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As we get ready to look in the word, I want to share Galatians 1:15&16, “He who had set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me.” That last phrase, “Was pleased to reveal His Son.” It’s His pleasure to reveal Jesus, and He’s been watching over you since you were born, and He called you by His grace, and now He wants to reveal Himself. Let’s commit out time to the Lord.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your precious word and for the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts and turns our eyes, our spirit and our heart and our faith to the Lord Jesus. We just pray that in a special way for this gathering that You might unveil Your Son and that You might give us the grace to appropriate Him as He’s revealed to us. Once again, protect Your children from anything I might say that is not from You. We commit our time to You in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Welcome to our meditations on the Lord Jesus. John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” It’s true that in the word of God, the Bible, we have the revelation of Christ, and our sanctification is a result of seeing Him and being made like Him. In our time together we’ve been discussing chapters 13-17, five chapters spoken only hours before the Lord Jesus went to the cross. This is the final day, and then the next day He’ll be on the cross. Among the many things He shared in those five chapters, and many we’re not even going to touch on, but one big thing is that He explained life, life as God intended man to live it, the Christian life. In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I come that they may have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” It’s that abundant life that He explains in these five chapters.
From eternity there’s only been one way God intended man to live, and Adam blew it; he did not live as God intended man to live. That, of course, was passed on to you and to me and all of his posterity. Romans 5:14, “Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam, who was a type of Him who was to come. The first Adam, representing all of us, was a picture, a type, an illustration, and the last Adam is a title given to our Lord Jesus. He, also, represents all of humanity. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, the last Adam, to live as God intended man to live, as our representative, as our substitute; Jesus lived the Christian life, the abundant life, and I call it the exchanged life. I’m not fighting for that expression, but for my heart that best expresses what is really involved. Galatians 2:20, “I’ve been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” That’s the life God intends us to live, Jesus living as our substitute in our flesh. As He once died as my substitute, He now comes to live in my life and my heart as my substitute. That’s how He lived. John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; the words I say to you I do not speak on My own; the Father, as He remains in Me, He does the work.” All through the life of Jesus He claims He wasn’t living in His own initiative; He was living depending on the One who lived inside of Him, His Father. He constantly lived depending on the One who indwelled Him. That’s the life He’s explaining in these five chapters.
As I’ve gone through it, I found at least five characteristics in His explanation. If I’m living the exchanged life, these five things will be true in my life. If you are living the exchanged life, these five things will be true in your life. I’m not saying there are not more. The way the Bible is written, there is always more concealed than revealed. We don’t ever have the full picture. But I know this, that if God has opened your heart and your eyes to that explanation, at least these five things will be true, and all five characteristics are radical. In other words, they go against the human grain; they go against thinking.
We’re on the third; I’m not going to review again the first two, because I’m anxious to get into the new material, but in our meditation, we’re looking at the third explanation, and He’s now explaining sanctification, what it means to live the Christian life, and it means I’ll be living a holy life, the life in obedience to the Lord. John 17:19, “For their sakes, I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves, also, may be sanctified in truth.” John 15:14, “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” The radical nature of this third principle is that Jesus did not come, as many think, to improve us. He did not come to improve our lives. He didn’t even come to help us change. He came to replace our lives with His life. So, that’s the radical nature of this sanctification. 1 Peter 1:14-16, “As obedient children,” that’s sanctification, “do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be yourselves, also, in all your behavior, because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” That’s the standard, to be as holy as God is holy. I don’t know if you’ve tried to live up to that standard, but your testimony will join with mine, you failed; it doesn’t work.
It’s a large topic, sanctification, and that’s why we’ve been on it for several weeks. We know the simplicity of it is recorded in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “You are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Sanctification, in its essence, in its core, is a Person, and His name is Jesus. You are not going to understand anything about living a holy life if you don’t know that Jesus IS sanctification. It’s not something outside of Him; it’s that He is. I thought, and we’ve been developing this, the best way to get it before us is to relate sanctification first of all to the Law, and then to the grace of God, then to the Word of God, and then to faith.
