CHRIST AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

By Peter C. Cay-ohen

“He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility… If a man could save himself by his own works, he might have something in himself in which to rejoice. The effort that man makes in his own strength to obtain salvation is represented by the offering of Cain.” Faith and Works, p. 94.

The above warning was made by the Messenger of the Lord in 1890 in view of the fact that the majority of Seventh-day Adventists have rejected the message of Christ our righteousness that God send to the General Conference in 1888 and were inclined to think that in order to make themselves qualified to inherit the kingdom of heaven, they must keep the law of Ten Commandments. They rejected the common Protestant view that since men are justified by faith alone, there is no need for Christians to keep the law. In trying to avoid the Protestant error of antinomianism they have gone to another extreme. Having understood that “The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been,–just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents,–perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness,” (Steps to Christ, p. 62) they came to think that they must by all means keep the law to fulfill the condition of eternal life and thus earn their way to the kingdom of heaven.

What is wrong with this idea of trying to fulfill the condition of eternal life by keeping the commandments of God? This idea is basically wrong because it teaches man to do that which is impossible for him to do. The messenger of the Lord said that “He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility.” Desire of Ages, p. 172.

But you may ask, what about if I am not trying to keep the law in my own strength, but I seek to keep the law through the grace of God? What is wrong with that? It would still be wrong if you are trying to keep the law in order to fulfill the condition of eternal life because such an attempt is tantamount to rejecting the gospel that Christ is our righteousness. The gospel of Christ our righteousness teaches that God has qualified all men to receive eternal life by sending his son to be the Saviour of the world and he was the one who fulfilled the condition of eternal life in our behalf by keeping the law perfectly in his lifetime on earth.

QUALIFIED TO INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

The great apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian believers expressing his joy over the truth that we have been qualified to receive eternal life and to inherit the kingdom of God. He wrote:

“Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light…” Colossians 1:12, RSV.

Paul is saying here that God the Father has qualified each one of us, sinners as we are, to dwell with the holy beings in His Kingdom in heaven and he thank God for this wonderful accomplishment in our behalf.

What is the condition of our receiving eternal life and our entrance into the kingdom of heaven? And how did God the Father managed to qualify us to receive eternal life and enter the kingdom of heaven?

THE CONDITION OF ETERNAL LIFE

The condition of eternal life is perfect righteousness, perfect obedience to the moral law of God known as the Ten Commandments. This was made clear by no less than Jesus Christ Himself. We read in the book of Matthew:

“And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:16-21.

Christ made it clear that the condition for the granting of eternal life is perfect conformity to the law of God. Eternal life cannot be granted on any condition short of this. The apostles explain that only those obedient to the law are accounted righteous and therefore qualified to receive eternal life. He wrote to the believers in Rome:

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” Romans 2:13, RSV.

“For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” James 2:10.

In other words, only one who has never sin in word, in thought, and in deeds in his entire life, one who has rendered perfect obedience to God’s laws, will be declared righteous (Justified to life). Only those with perfect righteousness are qualified to receive eternal life and be with God in His kingdom.

ETERNAL LIFE BY LAW-KEEPING AN IMPPOSIBILITY

Adam before the fall was capable of forming a righteous character by obedience to God’s law because he was created with a sinless nature with no bias towards evil. But Adam and his wife Eve failed to form righteous characters, and because of their sin, because of their wrong choice, their nature became depraved and their posterities were born with a sinful nature with inherent propensities of disobedience. And since we are born with a sinful nature that is naturally bent towards evil, we cannot perfectly obey God’s law. Why not? The Bible explains:

“What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment deceived me and by it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.” Romans 7:7-17.

None of us is righteous by nature, and none of us can, in our own strength, form a righteous character through obedience to the law of God (Romans 3:10, 20). We may have the desire, the willingness to obey, but we don’t have the power to do it. And without rendering perfect obedience to God’s law, without forming a righteous character that measures to the claim of the law of God, we cannot be admitted to heaven even if all our sins were forgiven. We simply are not qualified to receive eternal life. Going to heaven then is humanly impossible. THUS it is written:

A SAVIOUR HAS COME

But the good news is that God did not abandon us to perish in our sin. What did our heavenly Father do to qualify us to receive eternal life? We read:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:16, 17.

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:3, 4.

What the Father did through the Holy Spirit was to take our sinful nature, our “sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), and unite it with the sinless nature of His Son, and made Him the second or last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). He constituted Christ as the federal head and representative of the human race.

