Two Kinds of Righteousness

The subject of righteousness is found throughout the Bible. God is righteous and requires righteousness of all who would walk with Him.

There is a form of righteousness found in the writings of the Apostle Paul that does not appear in any of the other covenants God has made with man. It is referred to as imputed righteousness (ascribed righteousness). The concept is that the Lord Jesus Christ kept the Law of Moses perfectly and then died as though He were a sinner.

On this basis, God is willing to impute or ascribe to any individual who will receive Christ the same righteousness that would be true if the believer had kept the Law of Moses perfectly.

However, there is a proviso, as mentioned in the eighth chapter of the Book of Romans. The perfect righteousness of the Law of Moses will be ascribed to us provided we turn aside from our sinful desires and follow the Spirit of God.

Because we humans have such a struggle with our sinful nature we have forgotten the proviso. The Christian salvation now is preached as though the new covenant consists almost exclusively of imputed, ascribed righteousness.

No more deadly misunderstanding of the new covenant would be possible. The result of the adoption of imputed righteousness as though it is the primary righteousness of the new covenant, or the only righteousness of the new covenant, has destroyed the testimony of the Christian Church throughout the centuries.

We do have a religion to which a person can subscribe and receive forgiveness of sins. But the power of Divinely-inspired morality is largely absent from our midst. In fact, Christians vigorously resist the thought that true salvation always results in moral transformation. They will have none of it. The only righteousness there is under the new covenant is that which is imputed, they insist. Let no one dare talk about a necessity for righteous behavior. We are saved by faith alone, not by a faith that lives in works of righteousness as Pastor James claims.

So now we have a Kingdom of God which is no kingdom at all. It is a house of cards. We humans always will be miserable sinners. But God keeps on imputing righteousness to us because we profess faith in Christ. What a disaster!

When the Bible commands us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness it is not referring to imputed righteousness but to actual righteousness. The new covenant makes us righteous in thought, word, and deed if we diligently follow the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of ascribed righteousness is to give us a clear conscience so we can turn away from the Law of Moses and follow the Spirit of God. If we do not understand this, but instead regard imputed righteousness as a new way in which God has chosen to relate to man, we have invented the worst of all possible religions.

In fact, it appears every other religion of the world understands what righteousness is—all except the Christian religion.

To be continued.