We’ve already look at that first one. In our last lesson I tried to show you sanctification as it’s related to the Law of God. We saw that sanctification related to the Law shows us how perfect God is; the Law is actually a transcript of the character of God; it’s as holy as God is. The Law as given to show us how holy God is. The Law was not only given to show us how holy God is but to show us how sinful we are, and how far beneath God’s character we’ve fallen. Romans 3:20, “By the works of the Law, none of mankind will be justified in His sight. Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” Romans 5:20, “The Law came in so that the offense would increase.” What is sin? 1 John 3:4, “Everyone who practices sin, practices lawlessness.” Sin is lawlessness. If I keep the Law, I don’t sin. If I don’t keep it, I’m a sinner. Another way to say it is Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” who God is. That’s what sin is. It’s not meeting the standard.
When we closed, we looked at the third purpose that God states for the Law, and that’s in Galatians 3:24, “The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so we might be justified by faith.” The Law shows us how holy God is, it shows how sinful we are, and then it teaches that you better run to Jesus, you better run to Christ. It’s a schoolmaster pointing us to the Lord. That’s where we left off, in our desperate need to see Jesus as God reveals Him.
That brings us to the second relationship. We looked at how sanctification is related to the Law, and now I’d like us to look at how sanctification is related to the grace of God. May God help us as we look at this!
It may sound logical since I’m saying sanctification related to grace, but jump right in and say, “Okay, let’s look at grace; what is grace, how is it used, how is that related to sanctification?” In fact, the entire truth of salvation, all the tenses; how is grace related to justification, sanctification and glorification, but I’d like to start where God starts. If we start where God starts, then when we touch on the word “grace”, it’s going to make a lot more sense. May God help us!
We left off with Galatians 3:10, “It is written, ‘There is none righteous person, not even one.’” I don’t think there’s an argument; I think if we went right around the room and asked each one, “Has anyone that you know or have you ever lived up to the standard that you are as holy as God is holy?” I think we’d have the same answer. Romans 3:12, “They have all turned aside, they have become corrupt, and there is no one who does good, not even one.” That’s been the case in the time of Christ for two hundred generations; nobody ever lived up to be living the Christian life as God intended.
I told you that the Law is another way to say the will of God. God is perfect, and when He has a will, that’s perfect, and when He gives a Law, that’s a perfect Law. So, when you think of the will of God, it’s the same thing as saying the Law. God knew from the start that man was going to sin and fall short of that standard. And He also knew from the unbeginning beginning that He had a plan of salvation to rescue His sinful creature. So, there’s good news. When Jesus came into the world, I think we mentioned this around Christmastime, as a little baby, He spoke. His words are recorded; they’re actually in the Bible, what He said as a little baby. I don’t think Mary or Joseph or the shepherds heard it, but He spoke, and it’s recorded in Hebrews 10:5, “When He came into the world, He said…” What did He say when He came into the world? Hebrews 10:7, “Then I said, ‘Behold, I’ve come; it’s written of Me in the scroll of the book to do Your will, oh God.’” Let me put that in my own words, “Jesus said, ‘I’ve come to do Your will, to live the life that nobody’s ever lived; I’ve come to live as You intended man to live; I volunteer, and I’ve come to do Your will.” Hebrews 10:9, “Then He said, ‘Behold, I’ve come to do Your will,’” He takes away the first, in order to establish the second. I don’t know if it touches your heart when you read that. I thought the miracle was that He spoke as a baby, but the miracle is what He said when He came, “I’ve come to live the life no one has been able to live up until this moment.” Galatians 4:4&5, “When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who are under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons and daughters.”
Jesus was born under the Law, and He lived under the Law. For thirty-three and a half years He came to live as God intended man to live. John 8:29, “He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone; I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” For the thirty-three and a half years that Jesus lived on the earth did He ever sin? You know the answer; He did not. Hebrews 7:26, “It’s fitting for us to have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” Jesus did not sin. Hebrews 4:15, “We do not have a High Priest who can not sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things, as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus is the only One that lived up to the standard. God sent His Son, and He came under the Law and He obeyed the Law and He lived under the Law and He lived perfectly.