CHRIST TO FULFIL THE CONDITION OF ETERNAL LIFE IN OUR BEHALF

Christ was placed in the same position held by the first Adam in the Garden of Eden. Standing as our representative and Saviour, Christ must fulfill the condition of eternal life in our behalf. He must form a righteous character by rendering perfect obedience to God’s law in order to earn eternal life and give it to us as a free gift.

If Christ our Saviour will succeed in obeying the commandments of God for and in behalf of fallen humanity, all men will be adjudged to have obeyed the law perfectly and therefore shall be legally justified to life. That is to say all men will be considered qualified to receive eternal life, not on the merit of their own personal obedience, but on the basis of Christ’s obedience as their representative and surety.

On the other hand, if Christ will yield to temptation like what our first parents did, and commits sin even just once, then all our hope of receiving eternal life and entering the kingdom of heaven will forever be gone. There and then humanity will be left to receive the penalty of their sin by being annihilated.

Thus the eternal destiny of man hangs upon Christ’s success or failure while He was in our sinful, mortal flesh. From the time of Christ’s birth all heaven is eagerly watching for the outcome of His mission. On one side there is Satan and his fallen angels exerting all their cunning to make Christ transgress the law of God. On the other side there’s God and the holy angels encouraging Christ to resist every temptation to commit sin for the sake of man’s salvation. Will Christ obey the commandments perfectly, or will He ever yield to temptation and commits sin like Adam?

CHRIST RENDERED PERFECT OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW

The good news is that Christ succeeded in perfectly keeping the commandments of God. Every conceivable form of temptation was hurled against Christ to hinder Him from forming a perfect character but each time Christ came off victorious. We read:

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:14, 15, KJV.

He was tempted in all points just as every one of us is tempted but He did not sin. He overcame all the temptations from the world (John 16:33) and from the devil (John 14:30). All that is required of us to overcome, Christ overcame. He obeyed all the commandments perfectly for us, but not without difficulties.

We have no proper idea of the difficulties and sufferings that Christ endured in His battle against temptations just so He could have a perfect righteousness. We are told that He “suffered, being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). Many times He has to offer “up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears” to God the Father pleading for strength to overcome. (Hebrews 5:7). But even though He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet He was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15, Emphasis supplied). He did not sin in word, in thought, and in deeds as it is written:

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” 1 Peter 2:21 – 23.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

He was crucified like a common criminal, but in reality He was a just person dying for the unjust. Apostle Peter wrote:

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

When Christ died it was testified that “He is righteous,” both by His friends (1 John 3:7) and by His enemies (Luke 23:47). He Himself testified that He was obedient to all the commandments of God. He said:

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” John 15:10.

A FALSE ACCUSATION AGAINST CHRIST

Unfortunately there are preachers today, as there were in the time of the Apostles, who think that Christ did not obey perfectly all the commandments of God. If you ask them what part of the law Jesus transgressed, they will say the fourth commandment. I asked some of them how Jesus violated the fourth commandment and do you know what was their answer? They said that it was when Jesus healed the sick on the Sabbath day (John 9:1-19; Mark 3:1-6), and when He ask a healed man to carry his bed on the Sabbath day (John 5:1-23), and when His disciples plucked heads of corn (grain) to eat during the Sabbath day and He did not forbid them (Matthew 12:1-8). These people may be honest in their thought but they are really following the wrong mentality of the Scribes and Pharisees.

It is true that Jesus performed works of healing on Sabbath days. But was that a transgression of the fourth commandment that would constitute Him a sinner? The Jews who were antagonistic to the work and mission of Christ think that Christ was guilty of transgressing the fourth commandment because He performed works of healing on Sabbath days (See John 5:18; 9:16, 24). Many modern preachers think that the Pharisees were right and that Jesus really transgressed the fourth commandment. These modern religious teachers are following the line of thinking and reasoning of the Pharisees. Where they alive in the time of Christ, I believe they will also seek to kill Jesus and would have join the Pharisees in shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” for transgressing the Sabbath and claiming to be God (John 5:18; 7:22, 23; Matthew 12:14; Luke 23:21).

But I don’t believe the Pharisees were right. I agree with the Apostles in their belief that Christ did not commit sin, and in His mouth was found no guile as cited above already. All that Jesus did on the Sabbath were in harmony with the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8 – 12). Christ explained that acts of mercy and other good works like healing the sick are not violations of the Sabbath law. He said:

“And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath.” And he went on from there, and entered their synagogue. And behold, there was a man with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “What man of you, if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, whole like the other.” Matthew 12:7—13.

Christ was telling His accusers that He was not guilty of transgressing the Sabbath commandment and that his works of healing and other acts of mercy are lawful to be done on the Sabbath. In line with this principle both God the Father and Jesus Christ have been doing good works every day of the week, including the Sabbath day. How did Christ reply to those who wanted to kill Him for His alleged violation of the Sabbath law? We read:

“Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” John 5:17.

