DownshoreDrift

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. What do I base my righteousness on? Am I righteous because of my performance or because of Christ's performane? Am I righteous because of my holiness or because of Christ's? Most of us with any theological upbringing at all would affirm that it is all Christ. But, we live like it is all us. And we judge like it is all our neighbor. What do we do when we sin? Do we ignore it and justify it and say it's no big deal because of grace? That's the position of the antinomian (without the law). Or, do we beat ourselves up and try harder? That's the position of the legalist. Both are wrong and both lead to death. And, we put death on others by what we condemn and/or affirm. No, there's another way. The Gospel Way.

Jesus is my righteousness. I am righteous because of Him. His righteousness is objectively true outside of me, not based on anything I do, but based on His finished work. It is all by the grace of God's initiative. I access this righteousness by faith. This is what we've been talking about in Philippians on Sunday's. Phil. 4:9:

9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Our righteousness is in Christ and He works it through our life as we grow in Him and come to know Him. But, He never stops being our source of righteousness. It is all Christ all the time.

Do we really believe this? Do we minister this to others? What do we do when a brother has sinned? How do we disciple people? This is a critical issue, but we spend our time just trying to get people to live better lives instead of helping them put their faith in Christ to be transformed by Him. There is precious little Jesus in our religion and a great deal of us. Jerry Bridges has a GREAT article about this in this months Modern Reformation. Check it out. It's called The Discomfort of the Justified Life.