{"id":197,"date":"2005-04-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-15T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-04-15T12:22:49","modified_gmt":"2005-04-15T16:22:49","slug":"imputed-righteousness-of-christgod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/imputed-righteousness-of-christgod\/","title":{"rendered":"Imputed Righteousness of Christ\/God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ll probably think that I’m a heretic when I say that I have a
\nproblem with the “imputed righteousness of Christ”. See those quotes?
\nI’m referring to the terminology—not the (partial) idea behind it. And
\nit’s not like I’m picking on Doug<\/a> for using the term because just a few
\ndays ago I was reading an interesting paper, which Sozo<\/a> recommended,
\nthat made ample use of the term. So yeah, I have a problem with with the term.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before you post a bunch of passages that are to be undeniable<\/em> proof of
\nthe imputed righteous of Christ, take a second look at those verses and
\ntell me the term it actually uses. Sure you’ll see the name of Jesus in
\nthose passages and you may even see the means the righteousness is
\nimputed is via Christ—but I bet you’ll see the “righteousness of God”.
\nIn fact, here you go—surely not exhaustive: Rom 1:17; 3:5; 3:21,22;
\n10:3; 1 Cor 1:30; 5:21; Phil 3:9, 10-15: James 1:20 and you can also
\nlook at John 13 – 16)<\/p>\n

\n“Why are you making a big deal out of nothing? Jesus is God, so it’s
\nthe same thing!” Well, yeah, but the thing is that we finite humans
\ntend to ground our thinking with the identified object instead of the
\noverarching subject. In other words, some of us may go off and start
\nthinking that what was imputed to us was Christ’s moral life ignoring
\nthe broader picture.<\/p>\n

\nForgive the mundane example that falls woefully short of the majesty of
\nGod—I offer it again with all reverence and knowledge of weakness as
\nfinite unholy beings. Imagine God as a perfect circle made up of three
\nwedges evenly sized wedges. We humans, stuck in our wholly human
\nsystemic thinking, find the insatiable need of categorizing things
\nbeing applied to the trinity. So when we study this grand subject of
\njustification and imputed righteousness we focus on the wedge that is
\nJesus Christ. We examine that wedge and notice it’s perfection and then
\nstart making application to ourselves. <\/p>\n

\nThe thing is, the Bible speaks of this righteousness coming through
\nthat single wedge, yes, but this is the righteousness of the whole
\nunbroken circle! Let’s not compartmentalize the love of God into two
\ndepartments (Father, Son) and the work of God into two compartments
\n(Son and Spirit) or the wrath of God into one section (Father). God is
\none in three persons. When we speak of the wrath of God, we speak of
\nthe whole triune wrath. When we speak of the righteousness of God we
\nspeak of the righteousness found in the whole triune God.<\/p>\n

\nNow, don’t go into a Trinitarian tangent—the point was to show the
\ngrandeur of the radical mission that the Living God initiated.
\nMankind’s guilt ridden sinfulness, his very unrighteousness is what
\nthen demonstrates the righteousness of God (Rom 3:5). <\/p>\n

\nWait, you mean the “wrath of God”, right Rey? No, the righteousness of
\nGod which is revealed in that “the righteous shall live by faith” (Rom
\n1:17).  God, in His entirety, must pour out wrath against
\nunrighteousness but has found a way that men could be imputed His own
\nrighteousness through the tunnel of faith (Rom 3). This righteousness
\nof God was then manifested, at the fullness of time, in the
\npresentation of Christ Jesus. He was brought before men, He offered
\nGod’s rule and was rejected…judged unrighteous and set up for a
\nsinner’s death. God saw man’s decision, overruled the decision and
\nresurrected Jesus Christ proving the righteousness of God in that the
\nSon is now with the Father (Acts 2).<\/p>\n

\nNow that last paragraph there showed how it’s possible that the
\nrighteousness being spoken of could be classified in different ways…but
\nthe source is always from God and inherit in God.<\/p>\n

