Christ is Our Righteousness

Christ Is Our Righteousness

What, then, is our righteousness? This is a basic lesson which we Christians must learn thoroughly. We ought to know that in providing for our salvation God solved the problem of righteousness as well as that of sin. Through righteousness God has forgiven our sins, and He has also prepared for us a righteousness by which we can always come to Him. Forgiveness is like taking a bath; righteousness is like wearing a robe. Among men we are clothed that we may appear before them. So too, God clothes us with righteousness that we may live before Him; that is, that we may see Him. He has already cleansed our sins and given us a righteousness by which we may live in His presence.

What is our righteousness? The word of God tells us that our righteousness is Christ—the Lord Jesus himself. "But of (God) are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (l Cor. 1.30). From this rich verse we will lift out but one item and concentrate our attention upon it alone—namely, that God has made Christ our righteousness.

Not the Righteousness of Christ

Before we discuss how Christ is our righteousness, we wish to explain briefly that the righteousness of Christ and Christ our righteousness are two totally distinct subjects. It is wrong to consider the righteousness of Christ as our righteousness. The righteousness of Christ cannot be our righteousness; it is Christ himself who is our righteousness.

The word found in 2 Peter 1.1—"the righteousness of our God and the Saviour Jesus Christ"—points to the righteousness which Christ himself possesses. If the Lord Jesus himself is not righteous, He is not qualified to be the Saviour, and we have no way to be saved. This righteousness is purely for Christ himself, not for Him to give to us. The Bible never says the righteousness of the Lord Jesus saves us, because this righteousness is for the purpose of qualifying Him to be our Saviour. His righteousness cannot be reckoned as our righteousness. His righteousness is that which He lives out while on earth. It is His personal standing before God. It is the righteousness of Christ’s personal conduct. It has no way to be imparted to us. Christ’s righteousness is what He himself has worked out. It is exclusively His and is absolutely unrelated to us. It is for this reason that the word of God never says we are "in Jesus". In being Jesus He is still the only begotten Son of God—He has not yet become the first-born Son and hence we are not yet the many sons. We therefore have no part in Him.

Let us understand that our union with Christ begins at His cross, not at His incarnation. Until the time of the cross, all that Christ has is exclusively His own; He has not yet shared anything with us. If a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it bears much fruit (many grains). Only since the Lord Jesus has died are we now those fruits, those many grains. Our union with Christ begins at His death, not at His birth. Calvary is where we are united with Him; at Bethlehem there is no such union. Before Calvary, we can only view His righteousness; we cannot share in it. The Bible from its beginning to its end tells us that we are not saved by the righteousness of Christ nor do we become righteous by His righteousness. Our becoming righteous before God is only because of Christ himself.

Some may ask, Does not the Bible tell us that God has given us the righteous robe of the Lord Jesus? But we would counter, Does God’s word say that God will clothe us with the righteous robe of the Lord Jesus or that He will clothe us with the Lord Jesus as a righteous robe? In other words, are we clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus or clothed with the Lord Jesus himself? In point of fact, we have never read in God’s word that we are clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus; we read instead that we are clothed with the Lord Jesus: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 13.14).

We see here a most wonderful and distinctive thing: our righteousness before God is not the earthly conduct of the Lord Jesus, our righteousness before Him is the Lord Jesus, a living person. Today we come to God because we are clothed with the Lord Jesus himself. The Lord Jesus is our righteousness; and this is not the righteousness which He has, but He himself as righteousness. Accordingly, since the Lord Jesus lives forever, we have righteousness before God at all times. We may come to Him with boldness at any time, for we have the Lord Jesus as our righteousness.

Christ Is Righteousness

If our righteousness before God were our conduct we would be very unstable, because our conduct is sometimes good and sometimes bad; furthermore, our good conduct is always limited and can never meet the standard of God. Thank God, the righteousness we have before Him is not our conduct, but Christ; we are therefore immovable before Him. Today you may not be very strong and good. Satan will come and tempt you, saying, "What are you, after all? God will not have such a person as you." But you can reply: "You have forgotten, Satan, that my righteousness before God is not my good conduct of yesterday nor is it my less good conduct of today; but my righteousness before Him is Christ. Christ has not changed today, so my righteousness remains unchanged." Should the garment we wear be of our own making, it would be dirty rags and we would be quite unable to meet God. But we are today clothed with Christ; hence we have boldness to see God. Oh! This is deliverance, this is emancipation, this is the foundation of Christian doctrine.

Suppose we imagine ourselves asking a brother who knows the word of God: "Will your righteousness ever fail?" He will answer, "No, never." "But will your conduct ever fail?" we may ask. He will say, "Certainly." Do you see that his righteousness will never fail, though his conduct may? His righteousness is not his conduct. If this were true, then when his conduct failed, his righteousness would fail too. Yet his righteousness is not his conduct, it is not that which is subject to failure; his righteousness is the Christ who never fails. And so our righteousness too never fails; it is as unfailing as Christ is. Now this may sound too bold, but it is the word of God. Our righteousness is Christ. Because He never fails, our righteousness never fails either.