Some would say, “Yes, He was God/Man,” and that’s true. In His divinity, we know He is sinless, we know He’s righteous, we know that He’s holy, and there’s a righteousness that belongs to His divinity, that belongs only to God, but we’re not speaking now of His attribute as God. There’s another righteousness that belongs to Jesus, and this is the righteousness that He earned when He was on earth; He worked for it; He earned it, by keeping the Law perfectly. So, He satisfied the Law. Now, the Law has two parts; there’s a passive and an active part; He satisfied both parts. We’re only going to look at the one, His life of obedience, but the Law also demanded that those who disobeyed be penalized; He took that, as well, but we’re not going to look at that.
This subject, Jesus living a perfect life in His humanity is a favorite among theologians because they love to argue. Of course, they don’t argue; they discuss. They love to discuss it. This idea that He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, there’s a doctrine the theologians have which is called “impeccability”. Of course, it’s about His sinlessness, “Jesus was impeccable; He couldn’t sin, even as man He couldn’t sin. Jesus was impeccable.” No, peccable; He could have sinned, but He didn’t. They love to argue, “Could he have sinned, or did He just overcome sin?” The bottom line is that He didn’t sin, and even those who admit He could have sinned, also admit that He didn’t. So, we’re at the same place, the common denominator ground. I have an opinion on impeccability or peccability. I’m not going to share it; it’s not important. The important thing is that He didn’t sin. Theologians love to discuss, not only impeccability but election and free will and spiritual gifts and the end times. If they can argue, “Did Jesus die on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday,” they’re going to be arguing about that. If an enemy can distract us by taking our eyes off Christ through controversy, it sounds spiritual. “Let’s discuss this. What do you believe about this? What are your proof texts?” Forget it; keep your eyes on Jesus; keep looking to the Lord.
The fact is, Jesus volunteered to come to earth. He said, “I come and here’s why; I want to do it; I want to do Your will. Nobody else has been able to, but I want to do it,” and Jesus did it, and He earned a righteousness, a righteousness that satisfied God and all of His demands. That righteousness is called the righteousness of God. Romans 1:17, “For in it,” that is in the gospel, “the righteousness of God is revealed.” Romans 3:5, “If our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?” Romans 3:21, “Now, apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets.” Romans 3:25, “Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, this was to demonstrate His righteousness.” All through the Bible, and not just the New Testament, but Old Testament, too, that was righteousness that Christ earned, the righteousness of God, that righteousness that He got by living the exchanged life, the righteousness that sinful man could never gain. Galatians 2:21, “If righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly,” His life is in vain. If God accepted anybody else’s righteousness, then Jesus didn’t have to die. We’re going to see more of that in another connection, but right now just know that there is only one righteousness in the whole universe that God accepts, and that’s the righteousness that Jesus earned. For thirty-three and a half years He lived under the Law, and He obeyed the Law, and He always did what pleased the Father, and He never sinned; He earned righteousness.
If that’s true, since there’s only one righteousness that God will ever accept, and His holiness demands that anything less be rejected and cursed, I don’t know about you, but my heart cries out, “If that’s the only righteousness God will accept, I want it, I need it, I must have it; I need that righteousness. The Bible teaches that God wants you to have it, and He wants me to have it. We call it imputation; that’s from the Latin word “imputare”; it means to put on your record. In the Bible it’s translated “reckoned” or “accounted”; it’s attributed to you. If you would like to follow my bank book and put something in, that will be imputed to me. Let me know and I’ll give you my bank book. Jerome, when he translated the Bible from Latin, when he came to the word “imputare”, he didn’t translate it, “Reckon yourself.” He transliterated it, and he just put in “imputeo”, or whatever it is, so he just transliterated it, but it’s counted or reckoned or attributed to another’s account. Actually, in the Bible there are three illustrations of imputation. #1 Adam’s sin was imputed to the whole human race. Romans 5:19, “As through one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners.” #2 The sins of the whole human race were imputed to Jesus. 1 Peter 2:25, “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the cross.” He was sinless but He took our sin. So, Adam’s sin was imputed to us, and then the whole human race was imputed to Christ. #3 Is where we want to land; this is what we’re going to talk about. Not only was Adam’s sin imputed to the race, and not only was the sin of the race imputed to Christ, but the righteousness of God, the righteousness that He earned by living the life God intended us to live, can be imputed to us now. Galatians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Oh, saints, what a working, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him!