If the Pharisees were right and Jesus really broke the Sabbath commandment, He would be a sinner Himself in need of a Saviour and that is bad news. He would be a sinner like us and thus could not be our Saviour. But I believe that Jesus and His disciples whom He appointed as His witnesses are on the right side of the issue. I believe Jesus obeyed all the commandments of God including the Sabbath commandment and that is good news because it provides the legal basis for God the Father to give eternal life to all of us who believe.

Before Christ breath His last, He was able to say in triumph, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He was able to render perfect “obedience to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). The righteous character that the law demands as a condition for eternal life to be granted to man, Christ successfully completed. “It is finished.” Praise the Lord! We now have a ticket for our entrance to the kingdom of heaven – the righteousness of Christ.

CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

What right do we have to claim the righteousness of Christ as our righteousness? As was the case with His death, so it is with His righteousness. When Christ sets out to fulfill the condition of eternal life which is perfect obedience to the law of God, He was not doing it for Himself. He does not need to earn eternal life for Himself because as the Son of God and being in the form of God and of the nature of God like His father, He already has eternal life (John 1:4). But he was doing everything as our representative and Saviour. He sets out to keep the law in our behalf, to form a righteous character for us in order to earn eternal life and give it to us as a gift. That means that the righteous character that He was able to form was in reality ours. God wants us to understand that when Christ our representative obeyed God’s commandments, His obedience was counted as our obedience, and thus it is perfectly right that with perfect confidence and faith we are to acknowledge and accept His righteousness as our righteousness according to the will of the Father (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

The righteousness that Christ formed for us is His gift for the human race (Romans 5:17). And since Christ obedience was perfect (Hebrews 5:8, 9), it fully justifies all men to life in the sense of qualifying them to receive eternal life and to enter the kingdom of Heaven. When was the righteousness of Christ perfected? It was at the cross when He refused to yield to the temptation of Satan, when He determined to maintain His decision that He would rather die than to sin and fully submit to His Father’s will (Matthew 26:39-42; 27:39-43).

CHRIST RIGHTEOUSNESS QUALIFIED US FOR HEAVEN

Thus the cross of Christ does not only tell us that we have been legally justified from all our sins through the blood of Christ, but it also tells that we have been legally justified unto life through His perfect righteousness. Apostle Paul concluded:

“Therefore, as through one man’s offence judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, even so through one man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” Roman’s 5:18.

In other words all men were adjudged to have, through Christ their representative, fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law and thus stand legally qualified to receive eternal life and enter the kingdom of heaven. Because of this fact, if you give yourself to God, believing that Christ died for your sins and has perfectly obeyed the law for your justification to life, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake pardon will be written corresponding your sins in the book of heaven, and the righteousness of Christ will be credited to your name. You are then accounted righteous and treated as righteous. Christ’s perfect character stands in place of your defective character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had never sinned. If you die in faith thereafter, your salvation is assured and Christ will raise you to immortal life in the last days. We read:

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:37-40, 47, KJV.

Those who truly believe in Christ as their Savior and Lord are qualified to receive eternal life through the merit of Christ perfect righteousness. This is what Paul means when he wrote:

“For if by one man’s offence death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17.

“But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:5-7.

CONCLUSION

But “he who does not believe” that Jesus kept the law perfectly for him “is condemned already” (John 3:18). And he also who believes only half of the gospel, who believes that Jesus died for his sins but refuses to accept the obedience of Christ as his own righteousness that fully qualifies him for eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, choosing rather to pray that God may minister or infuse grace unto him so he could personally fulfill the condition of eternal life which is perfect obedience to the law of God, will not be admitted to the kingdom of heaven either (Romans 9:30-32; 3:20; Galatians 2:16; 5:4). Such professed Christians are in the same class with those whom Paul addressed saying:

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Romans 10:3, 4.

Do you see how important is the righteousness of Christ to your salvation? It is the very thing that earns eternal life for you and will give you an abundant entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Now that you know this truth, will you still cherish the idea that you must keep the law in order to become righteous and be qualified to receive eternal life like the Jews in the time of Christ? Is it not much better for you to receive by faith the perfect righteousness of Christ as your righteousness that you may be justified to life by faith? And after you are justified by faith, and have received God’s Holy Spirit in your life, will you not joyfully keep the law as an act of gratitude and as a token of your love and appreciation to God for the forgiveness of all your sins and the free gift of eternal life that you have received? I believe this is the only right way to take and I strongly recommend this option to all the readers.