Text: The Book of Romans

Title: Gospel Righteousness

Introduction
“Gospel righteousness” is a phrase I thought of when studying the outline of
the book of Romans. In this phrase, I package up two ideas:
1. The righteous standing that comes to a person who believes in Christ. This
comes from God. It comes through a legal act in which God constitutes a
person righteous with that alien righteousness of Christ. He then
declares the person as such and treats them as such.
2. The righteous behavior that every believer is called to do in his or her life
after #1 happens and they come into a right standing with God.
These two ideas are not to be confused. The first kind comes to a person at
the moment of justification and is what brings that person into a right
relationship with God. It comes from God. The second comes to a person
over time throughout their Christian life.
These two ideas are not to be mixed. You do not get saved by righteousness
that you do (#2) or any mixture of #2 with #1.
But also, these two ideas must not be divided so that either one disappears.
They are both integral parts of the Christian life. #1 starts the Christian
life and is true throughout; #2 is growing and improving throughout. The
God who does #1 works in you and accomplishes #2 using you as well. If
either one is truly missing from someone’s life, then both are missing and
God is not in the life!
The idea of “shall live by faith” points me to #1 because you do not live by
your own righteous acts. You live by the righteous act of Christ
accounted to you by God through faith.
They sit next to each other side by side and are connected, but are not
mixed together. Picture like two bars of metal setting side by side
touching; not like one amalgam or alloy of the two mixed together.
If we do not mix or confuse the two ideas, but remember that true teaching
of the gospel of Jesus Christ must include both ideas, then we are on our
way to understanding Romans. Gospel righteousness as a packaging
word covers a lot of territory in the book—from the theme of the book
introduced in 1:1-17; the lack of gospel righteousness and the need for it
in the opening chapters of the book (#1 and #2); the provision and
reception of it (the #1 part) in 3:21-5:21; the impartation aspect in
All Scripture is from the NKJV unless otherwise noted. 1
 chapters 6-8; how it comes to Israel in 9-11; and more on sanctification
in chapters 12-15.
Conclusion

MAP