We see that illustrated in the Old Testament in the sin offering. Leviticus 4:15, “The elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be slain before the Lord.” What was that picturing when the priest or the guilty party put his hands on the head of an innocent animal? The answer is that I’m sinful, and that animal is innocent, and by putting my hands on his head I was saying, “Let the sin that’s in my body pass through my arm through my hands and through my fingers, and let it go on that innocent animal.” That was part of it. The other side is that animal is innocent; let the innocence of that animal come through my fingers and through my hands and through my arm into me. That was pictured in the sin offering, imputation, my sin on him and then his righteousness on me.
It’s far more when we think of this imputation than has gripped our hearts. Christians don’t rejoice as they should in having the imputed righteousness of Christ. We talk about the Book of Life. Many take the idea that the Book of Life, just like a New York telephone directory, is just a list of names, and when you get saved, God writes your name in the Book of Life. It’s just a big list of names. It’s far more than a list of names. The truth is on display in Revelation 20:21, and it’s pictured in that great white throne judgment that’s coming, when time shall be no more and the whole world is judged before a righteous God. Listen to Revelations 20:12, “And I saw the day, the great, the small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened, and another book was opened which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged from the things written in the books according to their deeds.” The books were open. Which books are those? The answer is that those are record books; God has kept records on every life on every individual from every nation that has ever lived, from their birth to their death. Every person has books; every thought they ever thought, every motive they ever had, every deed they ever did, everything that came out of their mouth, every word they ever spoke, things left undone that should have been done, things left unsaid that should have been said, it’s all in the record book. When God opens those books, it’s going to be fulfilling Romans 3:19, “We know whatever the Law says it speaks to those under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and the whole world become accountable to God.” At that white throne there are no plea deals. At that white throne there is no mistrial. At that white throne there’s no casting yourself on the mercy of the court. That’s the time for judgment and justice, and at that white throne those books are opened and if any book contains any violation that fell short of the glory of God, any deed that was considered against God’s Law and will, they will be condemned forever.
Another book is mentioned that’s called “The Book of Life”. There’s a larger title in Revelation 21:27, “Nothing unclean, no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come to it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. It’s not just a Book of Life; it’s the Lamb’s Book of Life. It’s not a telephone directory. What is the Lamb’s Book of Life? The answer is that it’s His record book. God kept records on Jesus, just as He kept records on every human being that has ever lived. The Lamb also had a record book, and my name is in His record book. We changed report cards; He took mine, and now I have His record.
This is never going to happen, but I have an imagination. Do you know how they say, “You are going to get to heaven and Peter is going to question you at the gate, ‘What right do you have to come in here?’” I hope he does question me at the gate because I know what I’m going to say. I’ll say, “What right do I have to come into God’s holy presence? I’ll tell you what right I have. I lived on the earth for 33 ½ years in the Person of Jesus my substitute, and never once have I sinned with my mind. I lived on the earth for 33 ½ years in the Person of Jesus, my substitute. I have always loved the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my strength and all my mind. I’ve loved my neighbor as myself; I never sinned; I never sinned with my hand, with my heart, with my motives, and I never went where I shouldn’t go. I have a perfect record. Look in the book, the Lamb’s book is my name,” and the Lamb’s book with your name. It’s a record book and not just a list of names. It’s imputed; His record is yours, and His record is mine. That’s a tremendous truth, and there’s no sanctification apart from the only righteousness God will ever accept; it’s only His. I can’t talk about a holy life if I don’t have His righteousness. That’s imputation. We want to see how it’s related to the grace of God. So, now we’ve finally gotten to where I wanted to be.
