The Son has come and died to fulfill God’s righteous requirements (3:14). He came in the flesh and even died in the form of a serpent on the cross to fulfill God’s righteous requirements.
In verse 10 the Lord said that the Spirit would convince the world “concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father.” This means that the Father has been fully satisfied with the Lord’s redemptive death on the cross and has accepted Him in His resurrection. The proof that the Father is satisfied with Christ’s redemption is that the Father resurrected Him from the dead and exalted Him to His right hand. The resurrection and ascension of Christ are the evidences proving that His redemption has satisfied God and has met all the demands and requirements of God. Therefore, He was released from death to be exalted to the heavens at the right hand of God. Now God’s righteousness is manifested in justifying those who believe in Christ (Rom. 3:26). If sinners will believe in Christ, God will justify them, for Christ Himself will become their righteousness. This is the second item concerning which the Spirit will convict the world.
Here I would ask you a question: are we justified by Christ’s death or by His resurrection? We are justified by His resurrection. This is proved by Romans 4:25 and 10:9. Romans 4:25 says, “Who was delivered because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification,” and 10:9 says, “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, but you may be surprised to know that not one word is written in the Scriptures declaring 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. Furthermore, as the resurrected One, He is in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God. Therefore, 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 He has been satisfied with His redemptive death.
Now the Son as righteousness is given to the believers. The satisfying Son, the accepted Son, the Son who has satisfied the Father and has been accepted by Him, has been given to His believers as their righteousness. The Son Himself is now our righteousness. Since He Himself was to become our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30), it was prophesied in Jeremiah 23:6 that He would be called “the Lord our righteousness.”
The believers are justified in the Son and with the Son as their righteousness. Since the Son has been given to the believers as their righteousness, they are justified in Him before God. It is only in the Son as our righteousness that we are justified by God.
The believers have been freed from the source of sin, the devil. The devil is the source of sin, and the Son in the flesh destroyed the devil on the cross (Heb. 2:14). By believing in the Son we are freed from the source of sin.