Romans 3:22 speaks of the faith of Jesus Christ, and verse 26, of the faith of Jesus. Some Bible students say that the faith of Jesus Christ refers to our act of believing in Jesus Christ, and others claim that this refers to the faith of Jesus, that the faith of Jesus becomes ours. I prefer to say that genuine believing is to believe in the Lord Jesus by His faith, even by Him as our faith. Our faith is actually the Lord Jesus believing within us. Therefore, the phrase “through faith of Jesus Christ” means believing in Jesus Christ by His faith.
The faith of Christ is actually Christ Himself, the One who has entered into the believing ones to be their believing element and ability. Such faith is reckoned to the believing ones as righteousness by God (Rom. 4:22-24). This means that God considers this kind of faith a righteous act. In ourselves we are sinners and do not have any righteousness before God. But if we take God’s word, stand on it, and obey it, and if we believe in His Son Jesus Christ, God will count our believing in His Son according to His word as righteousness. We can have this righteousness easily. We simply need to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. God will regard this as the highest righteousness, and we shall be justified with this righteousness. The more we believe in Christ, the greater will be our sense that God is pleased with us. This is a matter of the righteousness of God being reckoned to us as the issue of our faith in Christ.
When Christ comes into us as the believing ones, He becomes our faith. Then God reckons our faith as righteousness. In this way we have faith and righteousness, both of which are actually Christ Himself. Christ is the faith by which we believe in Him, and He is also the righteousness which God reckons to us.
Believing in Christ is the way to be justified. Acts 13:39 says, “From all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses, in this One everyone who believes is justified.” “This One” is the Lord Jesus, the One who was resurrected to be our Savior. Actually, the One by whom we are justified is Himself in resurrection as our justification. Now the way for us to be justified is to believe in Him.
When we are justified by God objectively we receive the righteousness of God, which is Christ. Romans 3:22 speaks of “the righteousness of God through faith of Jesus Christ.” The righteousness of God is what God is with respect to justice and righteousness. Whatever God is in His justice and righteousness constitutes His righteousness. Furthermore, all that God is in His righteousness is actually Himself. Therefore, the righteousness of God is God Himself, not merely a divine attribute. Although we are justified with the righteousness of God (Phil. 3:9) and have received this righteousness, we actually have Christ as our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). God has made Christ, the embodiment of God Himself, our righteousness. Therefore, the righteousness which we have received is Christ Himself. The very person of Christ is the righteousness by which we have been justified by God.
The fact that we have been justified by God is evidenced by the resurrection of Christ. Romans 4:25 says that Christ “was delivered because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.” The death of Christ fully satisfied God’s righteous requirements so that we may be justified by God through Christ’s death. His resurrection is an evidence that God is satisfied with His death for us and that we are justified by God because of His death. In the resurrected Christ we are accepted by God. Therefore, Romans 4:25 says that Christ was raised because of our justification.
The proof of God’s justification is the resurrected Christ. Suppose Christ had died for our sins and was buried in the tomb but was not resurrected by God. If this were the situation, we could not believe that His death was accepted by God and that it satisfied God’s righteous requirements. However, Christ is not in the tomb. God raised Him up from among the dead as an evidence that God has accepted His death for us and that His death satisfied God’s righteous requirements.
Romans 10:9 is a further proof that we are justified in and by Christ’s resurrection: “That if you confess with your mouth, Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from among the dead, you shall be saved.” Do you believe that the Lord died for you, or do you believe that God has raised Him from the dead? Of course, you believe in both. However, you may be surprised to know that not one word in the Scriptures says that we ought to believe that the Lord has died for us. Rather, we must believe that God has raised Him from the dead; for we may believe that the Lord has died and yet not believe that He was raised from the dead. If you believe that the Lord has been raised from the dead, this surely implies your faith in His death. Everybody believes that the Lord died, but revelation is needed to believe that the Lord has been resurrected. In Him, the resurrected One, we are accepted before God. Romans 4:25 says that He was raised because of our justification. Justification includes the fact that God has resurrected Christ, accepted Him, and that God has been satisfied with His redemptive death.