Righteousness

Concise Bible Dictionary:

A term frequently occurring in scripture expressing an attribute of God which maintains what is consistent with His own character, and necessarily judges what is opposed to it—sin. In man also it is the opposite of lawlessness or sin (1 John 3:4-7); but it is plainly declared of man that, apart from a work of grace in him, “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Psalm 14:1-3; Rom. 3:10). But God has, independently of man, revealed His righteousness in the complete judgment and setting aside of sin, and of the state with which, in man, sin was connected. This was effected by the Son of God becoming man and taking on the cross, vicariously, the place of man as under the curse of the law, and in His being made sin and glorifying God in bearing the judgment of sin. Hence grace is established on the foundation of righteousness. The righteousness of God, declared and expressed in the saints in Christ, is thus the divinely given answer to Christ having been made sin. On the other hand, the lake of fire is an eternal expression of God’s righteous judgment. At the present moment God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel and apprehended by faith.
This is an entirely different principle from that on which the Jew went, namely, that of seeking to establish their own righteousness, and not submitting to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3). Their father Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness; and the faith of the believer is counted to him for righteousness, apart from works (Rom. 4:3,5).
Christ Jesus is made unto us righteousness from God (1 Cor. 1:30). He is the end of the law for righteousness to all those who believe.
Besides the above, there is the practical righteousness which characterizes every Christian. By knowing God’s righteousness he becomes the servant of righteousness. The bride of the Lamb is represented as “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white:” which is “the righteousnesses of the saints” (Rev. 19:8).
The doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ, though largely acknowledged in Christendom, is not found in scripture. The explanation generally given of the doctrine is that Christ having perfectly kept the law, His obedience has formed a legal righteousness that is imputed to the believer as if the latter had himself kept the law. One passage of scripture proves this view to be incorrect: “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:21). The force of the doctrine is to maintain the validity of the law in application to believers; and it stands in the way of their apprehending their death to the law by the body of Christ, so as to be married to Christ raised up from the dead, to bring forth fruit to God (Rom. 7:4).

From Anstey’s Doctrinal Definitions:

This has to do with how God is able to save sinners without compromising what He is in Himself. “The righteousness of God” is about God’s acting in love to save sinners, but at the same time, not compromising what He is as a holy and just God (Rom. 3:21).
Man’s sin has seemingly put God in a dilemma. Since “God is love” (1 John 4:9), His very nature calls for the blessing of man, for He loves all men (John 3:16). But at the same time, “God is light” (1 John 1:5), and thus His holy nature justly demands that man should be judged for his sins (Heb. 2:2). If God acted according to His heart of love and brought men into blessing without dealing with their sins, He would cease to be holy and just. On the other hand, if God acted according to His holy nature and judged men according to the claims of divine justice, all men would be justly sent to hell, and none would be saved—and the love of God would remain unknown. How then can God save men and still remain just? The gospel announces this. It declares God’s righteousness and reveals the good news that He has found a way to meet His holy claims against sin and thus be able to reach out in love to save sinners who believe. Thus, God is presented in the gospel as being “just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (chap. 3:26).
Many Christians have the idea that God's righteousness is something that is imparted to, or bestowed upon, or given to, the believer. However, Scripture does not present it in that way. Simply put, the righteousness of God refers to an act of God, not a commodity that He passes to men when they believe. If God gave His righteousness to us when we were saved, then He would no longer have it! W. Scott said, "It is God's righteousness, not man's. God cannot impute that which is essential to Himself in His dealings with men" (Unscriptural Phraseology, p. 10). It is true that God has given righteousness (Rom. 5:17), but this is in the sense of having secured or provided it for mankind in Christ, the risen and glorified Man. Thus, Christ has been "made unto us wisdom and righteousness" (1 Cor. 1:30), and we have been "made the righteousness of God in Him" in testimony to the world (2 Cor. 5:21). But the righteousness of God is not something that has been sent down from heaven and placed upon the believer, as some think.
W. Scott also said, “It is not putting a quantity of righteousness in, or on, a man" (Doctrinal Summaries, p. 15).
J. N. Darby remarked, “A man's being reckoned righteous is his standing in the sight of God, not a quantum of righteousness transferred to him” (Collected Writings, vol. 23, p. 254).
F. B. Hole said something similar: “We must not read those words [“the righteousness of God”] with a commercial idea in our minds, as though they meant that we come to God bringing so much faith for which we receive in exchange so much righteousness, just as a shopkeeper across the counter exchanges goods for cash” (Outlines of Truth, p. 5).
Some modern translations unfortunately say, "a righteousness from God" (Rom. 1:17; 3:21; 3:22; 10:3), or "the righteousness that comes from God" (Phil. 3:9). These are mistranslations and they have caused people to think that it is something that God imparts, or gives, to believers when they believe the gospel.
The righteousness of God points to what God has done in taking up the question of sin and settling it for His own glory and for the blessing of man. He sent His Son to be the Sin-bearer, and in His death, God judged sin according to His holiness. The Lord Jesus took the believer's place before God and bore his sins (the judgment of them) in His "own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). His "finished" work on the cross (John 19:30) has rendered a full satisfaction to the claims of divine justice and has paid the price for the believer's sins. Thus, God has not compromised what He is as a holy and just God in reaching out in blessing to man. God's love has come out to men with the good news that He can, on a righteous basis, redeem, forgive, justify, and reconcile the sinner who believes.

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