Unspoken Sermons · Chapter
Righteousness explained
This chapter explores the true nature of righteousness as a real, transformative quality imparted by God through faith, contrasting it with the legal fiction of imputed righteousness.
What happens
This chapter explores the true nature of righteousness as a real, transformative quality imparted by God through faith, contrasting it with the legal fiction of imputed righteousness. It argues that righteousness is not a forensic imputation but a genuine participation in God's own character, growing through obedient faith and leading to perfection.
Themes in this chapter
Inner Transformation and Perfection
Righteousness is presented as a real, growing quality that transforms the believer from within, aiming at the perfection of God.
Faith and Obedience
Faith is the active turning to God and obeying his will, which is counted as righteousness and is the germ of all further righteousness.
Critique of Religious Legalism
The chapter strongly condemns the doctrine of imputed righteousness as a legal fiction and a product of legalistic thinking, contrasting it with a living, relational righteousness.
Characters to notice
- St. Paul
Paul's writings on righteousness are the central text, emphasizing a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, not from the law.
- Jesus Christ
Christ is the embodiment of righteousness; believers are to be made righteous in him, sharing his own righteousness.
- God the Father
God is the source of true righteousness, which is a real gift, not a legal fiction; the Father's will and character define righteousness.
- Abraham
Abraham is cited as an example of a righteous man whose faith was counted as righteousness, though his righteousness was less developed than Paul's.
- The Jews
The Jews are mentioned as those who did not understand Jesus because they cared for their own idea of God's will rather than the Father's actual will.
Key passages
“Righteousness —that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
Paul seeks a righteousness that comes from faith in Christ, not from obeying the law, a righteousness that is God's own.
This sets up the central contrast between legal righteousness and the righteousness of God.
“He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
God treated Christ as a sinner, though he was sinless, so that we might become truly righteous like God in him.
The author argues this is not about imputation but about real transformation into God's righteousness.
“The righteousness which is of God by faith in God, is God's righteousness.”
The righteousness that comes from faith in God is the very same kind of righteousness that God himself has.
This emphasizes the real, participatory nature of righteousness.
“The man who has this righteousness, thinks about things as God thinks about them, loves the things that God loves, cares for nothing that God does not care about.”
A person with God's righteousness shares God's perspective, loves what God loves, and is indifferent to what God does not value.
This describes the transformative effect of true righteousness on one's entire outlook.
“If a man is to be blamed for not choosing righteousness, for not turning to the light, for not coming out of the darkness, then the man who does choose and turn and come out, is to be justified in his deed, and declared to be righteous.”
Since we are held responsible for rejecting righteousness, choosing it makes us justly called righteous, even if we are not yet perfect.
This explains how faith is counted as righteousness without being a legal fiction.
