Jesus Christ Our Righteousness!

The Christian ethic is unattainable, and the punishment for failing the Christian ethic is inescapable. Yet Jesus Christ, the Bible says, came and both fulfilled the requirements of the Christian ethic and took the penalty. If you look to him as your moral example, you're lost. If you look to him as a friend or helper, you're lost. But if instead you look to him as your substitute, as your stand in, if you trust in him as your Savior, if you trust in him as your mediator, the one who has fulfilled it all for you, so once you rest and trust in him in that way, God gives you all Jesus deserves, all Jesus has earned, all the love blessing an honor... Except from Timothy J. Keller in his sermon "The Love Of Christ" taken from the book The True Jesus by David Limbaugh, who expands further on that thought...

We will be ultimately be judged according to the highest possible standard, a standard of moral perfection: complete sinlessness. Though we can't be perfect, Christ models and teaches the standard of moral perfection in His incarnation. This turns us toward the cross because only in faith in Him are we justified. Being justified does not mean we actually become righteous, but that we are declared righteous and sinless in God's sight through faith in our sinless Savior, whose perfect righteousness is imputed to us. Once we are justified through our faith, we are freed from penalty of sin and the power of sin. At the moment we are justified the Holy Spirit indwells us and empowers us to resist sin. Our subsequent walk toward holiness through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit is called "sanctification." So while justification declares us righteous before God, , it doesn't mean we are actually righteous. To be justified is to be legally declared righteous" Samuel Hoyt explains, not to be made experientially righteous by God." But it begins the process of sanctification whereby we can become more righteous by leaning on God... Comments are appreciated... Brother Glen