The Righteouness of God
NKJV Romans 10:1-2
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.”
Not according to Knowledge? The Greek word here for knowledge is ἐπίγνωσις [epignosis /ep•ig•no•sis]. Here’s the definition: epignosis (ἐπίγνωσις, 1922), akin to a “full, or thorough knowledge, discernment, recognition,”
In the next verse Paul points out what is was that they lacked knowledge in:
“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 10:3)
Believers receive God’s righteousness. They are made right with God and they participate in His righteousness, His rightness. Rightness means to be as something or someone should be—right as opposed to wrong, good as opposed to evil, sinless as opposed to sinful. God is totally righteous because He is totally as He should be. He cannot vary from His rightness. When we trust His Son, He shares His Son’s righteousness with us. “To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). When God looks on a Christian He sees His Son and His Son’s righteousness. When a person trusts in Christ, his unrighteousness is exchanged for Christ’s righteousness, “that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9). Man has never had any righteousness of his own and can never have any righteousness of his own, that is, which originates in him. The only righteousness he can have is that which God gives him through His Son. It is the only righteousness he needs, because it is perfect righteousness.1
1Source: MacArthur, J. (1996, c1984). 1 Corinthians. Includes indexes. Chicago: Moody Press.
We still fall into sins in our behavior because we have not yet been made perfect. In Philippians 3, Paul revealed this distinction when he wrote that through faith in Christ he had received the righteousness of God apart from the Law; yet, he added that he had not yet attained a perfect standard of holiness practically (vv. 7–14). So we constantly require forgiveness—the kind that is graciously offered by our Heavenly Father. The Apostle John warns us, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8–9).
So sin, while it is forgiven judicially, is still a reality in a Christian’s life. A decreasing frequency of sin, along with an increasing sensitivity to it, should characterize every Christian’s walk. And while our sins today and in the future don’t change our standing before God, they do affect the intimacy and joy in our relationship with Him.2
2Source: MacArthur, J. (1995). Alone with God. Includes indexes. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith. 18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness;
Source: American Standard Version. 1995 (Ro 1:16-18).
IMPORTANT (Imputation)
“Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”
Source: American Standard Version. 1995 (2 Co 5:21)
In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul provides important insight into the relationships between our sin and Christ, and His righteousness and us. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” While the word “impute” is not used in this verse, the context suggests that Paul is indeed thinking in terms of imputation. He describes the non-imputation of believers’ sin in verse 19: “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.” Verse 21 sets up a parallel idea between Christ being made sin for us and our becoming the righteousness of God in Him. The question is, “How did this exchange take place?” Christ did not personally become sin for us. He “knew no sin.” In what sense, then, did He become sin? He did so representatively—as our substitute. He represented us on the cross by having our sins charged to Him and suffering the consequences for them. This is perhaps the most readily admitted relationship in which imputation operates.
Source: FJ59
“The righteousness of God” carries two connotations. In one sense it speaks of God’s holy hatred of sin. In the early 1500s, Martin Luther sat in the tower of the Black Cloister, Wittenberg, reading this verse. “That expression ‘righteousness of God’ was like a thunderbolt in my heart,” Luther said years later. “I hated Paul with all my heart when I read that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.”3 Luther saw God’s righteousness as an unassailable obstacle to eternal life. Luther was deeply aware of his own sinfulness, and he knew because of it he was unacceptable to a righteous God. Therefore, as he read this verse he was seized with despair.
But there is a second connotation of righteousness in verse 17: “As it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’” This speaks of Christ’s perfect righteousness, which is imputed to the account of the believing sinner (Rom. 4:24). When Luther finally understood this sense of the word righteousness, he knew the true meaning of the gospel, and that discovery resulted in the Protestant Reformation.
The doctrine is known as justification. It means that God freely reckons all of Christ’s perfect righteousness to the assets side of the believer’s ledger, and He cancels out all the sin on the debit side. When God looks at the believing one, he sees that person as if he or she were as fully righteous as Christ Himself. That’s how God “justifies the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). Because Christ made full atonement for sin by His death and resurrection, God can justify sinners without compromising His own righteousness—“that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). This is the very heart of the gospel. It is why the message is good news.4
3Source: Table Talk, Theodore G. Tappert, ed. in Helmut T. Lehmann, gen. ed., Luther’s Works, 55 vols. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1967), 54: 308–9.
4Source: MacArthur, J. (1993). Ashamed of the gospel : When the Church becomes like the world. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.
