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2 Corinthians 5:21
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Forgiveness of sins past, present, and future constitutes one part of our justification. Yet justification does not consist only in the nonimputation of sin, God’s act of no longer holding our sins against us or counting us guilty before the court of heaven (Rom. 4:1–6). It also includes imputing or crediting the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to our record before the bar of the Lord’s justice. Westminster Shorter Catechism 33 states, “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”
As a background for understanding the necessity of our having Christ’s righteousness imputed to our records before God, we need to remember the covenant of works. When the Lord made Adam, He entered into a covenant of works with him, demanding perfect obedience from Adam for eternal life (Gen. 2:15–17; Hos. 6:7; Rom. 5:12–21). Even Adam, in his prefall state, needed a record of keeping God’s commandments without fail in order to live forever.
Forgiveness of sins is necessary, but if in justification God only pardoned our sins, removing them from our legal record before Him, we would have a blank slate and not the obedience, the merit, that the Lord requires for eternal life. In justification, God meets our need of merit, not by taking our good works into account because they are stained with sin and unable to secure eternal life but by imputing or placing on our record the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. He obeyed the law of God without fail for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).
This righteousness comes to us through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Only our faith “is counted as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). A better translation would be that faith is counted “for” righteousness. That is, faith exists for the purpose of laying hold of the righteousness of Christ. Faith itself is not our righteousness, but it is the instrument by which we receive Christ’s perfect righteousness. Dr. R.C. Sproul writes: “[Faith] adds infinite merit to [a person’s] account by imputation, but it is the merit of Christ that is imputed to him. We can receive Christ’s merit only by faith, and there is no merit to that. The only One who can save us is Christ, and the only way we can get access to Him is through faith. We do not rest on anything else in our lives except Christ and His righteousness for our salvation.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
As many theologians have said, justification by faith alone ultimately means justification by Christ alone. Faith is essential, but it is only an instrument that receives Christ and His righteousness. We stand firm for the truth that we are justified by faith alone to preserve the truth that only Jesus Christ can save us from our sin and misery.
For further study
- Jeremiah 23:6
- Zechariah 3
- 1 Corinthians 1:30–31
- Galatians 2:15–16
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 39–40
- Colossians 1