GRACE DISTINCTIONS #9– by Jack Cottrell

IX. God’s Righteousness: PERFECT MORAL CHARACTER or GIFT TO SINNERS? The point here is to understand exactly what is meant by GOD’S righteousness. Most of the time in the Bible, the righteousness of God is his perfectly consistent moral character, i.e., an attribute of his nature. But in the context of grace (e.g., Rom. 1:16-17; 3:21-22; 5:18; 10:3-6) it seems to be something different, or at least something MORE. Failure to see this distinction can lead to much confusion about how we are saved.

Righteousness is in fact one of the main attributes of God. (See my book, “God the Redeemer,” ch. 4, pp. 175-243.) Now, if righteousness means “conformity to a norm,” does this mean God has a norm by which he must be measured? In a sense, yes. That “norm” is his own nature, the sum of his attributes. We can say it like this: the righteousness of God means that his actions will always be in perfect conformity to his nature or essence. Because the righteous God is holy, his actions can never violate his holiness. Because the righteous God is loving, his actions can never violate his love—and so on. He is self-consistent; he is eternally faithful to himself. This is his righteousness.

As we have seen, Paul says that the righteousness of God is part of the gospel (Rom. 1:16-17), and “gospel” means “good news.” But how is the righteousness of God GOOD NEWS to sinners? God must always be true to himself. That sounds good, as long as we are behaving ourselves. “God is love,” so he will bless us. But the fact is that we are sinners, and God is also a “consuming fire” of wrath (Heb. 12:29). So what can we sinners expect from a righteous God except hell? How is his righteousness “good news” to sinners?

Here is where we must learn to think of the righteousness of God as more than the simple inward attribute of his personal moral character. As the Bible presents it in the context of the gospel, God’s righteousness is something separate from his own nature, something that can be wrapped up in a gift package and given (transferred, imputed) to sinners, like the “robe of righteousness” in Isaiah 61:10.

To understand this, we must think of the righteousness of God not just as something God IS, but as something God DOES. The righteous God DOES something that upholds the integrity of his law, and the effects of that act are then transferred to us sinners and become the basis for our salvation. Thus we are saved not by our OWN righteousness, but by GOD’S righteousness.

What is this thing that God does, that constitutes his gift of righteousness to sinners? Here is where Jesus Christ comes into the picture. Jesus, as the incarnation of God the Son, “acted out” the righteousness of God in our history in the place of sinners. What Jesus did for us constitutes the righteousness of God that is the basis of our salvation. His righteousness is God’s gracious gift to us.