Category Archives: Righteousness

The Grace of True Righteousness

Grace, Righteousness

This little nook of the web is called “practical grace.” That’s because true grace, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the most practical, life-impacting thing I have ever encountered.  My personal outlook on life, my day-by-day living, has been radically altered by this true grace found in Christ. 

It seems that our initial confession of Christ almost always is accompanied by a deep appreciation of what Jesus did for us. A sinless life lived on our behalf, an unjust death on the cross, blood shed for our sins. What grace, that God has saved a wretch like me!

The grace of righteousness given lights up the sky of my life!
The grace of righteousness given lights up the sky of my life!

What has taken time and effort in my Christian life is the appropriating of the continuing grace of the gospel in my daily life. My life continues to be about Jesus Christ and His righteousness; He is as central today as the day He saved my soul, or even the day before the foundation of the Earth that He chose me in Him (Ephesians 1:3). My salvation includes my sanctification.

I think this is why the New Testament so emphatically affirms that godliness is not primarily a set of actions but a person (1 Timothy 3:16). Our life is hid in Christ; our whole existence is in union with Him. Including the existence I have after conversion.

From the Gospels to Romans to Ephesians to Galatians to Hebrews… in the Old Testament and in the New… God reveals that it is only through and in His Son, the Messiah, that we will ever stand before Him. Our relationship with Him is the center of life, really the only life we now have. Colossians 3 summarizes this well: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).

Ok… so I hear internet-minds thinking… this sounds like great, deep theology. It sounds heady and ethereal, but not really practical.

But the gospel (grace, our union with Christ) is fantastically practical. It is so intensely practical that it is hard to know where to begin.

For one, the centrality of grace is radically different than any other religious belief system known to man. What it practically produces is humility mixed with grateful service, rather than judgmental self-effort.

One Christian author puts it this way: “Grace understood and embraced will always lead to commitment. But commitment required will always lead to legalism.” (Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, p. 128)

But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The gospel of grace has ongoing specific answers to the realities of our life – often typified in questions like:

• Do I have enough? Many people (Christians included) spend their whole lives striving toward some summit (money, approval of men or God, self-security).

• Am I good enough? Many people (Christians especially) live lives trying to “measure up” to a moral standard, and evaluate their lives based on their own righteousness.

• Am I valuable? Many people (again, Christians included) think they’re only valuable based on how ‘good’ they’ve been lately. We condition our feelings so that we feel good when we do certain actions (or avoid others).

The gospel of grace has important answers for daily living because it strongly answers these questions. It proclaims that our union with Christ is the center of our lives right now – we have such riches! It shouts that our worth is found only in Him. It thunders with the fact that the only righteousness we will ever have is someone else’s given to us.

One of the central struggles of the Christian life is that we are constantly pushed by the world away from persevering in the truth of the gospel. We are constantly pushed away from faith in the only righteousness or godliness we will ever have – away from faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Here is the gospel:
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Here’s how I’m tempted to alter this good news:
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that you might with great effort on your behalf become eventually the righteousness of God” (Not in the Bible).

Do you see the difference? Inasmuch as I am “in Christ” I am the righteousness of God. Even though I can’t write that sentence without trembling, my union with Christ means I have imputed (given, really counted, actually obtained) to me His righteousness. I can’t be putting my righteousness in His place. Not even the righteousness which I do after conversion.

(By the way, that righteousness produced in me by God is called fruit in the Bible [Galatians], it gives assurance [1 John], it is the mark of the believer [James]. I’m not in any way demeaning our fruit, it is wonderful. But may we not equate it with the righteousness of Christ which is ours forever in our union with Him.)

The shift we often subtly as we live as Christians is from our having Christ’s holiness and Christ’s righteousness by faith to us having our own (though verbally Spirit-enabled) righteousness and holiness. We must not equate these. They are not the same at all. The former is the very essence of our salvation every day, every hour, every moment of the Christian life. The latter is the evidence of a Christian life, not the center of it. To make such a shift can both confuse us and rob us of the wonder of what has been done for us, even after conversion.

Now what? Well, my life appears primarily to be about growing in understanding the gospel. My life is now about constantly holding onto faith, faith which includes the belief that I have that righteousness of Christ. Day by day, moment by moment, I desperately need continued, deepening understanding of the gospel of grace.

God’s righteousness is what I get through faith in Christ (Romans 3:21, Phil 3:9).

As I know the depths of Christ, as I grow in the gospel of grace, I am struck with wonder anew. I desire to walk in every way that reflects that I am sold out, absolutely engaged with, this amazing truth. My faith leads me to act and do because I trust God; when He says a way is best, it is! I become more and more thankful for the imperatives of Scripture, to which I am pulled because of the depth of my excitement in the gospel of Christ.

May the intensely practical, life-changing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you in your Christian walk today and every day.

Christ as Santa?

Christmas, In Christ, Righteousness

(Today’s thoughts were stimulated by reading Sinclair Ferguson’s In Christ Alone, a wonderful and highly recommended book of short essays on our union with Christ.)

One of the laments that resounds through the Christian circles during this season is the commercialization of Christmas. There is so much marketing, so much materialism, so much in our

Santa Christ?

culture that seems to focus on ourselves and our excesses, and not upon Jesus. It is a rare year that we do not face the call to “bring Christ back into Christmas.”

