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The LORD Our Righteousness (Yahweh-Tsidkenu) · Reformed Thinking

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Reformed thinking. Welcome to the deep dive.
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Today we're really getting into something quite significant from
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the scriptures. We've got our notes, articles,
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all aimed at unpacking an idea that's really shaped Christian
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belief for well. Centuries it really has.
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We're focusing on the Lord, our righteousness.
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You might know it by its Hebrew name, Yahweh Sidganu A.
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Powerful. Name exactly.
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And our goal here is to, you know, figure out what it means,
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see how it develops right through the Bible story, why it
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was such a big deal historically in the church, and maybe most
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importantly, how it connects to your life, your assurance
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day-to-day. This isn't just dusty old
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theology, many would say, it's the core of real faith.
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It is. It's foundational.
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And when we talk about righteousness, essentially that
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Hebrew root, the Denegac, it's got a strong legal feel to it,
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forensic, you might say. Like in a courtroom.
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Precisely. Think of a legal verdict that
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perfectly matches God's moral standard.
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Because fundamentally, righteousness is part of who God
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is. It's intrinsic to Him, eternal.
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His nature sets the bar for everything.
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So God is the standard. Yes, and you can see this divine
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righteousness playing out in two ways.
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First, it's legislative. He sets the perfect standard,
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His will. 2nd. It's retributive, meaning he's
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well obligated by his own nature to deal with every single time
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that standard isn't met to punish deviation.
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OK, hang on, if God's standard is absolute perfection and His
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nature means he has to punish anything less, where does that
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leave people? Us.
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That sounds daunting. That's the heart of the problem,
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isn't it? From Adam's fall and Eden
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onwards, humanity, fallen image bearers, we just became
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incapable of producing that kind of righteousness God requires.
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Inherently incapable. Yes, Adam's failure didn't just
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affect him, it left all of us his descendant bereft.
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Is a good word, lacking utterly without the required
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righteousness. And we see.
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This played out in the Bible. Oh absolutely.
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Look at Israel's history from Sinai when the law was given
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right through the kings up to the monarchies collapse.
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It's just one long demonstration of the human hearts will radical
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inability to meet God's standard of perfect obedience.
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They couldn't do it no matter the.
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Laws or the circumstances, No. Just couldn't manage it.
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And that's where this name, Yahweh Sidkunu, becomes so
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significant. Exactly.
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It's like a compressed statement of covenant rescue.
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The amazing thing is this the very standard that Judah, and
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really all of us failed to meet, God Himself promises to provide.
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It wait so the standard setter provides the standard.
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Yes, it means the covenant Lord Yahweh will become the
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righteousness His people lack. The law giver himself provides
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the verdict he demands. That's quite a twist.
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The one who commands it is the one who gives it.
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It is, and that brings us to a really key theological idea,
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forensic justification. OK, forensic, back to the
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courtroom idea. Right.
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Think of it strictly as a courtroom declaration, a legal
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verdict given by God. It's not about an internal
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change, not a process of making someone gradually better inside.
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So it's not about becoming inherently righteous.
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No, not at the point of justification.
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The Greek word often used legends.
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Oh my is telling. It's basically an accounting
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term. It means to credit, to reckon,
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to put on someone's account. Like bookkeeping?
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Exactly like bookkeeping, it's distinct from, say, a moral
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infusion or some kind of spiritual transformation.
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In this divine courtroom, God justifies the ungodly, as Paul
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says, by counting faith as righteousness.
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It's a declaration of right standing based not on the
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person, but on something else being credited to them.
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All right, let's. Trace this idea through the
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Bible. It starts right back in Eden.
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You said it does. With Adam.
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He's set up as the federal head, representing everyone under what
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theologians call the Covenant of Works.
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Basically, life depended on perfect obedience.
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Obey and live. Simple but impossible, as it
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turned out. Right when Adam disobeyed, that
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one act brought guilt, banishment from God's presence,
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a break in that relationship, and it left all his descendants
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us lacking that needed righteousness.
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But you mentioned a glimmer of hope.
