“CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”
ROMANS 10:1-4; PHILIPPIANS 3:8-10
INTRO: What comes to mind when I say the word Righteousness? The
dictionary defines it this way: “Conforming to a standard of right and
justice; virtuous. The act of being morally right” (Funk & Wagnalls
Standard Desk Dictionary, Volume 2, N-Z, p. 574). But How does God
define righteousness? The matter of righteousness is what this Bible is
all about. It is what Calvary and the Cross are all about. It is what the
Church and Christian religion are all about. What is Righteousness?
According to God’s Word, righteousness is bringing people by to God’s
standard of righteousness. The Chinese character for "righteousness"
is most interesting. It is composed of two separate characters - one
standing for a lamb, the other for me. When "lamb" is placed directly
above "me," a new character - "righteousness" is formed. This is a
helpful picture of the grace of God. Between me, the sinner, and God,
the Holy One, there is interposed by faith the Lamb of God. By virtue
of his sacrifice he has received me on the ground of faith, and I have
become righteous in his sight.
How are we brought up to God’s standard of righteousness? By faith
in His Son, Jesus. Romans 3:21-26 tells us, “But now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by
the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is
no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time
his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus.” The apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:7-9 that
knowing Christ and be found in HIM was what mattered: “But what
things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
And do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in
Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith.” The only way you or I may enter Heaven is through the
righteousness of Christ. What does it profit us to gain all this life
has to offer and have not the righteousness of Christ put to our
account? NOTHING! Our Lord Jesus asked in Mark 8:36-37—“For
what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
When we speak of the “Righteousness of Christ” we mean that none of
us are what God wants us to be; that we are sinners. Isaiah 64:6 tells
us, “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 are unable to lift ourselves up to
God’s standard. The Bible tells us that Christ has taken our place,
and when we receive Christ by faith, God accepts us on the merit of
Christ’s righteousness not ours. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He
hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no; that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him.” If I look through a piece of red glass,
everything is red. If we look through a piece of blue glass, everything
is blue. If we look through a piece of yellow glass, everything is yellow,
and so on. When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, God looks
at us through the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees us in all the white
holiness of His Son. Our sins are imputed to the account of Christ
and his righteousness to our account.
CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS is a glorious truth. But please note IT
IS:
(1) REQUIRED OF SINNERS
ROMANS 10:1-4—“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God
for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear record that
they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 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. For Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”
A. THE REQUIREMENT. God is Holy and He requires that we be holy
also. In Leviticus 19:2 the Lord told Moses, “Speak unto all the
congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be
holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.” Peter echoes these words in 1
Peter 1:15-16—“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy
in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am
holy.” The only way we can “Be ye holy, am I am holy,” as God demands
is for us to have the Righteousness of Christ. Someone has said, “God
never alters the robe of righteousness to fit man; He changes the man to
fit the robe.” Once we receive Christ as our Savior, we are made anew.
And daily, as we follow the leadership of God’s Spirit and the commands
of God’s Word, we become more of what God would have us to be!
ILLUS: Donald Grey Barnhouse wrote: “Our God is a demanding God,
an exigent God. His very nature demands of Him that He
demand of us more than we can ever supply. The requirement
of His righteousness is a righteousness equal to His own. He
could never accept human righteousness as a compromising
payment. Perfection demands perfection; that is why salvation
must be by grace, and why works are not sufficient. The glory
of grace is that our God is not only a demanding God, He is a
supplying God. Never has He required anything of us that He
has not furnished us as a gift of His sovereign grace. His
demand of righteousness has been fully met by that which was
manifested for us in Christ. In a devotional book The Canon of
Winchester says, ‘The demands of holiness are so great that the
resources to meet them are simply not to be found within the
competence of our human nature.’ Who is sufficient, then, to
meet the daily demands of God? Once more it must be seen
that what God requires, He provides. The Christian life comes
on the installment buying plan. There is a down payment of
righteousness and a daily installment of holiness, one required
for entrance into eternal life and the other for enjoying fellow-
ship and blessings. God will not accept human righteousness
for salvation any more than an automobile salesman will
accept counterfeit money as a down payment on a new model
car. Nor can He accept the average goodness of average
Christians as the basis for showering us with the special,
abundant blessings which He must reserve for those who bring
Him that which He requires. Just as God provided Christ as
the down payment, so He has provided Christ as the continuing
payment of holiness. The second must be appropriated by faith
even as the first. ‘He is made unto us….righteousness,
sanctification...’ (1 Cor. 1:30). The Holy Spirit brings
righteousness when He bears new life in us at the new birth,
and He applies righteousness to us every hour of our life. The
provision is fully made, and thus are the demands of holiness
met” (1).
