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I combined some of my posts in General Theology about the gift of Christs righteousness with this from my notebook,
"Awake to righteousness and sin not." - 1 Corinthians 15:34
Psalm 24:5, "He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation"
Who will receive this? The answer is in the preceding 2 verses: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."
Righteousness then, and the gift of it is first and foremost Jesus Christ Himself,
2 Corinthians 5:21,
"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."
1 Corinthians 1:30,
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:"
We have both the right standing with God through Christs atoning death on the cross, the imputed righteousness, and we have the imparted righteousness by sanctification by the Holy Spirit. That second one, the imparted righteousness is what some people struggle with, and some do not even believe in. Revelation 19:8 reveals the imparted righteousness,
"The fine linen is the righteousness of saints."
Job 19:14, "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me..."
Zechariah 3:3-5,
"Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments."
This is what God does for us through Jesus Christ: He clothes us with His righteousness, taking away the filthy garments, purging our iniquities, and giving us a new change of garment, that new nature and new creature so that it can be said, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Psalm 132:9,
"Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy."
Are we not called kings and priests under the New Covenant? Revelation 1:6, "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." And again in 1 Peter 2:9, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light"
Now it's certainly not our righteousness, because on our own we are not righteous, as it is written there is none that doeth good; there is none righteous, no not one; and again, all our righteousness are as filthy rags. ( Psalm 14:3, Isaiah 62:6, Romans 3:10) Therefore this righteousness of which he speaks must be imparted by Christ, "put on" and then lived out. This goes beyond the imputed righteousness, that is, the right standing before God, where God sees us justified and able to stand before Him because of Christ's work on the cross.
I know it's all closely related, where imputed is to give one an attribute, whereas imparted is to bestow upon one. The gift of Christ's righteousness I believe involves both at work in our lives, and the imputed is more passive, and the imparted is active in that we are commanded to live it daily, and it shows in our fruits and works as a natural outward manifestation of His righteousness bestowed upon us, and within us. We see the imparted righteousness also at play in 1 John 3:7, "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
And 1 John 2:29,
"If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him"
Philippians 1:11,
"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." These fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ, and we are to be filled with them, hence implying a gift given to us by Jesus. If we DO righteousness we are born of Him.
Philippians 3:9,
"And be found in him, 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"
Theopedia states, "Preachers and theologians from various Protestant traditions have used the term "imparted righteousness" to identify the righteous principle imparted by God to believers when He regenerates them. Believers thereby become "partakers of the divine nature" (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). It is this principle of righteousness imparted to men in regeneration which is ever in conflict with the old Adamic nature."
Again, the imputed is the righteousness or right standing before God, the justification you receive at salvation, when you are born again, and the natural outflow must then be His righteousness in action bestowed unto you as His great gift: Christ living through you, and if you are NOT doing righteousness then you must seriously examine yourself in the light of the Scriptures and what they say, because they say "the heart believeth unto righteousness," (Romans 10:10). There WILL be a change and a new creature, and as far as your past sins, "Such WERE some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:11)
Proverbs 11:5, "The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way..."
So we see God transfers his own righteousness to us. He does this in two ways, which correspond to the two parts of the double blessing of salvation: justification, and sanctification .
God imparts righteousness to us by giving us grace that enables us to overcome sin by giving us the moral power to obey and keep the commandments through faith, and through His work of regeneration and sanctification. God’s grace empowers us to live a holy life, and holiness is regarded as having been imparted to us by God because it is his power working within us that enables us to produce it, as Philippians 2:13 declares, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
John Owen in his work Mortification of Sin states that the Spirit mortifies "By a real physical effectiveness on the root and habit of sin, for the weakening, destroying, and taking it away. Hence He is called a “spirit of judgment and…burning” (Isa 4:4), really consuming and destroying our lusts. He takes away the stony heart by an almighty effectiveness; for as He begins this kind of work so He carries it on in its progressive degrees. He is the fire that burns up the very root of lust." (Chapter 3:3:2)
Now Mortification is as of necessity a part of righteousness, as the power to mortify; that is, put to death the sin within, must come from the Spirit as a gift imparted or bestowed upon us, for we do not have it within ourselves to kill sin. Jesus said in John 15:5, "For without me yet can do nothing."
A good example of this might be the record of the 7 sons of Sceva in Acts 19:11-20 "God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul" and "Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth." Then we see "the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them."
Jesus and His righteousness is not just some name spoken as some sort of incantation, but His name and His righteousness must be within us, and upon us, being imputed and imparted to us before we have any authority over evil! And, that means evil in our own lives and the evil in others. Vines Dictionary of the Bible puts it this way in regard to righteousness, "Our souls in vital union with God in Christ will inevitably produce righteousness of life, that is conformity to the will of God."
Matthew 6:33,
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
Q: Is the Gift of imputed righteousness ours before we believe in Jesus ? Since He died for us before we believed in Him correct ?
A: In a sense it's there, but I'd think it's not actually ours until we "believe unto righteousness" (Romans 10:10) because we are still in our sins. However, in a sense since this was all predestined and foreordained before the foundation of the world it is there from the cross, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
That would get into the perspective of God's time and our time, where we look at things on a linear time scale, a sequence of events unfolding one after another, whereas God sees things from an eternal perspective in which time as we know it does not exist.
Could we say that it's ours but we don't know it, and we only come to know it when we believe and receive Him?
I love the deep mysteries of God!
"Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer." (Psalm 4:1)
"Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:" (Psalm 118:19)
"But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." (Amos 5:24)
"The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God." (Jeremiah 51:10)
Amen!