 This returning of Christ into Christmas is a wonderful sentiment, and a true one. We as a society are too materialistic, do focus on the self-fulfillment of gifts and buying and lights and trees. In many ways, there is little difference from how someone who does not know Jesus celebrates Christmas from someone who does.

As we look out at the Christian landscape, there is even a further concerning thought: our conception of Santa often mirrors how we think of Jesus.

Think of common Christmas songs, such as:

“He knows when you’ve been sleeping, He knows when you’re awake;
He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake”

The “he” there is Santa, but for many of us, it might as well be Jesus. Try this on for size: 

“Jesus knows when you’ve been sleeping, Jesus knows when you’re awake;
Jesus knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake”

Does that seem to be your experience? Our Lord knows everything you do, so you better be good, or you won’t get any presents. If you’ve done the best you can, then perhaps Jesus will condescend to bless you with the blessing you most desire. Or perhaps He’ll overlook a few of the stumbles and sins if you make every effort for some period of time to do good, to act rightly, to be righteous.

And that last phrase is the real problem. There we go again, slipping into the “I can be good on my own” thinking that is the antithesis of the gospel. What makes me think that I have the capacity to “be good,” and that really, really trying is going to mean something? If Jesus has the characteristics of Santa, watching me to see if I deserve blessing, evaluating me to decide if I’m worth giving good things to, then I’m lost.

Sinclair Ferguson identifies Santa Christology as what it is, semi-pelagianism: “The only difference from medieval theology here is that we do not use its Latin phraseology: facere quot in se est (to do what one is capable of doing on one’s own, or, in common parlance, ‘Heaven helps those who help themselves’).”

Christ and Santa are not friends. They have wildly different worldviews, and not in the way that we commonly think. It is not only that Santa is all about presents, gifts, and flying reindeer. Even more concerning is that Santa is about evaluating the wrong goodness — ours.

Christ does no such thing. He came to earth, humbled himself as a child, conceived before wedlock, born in utter poverty, his family fleeing from an evil king. He lived a life of perfect obedience, of utmost righteousness in every attitude and thought. He out of utmost love gave up his intimate fellowship with God the Father, bearing the sin of every believer on the cross, so that we might have His righteousness by faith.

Blessing upon blessing upon blessing has been poured out on us, believer. Not because we’ve been careful to have external goodness, but because we are associated with the Son, we are “in Christ.” O may the skies proclaim it, may the earth rejoice, may our mouths open in awe and wonder and worship of the Messiah come to earth!

As God’s people, then, we should be full of wonder and adoration of what Christ has done in this season, and not simply (as heartwarming as it is) focused on family times and warm feelings in feet, toes, and heart as we fellowship around the Christmas tree. We don’t Christianize a secular holiday, but we have a whole different reason to be wondrously adoring; O look and see what has been done!

In Mary’s words (Luke 1:46-47,49):

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”

There is no Santa Christ in this; only Christ, the babe come to earth… may our spirits rejoice, may we magnify the Lord this season in what the One who is mighty has done for us!

Amazing Grace!

Grace, Righteousness, ,
Amazing Grace
Grace, amazing

Finally, after many days of learning about such exciting concepts as cascading style sheets and hypertext markup language, an actual site has been born. This is it — the very first entry of a site entirely devoted to the radical, wondrous, exciting, overwhelming, all-encompassing Grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ! A few more adjectives are no doubt in order, but hopefully the point is made. Grace amazing, to you and me.

Everywhere I turn these days, I am struck by the ongoing grace of God in the world around me. Every page of God’s Word rings with grace; love worked out in the body shines forth grace; from marriage, to parenting, to work, to enjoyment of the creation, every day is filled with the grace of God. Hopefully in the days ahead we’ll get to explore more fully how grace impacts the Christian life; impacts not only in the moment of salvation, but every moment afterward.

One of the least-known lines of John Newton’s famous Amazing Grace reads:

The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures.

How fantastic a thought, that the Lord will my shield and portion be for as long as my life lasts. Perhaps Psalm 84:11 is in mind, where the sons of Korah proclaim that “the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

The Lord is the sun for Christians… all light, all sustenance, everything comes from Him. The Lord is a shield for Christians… protection, help, safety. The Lord gives grace and glory (interesting connection, the culmination of grace is glory), and gives us all good things (hmm… not necessarily what we’d call good, but His best for us!).

We could just stop right there and bask in the wonder of what we’ve been given, except that Psalm 84:11 ends with a (possibly) disturbing phrase: “from those who walk uprightly.” Doesn’t this mean that if you do the right actions, then God will give you what you want? Doesn’t this fly right in the face of Amazing Grace and grace and glory and shields and portions?

Right away we are into the very reason for this site: grace, grace alone, after salvation. Because “he who walks uprightly” can only be said of you, or of me, inasmuch as we are united with the Righteous One, Jesus Christ. So our works, whether before or after salvation, are not what qualify the Christian as one of “those who walk uprightly.” No, rather that amazing phrase applies to us because we have “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:22).

That’s alot to chew on. Named among the righteous in Psalms only by association with Christ, and not by my ongoing efforts (though I make them) to be an upstanding, moral person.

But that’s my faith. And yours too. Amazing Grace, my whole life long. All glory, praise, and honor to Jesus Christ my Lord!