Becoming a Righteous Person vs. Becoming God's Righteousness

 

Becoming a Righteous Person vs. Becoming God's Righteousness

Rom 3:24 "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus"

Rom 5:1 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God"

2 Cor 5:21 "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him"

Rom 3:28 "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law"

 

Items	Becoming a Righteous Person	Becoming God's Righteousness
Meaning	Being justified before God, obtaining righteousness in legal position	Not only possessing righteousness but becoming the essence of righteousness, partaking of divine nature
Level	Basic salvation experience	Deeper life experience, peak of salvation
Essential Difference	Counted righteous in position before God	Life nature transformation, becoming the reality of righteousness
Description	Justified by faith, sins forgiven, accepted by God	Organic union with God in Christ, living out God's righteousness
Example	Like the prodigal son accepted by the father	Like Paul living out Christ in Philippians
Application	Basic Christian life after salvation	Manifesting God's righteous nature in daily life
Related Verses A: Foundation	- Gal 2:16 "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ" - Rom 4:5 "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness"	- Phil 3:9 "And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ" - Col 1:21-22 "Yet now He has reconciled through death...to present you holy, and blameless"
Related Verses B: Nature & Process	- Gal 3:11 "But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident" - Rom 5:19 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous"	- 2 Cor 3:18 "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image" - 2 Pet 1:4 "That through these you may be partakers of the divine nature"
Related Verses C: Practice	- James 2:17-18 "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead...Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works" - Rom 6:13 "Present yourselves to God...and your members as instruments of righteousness to God"	- Gal 2:20 "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" - Phil 1:21 "For to me, to live is Christ" - 2 Cor 4:10-11 "Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body"
Related Verses D: Results	- Rom 5:10 "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son" - Col 1:20 "And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself...having made peace through the blood of His cross"	- 2 Cor 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away" - Eph 4:24 "And put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness"

 

Relationship between the two:

1.      Progressive: From becoming righteous to becoming God's righteousness is a process of spiritual growth

2.      Complementary: The former is the foundation, the latter is the goal

3.      Essential: Both are indispensable parts of God's complete salvation plan

Key Integrating Verses:

• Rom 8:29-30 "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined...Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified"
• Titus 3:7 "That having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life"

*Please refer to Life-study of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 14, Deacons of the New Testament (VII)