In his poem, When This Passing World is Done, Robert Murray M’Cheyne penned a beautiful stanza that magnified the glory of being counted as righteous in Jesus Christ. In it, M’Cheyne writes:

“When I stand before the throne

Dressed in beauty not my own,

When I see Thee as Thou art,

Love Thee with unsinning heart;

Then, Lord, shall I fully know,

Not till then, how much I owe.”

Dear Christian, do you know that the moment you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ you were counted righteous in Him? At the heart of the gospel is the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, is the only means by which sinful men can be reconciled to a Holy God. Without this doctrine, we have no Christianity.

The aim of this article is to briefly show you that a sinner is only justified when God the Father, based upon the work of Jesus Christ in their place, declares them to be righteous upon the exercise of the gift of faith.[i] The grounds of our justification before God are solely in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and His righteousness is only accredited to us by faith alone.[ii] To set this before you, we will briefly consider both the Old Testament and New Testament.

The Old Testament’s Witness

First, to begin we must understand that a key text for understanding justification by faith alone is found in Genesis 15. When the Apostles in the New Testament set before us the glorious doctrine of being counted righteous in Christ by faith alone, they did so by expounding God’s gracious dealings with Abraham.

In Genesis 15:5, God brought Abraham outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” The response of Abraham was as such, “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). This passage forms the foundation of our understanding of justification by faith in the New Testament. In this text, we see the words “believed”, “counted”, and “righteousness”.

For starters, we must first understand what it means for Abraham to believe God. The text says, “he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). It is important to recognize that Genesis 15 concludes the first section of the Abrahamic narrative. It does so by providing the dual themes of dynasty (Genesis 15:2-4) and dominion (Genesis 15:7-8), which was set before us in both Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 12:1ff.[iii] Therefore, in verses 2-6, God addresses the dynasty issue regarding the promised seed, which echoes the promise of the Saviour in Genesis 3:15. In the text, God turns Abraham’s focus toward the heavens and shows him that the innumerable stars represent his countless children (Genesis 15:4-6).[iv]

As a result, Abraham believed the promise of God concerning the promised Christ, who will reverse the curse of sin and death. He believed that the promised offspring would come through his line and that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. Palmer Robertson writes, “Abraham declared his ‘Amen’ to the promise of God, and God reckoned his faith in the stead of righteousness.”[v] It was because of Abraham’s faith in the promises of God that God “counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).

To see the significance of this, we must recognize the surrounding context of Genesis 15. Abraham was counted righteous in the promised Christ by faith alone, and this occurred prior to both the rite of circumcision (Genesis 17) and the Mosaic Law. This shows us that obedience to the law can never give you the righteousness needed to stand before a Holy God. Isaac Watts puts it this way:

“The best obedience of my hands

Dares not appear before Thy throne;

But faith can answer Thy demands

By pleading what my Lord has done.”

The text (Genesis 15:6) goes on to say that God “counted it to him as righteousness.” Palmer Robertson argues that this means that it is “a righteousness that does not inherently belong to him.”[vi] In other words, this righteousness is outside of Abraham. Several different Old Testament passages indicate that a person can be “reckoned” or “regarded” as something that he himself is not (Genesis 31:15; Numbers 18:27, 30; Leviticus 7:18).[vii] Therefore, in Genesis 15:6, Abraham is counted as righteous, though he himself is unrighteous.

A proper understanding of Genesis 15 smashes the false argumentation that Abraham played any part in achieving this righteousness of God. It was not a consequence of his life of obedience. It was not Abraham’s faith in the promised Christ, plus his faithfulness to Christ. After years of loyal service, it is only Abraham’s faith in the promised Crist that counted him righteous before God, not his obedience. Though a guilty sinner, Abraham was declared righteous in God’s sight by faith alone in Christ alone. This becomes more evident in the Apostolic witness to Genesis 15.

The New Testament’s Witness

In this final section, we will now look at Paul’s usage of Genesis 15:6. The goal of this section is to gain a better understanding of the God who counts sinners as righteous in Christ.  

The Letter to the Romans

First, I want to begin in the book of Romans. In Romans 4:1-8, Paul provides believers with an extended interpretation of Genesis 15:6. In this text, Paul addresses the implications of boasting: “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God” (Romans 4:2). If Abraham was justified by works, then he would have something to boast about before man. But since he was not justified by works, he has no reason to boast. His boastings must be solely in the cross of Jesus Christ. The conclusion drawn from Romans 4 is that Jews and Gentiles can only be justified by faith alone, in Christ alone: “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5).

The Letter to the Galatians

Additionally, in Galatians 3 the Apostle Paul uses Genesis 15:6 to show that the Gentiles are now also recipients of God’s blessing by faith alone, in Christ alone. Paul writes, ^“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed”” (Galatians 3:8, ESV).

First, Paul argues that the justification of the Gentiles is the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through his seed.[viii] Paul argues that the divine promise made to Abraham finds its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus Christ.[ix] Paul writes, “in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14). Therefore, Paul affirms that “it is only through faith in Jesus Christ, the ‘seed’ of Abraham, that Jews and Gentiles may now receive the blessing given to Abraham and become God’s children.”[x]

Therefore, the New Testament makes it clear that no one can be righteous before God on their own account or merit. Paul writes in Romans 3:10, “None is righteous, no, not one.” Again, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Bible is crystal clear that we are only “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:24-25). The law could never make anyone righteous. Rather, the law should show us our inadequacies and drive us to the Lord Jesus Christ.  This needed righteousness comes only through believing, not by working.[xi] Any sense of boasting is eliminated. God receives all the glory for salvation.

Concluding Implications

As we conclude, we must ask why should we glory in the fact that we are counted righteous in Christ? What are the implications for those who have looked to Jesus Christ by faith alone to save them from their sins and the wrath to come?  Wayne Grudem wonderfully defines justification as the following: “justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight.”[xii] Thus, justification is God’s declaration that we, though guilty sinners deserving judgment, are righteous in His sight. Put another way, justification deals with our legal proceedings before God. God declares us to be just in His sight (i.e., forgiving past, present, and future sins). However, this moral neutrality of sins forgiven is not enough. There must be a “positive righteousness before God, the righteousness of a life of perfect obedience to him.”[xiii] God can only declare a sinner to be just because He imputes Christ’s righteousness to us. What an astonishing thought! The Lord Jesus’ righteousness is “imputed to the believer, and the believer’s sins are imputed to Christ, who bears them in His body on the tree.”[xiv]

          Oh, beloved Christian, with this in mind, may you daily sing that wonderful hymn, “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”:

“My hope is built on nothing less

than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

but wholly lean on Jesus’ name…

When he shall come with trumpet sound,

O may I then in him be found:

dressed in his righteousness alone,

faultless to stand before the throne.”

References:

[i] James R., White. The God Who Justifies: the doctrine of justification. (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2001), 74.

[ii] Ibid, 94.

[iii] Stephen G., Dempster. Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 79.

[iv] Stephen G., Dempster. Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible, 79

[v] Robertson, O. Palmer. “Genesis 15:6: New Testament Expositions of an Old Testament Text,” 264.

[vi] Ibid, 265.

[vii] Ibid,265.

[viii] T. D., Alexander “Abraham Re-assessed Theologically: The Abraham Narrative and the New Testament Understanding of Justification by Faith,” Beginning with Moses (2015).

[ix] Ibid.

[x] Ibid.

[xi] Thomas R., Schreiner. Romans: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. 1998. Reprint. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 220.

[xii] Ibid, 723.

[xiii] Wayne, Grudem. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 725.

[xiv] Ibid, 73.