"Awake to righteousness and sin not." - 1 Corinthians 15:34
Psalm 24:5, "He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation"
Who will receive this? The answer is in the preceding 2 verses: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."
Righteousness then, and the gift of it is first and foremost Jesus Christ Himself,
2 Corinthians 5:21,
"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."
1 Corinthians 1:30,
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:"
We have both the right standing with God through Christs atoning death on the cross, the imputed righteousness, and we have the imparted righteousness by sanctification by the Holy Spirit. That second one, the imparted righteousness is what some people struggle with, and some do not even believe in. Revelation 19:8 reveals the imparted righteousness,
"The fine linen is the righteousness of saints."
Job 19:14, "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me..."
Zechariah 3:3-5,
"Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments."
This is what God does for us through Jesus Christ: He clothes us with His righteousness, taking away the filthy garments, purging our iniquities, and giving us a new change of garment, that new nature and new creature so that it can be said, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Psalm 132:9,
"Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy."
Are we not called kings and priests under the New Covenant? Revelation 1:6, "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." And again in 1 Peter 2:9, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light"
Now it's certainly not our righteousness, because on our own we are not righteous, as it is written there is none that doeth good; there is none righteous, no not one; and again, all our righteousness are as filthy rags. ( Psalm 14:3, Isaiah 62:6, Romans 3:10) Therefore this righteousness of which he speaks must be imparted by Christ, "put on" and then lived out. This goes beyond the imputed righteousness, that is, the right standing before God, where God sees us justified and able to stand before Him because of Christ's work on the cross.
I know it's all closely related, where imputed is to give one an attribute, whereas imparted is to bestow upon one. The gift of Christ's righteousness I believe involves both at work in our lives, and the imputed is more passive, and the imparted is active in that we are commanded to live it daily, and it shows in our fruits and works as a natural outward manifestation of His righteousness bestowed upon us, and within us. We see the imparted righteousness also at play in 1 John 3:7, "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
And 1 John 2:29,
"If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him"
Philippians 1:11,
"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." These fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ, and we are to be filled with them, hence implying a gift given to us by Jesus. If we DO righteousness we are born of Him.
Philippians 3:9,
"And be found in him, 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"
Theopedia states, "Preachers and theologians from various Protestant traditions have used the term "imparted righteousness" to identify the righteous principle imparted by God to believers when He regenerates them. Believers thereby become "partakers of the divine nature" (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). It is this principle of righteousness imparted to men in regeneration which is ever in conflict with the old Adamic nature."
Again, the imputed is the righteousness or right standing before God, the justification you receive at salvation, when you are born again, and the natural outflow must then be His righteousness in action bestowed unto you as His great gift: Christ living through you, and if you are NOT doing righteousness then you must seriously examine yourself in the light of the Scriptures and what they say, because they say "the heart believeth unto righteousness," (Romans 10:10). There WILL be a change and a new creature, and as far as your past sins, "Such WERE some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:11)
Proverbs 11:5, "The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way..."
So we see God transfers his own righteousness to us. He does this in two ways, which correspond to the two parts of the double blessing of salvation: justification, and sanctification .
God imparts righteousness to us by giving us grace that enables us to overcome sin by giving us the moral power to obey and keep the commandments through faith, and through His work of regeneration and sanctification. God’s grace empowers us to live a holy life, and holiness is regarded as having been imparted to us by God because it is his power working within us that enables us to produce it, as Philippians 2:13 declares, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
John Owen in his work Mortification of Sin states that the Spirit mortifies "By a real physical effectiveness on the root and habit of sin, for the weakening, destroying, and taking it away. Hence He is called a “spirit of judgment and…burning” (Isa 4:4), really consuming and destroying our lusts. He takes away the stony heart by an almighty effectiveness; for as He begins this kind of work so He carries it on in its progressive degrees. He is the fire that burns up the very root of lust." (Chapter 3:3:2)
Now Mortification is as of necessity a part of righteousness, as the power to mortify; that is, put to death the sin within, must come from the Spirit as a gift imparted or bestowed upon us, for we do not have it within ourselves to kill sin. Jesus said in John 15:5, "For without me yet can do nothing."
A good example of this might be the record of the 7 sons of Sceva in Acts 19:11-20 "God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul" and "Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth." Then we see "the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them."
Jesus and His righteousness is not just some name spoken as some sort of incantation, but His name and His righteousness must be within us, and upon us, being imputed and imparted to us before we have any authority over evil! And, that means evil in our own lives and the evil in others. Vines Dictionary of the Bible puts it this way in regard to righteousness, "Our souls in vital union with God in Christ will inevitably produce righteousness of life, that is conformity to the will of God."
Matthew 6:33,
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
Q: Is the Gift of imputed righteousness ours before we believe in Jesus ? Since He died for us before we believed in Him correct ?
A: In a sense it's there, but I'd think it's not actually ours until we "believe unto righteousness" (Romans 10:10) because we are still in our sins. However, in a sense since this was all predestined and foreordained before the foundation of the world it is there from the cross, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
That would get into the perspective of God's time and our time, where we look at things on a linear time scale, a sequence of events unfolding one after another, whereas God sees things from an eternal perspective in which time as we know it does not exist.
Could we say that it's ours but we don't know it, and we only come to know it when we believe and receive Him?
I love the deep mysteries of God!
"Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer." (Psalm 4:1)
"Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:" (Psalm 118:19)
"But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." (Amos 5:24)
"The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God." (Jeremiah 51:10)
Amen!
