The Righteousness of God. Romans 3:21 After the bad news, now the good news is given. A shift is made from the past to the present, “but now.” Against the black background of sin exposed in all its awfulness by the law, a new and joyful message is given. Apart from any law, any law-keeping, any works of man at all; the righteousness of God is brought to light. The law had testified to this in the sacrifices that were offered. The prophets spoke of it in direct statements given to people who were adding their own twists and turns to what God had said. But now, at the cross and at the empty tomb, the righteousness of God is revealed. God chose to reveal Himself in marvelous, matchless grace. The great motive behind this act of reconciliation was that God wanted to reveal His righteousness, because God is Love.
God's righteousness is absolute in its nature and in its revelation. Absolute righteousness demands absolute perfection. God "did not spare His own Son" when He was delivered up for us all. The wages of sin were placed on the Lord Jesus Christ and were publicly dealt with. He was the absolute moral perfection of manhood. The righteousness that God demanded was vindicated right out in public. "He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
God acted in righteousness when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him as a man in heaven at the place of honor and glory. He now gives those who believe in Christ the same acceptance that Christ has. That would have been unrighteous if God had not raised Him from the dead. Now those who have trusted Christ alone for salvation have Christ, risen and glorified, as our righteousness. We are not made righteous "before" God because that would mean we have a personal standing rather than a legal standing. We are united to Christ, so we are made the righteousness of God "in Him." In Him we died, in Him we are raised, and in Him we stand in the place of the justified.
In Christ we are justified from "all things." The ungodly person who has ceased from trying to make himself righteous and believes on Him, is reckoned righteous because of the substitution of Christ on the cross for him. He is the righteousness of God because Christ is the righteousness of God, and the believer is accepted in Christ - in the Beloved! What Christ is, so are we.
God acting in His own holiness, did not compromise anything when He placed us in Christ. The believing sinner, because the righteous judgment of his sin was already dealt with when God laid his sins on Christ at the cross, is righteous in God's eyes. We do not need any "standing" because Christ is our standing. We have no other place but in Him. No longer are we sons of Adam in this world, but sons of God in Christ. God was glorified in Christ and is glorified by those who are in Christ. This is because we "are seated with Christ in the heavenlies."
We are confronted with the fact that in spite of being made the "righteousness of God in Him," we are still subject to the trials and temptations of living in the world. We do sin. This has nothing to do with our judicial standing before God and our righteousness in Him. These things have to do with my communion with God and my life on earth for God. The work of Christ when He was made sin for us, puts away sin from God's sight forever. Any and all law has no claim on the one who is in Christ, because we are alive in Him.