“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, …
who became to us (righteousness) from God,”
There are two scriptural modes in which our life in Christ operates. One is grace and the other is faith. Grace is God’s ministry of love to us and faith is our response to his grace. It is God’s power, however, providing context for God’s love through grace and faith.
We are discussing the amazing gift of righteousness given to every believer in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24). This is Paul’s theme in Romans where he proves we are no longer condemned since we have been made righteous, created into a union with God through Jesus His Son. We also became sanctified but sanctification is totally different and separate from being righteousness in Christ. It is important, however, to view righteousness outside the scope of sanctification because it is!
Sanctification is often interpreted as the subject of Romans 7 even though the context is righteousness through faith. It is a righteousness gift from God from chapter 1 all the way through chapter 8. Paul’s message context is justification by faith! Extracting parts of Paul’s justification argument to use as a sanctification argument is not proper handling of God’s truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
Being “in Christ Jesus” can be a glib phrase just as is the “righteousness of Christ”. The righteousness of Christ may seem abstract and beyond our reach. Yet, as distance as this thought seems, it is the very kernel, the essence, the center of our salvation. “In the gospel”, Paul says, “is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith” (Romans 1:17).
“Wait a minute, I thought faith and the blood of Christ were core issues,” I hear an engineer observe.
Faith and the sacrifice of Jesus for our sin are required salvation elements. The gospel is often defined by Paul’s description to the Corinthians, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised the third day in accordance to the scriptures.” This is what Paul says is of first importance but it is not the end of it, it is the beginning of it! The gospel is the means for us to be righteous, in union with Christ Jesus, being in fellowship with Him and His body. Eternal life is to know Jesus Christ, being righteous in Jesus Christ.
In order for us to obtain salvation, we have to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Like many rich kids, we don’t appreciate what it took to receive the free gift of righteousness. The truth is, we are rich in Christ Jesus. Exploring those riches is one thing, but we must realize we have absolutely nothing spiritually except what is provided in love by our creator as a free gift. We cannot become righteous except through Jesus Christ. Once we are in Christ, we are righteous.
Like many things given to us in love, the relationship has to get a little bit strained before we wake up and start smelling the roses. When our security is threatened or our circumstances become vulnerable, then, we take time to notice what we have is by way of grace from another.
Paul uses the Romans 7 illustration of a married woman being free to marry another upon the death of her husband. Spiritually our husband is the first Adam. We are born into a state of condemnation because we are in his family and identified with him as our federal head. We have the first Adam in our DNA, it is who we are. Romans 7 shows we cannot be delivered from sin and its condemnation through the law in Adam.
But the good new is Jesus Christ put to death our relationship to sin so we can be married to another. We were in Adam but now we are “in Christ Jesus”. Paul puts it this way in Romans 5,
“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death ruled through that one man (Adam), 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” (Romans 5:17).
There is, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because a 2 Corinthinas 5:17 Christian is righteous. The miracle of being born a second time creates us righteous and places us in Jesus Christ. The Greek grammar makes absolutely clear it is a completed act that cannot be undone. We have received a new nature, a new man resides within us (Eph 4:24). Our task is to reckon, or acknowledge ourselves dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11). “If we live by (in) the Spirit, let us also walk by (in) the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25).
We are baptized into Christ’s death, buried and raised by His resurrection (Romans 6:3ff) power. Accepting this divine provision by faith, we become married to Jesus Christ. The death He died puts sin to death and frees us to be united into an intimate love relationship by receiving the provisions of grace in Christ Jesus.
This is the justification discussed in Romans 5. The law of sin and death no longer reigns because God’s gift of righteousness reigns in life through the one man Jesus Christ. This is the work of grace in our life through faith if we are 2Corinthians 5:17 Christians. We are no longer in Adam but in Christ.
The reality of being in Christ is often obscured because it is not normally affirmed in our experience by physical senses. It is a spiritual reality operating in God’s realm outside the natural, temporal experience of our soul and body. This is why faith is such an important element in our spiritual life. Faith is acting upon God’s righteousness and truth without those tangible affirmations giving comfort in our natural human person.
I don’t mean to imply the reality of being in Christ is not present in our physical experience. It most definitely is! Our physical circumstances are always in His prevue and are tools for our spiritual instruction. Our circumstances often become testing points for our faith and spiritual maturity. We learn to discipline our spiritual sense through constant practice to discern good from evil (Hebrews 5:14) often through our physical circumstances.
In Adam our sin was punishable by judgment and execution. We had to pay the price for breaking the codified law of God. That is no longer spiritually possible under the new covenant. Now we are righteous and in Christ Jesus. Our penalty and judgment have already been paid by Jesus the Son of Man. “There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus” is an absolute verity.
When we sin under the new covenant we violate a love relationship. Our sin is against love. We are operating in God’s grace as children in God’s family. We have been grafted into the root of God to produce His righteous fruit. Righteous is who we are in Christ, Righteousness is the fruit we should produce.
“Be ye Holy for I am Holy”, 1 Peter 1:1