The Righteousness of God (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday June 7, 2023

Justification Series: The Righteousness of God

Lesson # 2

As we noted last week, one of the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith is that of the doctrine of justification, which has given assurance to believers throughout the centuries and has changed the course of human history.

By way of review, justification is a judicial act of God whereby He declares a person to be righteous as a result of crediting or imputing to that person His righteousness the moment they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Consequently, God accepts that person and enters that person into a relationship with Himself since they now possess His righteousness.

The mechanics of justification are as follows:

(1) God condemns the sinner, which qualifies them to receive His grace.

(2) The sinner believes in Jesus Christ as His Savior.

(3) God imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to the believer.

(4) God declares that person as righteous as a result of acknowledging His Son’s righteousness in that person.

Justification is God declaring a person to be righteous as a result of acknowledging or recognizing His righteousness in that person, and which righteousness He imputed to that person as a result of their faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Justification causes no one to be righteous but rather is the recognition and declaration by God that one is righteous as He is.

Romans 3:1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. 3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” 5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8 Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved. 9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. (NIV84)

“Righteousness” is the noun dikaiosynē (δικαιοσύνη), which was used primarily in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) to denote an attribute of God and to describe His relationship to both Israel and the Gentiles.

In the Greek New Testament, the noun dikaiosynē (δικαιοσύνη) was used primarily to denote an attribute of God and also refers to the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is imputed to the person who accepts Him as their Savior.

The noun dikaiosynē (δικαιοσύνη) refers to the Trinity’s perfect integrity in that their character is upright, honest, perfectly whole, undiminished, sound, unimpaired and in perfect condition.

The noun refers to the Trinity’s perfect virtue in that their character is perfect moral excellence, goodness, and their conduct is conformed perfectly to their own perfect standards and what they have promised to men.

The noun dikaiosynē (δικαιοσύνη), “righteousness” also referred to fulfilling one’s obligations to love both God and men, doing right to both God and men.

In the New Testament, the righteousness of God is an attribute of all three members of the Trinity and refers to His “integrity” and “virtue” and refers to God’s perfect integrity in that His character is perfectly sound, perfectly adhering to His own perfect standards and what He promises to men.

It is all that God is, all that He commands, all that He demands, all that He approves, and all that He provides through Christ.

The Bible teaches that there are two categories of righteousness: (1) Absolute righteousness originating in the essence of God revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God and in the Person of Christ (2) Relative righteousness, which is rooted in man’s comparison of himself with other men.

The Bible teaches that the entire human race both Jew and Gentile do not measure up to the righteousness of God and are therefore condemned before God but qualified for grace (Romans 1:18-3:20).

God does not accept relative human righteousness but rather demands His own absolute perfect righteousness.

The only way that man can acquire this absolute perfect righteousness required by God to have a relationship with Him is by means of faith alone in Christ alone.

Man’s relative righteousness falls infinitely short of God’s absolute righteousness in the Person of Christ (Isa. 64:6).

The righteousness of God can never be attained by anyone through human power and dynamics or by keeping the Mosaic Law but rather it is received as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ who is the righteousness of God incarnate.

The works of the Law can never attain the righteousness of God (Titus 3:5) and the nation of Israel sought to establish their own righteousness rather than accept by faith the righteousness of God in the Person of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:1-10).

The Lord Jesus Christ manifested the righteousness of God during His First Advent, which was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament Scriptures (Romans 3:21-26).

The Lord was made our Substitute in order that we might receive the imputation of God’s righteousness and live in that righteousness.

The righteousness of God is received as a gift and is imputed to the unregenerate person who exercises faith alone in Christ alone and by imputed I mean that God credits to the believer the perfect integrity and virtue of Christ.

Regardless of the dispensation in which they live, sinners receive the righteousness of God as a gift through faith in the Lord and this gift is received at the moment of conversion at justification.

In Old Testament dispensations this would involve communicating the Word of God to the unregenerate who in turn respond by exercising faith in Yahweh, the God of Israel who the New Testament identifies as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

During the First Advent of Jesus Christ, the church age and the seventieth week, sinners receive the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

The imputation of divine righteousness results in the Father declaring the sinners justified.

Therefore, all those sinners who respond to the Word of God in Old Testament dispensations and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ during the First Advent, the church age and the seventieth week will receive the imputation of divine righteousness, which results in God the Father declaring them justified.

God wants His righteousness exemplified in the church age believer’s life and in fact, in every dispensation, God wants all those who have been declared justified by Him through faith to exemplify His righteousness.

So in the New Testament epistles, we see the New Testament writers exhorting church age believers to experience and exemplify the righteousness of Jesus Christ after their conversion by appropriating the teaching of the Word of God that they have been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ (See Romans 6).

The New Testament Scriptures teach that the righteousness of God will be manifested in the believer’s life when they fulfill their obligations to love both God and men, or in other words by doing right to both God and men.