That I may… be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own… but that which comes through faith in Christ.
Philippians 3:8-9
The issue on the last day will not be how righteous Christ has made you but how righteous Christ is for you.
Some think the important thing is how righteous we have become. If you put sugar into a cup of tea, it makes the tea sweet. In the same way, they say, Christ imparts His “sweetness” (or righteousness) to us.
In a sense, this is true—the likeness of Christ is formed in the life of the believer. But if your entrance into heaven rested on the degree to which you had become like Jesus Christ, you would be on shaky ground.
This is what Paul was getting at when he said that we “glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3). He wanted to “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ” (3:9).
If your righteousness is in Christ, there are two things you can be sure of.
You can’t foul it up.
If your righteousness was in you, you could foul it up at any time. But nothing you do can make Jesus less righteous. And if your righteousness is found in Him, it is absolutely secure.
You can’t boast about it.
Paul states that none of us has anything to boast about, and that if we boast, we should boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:29, 31).
Charles Spurgeon said that our justification is entirely of God’s grace: “We don’t lend one little finger to this work of God. And that’s just as well because we would give all the glory to the little finger.” Christ is your righteousness.
In what ways might you be trying to “sweeten the tea” of your own righteousness?
