The Righteousness of Christ Alone

By Sonny Hernandez

False teachers don't believe Christians—who uncompromisingly affirm the righteousness of Christ alone and despise the antithesis—have full assurance of salvation. They won't preach on biblical assurance because the god preached in their pulpits has never saved one soul from hell and, therefore, assures salvation to no one.

Some ministers will say they teach on "assurance." Yet, in their sermons, they will accentuate things men must do or promote works righteousness to the detriment of depreciating the work of Christ alone, revealing they don't affirm biblical assurance.

Christians know God demands perfect obedience to the law because it reflects His nature. They also know the strict penalty for disobeying God's law. These reasons explain why believers in the true gospel look to the perfect righteousness of another, Christ. 

God's particular people—who embrace the imputed righteousness of Christ alone by God-given faith—know the elect of the Father for whom the Savior died have the assurance of salvation and believe God preserves His sheep. This article will explain why the righteousness of Christ alone guarantees the saints will persevere and have assurance of salvation.

Paul called Christ "the last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45) because He did what Adam could not. God's law demands perfection because it reflects His perfect essence, and the penalty for disobedience results in sin, death, and condemnation. Adam transgressed God's law. This act resulted in sin, death, or legal condemnation credited to all of his posterity (Romans 5:12).

Christ—"...the last Adam"—satisfied the demands of the divine law because it reflects His divine nature. He accomplished justification, redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation on behalf of the elect (John 19:30). This glorious Savior rose from the dead, proving His death exhausted the Father's wrath in the place of the sheep (Romans 8:32-34). 

There are three imputations in Scripture. (1) The sins of Adam imputed to all of his posterity. But since God loves the elect for whom Christ died, (2) He imputed the sins of the sheep to Christ and (3) reckoned the perfect righteousness of the Savior to the elect (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

The whole work of Christ's righteousness, in its compact unity, encompasses the Savior's entire life. Thus, the righteousness of the Savior refers to His vicarious law-keeping (preceptive or active obedience) and His propitiatory death on behalf of the elect (penal or passive obedience). Men—who deny these truths—do not understand or believe in the righteousness of Christ. 

The doctrine of imputed righteousness does not mean God subjectively changes His particular people. Instead, this doctrine teaches that God legally and forensically justifies the elect because of Christ's vicarious law-keeping and substitutionary death alone. 

Righteousness is imputed, not infused. Roman Catholics embrace infused righteousness because they think men must collaborate with God to obtain righteousness for everlasting salvation, which is heresy. Per Scripture, God justifies the elect because of Christ's finished work alone, excluding works. Put another way, Roman Catholics focus on their sinful and fallible works, but Christians look only to the Savior's finished work.

Faith, obedience, and law-keeping are not synonymous with the righteousness required for salvation. Papists and Arminians will conflate faith and righteousness because they deliriously think their faith is the cause of salvation and believe their faith precedes regeneration. God's Word condemns these views. 

Christians must learn and understand how to interpret 2 Corinthians 5:21 correctly. This text states, "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" (emphasis mine).

Per the text above, "sin" inherently belongs to men [the elect], not the Master [Christ], even though God imputed the sins of the elect to Jesus. Also, the "righteousness" inherently belongs to the Savior, not to sinners [the elect], even though God reckons the perfect righteousness of Christ to the elect. 

Christians know they are not inherently righteous but must always look to the perfect righteousness of another, Jesus Christ. After God credits the perfect righteousness of the Savior to His people, the elect will know that Christ's righteousness is theirs, but only by imputation. 

Fake Christians will say they have "a personal righteousness," yet Isaiah 64:6 states, "...all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." The apostle taught that men—who seek to "...establish their own righteousness"—are "...ignorant of God's righteousness" (Romans 10:3). Therefore, true Christians don't have a personal righteousness; they have imputed righteousness. 

Christ's completed, saving, and effectual work alone guarantees assurance of salvation to the elect for whom He died, or assurance is the result of His perfect righteousness alone. Men—who disagree and teach otherwise—promote a different Jesus and false assurance.

God did not justify His elect in eternity or at the cross. Instead, God justifies the elect in time. For example, the apostle used a past tense verb [Gk. ἐδικαιώθη; "were justified"] in Romans 4:2. But Paul also used a present tense verb [Gk. δικαιούμενοι; "being justified"] in Romans 3:24, and a future tense verb [Gk. δικαιώσει; "shall justify"] in Romans 3:30. These texts grammatically prove that God justified the elect in the past but will continue to justify the elect in the present and the future. 

In closing, the righteousness of Christ alone is the gospel. This doctrine guarantees the elect will persevere because of Christ's completed and saving work alone and assures them of salvation. False teachers will reject these truths. They think men can fall away from their god, but their god does not exist. 

Christians, therefore, believe in assurance of salvation because of Christ alone and embrace the preservation of the saints because God took their wretchedness and gave them the Savior's righteousness. Second Timothy 4:18 states, "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen" (emphasis mine).