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Yes, even then. Genesis 3.15 often called the
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proto evangelium the first hint of the gospel.
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It's his promise of a seed, an offspring who would eventually
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crush the serpent's head. It's the very first whisper of
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God graciously providing a way back, providing righteousness.
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OK, so the promise is there from the beginning.
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How does it develop? Well you see it start to take
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shape in the stories of the patriarchs.
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Think about Abram, later Abraham.
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Genesis 15.6 is key. It says Abram believed the Lord
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and he credited to him as righteousness.
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Credited righteousness. There's that accounting
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language. Again, exactly.
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And it's apart from works. He just believed God's promise.
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And look at the ceremony right after that in Genesis 15, the
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smoking fire pot and flaming torch passing between the animal
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pieces. What did that symbolize?
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It was a covenant ritual. By passing through alone, God
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was essentially saying, I will uphold this covenant if it's
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broken, may the consequences fall on me.
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It showed that God knew humanity couldn't keep its end.
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He would have to secure it himself.
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He'd walk the path of covenant faithfulness, even unto death if
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necessary. Wow.
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OK, then we get to Sinai, the law that seems to raise the
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stakes, right? It absolutely intensifies the
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demand. Leviticus 18.5 puts it starkly.
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The man who does these things shall live by them, perfect
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obedience required for life. But Israel couldn't keep it.
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No time after time failure. The golden calf incident right
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after receiving the law is just a glaring example of that
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radical incapacity. So the law showed the need even
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more clearly. Yes, it exposed the depth of the
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problem and the whole sacrificial system.
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It was like a constant visual aid, innocent bloodshed to cover
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guilt, but only temporarily. It was a system that cried out
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for something more, something final, a once for all perfect
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substitute. And Moses final words in
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Deuteronomy, Blessings and curses.
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Right framing life in the Promised Land is dependent on
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perfect obedience. It set the stage, but Israel's
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history just showed they couldn't meet that condition.
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Consistent failure. Which leads us to the prophets,
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then, when things were looking pretty bleak for Israel and
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Judah. Exactly by Jeremiah's time,
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Judah is facing collapse, exile is looming, all because of these
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covenant failures. And into that darkness, Jeremiah
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brings this incredible Oracle. Jeremiah 23, verses 5 and 6.
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What does it say? He announces a future branch.
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The Hebrew is nor, coming from David's line, a righteous king
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who will rule wisely, executing justice and righteousness in the
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land. And the name.
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And He will be called Yahweh Tsidkanu, the Lord our
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righteousness. It packs the entire hope into
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that name. The covenant Lord Himself will
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be the righteousness His people lack.
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That's the core promise right there.
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It is, and other prophets echo this.
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Isaiah speaks of the suffering servant who will make many to be
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accounted righteous. Ezekiel talks about God giving a
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new heart and spirit. Daniel foresees one who will
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bring in everlasting righteousness.
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It's all pointing forward. To Jesus.
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To Jesus of Nazareth, the New Testament presents him as the
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fulfillment of this entire trajectory.
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He is the Incarnate Son, the promised branch.
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And his life demonstrates. This look at his first public
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act, his baptism by John. Why did he do it?
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He said it was to fulfill all righteousness.
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It wasn't about his own sin. It was about him identifying
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with sinners and embarking on his life of perfect obedience to
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God's law. So his whole life was part of
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this? Yes, and the apostles,
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especially Paul, pick up on this.
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They interpret Christ's life and death, his twofold obedience, as
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the very righteousness promised back in Jeremiah.
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It all comes together in that amazing statement in 2nd
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Corinthians 5.21. The great exchange.
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That's it. He made him who knew no sin to
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be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness
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of God. Our sin put on Him, His
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righteousness put on us. OK, let's breakdown that two
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fold obedience. You said it's one merit, but two
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aspects. Correct.
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They're distinct, but you can't separate them.
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First, there's His active obedience.
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Active, meaning his actions. Yes, his entire life, his
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lifelong conscious, perfect keeping of every single part of
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God's moral law, flawless performance, loving God, loving
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neighbor perfectly without any slip up.
