The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness - the Basis for Our Justification

Something has greatly bothered me lately ... why is the imputation of Christ's righteousness given so little attention in the Church today? I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have been talking to Christians about imputation only to see their eyes gloss over from complete and utter boredom. I can understand why the world wouldn't care much about such a rich Biblical truth, but why do Christians not seem to care at all about the basis for our justification before oure holy God? Could it be the result of ignorance? Spiritual immaturity? I dunno.

In any case, I wanted to briefly discuss the righteousness that is imputed to believers. Louis Berkhof briefly comments:

"Positively, that the ground of justification can be found only in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to the sinner in justification. This is plainly taught in several passages of Scripture, such as Rom. 3:24; 5:9, 19; 8:1; 10:4; 1 Cor. 1:30; 6:11; II Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9. In the passive obedience of Christ, who became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13) we find the ground for the forgiveness of sins; and in His active obedience, by which He merited all the gifts of grace, including eternal life, the ground for the adoption of children, by which sinners are constituted heirs of life eternal" (Berkhof's Systematic Theology, pg. 523).

We stand before God clothed in a righteousness that is not our own - the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I now ask the question: what is the righteousness of Christ? The righteousness of Christ is both his life (active obedience) wherein he perfectly fulfilled the Law, and his death on the cross (passive obedience) atoning for the sins of his people.

Were we to divide up the righteousness of Christ and receive a fragment of his righteousness, we would either need to fulfill the Covenant of Works or further atone for our sins.

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The next few posts will be discussing areas relating to imputation, which is why I spent time discussing this great truth.

Well, I'm off to Bucks, Stay kewl kats.

Rusty