Righteousness From Christ

"...in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith..."
Philippians 3:8-9

I was recently reading a Time Magazine publication that compared different religions, and it said that fundamentally Christianity was simply "following Jesus' example."  Now whereas the need to  follow His example is a fundamental aspect (see Rom 15:1-7, Phil 2:5-8, for example), to describe this concept as the whole of Christianity's scope is a misunderstanding.

Jesus tells His disciples in Acts 1:8 that when the Holy Spirit comes on them, they will "bear witness about (Christ)".  Primarily the message the disciples were to preach was the Gospel (Mk 16:15) of Jesus' Person and work and all that He accomplished.  This is why Peter immediately begins preaching Jesus as the Christ promised from the Scriptures (Ac 2:16-36) followed by a call to forsake self (repent) and take on Christ's Name to receive the same Holy Spirit (2:37-39).  Later, as Peter is in the Temple in Jerusalem, he preaches Christ as "the Author of Life" (3:15--an unheard of designation to a "mere man") and then he challenges the people to "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus" (3:19-20).  So the message is Christ's Person and work on the cross (2:23-24, 3:14-15), the application is forgiveness of sins as they're "blotted out", and the challenge is repentance for the sake of receiving Christ and His Spirit.  Later on, Peter, before his Christian brothers in the Jerusalem Council, summarizes the effect (application) of Jesus' work by saying "We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus" (15:11).  So this saving is something that happens by grace and the One who initiates it is Jesus.  It's His grace that saves us.  And the transaction is, in order, His work, our forgiveness, and His Spirit dwelling in us (Jn 14:16-17), as He promised.

Later, Paul explains even further.  In Romans 1-2, he has been laboring to show the effect of sin and peoples' ignorance of God and His righteousness since the beginning.  He concludes the section in 3:9-11 "All, both jews and greeks, are under sin...None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God."  If this were the case, then even man's intellect is under sin--so as man attempts to "follow Jesus' example", he'd continually fail, because in his sin, he can never be sure if he's living in truth, or if he's missing the mark, sure that he's doing "a good job" while JESUS doesn't think he is.  To be "under sin" is to be enslaved to it, meaning that righteousness in and of one's self is entirely impossible.  Jesus himself had said this in Jn 8:34: "All who sin are slaves to sin".  This means that one can try and try to save himself by good works and by even obedience, but sin will always win out.

So Paul says next, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested...the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received in faith" (3:21-25).  With these words Paul explains the riddle of the transaction we saw earlier--it is Jesus' work (propitiation--a sacrifice of judgment, whereby he redirects God's wrath over our sin from us to Himself by taking the sin onto Himself) which brings justification, and this justifying (counting people righteous though they aren't righteous) is received "by his grace as a gift...to be received in faith".  With these words Paul explains to us that salvation before a holy God can only be received as a gift, because man is too sinful to be able to DO anything to save himself.  This is the whole point of why Jesus had to come--if man could be righteous by himself, "Christ died for no purpose" (Gal 2:21).  But Christ came and was righteous for me, and in his suffering, my sin is dealt with, and faith in Jesus' Person and work of suffering and dying instead of me justifies me entirely before God.  In this, God is "just, AND the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26).  I'm saved by faith in Jesus' work.

It is no coincidence that each sermon in Acts is 95% about Jesus's work and only 5% about our response (those of course are not actual figures).  This is because salvation is worked when one understands what Jesus has accomplished, because when they understand it, if it be received in faith, they are justified.  RC Sproul has said "justification by faith alone is one of the simplest of concepts, and yet it is one of the most difficult to accept".  The reason for this is that man wants to feel in control and that he could be righteous if he wanted to (and many think they ARE).  But man isn't in control and he isn't righteous...he is enslaved to sin...He's a sinner who can't stop.  "The intention of man's heart is evil from the time he's a youth" (Gen 8:21); "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick--who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9); "all who sin are slaves to sin" (Jn 8:34); "the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God..it does not submit to God's law, indeed it can not" (Rom 8:7).  Man is not righteous before a holy God, because a holy God expects holiNESS, and unless man be completely holy, he has no righteousness before God.

But the reason why Jesus came was to provide a way...THE Way (Matt 7:14, Jn 14:6, Act 16:15).  And this "Way" is very simply what HE has done.  Speaking of the sin and subsequent death that came into the world through Adam "and spread (from him) to all men, because ALL sinned" (Rom 5:12), Paul continues by saying, "If, because of one man's trespass (Adam's), death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (5:17).  Death came through Adam because Adam sinned; but grace and the gift of righteousness has come through Jesus Christ.  "One act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men...by one mans disobedience (Adam's) the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience (Christ's) the many will be made righteous" (5:19).
Do you understand?  It is Adam's sin which brought death and condemnation (though we are responsible, because we've all sinned!); but it is Christ's righteousness and obedience which brings something else...righteousness!  It is Jesus' living a perfect life, entirely righteous and obedient before the Father, and then pouring out His life on the cross in obedience that, received by faith, connects me with His righteousness, and accounts His righteousness to me.  "He became sin...that (I) might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21).  Though I'm NOT righteous in and of myself, Jesus is, and faith in His Person and work accounts me righteous, on the basis OF His Person and work.

But what does it mean to "have faith in Jesus"?  What is "belief in Jesus"? 
First, it's something that must be believed in the heart (Rom 8:10).  Second, since the heart is deceitful and sick (Jerem. 17:9), only the Holy Spirit of God can enlighten the heart and draw it to Christ.  "It is the Spirit which gives life; the flesh is no help at all" (Jn 6:63).  "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3).  Just as only the Father can draw the wayward sinner to Christ (Jn 6:44), only the Father can reveal to the spiritually dead sinner that Jesus is the Christ (Matt 16:15).  "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9), because only the Lord can illumine the person to understand that before a righteous and holy God, they have no righteousness or holiness.  And when they realize this, they are confronted with the truth of the Gospel--that gracious and wonderful and life-giving truth: "by Christ's obedience, YOU are made righteous...to be received in faith".

This is why it's nowhere near sufficient to say that Christianity is fundamentally about following Jesus' example.  Of course, "even the demons believe, and shudder!" (Jms 2:19).  But belief, for the Christian, is trust...trust in what?  In the righteousness of Christ to make me righteous before a righteous God.  I, in and of myself, have no righteousness.  It is all Christ, or it's nothing.  Yes, I believe, but only because the Spirit quickens me.  Yes I follow Jesus' example, but only because God has accounted Jesus' obedience to me by grace through faith.  It completely takes the onus off of me, and puts it on Jesus.  Not what I do--what HE does, and what He continues to do.  Otherwise, the Gospel isn't good news at all--it's just another religious theory for how to present yourself before God.  But the Christian gospel IS good news because it's the news about what Jesus has done for us--and when it is believed on and trusted in, then "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor 5:17). 
This is why (in the Philippians passage) Paul wants to be "in Christ", not having a righteousness of his own but the righteousness from God through faith in Christ.  Paul knows that Paul doesn't HAVE any righteousness...his righteousness can only be that which is from Christ.  When you understand this, it's wonderful.  And when you know it's all you'll ever need, it begins to be all you ever want.