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Ever so, he lived the life we should have lived.
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Exactly. This provides the perfect
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positive record the law demands. Remember, the law doesn't just
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say don't do bad things. It also requires perfect
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positive goodness. It wants more than just debt
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payment. It requires flawless
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performance. Jesus is baptism.
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Fulfilling all righteousness points to this.
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OK, that's the active part. What's the passive obedience?
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Passive obedience refers to his suffering under the law's
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penalties, bearing the consequences for sin.
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This culminates, of course, and his death on the cross.
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So his suffering and death paid the price.
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Yes, he willingly submitted, becoming obedient to the point
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of death. As Philippians 2 says, he drank
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the cup of God's wrath against sin.
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The covenant curses down to the very last drop.
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It is finished. Precisely that cry means the
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demands of justice were fully met.
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His death cancels our guilt because he took the punishment
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we deserve for breaking the law. So putting them together, active
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and passive. Together, this twofold
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obedience, something that's called the double credit,
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satisfies every single claim the law has against us.
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Believers are therefore clothed in the full obedience of Christ,
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His perfect life, and His sin bearing death.
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And you need both. Absolutely.
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If you only had his death paying the penalty passive, you'd still
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lack the positive record of perfect obedience.
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The law requires active Denying the active part really
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undermines the whole covenant logic of the gospel.
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To be declared righteous, a Sinner needs two things, their
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debt cancelled and a perfect record supplied.
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Christ provides both. That clarifies things a lot.
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So Christ achieved this perfect righteousness.
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How does it actually become ours?
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You mentioned imputation. Right imputation.
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It's that legal act by God. Again, a forensic crediting.
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God credits Christ's perfect righteousness, His active and
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passive obedience to the believer's account.
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So it's declared not infused. Still, that courtroom idea.
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Exactly. Strictly A courtroom
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declaration, not an internal change within us at that moment.
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That word legisomaya again, bookkeeping, crediting.
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It's not. What about moral infusion?
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And crucially, this righteousness is extra.
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Note it comes from outside the believer.
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Meaning the basis for our right standing isn't in us at all.
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Not at all. It's entirely alien to the
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recipient. It's the obedience of another
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Jesus Christ. Which brings us back to the
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great exchange in 2nd Corinthians 5.21.
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Yes, our guilt imputed to Christ on the cross is perfect
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righteousness imputed to us the moment we believe God treated
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him as if He committed our sins so He could treat us as if we
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lived Christ's perfect life. How does God do that?
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Is it arbitrary? No, it's based on that principle
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federal headship we talked about earlier.
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It works within a covenant framework.
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Like Adam being the head of humanity.
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Exactly. Adam was the first federal head.
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He represented humanity in the covenant of works.
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His disobedience resulted in guilt and corruption being
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imputed or credited to all he represented.
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That's why, as Romans 5 explains, sin and death spread
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to all people. It explains our universal fallen
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condition. So Adam represented us in
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failure. Yes, but then comes Christ, the
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second Adam, the last Adam, as Paul calls him at First
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Corinthians 15. He's the head of a new humanity,
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representing those who are united to him by faith in the
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covenant of grace. So Christ acts as our
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representative too. Precisely.
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His substitution isn't just random, it's a covenantal act.
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As a representative head, he obeys perfectly where Adam
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failed. He bears the curse Adam brought
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upon us, and he secures the blessing, the life that Adam
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forfeited. He succeeds where Adam failed
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for us. And how do we get connected to
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this second Adam and receive his righteousness?
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By faith alone. Solified faith isn't a work we
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do to earn it. It's the instrument itself, a
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gift of the Spirit, that simply receives this righteousness
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which is totally external to us. It grasps hold of Christ.
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And this happens through union with Christ.
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Yes, union with Christ is key. We're joined to Him.
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This union is often signified outwardly by baptism, and it's
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sealed inwardly by the Holy Spirit.
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Through this vital union, the believer is personally linked to
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Christ as their covenant head, and His righteousness becomes
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theirs. And the result of all this?