Again, that pure and perfect righteousness of Christ is laid hold of by faith. That means it cannot be earned through human merit: “To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness…. God imputes [this] righteousness apart from works” (Romans 4:5–6). To try to earn righteousness through our own merit is the spiritual equivalent of making clothing from fig leaves. Our own “righteousness” is a tawdry, ineffectual covering for sin. Such self–righteousness is like dressing in the filthiest imaginable rags rather than a clean garment (Isaiah 64:6).5
5Source: MacArthur, J. (2001). The battle for the beginning : The Bible on creation and the fall of Adam (Page 220). Nashville, TN: W Pub. Group.
Because his death paid the price for sin, Jesus suffered once only. One after another, year after year, the animals of the old covenant were slaughtered. Their deaths could not take away human sin; this sacrifice could only portray the coming deliverance (Heb. 9:23–10:4). Human righteousness must overcome human sin. Neither the innocence of a lamb nor the perfect righteousness of God could meet the need. Only a perfect human could defeat sin. Jesus was that human.6
6Source: Sproul, R. (2000, c1994). Vol. 4: Before the face of God : Book four: A daily guide for living from Ephesians, Hebrews, and James Grand Rapids: Baker Book House; Ligonier Ministries.
No traitor to any king or nation has even approached the wickedness of our treason before God.Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin, of the most minute peccadillo? What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point? We are saying no to the righteousness of God. We are saying, “God, Your law is not good. My judgment is better than Yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond Your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what You command me to do.”7
7Source: Sproul, R. (1985). The holiness of God. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers
So, what is the meaning of the word righteousness? It implies the active as well as passive obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. We generally, when talking of the merits of Christ, only mention the latter, — his death; whereas, the former, — his life and active obedience, is equally necessary. Christ is not such a Savior as becomes us, unless we join both together. Christ not only died, but lived, not only suffered, but obeyed for, or instead of, poor sinners. And both these jointly make up that complete righteousness, which is to be imputed to us, as the disobedience of our first parents was made ours by imputation. In this sense, and no other, are we to understand that parallel which the apostle Paul draws, in the 5th of the Romans, between the first and second Adam. This is what he elsewhere terms, “our being made the righteousness of God in him.” This is the sense wherein the Prophet would have us to understand the words of the text; therefore, Jer. 33:16, “She (i.e. the church itself) shall be called, (having this righteousness imputed to her) The Lord our righteousness.”8
8Source: Whitefield, G. (1999). Selected Sermons of George Whitefield. Oak Harbor, WA
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.”
Not according to Knowledge? The Greek word here for knowledge is ἐπίγνωσις [epignosis /ep•ig•no•sis]. Here’s the definition: epignosis (ἐπίγνωσις, 1922), akin to a “full, or thorough knowledge, discernment, recognition,”
In the next verse Paul points out what is was that they lacked knowledge in:
“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 10:3)
Believers receive God’s righteousness. They are made right with God and they participate in His righteousness, His rightness. Rightness means to be as something or someone should be—right as opposed to wrong, good as opposed to evil, sinless as opposed to sinful. God is totally righteous because He is totally as He should be. He cannot vary from His rightness. When we trust His Son, He shares His Son’s righteousness with us. “To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). When God looks on a Christian He sees His Son and His Son’s righteousness. When a person trusts in Christ, his unrighteousness is exchanged for Christ’s righteousness, “that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9). Man has never had any righteousness of his own and can never have any righteousness of his own, that is, which originates in him. The only righteousness he can have is that which God gives him through His Son. It is the only righteousness he needs, because it is perfect righteousness.1
1Source: MacArthur, J. (1996, c1984). 1 Corinthians. Includes indexes. Chicago: Moody Press.
We still fall into sins in our behavior because we have not yet been made perfect. In Philippians 3, Paul revealed this distinction when he wrote that through faith in Christ he had received the righteousness of God apart from the Law; yet, he added that he had not yet attained a perfect standard of holiness practically (vv. 7–14). So we constantly require forgiveness—the kind that is graciously offered by our Heavenly Father. The Apostle John warns us, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8–9).
So sin, while it is forgiven judicially, is still a reality in a Christian’s life. A decreasing frequency of sin, along with an increasing sensitivity to it, should characterize every Christian’s walk. And while our sins today and in the future don’t change our standing before God, they do affect the intimacy and joy in our relationship with Him.2
2Source: MacArthur, J. (1995). Alone with God. Includes indexes. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith. 18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness;
Source: American Standard Version. 1995 (Ro 1:16-18).
