Day 63: How is Christ Our Righeousness?
Every human being who has ever lived has failed to be completely faithful to God our Creator. Except One. Because Jesus was faithful, we can be set right with Father God by trusting Him. Christ is our righteousness – our “right way” to restore our relationship with Father God.
Romans 3:21
But now an apart-from-the-law-righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed—namely, the righteousness of God through the faith/faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe.
Instead of asking questions about these verses (they are difficult), we are going to jump right in to our discussion. Before Jesus, the Lord had given the Law (a way the Jewish people described the books of Moses, Genesis—Deuteronomy) to keep Israel “bound up” until the Messiah Jesus would come. Once Jesus entered human history, Father-God revealed His true wisdom in salvation. Both the Law (the books of Moses) and the Prophets foresaw this dimly, but until Jesus the full wisdom of Father-God’s salvation was not clearly revealed.
In the New Testament, the Letter to the Romans develops the theme of “righteousness” more than any other. There, Paul explains both God’s righteousness and our being justified—declared righteous—in Christ. For Paul, “being justified” is a way of talking about “being saved.” These are truths that we are going to return to in a future session of this study.
For now it is important that we understand what “righteousness” is.
KEY Definition: Righteousness
Righteousness is doing
1) the right thing,
2) in the right way,
3) at the right time,
4) with the right motives.
This definition may oversimplify things a little, but we think it is a good starting place to understand this concept.
Remember, we are discussing how Christ Jesus has become the righteousness from God for us. Let’s take our definition and show how Father-God’s righteousness—right way of doing things—has been revealed in Christ.
Father-God did the “right thing” in Jesus
Father-God’s right way is revealed in the verse from Romans above. In the context of Romans 3, Paul is making the argument that there is absolutely no one who is righteous in and of themselves before God (see Romans 3:10-20). Instead, He declares people to be righteous “through the faith of Jesus Christ, for all who believe.” This one statement is at the very heart of the Christian worldview. To sum it up: only Christ Jesus has been faithful and His faithfulness has won the blessing of salvation/righteousness for all who trust in Him.
Romans 3:22 introduces what has become a somewhat controversial issue. Notice the translation we have used (NET) says, “through the faith OF Jesus Christ.” If you look at other translations you will see “through faith IN Jesus Christ.” There are a handful of passages in the New Testament that when taken at face value seem to refer to the “faith of Jesus,” which is to say this is the faith that Jesus Himself exercised. We don’t want to get sidelined with this issue right now. There is a discussion at the end of this workbook if you would like to dig deeper.
For now, simply know that we think it is best in this context take the least interpreted meaning of the text and that Paul is saying that Father-God’s “right way of doing things” was accomplished “through the faith of Christ Jesus.” We will say more about this shortly.
Father-God did things “the right way” in Jesus.
Paul goes on to say this:
Romans 3:22-25
…For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 But they are justified (declared righteous) freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
We have all sinned and fall far short of God’s glory. But we are also justified—declared to be right with God—1) freely by His grace, and 2) through the redemption that is in Christ. We are going to talk about justification in more detail a little later. For now, just know that it means to declare that someone has done what is right. We are also going to talk about redemption at the end of this week. For now, understand that redemption is paying a price to get something back. Both of these terms describe a different aspect, a different facet of Father-God’s glorious way of salvation.
The main point here is this: Father-God’s “right way” of saving us is displayed in the fact that He did so “freely”—we could do nothing to earn it or pay for it. And He did it through the redemption that is in Christ—Jesus has done something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. God’s “right way” of salvation is saving us in a way that we did not earn or could ever accomplish ourselves!
Father-God did things “at the right time” in Jesus.
Romans 5:6
For while we were still helpless,
at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
So when did Father-God do these things for us? At the right time—when we were completely helpless! That is when Jesus died for us! If we could have done anything to accomplish our salvation, our redemption, then Jesus died needlessly. Instead, Father-God send Christ Jesus to die for us when it is clear that we, as the human race, were completely incapable of saving ourselves in any way. Paul makes another statement about this in Galatians:
Galatians 4:4–6
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”{ESV}
Father-God did things “with the right motives” in Jesus.
Romans 5:8
…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:4–7
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 2:7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Because of His great love for us…What more needs to be said? The implications of this simple statement are profound and we will be exploring them over the course of this study.
Review all that we have said today. Think of a few things that you can give thanks to Father-God about in relation to all that He has given us In Christ.
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
