“SOME DAY YOU WILL STAND BEFORE GOD AND YOU MUST HAVE
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS”
“WHAT IS IT? and HOW AND WHERE CAN YOU GET THIS
RIGHTEOUSNESS?”
As our little human temple cannot contain all the
righteousness of God, it is utterly impossible to stand before the
Almighty God
and be justified by a “within” righteousness. There is only one
man that
is the sum total of the saving righteousness we need. This is
called “…
the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh” (1Tim
3:16)
because “…in
him (Jesus)
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily.”
(Col
2:9). Our
justification can only be found in Jesus
Christ.
As
Jeremiah said “In his (Jesus Christ) days
Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his
name
whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jer
23:6).
The
righteousness that justifies is never
found in the believer but it always remains outside, external
and
extrinsic to him, and is found only in Jesus Christ.
THE
REFORMATION BELIEF OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS BY
FAITH IN CHRIST
All
throughout history, there have been God’s men
and women that have known and taught the saving righteousness that is
found in
Christ Jesus, however it was Martin Luther that shone a light
into the blackness
of Roman Catholicism. Since the apostle Paul, he was the loudest and
clearest
voice that spoke against Rome’s internal righteousness. Luther said “This
then is the amazing definition of Christian righteousness. It is the
divine imputing
or accounting for righteousness or unto righteousness because
of faith
in Christ. When the sophists (Romanists) hear this definition, they
laugh,
because they imagine righteousness to be a certain quality that is
poured into
the soul and then spread into all parts of man … Therefore this
unspeakable
gift excels all reason: God accounts and acknowledges him as
righteous,
that is having right standing with him, without any works who
apprehends
his Son Jesus Christ by faith alone.”
When
John Bunyan heard a voice saying “Your
righteousness is in heaven,” he was translated (delivered) out
from the
kingdom of darkness and stepped into the light of righteousness which
is by
belief (faith). He agreed with Luther when he wrote: “Indeed, this is
one of
the greatest mysteries in the world – namely, that a righteousness that
resides
with a person in heaven should justify me, a sinner, on earth.”
“That
this righteousness still resides in and with
the person of Christ, even when we stand just before God, is clear, for
that we
are said when justified to be justified ‘in him’ (Jesus Christ) not
he in
us. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified.” And again
“Surely,
shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness.” And
again “For of him are ye in Christ
Jesus, who is made unto us of God’s righteousness.” (Is 45: 24, 25;
1Cor 1:30).
(Bunyan)
“Mark,
the righteousness is still ‘in him’
(Jesus Christ) and not ‘in us’, even when we are
partakers of the
benefit of it, even as the wing and the feathers still abide in the hen
when
the chickens are covered, kept, and warmed thereby …” (Bunyan)
“It
is absolutely necessary that this be known of
us: for if the understanding be muddy as to this, it is impossible
that such
should be sound in the faith; also in temptation, that man will be
at a
loss that looketh for righteousness for justification in himself, when
it is to
be found nowhere but in Jesus Christ”
and
again “The righteousness by which we stand
just before God from the curse of the law was performed by the person
of Christ
… This righteousness is inherent only in him…” (Bunyan)
The
gift of God’s imputed justifying righteousness
comes from outside of us and never within the greatest saint.
It is in
Jesus Christ and no-one else.
“SIMUL
JUSTUS ET PECCATOR”
This
Reformation phrase meant “We are both
sinners in ourselves and righteous before God, AT THE SAME
TIME!” John
Bunyan said “…Men can be justified from the curse of the
law before
God while sinners in themselves by no other than that long ago
performed
by, and remaining with, the person of Christ…”
This
is made possible by the spiritual circumcision
of the Holy Ghost that separates the saved soul from the sins that
remain in
the flesh (Col 2:11). Our separated saved soul is ‘trapped’ in a body
of sinful
flesh. We continue to sin but the real part of us, the soul, is saved.
The Christian’s righteousness can be described as extrinsic
(from without, outside), alien (meaning foreign), imputed
(meaning
not infused into), passive (meaning not worked for), declared
righteous (meaning not made internally righteous), objective (meaning
not part of the human experience), vicarious (meaning performed
by
another, a substitute), ‘for us’ (meaning not ‘in us’),
done
and completed (meaning 2,000 years ago and not ongoing). These
terms and
more will be discussed in later articles.
**** ****
Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
A FOUR POINT SUMMARY OF REFORMATION JUSTIFICATION Part 1
“A
FOUR POINT SUMMARY OF
REFORMATION JUSTIFICATION” Part 1
Australian Bible Ministries, PO
Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
