Christ Our Righteousness

Christ is our righteousness....

CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

By Deborah | December 17, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.   

1 Corinthians 1:30 

Christ is our righteousness. There is perhaps no more glorious truth than this. We have no righteousness of our own.  As Paul writes, ‘there is none righteous, no, not one.’ No amount of good works can make us righteous. Church membership, rites, ceremonies are all of no avail to make us righteous. God has done what is necessary to make us righteous by Christ. ‘For He made HIm who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.’  Thus when Paul says Christ is made to us righteousness, he is speaking clearly of this imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us. This is why it is critically important for us to understand justification. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, ‘Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.’ This removes all erstwhile dependence on our works, our church affiliation, our adherence to rites, ceremonies, or any other merits. God accepts us for Jesus’ sake and on the basis of His righteousness. This was one of the primary doctrines that fired the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther came to understand it, and it liberated him from works-righteousness. We understand it and make much of Christ. He is made to us righteous and thus God accepts us. 

Our Great and Gracious God, 
we rejoice in Your justification. 
We praise You for all that Christ has done 
to make it so.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning