This concept is taken from Romans, Isaiah 53, and elsewhere in Scripture. It can easily be explained to a child, yet its depths continue to puzzle the professor. A divine exchange occurred. He took our sin; we gained his righteousness. As a result, God’s attitude toward us changed, and now we are forgiven, and the guilt of sin is washed away. God now sees us covered in the righteousness of his Son. With our debt paid, we come freely and boldly into the presence of a holy God.
Much of what is “believed” by Christians today to be Christian – in fact, has no part in Christianity, much less the Bible. Here’s an excerpt from post by Michael Kelley listing a few of these “beliefs” believed to be Christian (when in actuality, they are the furthest thing from it):
Wrong: God helps those who help themselves.
Right: God helps those who know they cannot help themselves.
Wrong: This too shall pass.
Right: This might not pass. But God is faithful to uphold the weak.
Wrong: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Right: Don’t worry so much about outward cleanliness; we’ve got bigger problems, namely the dirt of the heart.
Wrong: Jesus Christ is my personal savior.
Right: Jesus Christ has saved me, but He does not belong to me. I belong to Him. And though I am individually rescued, I’m not the only individual that has been rescued. I have been saved into a family – a community of believers.
“My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God’s word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes–many times–my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens–and it happens every day in some measure–I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.
That’s the way I live my life every day. I hope you are with me in that battle.”
Mark Driscoll, in this clip from this past Sunday’s sermon, addresses the fact that all of us – in one form or another – are religious and seeking to attain our righteousness before God by contrasting the way our “team” does it compared to the way the other “team” does it.
And as such, we all need to:
Come to Jesus – all of us – receiving his death for our sin [and] his righteousness for our unrighteousness.
Let him do a workfor us; let him do a work in us so that, by grace, he might do a workthroughus – that wouldn’t contribute to our righteousness, but would be an out-flowing of his [righteousness] gifted to us.
, pages 165-166
