righteousness of Christ, he will not, he cannot,
impute sin. Look at Romans 4, verses 7 through
8. Paul described the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without work, saying,
Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. You see, I underlined that last
phrase, to whom the Lord will not impute sin. This is very
strong language right here. That word not means never. It means certainly not. It means by no means. The blessed
man is the man unto whom the Lord will in no wise, under no
condition, for any reason, impute sin. It's like a double negative
in our vernacular today. God will not never impute sin
to the blessed man. He won't do it. He can't do it. Why? Why won't he impute sin
to the blessed man? It's because the blessed man
is the man to whom the Lord has imputed the righteousness of
Christ. God will never impute sin to
the blessed man because this man is justified. He's declared
righteous by God on the basis of Christ's righteousness imputed.
Look at Romans 8 and verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who can charge anyone of God's
elect with sin? Who can say to them, you owe
a debt to God's justice that hasn't been paid and needs to
be paid? Who can do that? Nobody. Who
can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Why not? Because
it's God who justifies. It's God who declares His elect
righteous on the basis of Christ's righteousness imputed. Rather
than have a problem with imputation, the way God communicates righteousness
to sinners, rather than have a problem with that, I thank
God for imputation. Imputation is how Christ was
made sin. Sin is charged to Him. And imputation
is how sinners are made the righteousness of God in Him. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works.
None of us have a righteousness of our own. Christ's inherent
righteousness cannot be communicated to us. But thank God Christ established
a righteousness by His obedience unto death that can be reckoned
to us. It can be accounted to us. It
can be imputed to sinners like you and me. The righteousness
of God is God's standard of judgment. And it's the only righteousness
in all the universe. It's the only righteousness that
can be communicated to sinners. It's communicated by imputation. And the demand of that specific
righteousness, the one Christ worked out by His obedience unto
death, the one God Himself imputes to the account of sinners, that
specific righteousness is the source, the basis, the ground
of life, spiritual life, eternal life. That brings us to the third reason.
That is the third reason, in fact, why the righteousness of
God is the most important single piece of information sinners
need to know and understand, because it's the source of eternal
life. You can't have life on any other
basis, but the righteousness Christ worked out imputed charge
to your account. Here's my point. The righteousness
Christ established by His obedience unto death demanded His resurrection
from the dead. It demanded His life. And it
alone demands the life of every sinner, the eternal life, the
spiritual life of every sinner he represented. Eternal life
is the fruit and result of that righteousness established by
the life and death of the incarnate Son of God. It's the result of
Christ's righteousness imputed. The righteousness of God is the
source of spiritual life. Let's look at some scriptures
that show us Christ as the source of life. Look at 1 Corinthians
15 and verse 45. He says, The first man Adam was
made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
That quickening is a life-giving spirit. And when he said the
first man Adam was made a living soul, you know who made him a
living soul? The last Adam. That's Christ. He's the Word
by whom all things were created. So, the first man was made a
living soul, but the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit.
Look at John 1, verses 1 and 4. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. That's the incarnate Son of God
right there He's talking about. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. Look at John 10, verses 27 and
28. Christ said, My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. Look at John 11, 25 through 26.
This is Jesus speaking to Martha on the death of Lazarus. You
remember Lazarus was laying in the tomb four days, and when
Christ came, Martha went out to meet Him. And this is what
he said to her. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? He's talking
about spiritual life there, see? Whoever believeth in me, though
he were spiritually dead, yet shall he spiritually live. And
he that liveth spiritually and believeth in me will not be facing
that second death. He won't be facing that death
that is the punishment of sin, because Christ has bore that
punishment already in his body on the tree. Look at John 8 and verse 10. I think this is Romans 8 and
verse 10. I think I recorded that wrong,
but it's the right verse. If Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin. This body is failing daily. This is the body failing. This
skin that's wrinkling up on me, this old man, his body's failing
daily. The body's dead. It's headed
for death because of sin, but the Spirit is life. It's because
of righteousness. If Christ is in you, that means
the Spirit of God resides in you. That's how Christ is in
you. Look at John 17 verses 1 through 3. These words spake Jesus and
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. We're talking about Christ being
the source of spiritual and eternal life. Eternal life is to know
God in His true redemptive character, a just God and a Savior, and
to know that He is just and justifier of ungodly sinners based on Christ's
imputed righteousness alone. Now, this is a verse I want us
to look at a little bit right here. Look at 1 John 2, verse
28 and 29. John is encouraging the church
in his epistle here. He says, And now, little children,
abide in him, abide in Christ, that when he shall appear, we
may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous,
he's talking about Christ. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. They're born of God. They're
born of the Spirit. He says, if you know that he
is righteous, in all the universe there is but one whom God has
declared righteous based on his obedience unto death, only one. That One is the incarnate Son
of God. That One is the Lord, our righteousness. He's the One who is dead and
is alive forevermore. He alone is righteous within. The only righteousness in this
universe, like Bill says, if you're going to find it, it's
in Christ. It resides in Christ. You're
not going to find righteousness anywhere else in this universe.
but in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God
incarnate. Christ lives because He satisfied
the law and justice of God. He lives because He established
righteousness in the earth. He lives forevermore because
of the righteousness His obedience unto death brought forth. He
lives because that specific righteousness that he worked out demanded his
life. It demanded his resurrection
from the dead. And it demands the life of every
sinner he died for. Christ is the source of spiritual
life. Eternal life is the fruit and
result of the righteousness Christ worked out, imputed, charged
to the account of a sinner. He says in that verse, everyone
that doeth righteousness. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteous is born of him. Everyone that doeth righteousness. Who is that? It's every sinner
resting in Christ alone. It's every sinner finding all
their hope of standing before God and being counted righteous
based on His imputed righteousness alone. It's every sinner who
finds their whole salvation in Christ. Those who've been delivered
from looking within and look to Christ alone. And it says
they're born of Him. Those that do righteousness are
born of Him. These alone These alone, who
rest their whole salvation in Christ alone, give evidence that
they're born of the Spirit, that they're born of God, that they
have Christ residing in them. The righteousness of God is the
source of eternal life. It's the fruit and result of
the righteousness Christ produced, charged to the account of sinners. Well, here's what I told you.
Here are the three reasons I gave you why every sinner needs to
know and understand the righteousness of God. Because it's God's standard
of judgment. Because it's the only righteousness
that can be communicated to sinners. It's also the only righteousness
there is. But it's the only one that can
be communicated to sinners. And it's communicated by imputation. And because it's the source of
eternal life. Those are just three reasons
today. I told you I've got a few more reasons I want to bring
you. Why? The righteousness of God is the
single most important piece of information that you and I, or
any sinner, can know and understand.