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The result is an irreversible verdict of justification, A
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settled status before God. It cannot be increased by our
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good works, nor can it be cancelled by a remaining sin.
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It's secure. OK, let's talk practical
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implications assurance. How does knowing the Lord is our
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righteousness affect our confidence and salvation?
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It provides an incredibly solid foundation for assurance because
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justification is God's final once for all courtroom verdict
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based entirely on Christ. It's an irreversible status.
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Not dependent on how well we're doing.
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Not at all. It can't be improved by our good
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deeds or undone by our struggles with sin.
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This settled verdict, as Romans 5.1 says, leads directly to
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peace with God because the ground is extra nose outside of
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us. Our acceptance isn't based on
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our fluctuating performance or feelings.
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It rests completely on Christ's perfect record.
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So it gets rid of that nagging feeling of have I done enough?
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Completely. There's no room left for that
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kind of doubt. The work required has been
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perfectly completed by Christ. And This is why distinguishing
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justification from sanctification is so important.
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Critically important justification is the legal
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declaration of righteousness based on Christ.
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Sanctification is the ongoing process of being made holy
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internally, changed by the Spirit.
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If you blur them, you inevitably make your internal state the
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basis for your acceptance. Which would lead to constant
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uncertainty constant. Doubt Am I good enough today?
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Have I slipped too much? But keeping them distinct means
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our failures and sanctification, while serious and needing
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repentance, don't jeopardize our justified status.
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The verdict is already in. It's settled.
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So understanding this actually frees us to be honest about our
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sin, Yes. It disarms those doubts rooted
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in performance and allows believers to confess sin freely,
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knowing their fundamental acceptance isn't on the line.
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It's secure in Christ. And how does this fuel
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sanctification, our growth and holiness?
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If our status is secure, why bother?
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But because justification is entirely by grace received, not
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achieved, it demolishes pride. And what replaces pride?
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Gratitude. Deep, profound gratitude.
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And that gratitude becomes the engine driving sanctification,
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the spirits work of renewing our hearts and lives.
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So it's not do this to be accepted, but you are accepted,
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therefore live like this. Exactly.
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Castrally, you move from the indicatives, the statements of
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fact about who we are in Christ, to the imperatives, the commands
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about how we should live. We're urged to live righteously
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because we've already been declared righteous in Christ,
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not in order to become righteous.
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That changes the motivation entirely.
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It transforms obedience from a heavy burden, a duty done out of
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fear or obligation, into a joyful response.
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The law is no longer a terrifying standard.
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We fail, but a guide, a lamp showing us how to live out our
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thankfulness, empowered by the joy of knowing our verdict is
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secure and cannot be lost. Let's think bigger picture.
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How does this truth about Yahweh, said Canoe, influence
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corporate worship? The Sunday service, for
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instance. It shapes it significantly.
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A liturgy informed by this truth often moves through certain
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elements. It might start with a call to
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worship, highlighting God's holiness.
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Then, importantly, a corporate prayer of confession, honestly
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acknowledging our shared human unrighteousness.
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Facing reality. Yes, but then immediately
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following that, an assurance of pardon explicitly centered on
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Christ's finished work, His obedience.
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It reassures people that forgiveness is real and
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available based on Him. And the sacraments.
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The Lord's Supper becomes a powerful visual display of
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Christ's once for all sacrifice, sealing the promise of His
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righteousness given to us. Baptism acts like a visible
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word, marking our union with Christ the righteous branch.
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So this rhythm in worship prevents just going through the
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motions. It helps guard against mere
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formalism, yes, and also against moralism.
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Sermons just being try harder pep talks.
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Instead, worship becomes this dynamic exchange of grace.
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It reassures the struggling, humbles the self reliant and
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lifts up the weary, constantly pointing back to the gift of
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God's righteousness in Christ. What about mission and engaging
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with issues of justice in the world?
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How does this doctrine inform that?
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Because believers know they are declared righteous entirely
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apart from their works, their good works are set free.
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They're no longer performed with some hidden motive of trying to
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earn God's favor or justify themselves.