So, I look at this and say, “I’m reading some wonderful things; I’m hearing some wonderful things, that His righteousness can be imputed to me. Please tell me how because I want that righteousness. I need it. There’s nothing else. If I don’t have it, I’m done. I need it. And the Bible says, “I’ll tell you how; it’s grace, by the grace of God.” All of salvation, Ephesians 2:8&9, “By grace you’ve been saved.” That’s by grace you’ve been justified and by grace you’ve been sanctified, and by grace you’ve been glorified. “By grace you’ve been saved through faith, not of yourself; it’s a gift of God and not the result of works, that no one can boast.”
Let me stop here and give a description. I tell you that I don’t try to define because God’s words are too big; I don’t want to put boundaries on Him. Let me describe grace. Usually, when someone says “grace”, they say, “undeserved favor”, when you have undeserved favor. For example, let’s say because of Lillian’s terrible spending habits we got into debt for a million dollars (she’s going to get me on that one; I mean, really, I’m the spender in the family and not her), and some stranger heard about my debt, and for no reason he just decided, “I think I’m going to have mercy on that guy,” and he paid all my debt right down to the last red cent. I didn’t deserve that; that’s grace. I didn’t deserve it at all. Sometimes we sing, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow.” It’s true; He paid my debt. That’s grace but that’s part of grace, giving me what I don’t deserve. Let’s go back to the illustration. I owe a million dollars, but I’m also a very wicked man; I’m an arsonist and the guy who is going to pay my debt I burned his house down, and not only that, I violated his children, and I did other mean things, and he knew about it. He knew it was me that burned down the house, and he knew that it was me that violated his family, and he still paid my debt. That’s grace.
It’s more than undeserved favor; it’s undeserved favor when I deserve the exact opposite; that’s what grace is. That’s what we have here, Romans 5:7&8, “One will hardly die for a righteous man, but perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die, but God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us.” I wasn’t a stranger to God, and I wasn’t a friend to God; I was an enemy of God when He paid my debt. So, here’s my description of grace; it’s infinite favor to those who are infinitely undeserving and infinitely ill-deserving. It’s God’s infinite favor to those who are infinitely undeserving and infinitely ill-deserving. Now don’t lose the flow; there’s one righteousness that God will accept, and that’s the righteousness that Jesus earned when He lived under the Law, when He lived the exchanged life. My heart cries out, “I need that; I want that. If that’s the only righteousness that can get me into the presence of God, I need it and I want it. God says, “You may have it.” I say, “How?” He says, “It’s by imputation.” I ask, “How do I get that?” He says, “By grace.” And my heart is thrilled, but I still have a lot of questions. So, I say, “Alright, I need His righteousness, it can be mine by imputation, I can get it by grace, but how do I get His grace? I need His grace.” And He answers, Ephesians 2:8&9, “It’s a gift of God.” It’s a gift. Romans 3:24, “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus.” Romans 11:6, “If it’s by grace, it’s no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” It’s a gift. God says, “Do you want that righteousness? Imputation. Do you want imputation? Grace. Do you want grace? It’s a gift.”
At this point I fell like Abraham in Genesis 18 when he was arguing for the salvation of Sodom. He asked, “What if there are forty-five righteous, will you spare it? What if there are forty? What if there are thirty? What if there are twenty? What about ten?” And the he said in verse 32, “Oh, may the Lord not be angry! I shall speak once, this once more. I still have a question. I can have His righteousness by imputation, by grace, by a gift? How do I get the gift?” My heart is full of questions. I ask the Lord, “How can I get it?” Galatians 5:5, “We through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness.” We take the gift by faith.
There’s a wonderful illustration of this in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 30. God has given His Law to the people, and He had the standard high, and not only high but impossible. Verse 10, “If you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments, His statutes that are written in the book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul,” that’s the standard. The next verse, verse 11, “This commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It’s not in heaven that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us, and make us hear it and may observe it,’ nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may observe it.”
