Gospel

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The topic sounds a bit absurd. If it were a soccer match, one team would absolutely outclass the other. It’s more like, FC Barcelona versus a bunch of 4-year-olds in the Champions League final! I assure you, If the score margin of that encounter were converted to currency, you could buy some decent stuff with it! Anyway, these are the choices continually placed before us believers everyday in our walk of faith, and not just on the day of our salvation.
The dictionary associates righteousness with these synonyms: uprightness, blamelessness and justification. When God’s people (Israel) were given the laws and commandments, the criterion for earning God’s blessings and fellowship was solely based on their ability to abide by them. It was all dependent on their effort and self-righteousness (Deut. 28:1). But of course, no one could flawlessly keep God’s laws and commandments. Violating even the least one of them meant you were guilty of all! But before these commandments were given, righteousness (at the time of God’s fellowship with Abraham) was not dependent on one’s ability to keep the law; there were no laws to be kept in the first place (Galatians 3:17-18). The bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:56 that the strength of sin is the law. So, how then did Abraham obtain righteousness? It was strictly by faith!
"What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:" – Romans 4:3-6 (NIV).
The covenant based on the law was flawed because man could not keep his part. Even at our very best, we cannot live up to God’s standard. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;” – Isaiah 64:6. In this desolate predicament, God showed forth His love and established a new covenant with man. A covenant He had envisioned from the beginning (Ephesians 1:4). This new covenant was not to be based on the law like the old one (Jeremiah 31:31-34). It was established in His son, Jesus. Righteousness would no longer be merited based on performance, or any condition for that matter. Righteousness is a person; the person of Jesus Christ.
“Behold the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth…Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” – Jeremiah 23:5-6 (NKJV).
All of our unrighteousness, infirmity and iniquity were imputed in the body of Jesus Christ by His sufferings and crucifixion on the cross. He paid the ultimate price for sin - the sins of the entire world (past, present and future) (1 John 2:2, Hebrews 10:12) by His death on the cross (Romans 6:23). He redeemed us from judgment and justified us by grace. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" – Romans 3:23-24 (NKJV).
In exchange for our sins, God imputed His righteousness in us. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him – II Corinthians 5:21. God justifying us in Christ, was the ultimate display of His love for us and His righteousness (Romans 3:25-26). So, God is righteous in making us righteous! Our part is to believe this good news of faith and accept the redemption in the precious sacrifice of His son. In Jesus Christ, we no longer stand condemned (Romans 8:1; John 3:17; John 8:11). This does not give us a propensity to continue in the old nature of sin (Galatians 2:19-21). We are empowered to break every bondage of sin, addiction and infirmity when we receive and walk daily in the light of this revelation in faith. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” – Romans 6:14.

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