Some may perhaps inquire, Does it then mean that our bad conduct does not matter? It definitely does matter. For the Bible shows us that a Christian has two garments: one is the Lord Jesus, for He is our robe, He is our righteousness; the other is the bright and pure fine linen of Revelation 19.8: "For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." ("Righteous acts" is "righteousnesses" in the original, meaning the many acts of righteousness.) All the good conduct of a Christian—all his outward righteousnesses—come from grace as a result of the working of the Holy Spirit in him; they are not something which he has naturally. As we approach God we are not naked, because we are clothed with Christ who is our righteousness. However, as we appear before the judgment seat of Christ we must bring our own righteousness, that which is called the righteousnesses of the saints (see 2 Cor. 5.10, 1 Cor. 4.5). This present chapter deals exclusively with Christ our righteousness, not with the righteousnesses of the saints.

There is one name in the Old Testament which is very precious. It is "Jehovah our righteousness" (Jer. 23.6, 33.16). Jehovah is our righteousness, therefore our righteousness is not our conduct. May God open our eyes that we may see the gospel, even the foundation of the gospel. As we come to God, Christ—not our conduct—is our righteousness. The Lord is our righteousness. We come to Him through Christ. What else is as firm and immovable as this?

Each time we approach God, we need to remember that Christ is our righteousness. If we see Him as this, we will stand in the presence of God with confidence. We will come as little children, saying to Him, "Look, I come today clothed with Christ." God looks and He finds no defect. The more He looks the better we look, for Christ is absolutely without blemish; He is perfect.

"His grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Eph. 1.6). This verse includes the thought of our being accepted in the Beloved. Just as God accepts His beloved Son, even so He accepts us in the Beloved. We are accepted in the Beloved, and we are as accepted as the Beloved. God accepts us as He accepts His own Son. Whatever position the beloved Son has belongs to all who are in the Beloved. This is truly most glorious.

When Balak asked Balaam to curse God’s people—the children of Israel—Balaam was forced to admit: God "hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob; neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel; Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them" (Num. 23.21). Even though he was a covetous prophet, he was not free to speak as he wished. God showed him what to say, and he had to prophesy according to God’s wish.

But on the other hand, when the Israelites murmured against God after they had heard the evil report of the spies, God said to them: "Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me, surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun" (Num. 14.29-30). Let us remember that according to conduct, they had actually sinned; so have we sinned. Never fancy, after hearing these words of Balaam, that we are so good that we have no sin. God did not speak here of the good conduct of the Israelites; rather, He spoke of seeing a righteousness in Israel. It was through their offerings and the righteousness of the sacrifices that God did not behold iniquity in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel.

We know that the sacrifices represent or typify the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we are in Christ and are accepted in the Beloved, we may approach God with boldness. Our righteousness before Him is as perfect as Christ; since Christ is our righteousness, God cannot find any iniquity in us. Because we have received the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, God looks on us as though we have never sinned. Hence do not be made timid by the remembrance of your past history, since we know He has already forgiven all our sins. Thank God, He has put us in Christ that we may stand before Him as though we had never sinned. Christ is our righteousness, and so God is able to declare that He has not perceived iniquity in Jacob nor has He seen sin in Israel. If we come to God through Christ, can we come in any other way than in boldness?

Losing boldness in coming to God is due to our looking at ourselves. Whenever we are afraid of seeing God we have not seen Christ. If we see Him—and not ourselves—we shall have confidence every time we approach God. Christ never fails, therefore we also fail not before God. Praise Him, our righteousness does not ebb and flow; it remains constant. Our conduct is subject to ups and downs, but our righteousness is not susceptible to change. Should some ask us if the conduct of a Christian, his zeal and love, is open to change, our answer would have to be yes. We would be deceiving ourselves if we were to deny such a possibility. Yet if the subject were our righteousness, we would say it is not subject to change for it is unchangeable. The word of God clearly declares that the unchanging Christ is our righteousness.

"Of (God) are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us ... righteousness" (1 Cor. 1.30). After the Lord was raised from the dead and was made Christ, God put us in Him who is our righteousness. We are clothed with Christ our righteousness. As Christ never changes before God, so we may come to Him daily with boldness.

May God open our eyes to see that we do not rely on our conduct or work either before or after we are saved. This does not mean that we can be careless in our conduct. We shall speak on this in the next chapter. Here we focus on the point of how we approach God. We come to Him by Christ, by Christ being our righteousness. Hence it is forever firm and immovable. Hallelujah, praise our Lord!