If you have seen Christ truly, you have seen pure grace, pure righteousness in Him every way infinite, far exceeding all sin and misery. If you have seen Christ, you can trample upon all the righteousness of men and angels, so as to bring you into acceptance with God. If you have seen Christ, you would not do a duty without Him for ten thousand worlds (I Cor. 2:2). Thomas Wilcox
The righteousness of Christ can be thought of as a proposition within a doctrinal statement, or it can be something of the depths of the soul that a person lives by and is at the core of the life. We are told that we must believe in Christ, though rarely that part of what it means to believe in Christ is to trust in His imputed righteousness alone. The righteousness of Christ is infinite in all directions and as such it far exceeds all sin and misery that the elect can do. This righteousness of Christ is a pure righteousness and is without the slightest taint of any impurity at all. This is the righteousness that a sinner needs and must have if the sinner will enter the gates of heaven.
For a man or woman to be declared just or righteous in the sight of God, that person must have no sin to his or her account and a perfect righteousness in that account. It is not good enough for a person to have no sin to his or her account as that would leave a person without a negative on the account but also without anything positive. A sinner must have a perfect record in terms of sin, that is, either not have sinned at all or have his or her sins washed away by a perfect sacrifice in his or her place. The sinner must also have a perfect record in terms of righteousness toward God and His perfect law. That perfect record must either come from the sinner living a perfect life in terms of loving God and doing all for His glory or having a perfect substitute who imputes to the account of the sinner a perfect life of loving God and doing all for His glory. To have seen Christ is to see the glory and beauty of a perfect righteousness and it is to see that righteousness credited to “my” account.
The Lord Jesus Christ has from all eternity lived in the bosom of the Father and has lived in perfect love and righteousness. When the Lord Jesus (second Person of the Trinity) took human flesh to Himself, He did nothing but what was perfectly righteous and nothing but what was out of love for the Father and what glorified the Father. All that the Lord Jesus did was from the perfect righteousness of God, according to the perfect standard of righteousness of God, and as such out the perfect righteousness of God on display.
Romans 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Christ Jesus was displayed as a propitiation (removal of the wrath of God by His suffering on the cross)? Why was that the case? It was in order to demonstrate the righteousness of God. All the sinners in the Old Testament that God did not pour out His wrath on and send to hell stood against the account of God until the cross of Christ, but then it could be seen that He was perfectly righteous and just. The same thing has been true since that time as well. In Christ God can be perfectly righteous in declaring sinners righteous in Christ. In Christ sinners are declared just and God is both the one who justifies and is perfectly just in declaring them just as well. In this the righteousness of God is displayed and manifested by and in Christ.
If the righteousness of every man could be gathered together and added to all the righteousness of the angels none of that would be worth anything but something to trample on in order to have Christ and His righteousness. No man has a shred of righteousness, though some might argue that angels have some. I would rather argue that the angels are upheld by Christ and do all they do by the power and righteousness He works in them. It is also true that no angel could take the nature of man in such a way to be a substitute for man. This shows us that all the righteousness of men and angels of all time when put together amount to nothing but what we should trample on in order to seek the perfect righteousness of Christ. If that is true, then we should flee from all self-righteousness as from a viper. There is nothing but the righteousness of Christ that should be acceptable to a soul that longs to stand before God in a perfect righteousness. Oh that we would long to repent of self and pride and humbly look to Christ
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment