Are we saved by the righteousness of God (Rom. 3:21-26) or by the righteousness of Christ? What is the meaning of each, and what is the difference between them?
It is the righteousness of God which saves us.
What is the righteousness of God? Romans 3:25 and 26 say, “Whom God set forth as a propitiation place through faith in His blood, for the demonstrating of His righteousness, in that in His forbearance God passed over the sins that had previously occurred, with a view to the demonstrating of His righteousness in the present time, so that He might be righteous and the One who justifies him who is of the faith of Jesus.” The propitiation place is on the ark. It is here that God meets with men. God has set forth Jesus to be the propitiation place; therefore, He can contact man only through Christ. If there were no propitiation place on the ark, the law in the ark would condemn man’s sin. But with the blood on the propitiation place, the law cannot condemn man’s sin, because the requirements of the law have been fulfilled. In this, God’s righteousness is demonstrated, which means that God is righteous.
According to the law, whoever sins must die. But since the Lord Jesus died for you, you do not need to die. Therefore, forgiveness is granted by God according to His righteousness. Suppose someone owes you one hundred dollars and gives you a promissory note. When he returns the one hundred dollars, you should return the promissory note to him in order to cancel the debt. If you did not return the note and continued to demand payment from him, you would be an unrighteous person. You have sinned, and you deserve to die. But you applied the blood of Christ to repay your debt of sin. So now God can ask nothing further from you. You are now forgiven because of God’s righteousness. Regardless of the circumstances, God must forgive you because the Lord Jesus has died for you.
First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “Faithful” refers to God’s word. Whatever God says will stand. “Righteous” refers to the fact that the work done by Christ is accomplished. Since Christ has satisfied God’s requirement for us, God can no longer require anything from us. God’s Word says that he who believes will be forgiven. When we believe, God must forgive us. Since Christ has died, God’s requirements have been met, and God must forgive us. Both God’s forbearance of the sins committed by men in the past and His justification of those who believe at present manifest that He is righteous.
God not only justifies us, He also wants us to regard Him as righteous. In other words, He wants us to realize that He is very righteous in the way He treats us. Jesus is a man just as we also are men. As sin entered into the world by one man, it is also taken away by one man. The sin of Adam was not just one individual’s problem; it became the problem of all mankind. Adam is the head, and we are all a part of him. The same is true with being in Christ; when Christ died, we also died, and when Christ resurrected, life flowed into us. We do not need to pitifully beg God to forgive us. Since Christ has died for us, God must forgive us. When we believe, we are saved.
In the entire New Testament, we cannot find one verse which says that Christ’s righteousness saves us.
Christ’s righteousness only gives Him the proper qualification to be the Savior. His righteousness refers to His own good conduct. He saves us by His death, not by His righteousness. His death fulfills the righteousness of God. His righteousness is like the veil in the tabernacle made of four different colors. He alone can come and appear before God; all others are kept outside the veil. Only when the veil was rent (when Christ died) was a new and living way opened, and only then could we draw near to God (Heb. 10:20).
How then do we explain 1 Corinthians 1:30: “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption”; and 1 Peter 3:18: “the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous”? We need to ask whether these two verses both refer to Christ’s righteousness. No, they do not. First Corinthians 1 says that Christ Himself became our righteousness. First Peter 3 says that the Lord Jesus Himself is righteous; He is qualified to be a substitute for us who are unrighteous.
Regarding 2 Peter 1:1, “Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have been allotted faith equally precious as ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” “Righteousness” here can also be translated as “fairness” or “justice.” This means that He is not a respecter of persons. He has given the same precious faith to all, to those believers who have come first or come last, and to both the Jews and the Gentiles (cf. Acts 10:34, 44; 15:8-9).
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