A Critical Truth

2 Corinthians 5:21

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Romans 3:26

“…he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justified those who have faith in Jesus.”

Justification, evidenced in the verses above, is one of the most critical doctrines of the Christian faith. Theologian John Murray notes that “justification is…the article of the standing or falling church.” So for such an important truth, it seems that every Christ follower should know this truth and understand the implications of this truth. Sadly, for many believers, it is simply a theological term. Hence the need for some further explanation and application.

When a person trusts in Jesus Christ for their salvation, God justifies them. What this means is that God declares the believer to be righteous. It is on the basis of this declaration of righteousness that we can stand before God. We have to be righteous to stand before a holy and righteous God. If we are not righteous our sin will keep us from God in his holiness (Isaiah 6:1-7). The verb for justified in Romans 3:26 is a legal term; we are declared or reckoned righteous…hence justification is a legal action. It is as if we stand in a courtroom, knowing we are guilty of all of our sin, but God as the judge looks at us and declares us to be righteous. God does not just say that we are not guilty…he goes beyond a not guilty verdict and declares us to be legally righteous!

This is an extravagant act of grace! We don’t deserve righteousness! We don’t even deserve a not guilty verdict. But we are declared to be righteousness. And the reason we are declared to be righteous is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21…God took our sin and placed it on Christ, and God took Christ’s righteousness and placed it on us. The theological term for this is double imputation, but a much simpler terminology is to call it a double transfer. God (1) takes our sin and transfers it to Christ, and he (2) takes Christ’s righteousness and transfers it to us. Therefore God looks at us and does not see our sin, but sees Christ’s righteousness. He looks at us and sees Jesus! And so we are accepted by God. Amen!

What is critical to note for purposes of application of these passages is that us being declared righteous by God has absolutely NOTHING to do with our own actual righteousness. Absolutely NOTHING. Now it is true that when we are saved we are regenerated by God…we are born again into a new life (John 3). This clearly involves some inner transformation! But we continue to have sin in our lives (I’m sure you don’t have to look too far back to see the last time you sinned!). And while we do grow in righteousness as we seek to live more and more for Jesus Christ, our actual righteousness will never be complete this side of heaven. There is no way that we can have the level of righteousness that we need to be able to stand before our heavenly Father. It is completely on the basis of Christ’s righteousness that we can stand before God, and we have received that righteousness, not based on any merit of our own, but only because of the lavish grace of God poured out on us through sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins on the cross.

Therefore, since our right standing with God (and hence the basis for us being able to spend eternity with God) is not based on our actual righteousness but only on Christ’s righteousness given to us, there are several things we can say about how this staggering and humbling truth can apply to our lives:

1)      Because our right standing with God is based on Christ’s righteousness and not our own, we do not need to live in fear or in guilt. Our salvation is secure! Even though we will all continue to have sin in our lives this side of heaven we do not need to be afraid of losing our salvation! If we have truly trusted in Jesus Christ for our salvation, there is nothing we can do to “blow it.” The bible shows us plenty of examples of murderers and various other quite horrible people who are redeemed by God! And we do not need to carry the weight of our sin with us for an endless amount of time, as if feeling more guilty or inflicting self-punishment will somehow atone for our sin. Christians will say that they believe that Jesus died for their sin, but they often live with so much fear and guilt it would appear that they functionally don’t believe that Jesus died for their sin. But since our right standing with God is based on Christ’s righteousness, and because that righteousness has been transferred to us, we don’t need to carry that fear or guilt anymore!

 

2)      Because our right standing with God is based on Christ’s righteousness and not our own, we do not need to try and earn our salvation. If we feel that we have to in some way earn God’s favor by our own righteousness in order to stand before God and spend eternity with God, then we will desperately make our lives about earning that favor. And we will very quickly realize that we cannot earn God’s favor on our own righteousness (because of our sin), and we will get very frustrated. However many persist in this effort to somehow make their salvation based in some part on their own merit. But no merit on our own can earn our salvation! Going to church does not earn us salvation. Being a “good person” does not earn us salvation. Tithing does not earn us salvation. Only the work of Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins and us receiving his righteousness gives us the ability to stand before God, both now and for eternity. Our salvation has been earned already by Christ!

 

3)      Because our right standing with God is based on Christ’s righteousness and not our own, we should be highly motivated to live for God! God’s grace in declaring us righteous should so overwhelm us that we take every area of our lives and focus on living a life worthy of the righteousness we have received. Holiness should be a personal desire on the heart of every single Christian! If some Christians err on the side of trying to earn our salvation when everything has already been done for us through Jesus Christ, others err on the side of receiving God’s grace and salvation and then not living in light of what has been received. If someone came up to you and gave you $10 million, your life will change! In the same way, God’s grace and love for us should so radically reorient our lives that anything in our lives that does not honor God should be cut out.

These are just three areas of application, but we could go on and on. Because we are justified by God, we can stand before God with confidence. We can be assured of our salvation and our eternal life with God. We don’t need to be afraid of death because we know that death is simply the last barrier between us and eternity with God. When a believer dies we can grieve their loss but not despair, because we know that they are in heaven with Jesus. We can encourage others to stop striving for something they cannot obtain and start living for someone they can. We have been justified by God, legally declared righteous…so let us praise God for his amazing grace in our lives!