God requires for sinners to enter Heaven they have the Righteousness of
Christ put to their account. But notice also…
B. THE REASON. As Isaiah 64:6 tells us, “But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…” John Wesley
said, “The very best of us all are no better than the uncleanest things”
(John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes). The words “filthy rags” in Isaiah
64:6 literally mean “a "menstruous rag" (Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Commentary). That’s the best we can do apart from the righteousness
of Christ! We are filthy, unrighteous, unholy apart from Christ! But
when we receive Christ as our Savior, His Righteousness becomes our
righteousness. And we are accepted by God for this cause.
ILLUS: Charles Spurgeon said, “Saints are so righteous in Jesus
Christ that they are more righteous than Adam was before
he fell, for he had but a creature righteousness, and they have
the righteousness of the Creator. He had a righteousness
which he lost, but believers have righteousness which they can
lose, an everlasting righteousness” (2).
Either Christ becomes your righteousness or you remain in yours sins,
and pay for them yourself in the eternal flames of hell. The choice is
your and yours alone!
The Righteousness of Christ IS REQUIRED OF SINNERS, but also it is…
(2) REVEALED IN THE SCRIPTURES
ROMANS 10:3-4—“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. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth.”
*Where is this required righteousness found? It is revealed in the Word of
God! It is:
A. REVEALED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. Adam and Eve after the Fall
were covered of their nakedness by God who slew a lamb as their
covering. This lamb slain was merely a picture, a foretaste of the
perfect, righteous, holy Lamb of God who was slain for the sins of all
mankind. 1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Abel was accepted by God because he came with a blood sacrifice, and
Cain was rejected because his was not of blood. Isaac was to be killed
as a sacrifice by his father Abraham but the ram caught in the thicket
took his place. The Israelites on the Passover while in Egyptian
bondage were told to apply the blood to the doorposts so they could
escape the judgment of God. They were covered by the blood! All of the
Old Testament sacrifices pointed to the righteous, Holy Lamb of God
Who was slain for our sins. Isaiah 53 foretells the coming of God’s
Righteous Lamb Would be slain for the sins of man.
ILLUS: A young converted Jewess, daughter of a New York rabbi,
tells this story:
My father taught me to read the Bible in Hebrew when a young
child. We began at Genesis. When we came to Isaiah he
skipped the fifty-third chapter. I asked him why. He said it was
not necessary for Jews to read that chapter. I became more
curious. I asked him who it was for, and he said Christians. I
asked him what the Christian Bible was doing in our Bible. He
became very angry and told me to keep quiet. He said again it
was not necessary to read it. I wondered why God would put
unnecessary things in the Bible. I copied the fifty-third chapter
on paper and carried it in my stocking for two years until I
came to America--the free country. I looked at it at night and
every chance I could without being seen. I took better care of
that paper than people do of money. Through reading this
wonderful chapter I was led to accept Christ as my Saviour. I
was walking in New York one day and heard a lady reading this
chapter. She explained that it referred to Jesus Christ. It
satisfied me completely. --Sunday School Times
The Old Testament reveals that to be accepted by God and have one’s
sins covered one had to have the blood. Thus faith in the blood became
their righteousness. What about in the New Testament? THE
RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST IS:
B. REVEALED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. John preached it. In John 1:
29 we read, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!”
Warren Wiersbe wrote: “John’s announcement is the answer to Isaac’s
question, ‘where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ (Gen. 22:7). The
Passover lamb in Ex. 12 and the sacrificial lamb in Isaiah 53 point to
Christ. There were many lambs slain in Old Testament history, but
Christ is the Lamb of God, the unique one. The blood of lambs slain in
tabernacle or temple merely covered sin (Heb. 10:1-4), but Christ’s
blood takes away sin. The lambs offered in the Old Testament days