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So they do good works, pursue justice and mercy.
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Why? To display the righteousness
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they already possess in Christ. It's an outflow of gratitude,
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reflecting the character of the God who declared them righteous.
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As Micah 6.8 says to act justly, love mercy, walk humbly.
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Does this prevent extremes and social engagement?
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It should. It guards against a kind of
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triumphalism, where we think we can build God's Kingdom or
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establish perfect righteousness through our own efforts.
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But it also guards against withdrawal, neglecting public
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responsibility because we're only focused on personal piety.
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The Church engages as the fruit of faith, always distinguishing
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its actions from the root of justification, which is Christ
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alone and. For pastors in counseling and
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preaching. It gives ministry a profoundly
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Christ centered or cruciform shape.
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It speaks directly to people's real spiritual needs.
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Can you give examples? Sure, to the person crushed by
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guilt or despair, you can say your acceptance with God rests
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just as firmly on Christ's finished work today as it did
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the moment you first believed. Nothing has changed that to
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someone battling A persistent sin and addiction.
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Perhaps your struggle is intense and real, but it cannot overturn
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the final verdict God declared over you and His Son.
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And to the person who thinks they're basically OK, the
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self-righteous. To them the message is the
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standard is perfection, and it has been met, but entirely
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outside of you by Christ. Stop trusting your own efforts.
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Lay down those filthy rags Isaiah talks about and receive
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his perfect righteousness. So ultimately, all roads lead
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back to Christ as our righteousness.
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Every sermon, every counseling session should ultimately bend
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towards Him, the branch who lived justly, died for
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injustice, and now freely gives His righteousness to His people.
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This doctrine clearly wasn't just invented recently.
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Can we trace its development through history?
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Oh yes, it's a fascinating story.
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You can see this understanding unfolding and being clarified
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over centuries. Let's start with the early
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church, the Patristic era. OK, fathers like Irenaeus in the
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2nd century talked about recapitulation.
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He saw Christ is summing up Adam's history, but succeeding
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where Adam failed, replacing disobedience with perfect
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obedience. Later, Athanasius, famous for
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defending Christ's deity, argue that because the Incarnate Word
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was truly God, his sacrifice had infinite value to bear our
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penalty. Then Augustine, a giant figure,
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made important distinctions. While he emphasized infused
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grace, he also spoke about a legally decisive verdict from
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God and stressed that all God's commands are fulfilled by His
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gifts, keeping alive that core idea of righteousness being
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given. What about the medieval period?
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Things got a bit blurry then, didn't they?
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They did in places, and some in the 11th century, wrote Curtios
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Homo, Why God became man. He argued powerfully for
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satisfaction that only a God man could offer the obedience of
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beer, the penalty needed to satisfy God's justice.
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He introduced the idea of vicarious performance.
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Later figures like Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas, while
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brilliant, tended to focus more on grace being infused through
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the sacraments administered by the Church.
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This started to blur that sharp line between justification as a
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declaration and sanctification as a process.
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It tied acceptance more closely to internal change and
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participation in the Sacramento system.
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Then you had thinkers like William of Occam's suggesting
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God might just accept imperfect righteousness if someone did
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their best, moving further from the idea of a perfect alien
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righteousness being required. Which sets the stage for the
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Reformation. Absolutely.
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Martin Luther's personal struggle led him to rediscover
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Paul's teaching. He realized the righteousness of
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God wasn't primarily a demand from God, but a gift of God.
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Christ's righteousness credited to believers through faith alone
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received extra Nos outside of us.
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His summary Eustis epicat or righteous and Sinner at the same
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time captured. This and others built on that.
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Yes, Philip Melancton clearly articulated the distinction
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between justification, the legal declaration, and sanctification,
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the internal renewal in the Augsburg Confession.
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John Calvin developed it further, stressing our union
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with Christ, which brings a duplex Gracia, or twofold grace,
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imputed righteousness for justification and imparted
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holiness for sanctification. For Calvin, the legal verdict
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was the absolute foundation for assurance.
