There you go again, Chappie, not taking the Bible as a whole.
(Isaiah 64:6 NKJV) But we are all like an unclean thing, And
all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
(Romans 3:9-21 NKJV) What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. {10} As it is written:
"There is none righteous, no, not one; {11} There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. {12} They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." {13} "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; {14} "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." {15} "Their feet are swift to shed blood; {16} Destruction and misery are in their ways; {17} And the way of peace they have not known." {18} "There is no fear of God before their eyes." {19} Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. {20} Therefore
by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. {21} But now the
righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
Sounds pretty total to me, and I think, to any reader of these verses who places his presupposition to not understand the gravity of these verses aside.
You see, Chappie, even the great saints in the Old Testament had the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. And once Christ's righteousness is ours it is indeed our possession and can be talked about as ours for Christ is the substitute, both actively and passively, for His people.
(Matthew 5:20 NKJV) "For I say to you, that unless
your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
(2 Corinthians 9:10 NKJV) Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of
your righteousness,
No man stands before God in a righteous state unless Christ's righteousness is imputed to him.
(Jeremiah 33:16 NKJV) In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
(1 Corinthians 1:30 NKJV) But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God; and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption;
(2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
Man-made, man-honoring doctrines cannot stand in the light of the Scriptures.
Ken
A Spurgeonite
[ October 15, 2002, 07:07 PM: Message edited by: Ken Hamilton ]