Please try to enter into that situation. God gave His people the Law, and said, “All you have to do is to love Me with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength at all times and never fail; that’s it.” They said, “You might as well tell us to jump to heaven.” That was the argument, “How in the world are we going to jump to heaven? Your command is crazy. You might as well tell us to swim across the sea; we can’t do it; it’s impossible.” And God said, “The command I command you is not impossible, it’s near to you; it’s in your mouth, it’s closer than your teeth, closer than your tongue, closer than your palette. It’s in your mouth; it’s in your heart, that you might observe it.” And then Moses stops, and the rest of that sentence needed to wait until the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul quotes that very passage from Deuteronomy, Romans 10:6, “The righteousness based on faith speaks as follows, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend to heaven?” That’s to bring Christ down. Who will descend into the abyss? That’s to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, in your heart,”’ and then he adds this, ‘That is the word of faith which we are preaching.’” The word of faith makes God’s command possible. I need His righteousness—imputation. I need imputation—grace. I need grace, it’s a gift; I need the gift—faith. The word of faith is what makes God’s command not only possible, but a delight.
Now, we could go on and ask another question, “How do I have faith?” But in my outline we’re going to look at sanctification as it relates to the word and to faith. So, I’m going to set that aside for now. There’s only one righteousness, and you can have it by imputation, you can have imputation by grace, you can have grace by a gift, you can have that gift by the simplicity of childlike faith. Catch the wonder because all of that is put together in Romans 5:17. I haven’t done it but I’m going to do it, and, Lillian, mark this down because I don’t want to forget to do it. I have never seen this verse as a plaque on anybody’s wall in anybody’s house. I want it; I’m going to make this verse into a plaque. I’m going online and I’m going to buy it. Anyway, “For if by the transgression of one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Isn’t that a tremendous verse!? “Those who receive,” receive what? “The abundance of grace.” What else? “The gift of righteousness.” Those who just receive it by faith will reign in life through Christ. I don’t want anyone to answer this but I’m going to ask you, “Does that describe your Christian life?” Are you reigning in life, reigning as a king in life? If you’re not, it’s because you haven’t received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, because those who receive it, reign in life through Christ.
We’ve established that there is a righteousness that God will accept. Law-keeping for us is out of the question; God only accepts this One righteousness, but the question comes, “Has it always been that way or is that a New Testament truth that came in in the fullness of time when Jesus was born in Bethlehem? Did God ever, under any dispensation, have a different means to accept people into His presence?” The Bible calls Job righteous, and Abel righteous and Noah righteous, and He even calls Lot righteous, and Elijah, “a prayer of a righteous man,” and he calls the Old Testament saints “righteous”. Was that a different righteousness or was that the righteousness that Christ earned? Does God deal differently in the Old Testament than in the New Testament?
Let me illustrate it several ways. First, Galatians 3:8, “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham,” Abraham got the gospel; Abraham received the good news, “saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you. So, then, those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.’” What righteousness did God attribute to Abraham? We know his life was a mess, especially when he lied about his wife, and all; he certainly fell short of the glory of God. Romans 4:3, “What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, the one who works, his wages is not credited as a favor, but what is due.” Romans 3:28, “We maintain a man is justified by faith, apart from the works of the Law.” Romans 4:5, “The one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” Abraham was called righteous because he had the righteousness that Jesus earned, the same righteousness, by faith. Romans 4:16, “For this reason it’s by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who have the Law, but who are of the faith of Abraham, the father of us all.” Romans 4:22&25, “Not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake, also, to whom it will also be credited.” There is no difference between the Old Testament and New Testament. Abraham by faith was declared righteously. Galatians 3:6, “Even so, Abraham believed God; it was reckoned to him as righteous. Therefore, be sure, that is, those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.”
