No Mere “Supposed” Righteousness!

The Lord Jesus declares “…Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be BORN AGAIN, he cannot see the kingdom of God…Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be BORN OF WATER AND OF THE SPIRIT, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “

Concerning God’s elect, particularly those already quickened, we read “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath BEGOTTEN US AGAIN unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” “Being BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” “Which were BORN, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” For “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is BORN of the Spirit.”

If, with God-given faith, “ye know that [the Lord Jesus Christ] IS righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is BORN of Him.” The Christian doeth righteousness because “…we are His workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus UNTO good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” and “…it is God which worketh in [us] both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Our natural righteousnesses are as filthy rags (used menstrual cloths), any work of “righteousness” done in the hope of initiating, maintaining, or improving upon the righteousness of God in Christ is abominable; however, that which God objectively works in His people is not filthy. The Christian doeth righteousness solely in light of Christ Our Righteousness, but the Christian doeth righteousness nonetheless for “whosoever is BORN of God DOTH NOT COMMIT SIN; for his seed remaineth in him: and HE CANNOT SIN, because he is BORN of God.” Note that “doth not commit sin” is in the present indicative mood. It represents contemporaneous action, as opposed to action in the past or future. Likewise he cannot sin (now, repetitively, or continuously) for “We know that whosoever is BORN of God SINNETH NOT; but he that is BEGOTTEN of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” Therefore, if we be born of God, we are truly, fully, and objectively righteous in light of THAT WHICH has been begotten, even born anew, even born from above OF God, IN Christ, IN us.

Though the Christian is perfectly righteous, being perfectly incapable of sinning, yet “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his Word is not in us” — and again — “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the Truth is not in us.” How then can a Christian both sin and never sin? How can we be sinless and yet have sin? Are we sinless by mere legal reckoning alone (as some erroneously suppose) or are we sinless and righteous in objective REALITY? To answer this, we must understand the “new man,” the “inner/inward man.”

God through Paul commands “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye PUT ON THE NEW MAN, which AFTER GOD –IS CREATED– in righteousness and true holiness.” That new man is CREATED after God. Some say that the new man is only the Lord Jesus Christ IN US but that new man is something “KAINOS” [G2537; kī-no’s; new, RECENTLY MADE, fresh, of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of], something truly NEW and foreign to us by nature. It is a MAN newly CREATED and different from the man that existed before it. This new man is created AFTER “KATA” [after, down from, through out, according to, toward] God — that is, it is created by Him, according to Him, it comes down from Him, and is after His image/likeness/seed/similitude.

And what of the word “CREATED?” This new man is CREATED “ktizō” in true righteousness and holiness. What does this word “ktizō” [G2936; ktē’-zō] really mean? It is an amazing word because it first and foremost means “to make habitable, to found a city, colony, state.” Yet it also means “to create (as in of God creating the worlds), to form, shape, i.e. to completely change or transform.” God CREATES (FORMS) this new man IN TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESSS, making it HABITABLE! But HABITABLE for whom? We read in “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the SPIRIT OF GOD DWELL in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if CHRIST BE IN YOU, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” The Lord declared “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, DWELLETH in me, and I IN HIM.” And also, “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for HE DWELLETH WITH YOU, and shall be IN YOU.” Likewise, “Know ye not that YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, and that THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLETH IN YOU” “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, GOD DWELLETH IN HIM, and he in God.” There are multiple other such verses that show that God indwells us, being yoked with us.

Consider also the following, “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on THE NEW MAN, which is renewed in knowledge AFTER THE IMAGE of him that CREATED him.” This new man, is renewed in knowledge (which is synonymous with “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” read above) after the image (the eikon, icon, the likeness, figure, similitude) of Him that CREATED him [same word ktizō / G2936 as above]. We clearly see that their is a self, an autos, a “him,” that God CREATES (MAKES HABITABLE AND FORMS) after the image of Himself. This is “us,” this is the believer, this is the same aspect of “us” (call it soul, or spirit, or what have you) that goes to be with the Lord when the body dies. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord;” yet we are not present in this wretched body, in this corrupt flesh, but in that born from above spirit. The body will not be created anew until the last day.

When the Lord told the thief/malefactor on the cross “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” He was making no immediate promise concerning his body but only His spirit/soul (and yet that is blessed enough). The Apostle Paul declares “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 13 and I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” If it was out of the body, it had to be in his spirit/soul, and that spirit/soul could not be taken into the third Heaven unless it was really and truly righteous.

But some will say, how can we be really and truly righteous if we sin? I ask again, do we (after the inner/inward/new man) sin? The answer is clearly “no!” We sin after the flesh but that is not us (i.e. not us after the inner man) but it is the sin that indwells us, in our bodies. “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, IT IS NO MORE I THAT DO IT, but sin that DWELLETH IN ME. I find then a law, that, when *I* WOULD DO GOOD, evil is present with me. For *I* DELIGHT in the law of God AFTER THE INWARD MAN: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law OF *MY* MIND, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin WHICH IS IN MY MEMBERS. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Yet, some will say that we are only righteous because THE LORD [IS] OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! To that I would say that I have no disagreement. (1) We were made righteous in Christ, according to the purpose of God, from eternity. (2) We were objectively made righteous in Christ at the cross when He put away our sin [the sin of the elect] forever — “For [God] hath MADE HIM SIN for us, who knew no sin; that we might be MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.” (3) We are effectually made righteous, in time, upon regeneration when we are quickened, born from above, and receive that new man (that inner man) created in righteousness and indwelled by He who is both Righteous and OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (4) We are forever kept righteous by eternal vital union (oneness) with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Godhead that indwells both Him and us. We are not intrinsically, or inherently, righteous in ourselves APART FROM God; nothing is (God is the storehouse, the source, the monopoly owner over all which is right, just, and good) however, we are nonetheless righteous and if anyone or anything is righteous it is solely because He made it so and keeps it so.

So, in conclusion, what is the righteousness of the saint? It is indeed the “legal” righteousness that the Lord acquired for us when He put away our sin on the cross, fully satisfying divine law and justice. However, we were made legally righteous only because we were “truly” made the righteousness of God IN HIM in light of Him having been MADE SIN for us at the cross. Yet, our righteousness also flows from being forever yoked to the LORD Himself, who is ever OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. In all these ways, therefore, we are really and truly righteous IN Christ. There is no legal “as-if”‘ing, no mere supposing or pretending, the Christian is 100% righteous in the Lord who hath made us righteous — clothing us in the robes, the fine linen, of righteousness — which pictures Him, who He is and what He hath done for us as our all sufficient, all atoning, Covering. “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because AS HE IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD—-even, PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS!

To God be the Glory.

Curt Wildy