The Scriptures teach that if we have to stand before God and be judged on the basis of our good works, we will all be justly condemned. The Psalmist writes, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Ps 130:3).” Paul makes clear this is because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).”

So, what is our only hope as guilty sinners standing before a holy, righteous God? It is Jesus’ blood and righteousness. This 19th century hymn captures it well:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.[1]

Justification is God’s astonishing declaration that all who are in Christ are righteous, based on two things: 1) the forgiveness of sin by Jesus’ blood and 2) the imputation of Jesus righteousness. For Jesus to accomplish our salvation, he had to meet the two-fold demand of God’s law by: 1) perfectly obeying the law’s demands of righteousness, so that he could then 2) perfectly pay the just penalty for our sin by coming under the full curse and condemnation of the law we deserve.

Jesus saved us by both his life and death. He lived the life of righteousness we should have lived so that he could die the sinner’s death we deserve to die as our substitute meeting all of God’s just demands for perfect righteousness.

The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus came to be the last Adam: “It is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45).” The first Adam failed to obey God when facing temptation, resulting in our condemnation and corruption. But the good news is that the last Adam succeeded by obeying God when facing temptation, resulting in our acceptance and new life through him.

Jesus suffering obedience was a gracious display of his faithfulness to God’s covenant. All human beings, as descendants of Adam, are bound by the stipulations of the Creator’s covenant with Adam to obey God to live, and therefore we must perfectly obey God if we want to live. This is why James writes, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (James 2:10).”

All human beings are born “in Adam” and under God’s just curse of condemnation and corruption–not only human corruption but world corruption. Jesus came to regain for us what we lost “in Adam” by becoming the “last Adam” for us, perfectly obeying God in the face of all the temptations that caused the first Adam to fail. Because of the “last Adam’s” perfect righteousness for us, he alone could make the perfect sacrifice of his shed blood for us.

As a result of Jesus’ blood and righteousness, the good news is that all who are now “in Christ” through repentance and faith, receive back what we lost in Adam. But more accurately, what we receive back is actually more than what we lost. Calvin writes,

“[Adam] by his fall ruined himself and those that were his, because he drew them all, along with himself, into the same ruin: Christ came to restore our nature from ruin, and raise it up to a better condition than ever. (Italics mine)”

The Apostle Paul teaches that what Jesus did for all who are in him is far greater than what Adam did for all who were in him.

“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ (Rom 5:15-17).”

Justification means more than being forgiven or having your sin’s taken away. It means to be declared totally accepted by God because Christ’s perfect righteousness has been counted to you in God’s heavenly court. The righteousness which the Bible says makes you acceptable to God is not your righteousness but Christ’s. The Bible says his righteousness was fully credited to your account at the very moment you believe.

Stott writes, “Whereas forgiveness through propitiation cancels our liability to punishment; justification is the positive counterpart (Stott 1986:182).” Justification bestows on believers in Christ a righteous standing before God. Paul writes, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known . . . which comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. . . . ” (Rom 3:21-25).

In describing the riches of Christ’s saving obedience for us, theologians often refer to Jesus’ active and passive obedience. These terms are used to help us understand two distinct aspects of Christ’s obedience to God’s law for us.

Christ’s active obedience refers to Jesus’ fulfilling all of the positive demands of perfect righteousness required in God’s law. And Christ’s passive obedience refers to Jesus’ fulfilling all of the required penalties for breaking God’s law.

So, we return to our question, why would God declare us righteous? What is the ground of our forgiveness of sins and the gift of Christ’s righteousness? It is not on the basis of our obedience, but the obedience of Christ in our place. John Murray writes, “His obedience becomes the ground of remission of sin and of actual justification.”[2]

 Footnotes:

[1] My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, by Edward Mote, 1797-1874

[2] John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p. 22