It’s not only Abraham; it’s David. Look at Romans 4:6, “Just as David, also, speaks of the blessing unto the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.” Not only David and not only Abraham, but all Israel. Look at the nation. Romans 10:3, “Not knowing about God’s righteousness, seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness for everyone who believes.” Israel went about trying to establish their own righteousness. Romans 9:31, “Israel, pursuing a Law of righteousness did not arrive at that Law.” Why? It’s because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Righteousness by faith is an Old Testament truth and a New Testament truth, and the only truth. There’s only one righteousness God will ever accept; it’s the righteousness of Christ. Hebrews 11:7, I mentioned Noah being righteous, listen to this, “By faith Noah became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” All of them had the same righteousness you have, imputed by grace as a gift received by faith. Romans 3:21, “Now, apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all that believe.” There’s no distinction, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets; that’s Old Testament. It’s always been that, and is the same in every age and generation. Only the righteousness of Christ will be acceptable.
I’m not going to agree with those who say, “Those in the Old Testament looked forward to the cross, and we look back to the cross.” They did not look forward to the cross. Look at Peter, he tried to prevent Jesus from going to the cross. They didn’t look forward to the cross, and we don’t look back to the cross. What they did, they looked up, and not forward. They looked up in simple faith and believed God. Now, the sacrifices looked forward to the cross, and the feasts looked forward to the cross, and all the ordinances looked forward to the cross, but they didn’t; they just looked up in simple faith and God said, “Use your lamb to take your place,” and they said, “Okay,” and they just believed God. And the sacrifices looked forward. How did you come to the Lord? You didn’t look back; you just looked up in simple faith; somebody preached the gospel, and you believed it, and God came into your heart. That’s how it was.
Let me give one final powerful testimony; it’s the testimony of the Apostle Paul recorded in Philippians 3, and I’ll read his complete testimony beginning in verse 1, “Although I myself have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more, circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and as to the Law, a Pharisee, and as to it’s zeal, a persecutor of the church, and as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gained to me, those I counted loss for the sake of Christ. More than that I count all things to be loss, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, that I main gain Christ, and may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” Even though he says in verse 6 that he was blameless as far as the Law, he counts that as rubbish, so he could be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness that he couldn’t earn, but the righteousness which is from the Lord. That’s the only righteousness God will accept today, that He accepted yesterday, and He has always demanded, and that He will ever accept until time is no more.
We have this idea that, “God gave His Law and that teaches us to live a holy life.” It does not. Listen to Titus 2:11, “The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously and Godly in the present age, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, to purify for Himself a people of His own possession, zealous of good deeds.” It’s not the Law that teaches that; grace has appeared to teach us to live that holy life, sensibly, righteously and Godly.
So, here is where I’m going to end. This is the righteousness that He earned; He lived the exchanged life. He earned it and He offers it to me. But let’s get practical. I need to live the exchanged life. What does that look like? I’m the one that has to live it now. He lived it; does that get me off the hook because He lived it? He’s calling me, now; as the father sent Him, so He sent us. Now we are to live that life. What will that life look like when we live that? 2 Corinthians 3:5&6, “Our adequacy is from God who made us adequate as servants of a New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” There are two expressions in that verse, the New Covenant and the Spirit, and there’s one other that we’re going to look at called “the promise”. So, next time we’re going to relate sanctification but now grace is going to enlarge. What is grace? It’s God’s infinite favor to the infinitely undeserving and the infinitely ill-deserving, but now how do I get that, and he says, “You need to understand the New Covenant, and you need to understand the promise, and you need to understand the Person of the Holy Spirit. Lord willing, next week we’ll look at that.
Father, we thank You for Your precious word, and how You’ve revealed the only acceptable access into Your presence, and then You turn around and give it to Your enemies as a gift. Oh Lord, we praise You for Your grace, and we praise You for the work of our Lord Jesus, not only on that one side to satisfy Your Law, but, also, to take the penalty. Lord, we thank You so much for who You are. Prepare our hearts, we pray, as we clinch this together. In Jesus’ name. Amen.