Romans 5
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the
righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made
righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Was that righteousness everlasting, or was it temporary?
If it was temporary, when did it end?
It did not end.
It was established by Christ's Sacrifice, and became everlasting at that moment.
As Daniel prophesied.
Amen! I believe the return of Christ is the ultimate final glorious fulfillment of it, but from what I see in Scripture His life, death and resurrection actually introduced it. Similarly, He defeated sin, but the Second Coming will see the consummation of that. But it has already been introduced/secured.
Psalms 119:137-138, 142 outlines,
“Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments. Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful … Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.”
Christ is the ultimate personification and manifestation of everlasting righteousness. When he came to this earth, He brought "everlasting righteousness" to this sin-cursed world. He was the light in the midst of darkness. Those sinners who embrace Him experience "everlasting righteousness" and become a conduit for His Spirit to reveal Christ (the light of the world) through.
Christ has expressly fulfilled every demand that the Father made of Him in His sinless life, His atoning death and His glorious resurrection. A question that should be considered is: Was that righteousness secured through Christ’s death “everlasting” as predicted or temporal?
2 Corinthians 9:9 addresses our query, saying,
“As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.”
The righteousness that flowed from the Cross is expressly “remaineth for ever.” It is eternal in nature and it is effectual in the lives of the redeemed of God. This reading clearly and concisely confirms, as predicted in Daniel 9 of His first Advent, that the righteousness that Christ secured was assuredly “everlasting righteousness,” not temporal as some would try and argue. This is in total keeping with the eternal character of the kingdom He ushered in and the spiritual life that the believer experiences when they encounter Christ. We can therefore deduce, the life within the believer is as eternal as God is.
Psalm 92:15:
“The Lord is upright . . . there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
1 John 2:1:
“if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
The Lord is righteous and every act He does or word He speaks epitomises righteousness. In short, He is the absolute personification of righteousness. Righteousness reigns were He reigns and exercises authority. Moreover, the righteousness that we speak of that pertains to God is constantly represented as everlasting. There is no starting point to it and equally there is no end. Where God lives, righteousness exists. The two are inseparable. God is “from everlasting” (Habakkuk 1:12, Psalms 93:2). Therefore, His righteousness is everlasting. At the incarnation, Christ chose to manifest God’s eternal righteousness to sinful through His earthly ministry and the eternal life that He offered men.
In Matthew 6:33 Christ identified the kingdom with Himself, when He said,
“seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Here the kingdom and Christ are viewed as one. Being part of the kingdom of God is being part of Christ. Being part of Christ means taking on His righteousness.
The great redemption chapter of Isaiah 53 had prophesied of Christ and the great eternal consequence that would emanate from Calvary for God’s elect:
"my righteous servant shall make many righteous." How can futurists remotely deny that this great transaction was fulfilled 2,000 years ago at Calvary? Christ rendered many righteous through the redemptive work of the Cross. After all, He is
“the Lord our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6).
2 Corinthians 5:21 provides the answer, saying,
“for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
At Calvary our sin was imputed or transferred to Christ; upon conversion His righteousness was imputed or transferred to us! Christ’s perfect once all-sufficient self sacrifice secured a full, real and perfect redemption for his own. Matthew Henry (that great Puritan) puts it beautifully,
“Christ, who knew no sin of his own, was made sin for us, so we, who have no righteousness of our own, are made the righteousness of God in him. Our reconciliation to God is only through Jesus Christ, and for the sake of his merit: on him therefore we must rely, and make mention of his righteousness and his only.”
As man’s representative he took upon himself the form of man, living the life that we could never live. He kept and fulfilled the law perfectly, by living a life of perfect obedience. As our guarantor he voluntarily and unconditionally bore the necessary punishment of the penitent sinner. Christ paid our penalty in full by his substitutionary atoning death, this relieving us of our guilt, and purchasing our complete redemption.
When Christ approached John (at the beginning of the final week of Daniel) for him to baptise Him, John immediately refused, to which the Master declared,
“Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
Likewise, Hebrews 1:8-9 says,
“unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Christ ushered that
eternal kingdom in at the beginning of the 70th week. Jesus testified, in Luke 16:16, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the Kingdom of God is preached, and every man ‘presseth’ (or
biazetai – or suffereth violence) into it.”
