S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uttered these words: "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). This comes at the end of the section of the sermon where J...

Login or Sign Up to view the rest of this answer.

July 01 2013 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Andy Mangus I am a Christian since October 1979 & devoted truth seeker.

"For IN Him and Him alone is our righteousness and eternal Salvation for only Jesus Christ is our Savior (our substitute on that cross at Calvary) that cleanses us of all our sins." This is the event and purpose of His righteousness being "imputed to us,(by His Holy Spirit coming into our hearts to reside IN us) for it is IN His righteousness IN which we receive His forgiveness of "all of our unrighteousness" and receive His eternal Salvation." **Notice the emphasis of being IN Him!** This is the exact moment in time a person becomes a child of God! Point being is this: Jesus Christ is our righteousness, our redeemer, our God. "Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life". --Andy--

June 04 2016 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Ramon Carroll

Seeing as "sin" and "righteousness" are both moral deeds, they cannot be imputed from one person to another. What the scriptures teach is that because of our faith in him, our FAITH is imputed as righteousness. No scripture says that someone else righteousness or sin is imputed to another person. Though they may benefit or suffer from either.

February 21 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeremiah Kaaya Pastor at Springs of Power Church, Teacher by professional

Righteousness is exclusively of God. Nobody by themselves can be counted righteous. Righteousness is only accessible through Christ (Rom 10:10). Righteousness is only God given. It is not worked for, but once given, it has to be maintained.

In 2Cor 5:21, scripture states that God's righteousness has to be imputed on us. What lessons can we draw out of this?

1) No human being can be righteous by themselves.
2) The righteousness of Jesus is not self styled, not self perceived. The righteousness of Jesus is of Himself.

No human can be righteous by themselves.

For when man sinned and it is counted on all humans by way of being the children of the first man Adam (Gen 3:6), he lost his right of righteousness. From that time on, man only struggles to be righteous, it is no longer as it was before man sinned. All that is called human blood was infested with sin (1Joh 1:8-10), (Rom 3:23). 

After the fall of man, God improvised a way to cover upon the sin of man, for God is all holy and all righteous. The blood of innocent sanctioned animals was to be used for this purpose. However, the blood of animals could never measure to the glory of man, it couldn't therefore wipe away the sin. Additionally, it was to be done routinely at Jerusalem, by sanctioned priests. 

There were no testimonies of total deliverance by this method, despite all the efforts of atonement. Man would carry on with sin only to be covered upon. David repented of his sin of adultery and murder and was forgiven, yet there is no evidence of him having been delivered from it. That said, there is a man in the Bible called Enoch, a man who walked uprightly and it is on that account that he never tested death (Gen 5:22-24). Yet despite being that upright with God, Enoch could only save himself. There was no enough potential in Enoch as to save the human race. This called for a total and holistic solution.

This is how Jesus is drafted in. Jesus is the Son of God and is God Himself. The blood of Jesus is the blood of God. The blood of Jesus is ever flowing to heal and deliver and cleanse. Jesus paid the price with His blood which has no trace of sin in it at all. For the devil had taken away our right of righteousness, the cost of which nobody else could pay except Jesus, God's own Son. Jesus' glory is over and above that of man and therefore better positioned to cleanse man of all his sin. The blood of Jesus has all the power to set free. Everyday comes with new testimonies of delivered persons by the power of Jesus from all sorts of possessions. In Jesus, sin is forgiven and equally cleansed away with no more trace. By virtue of not being the son of sinful man, and being the Son of God, Jesus is righteous. His righteousness therefore has to be imputed on us. There is no other way we can be counted righteous minus Jesus. Only Jesus is acceptable of God for the purification of the human race, because only Him paid the price and the only man to have ever lived in human flesh without sin. 

The righteousness of Jesus is not self styled, not self perceived. The righteousness of Jesus is of Himself.

As humans, we have a tendency to perceive ourselves as righteous. For when we preach the gospel, many people will tell you they have not stolen, they have not killed etc, so what is the reason for them to be saved? As humans, we never know that the action of theft, or adultery etc, is not what is counted as sin, it is the thought that is counted as sin. Before men, you have not sinned, before God, you have already sinned (Matt 5:27-28). The issue is not the action, the issue is what is in the heart. The acceptable version of righteousness before God is not to have been seen sinning or not, it is only by accepting Christ whose righteousness is not self styled and not self perceived. Thus to say, the righteousness of Jesus is of Himself. No human therefore should ask what wrong they have done when they are asked to repent (Lu 13:1-5).

September 09 2014 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Why does Christ's righteousness need to be imputed to us?

It was because of the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, in the first place.

The universality of sin and death is not brought into connection with the Fall of Adam by the other Old Testament writers. This is done, however, by Paul. In 1 Cor 15:21 f, Paul says that the death of all men has its cause in the man Adam in the same way in which the resurrection from the dead has its cause in the man Christ. The death of all men, accordingly, is not brought about by their personal sins, but has come upon all through the disobedience of Adam. Upon what ground this takes place, Paul states in the passage Rom 5:12-21.

This is Caspar Wistar Hodge's viewpoint, but I would not say that our personal sins had nothing to do with it; I believe they have. Paul says in Romans 5:12, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—"

June 12 2022 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report