Are You Righteous? - by Jacob Crouch

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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For some reason the author thinks that our sinful polluted state persists after salvation. He thinks that the Christian gets a mask of sorts to wear, and God pretends we are righteousness because we still stay stained and polluted by sin. This sort of attitude is a mystery, because the Bible tells us we died and were raised with Christ. When Christ saves us we are made new and the old has passed away (2Co. 5:17). We were washed (1Co. 6:11). We've been cleansed by the blood (He. 9:22).

This is our status now. Thus the author's mini-quiz is based on a false premise. So the correct answer is, yes, I'm righteous. 

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Let’s do a choose your own adventure style post today. Just answer this simple question…

“Are you righteous?”

If you say, “Yes,” go to the first paragraph.
If you say, “No,” go to the second.

Yes, I’m righteous.

Oooooh. Sorry. God’s word makes it pretty clear, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10). (Did the author stop reading? Only a few verses later Paul wrote about a new revelation: 

Ro. 3:21-22 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

This means that righteousness is now available, through faith in Jesus.)

Solomon says, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Ecc 7:20). The reason this is true is because the standard for righteousness is too high. “And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us” (Deut 6:25). (Christ fulfilled the law. That's why our faith is in Him.)

If you claim to be righteous, then you are claiming to have done all of God’s commandments, in the eyes of the LORD, exactly how He commanded. (No, we're claiming righteousness by faith.)

That means internal and external obedience… always. Even if you think you’ve been a pretty good person, “a person is not justified by works of the law… by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal 2:16). To make matters worse, all your righteous deeds are like a polluted garment before God (Isa 64:6). So, please move to the second paragraph because…

No, I’m not righteous.

You have seen in yourself something true: You are not righteous. But there is a problem. Jesus explains that in the end, the nations will be gathered before Him in judgement, and He will separate them from one another. He will put some on His left and some on His right. To those on His left, He will say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41). To those on His right, He will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt 25:34). Do you know what those on His right are called? “The righteous” (Matt 25:37). “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt 25:46). It is only the righteous that inherit eternal life. (Oh? The author contradicts himself. Having made a big deal out of the fact that none are righteous, now he admits that there are some who are righteous. Hmm.)

The Dilemma

So if it is only the righteous that inherit eternal life, and none are righteous, then does no one go to heaven? That is quite the dilemma. (No, it's not. It's an issue for the unsaved only. The gospel eliminates the dilemma.)

I hope that if you are wondering how this will end, you are asking the question, “How then can man be in the right before God?” (Job 25:4). It’s a good question with a great answer.

The Remedy

While we are unrighteous in ourselves, and by our good works we cannot be made right with God, God did an amazing thing. Since we had no righteousness of our own that was of any value, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ the righteous, to bear our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). He lived a perfect life, died the death that we deserved, and rose from the dead, that all those who believe would become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21). (Let's quote: 

2Co. 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The author twists this just enough to conform to his doctrine. However, the verse does not say we receive Christ's righteousness. We literally become the righteousness of God. )

By faith, and faith alone, we are given Christ’s very own righteousness. (This is the central, and still undocumented claim. Undocumented because the Bible doesn't contain this teaching. Rather, we are actually, literally made righteous by faith [Ro. 1:17, Ro. 4:13, Ro. 9:30].)

We no longer try to earn our righteousness, but receive God’s righteousness accredited to our account (Phil 3:9, Rom 4:6). (The author repeats his claim, and offers two verses. Let's quote them: 

Ph. 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Hmm. Righteousness comes from God by faith, not from the law. It's not Christ's righteous, it's ours by faith, and the source is God. 

Ro. 4:6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works...

The author does a little better, in that he finds the word "credits." Of course, this verse also does not tell us that God "credits" Jesus' righteousness to us. In fact, it solves the author's supposed dilemma. God credits righteousness apart from works is what the verse says. 

For the author, the dilemma is that no one is righteous, but the saved are identified as righteous. He doesn't seem to understand the new birth and thus cannot understand that the old filthy rags are gone and we are given righteousness. We actually are righteous.

The Greek word for "credits" is logízomai (the root of the English terms "logic, logical") – properly, compute, "take into account"; reckon (come to a "bottom-line"), i.e. reason to a logical conclusion (decision).

So God concludes or takes into account this thing, righteousness, and it is added to us. We really have received righteousness. God does not pretend we are righteous. Jesus doesn't stand in between us waving his arms and saying, "look at me, look at me, don't look at them." Our status has changed because something has been added to us. 

This is the crux of the issue: Fundamentally, something has changed. We are not filthy sinners any more, we are saved, born again, washed clean, and dressed in robes of white, because of the blood of Jesus. The blood is sufficient, we don't need the the Father pretending He sees Jesus when He looks at us. That's total nonsense.)

 “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4).

Are you righteous? In ourselves, the answer is a resounding, “NO!” But in Christ Jesus, by faith in Him, the answer is, “YES!” (Waaait. What happened to the author's previous assertions that we are given Christ's righteousness? Now he tells us we are righteous, and it's by faith. 

The author is clearly confused.)

Righteousness by faith is such an elementary doctrine, but it turned my world upside down. It was all I could talk about for years. It gripped me and the folks around me in such a way that we just marveled at it. I hope that you know it. I hope you are resting in it. I hope you find comfort in knowing that your righteous standing before God is secure, not because you have done enough, but because Christ has done it all. Be encouraged today that all those in Christ Jesus are counted righteous apart from their works.