The legal accomplishment of the Cross and the righteousness that was imputed to the penitent sinner was relative equally to the Old and New Testament saints. He was made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). The shedding of the blood satisfied the Father and reconciled the sinner to God, securing eternal redemption. Christ the sinless Lamb of God was made sin on the sinner’s behalf. 1 John 2:29 declares, “
Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him”
The “everlasting righteousness” that is found in Christ has now been graciously imputed to His elect through mystical union in salvation. Romans 4:20-24 declares, talking about Abraham the father of the faith, “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.”
The righteousness within us, which we have seen is not our own, is eternal in its makeup. It was accounted to us through the Cross. This righteousness which comes from God through Christ is appropriated by grace through faith. Romans 3:22 declares,
“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” The righteousness the believer has is not his own it is imputed (or put into us) of the Lord. Christ is our righteousness. Romans 5:21 says,
“as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” This “imputed” righteousness is also expressly of an “eternal” nature.
David Wilkerson states in a written sermon called Perfect Righteousness,
“The only righteousness that is acceptable in God's eyes is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ our Lord. And it is a righteousness that can be had only by faith!”
He continues,
“This imputation comes by faith alone. We can't work for it or merit it in any way. Rather, because of our faith in Jesus and His redeeming work, the Lord credits the righteousness of Christ to us -- and we are reckoned as perfect in Him. That's right -- you and I are credited with the same righteousness that Jesus obtained here on this earth. By confessing our sins and having faith in Him, we stand before God with an imputed righteousness. And it is a perfect righteousness that is of faith and not of works.”
I John 3:7 says,
“let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” It was Calvary however that fully realised the imputation of eternal righteousness into the child of God. 1 Peter 2:24 says,
“who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
Calvary was the event that ensured that God’s elect would enter into the unending rest of “everlasting righteousness.” We therefore stand boldly and solely by faith in the righteousness of Christ and His shed blood, in total and absolute spiritual liberty.
Q. Was not this righteousness that he brought in everlasting?
A. Romans 5:17-21 says,
“For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Calvary was the specific event that brought “in everlasting righteousness” for mankind. Our sin was imputed to Christ; His righteousness was imputed to us! Christ’s perfect once all-sufficient self sacrifice secured a full, real and perfect redemption for his own, whether Old or New Testament saints. The awful “condemnation” that afflicts every man since the fall through inherited sin is completely removed “in Christ” through the new birth experience. Through salvation the penitent is fully justified and “made righteous” in the eyes of God. He is taken instantly from spiritual death into spiritual life by being raised from a horrible spiritual grave. Romans 3:24-25 declares of His elect,
“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.”
Calvary secured the imputation of that righteousness. This eternal or everlasting righteousness is contrasted to the old sacrifices under the law, which were only of a temporary nature. But Christ, once for all time, offered himself thus providing, as the prophecy of Daniel had said, "everlasting righteousness." Galatians 2:21 affirms,
“if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”
Christ’s death 2,000 years ago is again presented as the occasion that realised the eternal imputation of God’s elect with heaven’s righteousness. There is therefore absolutely no basis for the futurist teaching that none of these things have yet been fulfilled. To teach such is highly unscriptural and totally undermines the great redemptive work that Christ wrought at Calvary.
Paul the Apostle testified in Philippians 3:9,
“not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
We are not justified by our “own righteousness” or our strict adherence to “the works of the law” (because no can truly attain to that), we are justified by walking “by faith” in “the righteousness of God” which was made possible by the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. A righteousness that we could never attain has been placed within us through the life and work of Christ. The righteousness that the believer now owns is therefore not his own it is imputed (or put into him) of Christ.
The righteousness that Christ ushered in was undoubtedly
eternal or
everlasting. It is perpetually effectual, and will last forever.
There is no other future event that can fulfil this wonderful prophecy but the cross. The one alone that was qualified to fulfil this did it perfectly and finally.
Romans 10:3-4 says of the religious who trust in their own innate righteousness:
"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."
He brought in everlasting righteousness, we seek none other.