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And the Westminster Confession. The Westminster Assembly in the
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17th century codified this with remarkable precision.
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They affirmed God justifies believers freely by imputing the
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obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, stating
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clearly that both His active and passive obedience constitute the
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one righteousness credited to us.
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What about more recent history? In the 19th century, the
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Princeton theologians Hodge, Warfield, Voles and others
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mounted a strong defense of the Westminster View.
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They argued imputation wasn't just good theology, but demanded
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by the biblical text. Like Paul's use of legisimi,
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they embedded it deeply within covenant theology and the
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history of redemption. But the debates haven't stopped,
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right? Even today.
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Far from it. The Roman Catholic Church, from
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Trent through Vatican 2, continues to define
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justification primarily as an internal transformation via
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sacraments, rejecting justification by imputation
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alone. Then in the latter 20th century,
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you had the rise of the New Perspective on Paul.
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What's that about? Scholars like Sanders, Dunn and
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NT Wright revisited Paul's context.
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While interpretations vary, they often recast justification less
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as a purely legal declaration about individual merit and more
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about God declaring someone to be part of his covenant people
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marked by faith and belonging. And the federal vision.
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That's a movement within some Reformed circles that has caused
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controversy by critics argue, blurring the lines between faith
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and faithfulness, seeming to make final justification
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conditional on ongoing loyalty and obedience within the
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covenant. But the traditional Reformed
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view continues to be defended. Oh yes.
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Figures like Ji Packer, RC Sprole, John Piper, and many
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others have consistently reasserted the classic
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formulation. Christ's righteousness is alien,
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sufficient, and irrevocably imputed through faith alone the
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moment 1 believes. Given these ongoing debates,
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setting clear boundaries seems important.
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Extremely One key boundary is what's called canonical
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sufficiency, the belief that the completed Bible is our only
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ultimate source and standard for saving truth.
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How does that protect this doctrine?
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It guards against later claims of new revelations that might
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try to redefine righteousness or how we receive it.
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Think of Mormonism's Another Testament or the Jehovah's
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Witnesses claims. It keeps the focus on the
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finished work of Christ as revealed in the finished Word of
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God. It means our assurance rests on
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God's historical act in Christ recorded in Scripture, not on
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chasing new benchmarks. And the boundary against infused
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righteousness like in Roman Catholicism.
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That's crucial, too. As we've said, merging the legal
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verdict with internal change makes assurance impossible
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because it grounds acceptance in our fluctuating inner state.
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The Bible's language is relentlessly forensic,
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crediting, reckoning. The righteousness that justifies
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must be alien outside us, complete, needs no addition, and
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immediately imputed, not gradually earned.
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Anything else risks making it about our righteousness, not
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God's gift in Christ. Homo City Kenu Man has his own
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righteousness, which is no righteousness at all.
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And finally, against views like the New Perspective or Federal
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Vision that might seem to mix faith and works for
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justification. The key distinction remains
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Paul's driving concern, especially in Romans and
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Galatians, is how sinful humans can be declared righteous before
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a holy God. The answer is consistently the
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crediting of Christ's perfect obedience through faith alone.
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Receive the moment one believes good works are vital,
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indispensable even, but always is the fruit and evidence of
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justification never ever has the root or basis for it.
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So bringing this all together, that name Yahweh said Canoe.
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The Lord is our righteousness. It really does.
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Some of the whole sweep of redemption doesn't.
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It in Jesus Christ, God Himself obeyed the law He gave us, took
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the cuts we deserved, and now, simply through faith, He dresses
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guilty people in His own perfect record.
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It's incredible. And this truth, it underpins our
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assurance. It motivates our holiness.
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It shapes how we worship together.
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It sends us out on mission, all while satisfying God's perfect
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justice and showcasing His Amazing Grace.
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So here's something to reflect on.
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How does knowing that you're right, standing before God,
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comes totally from outside yourself, solely from Jesus
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Christ, change things? How does it free you up to
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really love God and love others? Not because you have to, not to
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earn points, but just out of sheer overflowing gratitude for
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a gift like that. Reformed thinking.