IMPORTANT (Imputation)
“Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”
Source: American Standard Version. 1995 (2 Co 5:21)
In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul provides important insight into the relationships between our sin and Christ, and His righteousness and us. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” While the word “impute” is not used in this verse, the context suggests that Paul is indeed thinking in terms of imputation. He describes the non-imputation of believers’ sin in verse 19: “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.” Verse 21 sets up a parallel idea between Christ being made sin for us and our becoming the righteousness of God in Him. The question is, “How did this exchange take place?” Christ did not personally become sin for us. He “knew no sin.” In what sense, then, did He become sin? He did so representatively—as our substitute. He represented us on the cross by having our sins charged to Him and suffering the consequences for them. This is perhaps the most readily admitted relationship in which imputation operates.
Source: FJ59
“The righteousness of God” carries two connotations. In one sense it speaks of God’s holy hatred of sin. In the early 1500s, Martin Luther sat in the tower of the Black Cloister, Wittenberg, reading this verse. “That expression ‘righteousness of God’ was like a thunderbolt in my heart,” Luther said years later. “I hated Paul with all my heart when I read that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.”3 Luther saw God’s righteousness as an unassailable obstacle to eternal life. Luther was deeply aware of his own sinfulness, and he knew because of it he was unacceptable to a righteous God. Therefore, as he read this verse he was seized with despair.
But there is a second connotation of righteousness in verse 17: “As it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’” This speaks of Christ’s perfect righteousness, which is imputed to the account of the believing sinner (Rom. 4:24). When Luther finally understood this sense of the word righteousness, he knew the true meaning of the gospel, and that discovery resulted in the Protestant Reformation.
The doctrine is known as justification. It means that God freely reckons all of Christ’s perfect righteousness to the assets side of the believer’s ledger, and He cancels out all the sin on the debit side. When God looks at the believing one, he sees that person as if he or she were as fully righteous as Christ Himself. That’s how God “justifies the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). Because Christ made full atonement for sin by His death and resurrection, God can justify sinners without compromising His own righteousness—“that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). This is the very heart of the gospel. It is why the message is good news.4
3Source: Table Talk, Theodore G. Tappert, ed. in Helmut T. Lehmann, gen. ed., Luther’s Works, 55 vols. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1967), 54: 308–9.
4Source: MacArthur, J. (1993). Ashamed of the gospel : When the Church becomes like the world. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.
Again, that pure and perfect righteousness of Christ is laid hold of by faith. That means it cannot be earned through human merit: “To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness…. God imputes [this] righteousness apart from works” (Romans 4:5–6). To try to earn righteousness through our own merit is the spiritual equivalent of making clothing from fig leaves. Our own “righteousness” is a tawdry, ineffectual covering for sin. Such self–righteousness is like dressing in the filthiest imaginable rags rather than a clean garment (Isaiah 64:6).5
5Source: MacArthur, J. (2001). The battle for the beginning : The Bible on creation and the fall of Adam (Page 220). Nashville, TN: W Pub. Group.
Because his death paid the price for sin, Jesus suffered once only. One after another, year after year, the animals of the old covenant were slaughtered. Their deaths could not take away human sin; this sacrifice could only portray the coming deliverance (Heb. 9:23–10:4). Human righteousness must overcome human sin. Neither the innocence of a lamb nor the perfect righteousness of God could meet the need. Only a perfect human could defeat sin. Jesus was that human.6
6Source: Sproul, R. (2000, c1994). Vol. 4: Before the face of God : Book four: A daily guide for living from Ephesians, Hebrews, and James Grand Rapids: Baker Book House; Ligonier Ministries.
No traitor to any king or nation has even approached the wickedness of our treason before God.Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin, of the most minute peccadillo? What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point? We are saying no to the righteousness of God. We are saying, “God, Your law is not good. My judgment is better than Yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond Your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what You command me to do.”7
7Source: Sproul, R. (1985). The holiness of God. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers
So, what is the meaning of the word righteousness? It implies the active as well as passive obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. We generally, when talking of the merits of Christ, only mention the latter, — his death; whereas, the former, — his life and active obedience, is equally necessary. Christ is not such a Savior as becomes us, unless we join both together. Christ not only died, but lived, not only suffered, but obeyed for, or instead of, poor sinners. And both these jointly make up that complete righteousness, which is to be imputed to us, as the disobedience of our first parents was made ours by imputation. In this sense, and no other, are we to understand that parallel which the apostle Paul draws, in the 5th of the Romans, between the first and second Adam. This is what he elsewhere terms, “our being made the righteousness of God in him.” This is the sense wherein the Prophet would have us to understand the words of the text; therefore, Jer. 33:16, “She (i.e. the church itself) shall be called, (having this righteousness imputed to her) The Lord our righteousness.”8
8Source: Whitefield, G. (1999). Selected Sermons of George Whitefield. Oak Harbor, WA
sung by Rick at 5:44 PM
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