\nSo what’s the connection to men? Does He say “Believers are morally
\nperfect because my Son is morally perfect”? No, rather but on the basis
\nof faith, men trusting God’s righteousness of Christ dying on their
\nbehalf, He is able to cover over men’s unrighteousness and satisfy the
\noffense that is against them. It’s not that the sinner is claimed as
\n“Now Righteous” in the book of offense—it’s that the sinner is claimed
\nas “Now Dead” (Romans 6:1-7; Gal 2:20).<\/p>\n

\nIf the mind wasn’t boggled yet, check this: A living believer is an
\nactual part of the body of Christ (Col 1:18). The believer is in Christ
\nand Christ in the believer (Col 1:27). The third person of the trinity
\nforever placed within the believer, enveloping the believer in that
\nrighteousness inherit in the trinity. Don’t take a leap there and think
\nthat we will be infinite—that’s impossible. We had a finite starting
\npoint—but we will be like Him (1 John 3:2)!<\/p>\n

\nNow, here on earth that righteousness has already been imputed—although
\nwith our flesh we have not yet obtained the perfection (Phil 3). We
\nwill, but for now, as part of that body we are to offer the message of
\nthe righteousness of God to all people fully expecting rejection and
\npersecution (2 Tim 3:12; Gal 4; 2 Cor 4:9; Luke 21;12; John 15, 16). <\/p>\n

\nThis persecution isn’t a cold, or some hunger or our constant battle
\nwith sin. This persecution is that fiery opposition which results from
\nthe righteousness of God which results in New Creations being presented
\nto unrighteous sinners still under the death penalty.<\/p>\n

\nThe perception of persecution can then shift from “How evil are these
\nwoeful sinners” to “I, a sinner, am of the body of Christ! If He could
\nwork this in me, He could work this in anyone!” We become partakers in
\nthe suffering of the unified body of Christ Jesus, which is the church
\n(Col 1:24; Phil 3:10).<\/p>\n

\nThis righteousness of the triune God was manifested in the flesh in
\nJesus and in the resurrected Son with power (Rom 1; 1 John 1). The
\naccess to that righteousness is made available through the work of the
\nSon and His conquering of death. Appropriating that work is done on the
\nbasis of faith. Faith bases the saving work not on the individual but
\non the only righteous one who can do the work. That righteousness is
\nimputed while we’re in imperfect bodies. The work He begins, He will
\nmake sure to finish perfectly. In all this, we see the righteousness of
\nGod, His infinite wisdom, His multiplictious grace, His perfect
\nsanctification and His ultimate redemption so we don’t boast in any
\nform of moral intelligence, wisdom, perfection or work, but rest
\ncompletely and fully on what the Lord has done with His own
\nrighteousness.<\/p>\n

-r-
\nThe subject is exceedingly large. My series on Romans<\/a>
\nis dealt with mostly looking at the righteousness of God being defended
\nbut in all honesty, the
\nScriptures reveal the righteousness of God from cover to cover. Each
\nstep in that
\njourney leads to an even deeper realization of the grandeur of the
\nradical salvation by which He rescued us. From initiator to completer,
\nit is a work of the Almighty and Sovereign God. As an aside, don’t
\nbother limiting my words to Calvinist theology. This all sounds very
\nCalvinistic but this is a portion where Calvinist theology comes closer
\nto the truth than most. Lastly if you think I’m a pure moron for making
\na big deal of it, then bear with my weakness and realize that I would
\nrather use the terms as stated in Scripture unless the concept isn’t
\nexplicitly stated in a phrase or word in Scripture…then we can make
\nup words to try to come to grips with it. :)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ll probably think that I’m a heretic when I say that I have a problem with the “imputed righteousness of Christ”. See those quotes? I’m referring to the terminology—not the (partial) idea behind it. And it’s not like I’m picking on Doug for using the term because just a few days ago I was reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nImputed Righteousness of Christ\/God? - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/imputed-righteousness-of-christgod\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Imputed Righteousness of Christ\/God? - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You’ll probably think that I’m a heretic when I say that I have a problem with the “imputed righteousness of Christ”. 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