Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The imputation of divine righteousness at the moment of salvation replaces any system of human self-righteousness.
Thursday, December 11, 2003
JOH 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
The imputation of divine righteousness at the moment of salvation through faith in Christ replaces any system of human self-righteousness and-or pseudo spirituality or the arrogance of legalism.
Either he will accept his own self-righteousness for salvation and spirituality or he will accept the righteousness of Christ.
No believer can establish two conflicting systems of righteousness in his life.
In salvation, the conflict is between human works righteousness or self-righteousness which is salvation by works, or God’s righteousness, which is salvation by grace through faith in TLJC.
After salvation the conflict is between the legalism of spirituality by works versus spirituality by grace.
He fulfilled the law inside the PPOG, remaining impeccable even while bearing our sins on the cross.
The Decalogue, the Ordinances, and the Judgments.
Codex one is the Ten Commandments, or the Decalogue. This is the freedom code.
There can be no freedom without morality, which can be fulfilled by both believers and unbelievers.
The Ten Commandments define human freedom in terms of morality, privacy, property, life, and authority in general.
Codex two is the Ordinances, EXO 25:1 – 31:18, or the spiritual code. This emphasizes the fact that believers are designed to function under both the laws of divine establishment and Bible doctrine in the soul.
The spiritual heritage of Israel includes a complete but shadow soteriology and Christology, the essence of God, and the explanation of justification in terms of divine integrity, and all the adjustments to the justice of God.
The ritual communication included the structure of the Tabernacle, Exo 25-27, the delineation of the Holy Days,LEV 23:10ff, the proper function of the Levitical priesthood,
Exo 28-29, and significance of the Levitical offerings, Lev 1-3.
Codex three is the Judgments, the establishment code or the national heritage of Israel. This includes the entire political and functional heritage of the nation Israel.
It includes every principle related to the function of a client nation to God such as freedom and authority, privacy, rights, property, privileges, marriage and divorce, military policy, taxation, diet, health, sanitation, quarantine, criminal law, trial, punishment, laws of evidence, and capital punishment, EXO 21:1-23:9.
Morality mandated by the Mosaic Law was for both believers and unbelievers; it was not the means of spirituality.
Morality is produced by human self-determination and is good but spirituality is produced by God the Holy Spirit and is infinitely greater than human good.
The Law was never a way of salvation except in the sense that Codex 2 presented the gospel, which the Jews had to believe for salvation.
In reference to the feasts, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
Christ is the “end of the law” also because He abrogated [annulled or voided out] the Law as a way of salvation.
Rather than realizing that Christ fulfilled Codex 2, the Jews chose codices 1 and 3, the establishment and morality codes, as the means of their salvation.
GAL 3:24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.
As far as righteousness is concerned, Christ is the termination of any system of human self-righteousness because faith in Jesus Christ results in the imputation of divine righteousness at the moment of salvation.
The unbelievers in the dispensation of Israel were blinded by their arrogance of self-achievement and self-righteousness by keeping the Law.
God the Father is satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross and imputes His own righteousness to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ.
After salvation, only God the Holy Spirit controlling the life of the believer can produce the virtue-righteousness of the PPOG.
“Be filled with the Spirit,” EPH 5:18.
“Walk by means of the Spirit,” GAL 5:16.
The imputed righteousness of God is the foundation for building a system of virtue based on grace, which is far different from self-righteousness.
Virtuous people are always in a relationship with God, always relaxed about all the failure, sinfulness, and evil around them, but it does not in any way jeopardize their relationship with God.
At this point, the context begins to distinguish between works righteousness and faith righteousness.
The man who thinks that practicing righteousness makes him righteous shall live by that righteousness, which is an idiom meaning he takes his chances by it, but he ends up unrighteous.