Must We Be Righteous?

Greg​

The Bible says: "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous."  We also read in the scriptures that without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.  We have no self-merit, or self-righteousness, but we must have the righteousness that is a result of obediently following Jesus.  It is a righteousness that we “do”, thus “his” righteousness becomes “our” righteousness as we love God and our neighbor.  Some people teach that we are righteous because Christ’s righteousness is imputed, or transferred, to our account when we believe in him, so how we live has no bearing on our salvation.  The word impute does not mean to transfer.  Furthermore, the Bible teaches we are saved by God’s mercy in that we are forgiven of past sins, and we are accepted because we now follow Jesus, not that we are saved by the claims of justice because Christ’s obedience is transferred to “our account.”  The doctrine of imputation is found in the scriptures, but not the imputation of the righteousness of Christ.  In the words of Albert Barnes (1798-1870): “It is not that his righteousness becomes ours. This is not true; and there is no intelligible sense in which that can be understood. But it is God’s plan for pardoning sin, and for treating us as if we had not committed it…on the ground of what the Lord Jesus has done in our stead… the whole scope and design of the Psalm (Psalm 32) is to show the blessedness of the man who is forgiven, and those sins are not charged on him, but who is freed from the punishment due to his sins.  Being thus pardoned, he is treated as a righteous man.”

Because God is merciful, we are forgiven of our sins when we forsake our sinful self-ruled lives to follow Jesus. The gospel is not a cover for continued sinfulness as some seem to believe.  The gospel does not relieve us of the obligation to obey the Lord Jesus (Romans 6:16).  It is the good news that there is a coming eternal Kingdom (secured by Jesus' death and resurrection) to which we can belong, if we forsake sin and commit to following Jesus as our King.  Remember, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.  But regardless of our past, our sins can be forgiven, and we can meet God’s terms for the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23). ​