Imputed Righteousness

Imputed or ascribed righteousness is well known to Christian believers. However, in our day ascribed righteousness has been distorted from that taught by the Apostle Paul.

Paul's main argument concerning imputed righteousness is found in Chapters Three through Five of the Book of Romans. A careful examination of the text will reveal that Paul was seeking to convince the Jews they could turn away from the Law of Moses and put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and still be accounted righteous by the Lord. Paul was not stating they could turn away from righteous behavior and put their trust in Christ.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20—NIV)

Can you see from the above verse, characteristic of several in the early chapters of Romans, that Paul is speaking about the Law of Moses, not about doing good, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God?

When Paul contrasted faith and works he was contrasting faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the works of the Law of Moses, not faith in Christ and works of righteousness. We are to trust Christ for righteousness instead of obtaining righteousness through the many statutes of the Law of Moses. Paul is not arguing that we should trust Christ instead of doing good, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.

While we cannot reject the salvation that is in Christ and save ourselves by doing good, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ always results in our doing good, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. When it does not, we do not have true faith in Christ.

Right here is the mammoth error of our day. We are viewing the grace of God in Jesus Christ as a new way of relating to God, meaning that no matter how we behave we are without condemnation in the sight of God. The hastiest perusal of the New Testament reveals that the grace of God in Jesus Christ is intended to produce people who do good, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. But we are using God's grace and imputed righteousness as a means of evading the eternal moral law of God. It is a horrific error in understanding and practice!

So that the faithful Jew might be able to leave the Law of Moses and look to the Lord Jesus instead of the Torah, Paul advised him that he would be without condemnation. Believing in Christ is just as though he had kept the Law perfectly.

But Paul inserted a proviso. It is that freedom from condemnation is conditional. It depends on our walking in the Holy Spirit and not according to the desires of our flesh and mind.

In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4—NIV)

Imputed righteousness is preached today as an unconditional forgiveness. It is not. It is a continuing forgiveness, a continuing imputation of righteousness as long as we continue to live according to the Spirit. When we do not pray and read our Bible each day, are not careful to fellowship with fervent believers as possible, do not present our body a living sacrifice, do not deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus, the righteous requirements of the Law of Moses are not met in us. We are living in the flesh. We cannot scripturally claim to be without condemnation.

This is a tremendous error of our time and it has destroyed the moral and spiritual strength of the Christian churches. Justification has become bloated and poisonous to the point of eliminating the equally necessary grace of sanctification. Everything is by belief. It is schizophrenic. It is split off from reality. It really is Gnosticism, not the Christian salvation at all.

The first of the three Divinely ordained kinds of righteousness is imputed righteousness. It is a "welcome home" for the righteous Jew who has despaired of meeting all the requirements of the Law of Moses, and for the Gentile who realizes he has done many things not in keeping with his conscience.

The Law of Moses ordains that the man who would find life must keep all the statutes of the Law. But Divine grace turns our gaze from the Law upward to where Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God. The Holy Spirit becomes not only our Comforter but our Law. We follow Him and obey Him at all times. He enables us to serve the Lord as we should, and as we obey the Spirit the blood of Jesus Christ keeps us without condemnation in the sight of God.

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