Job 9:2 I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
One of the attributes of God is His righteousness. He is holy and all his actions are righteous. All He does is just and holy and good. Compare that to ourselves. We are altogether unclean. We are in every way different than God. How can we be just or right with a holy God?
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
To be in the presence of God, we need to be as He is. We need a righteousness of our own.
Matthew 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 3:15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
In the two verses above Christ tells us both that we cannot obtain that righteousness in ourselves that is needed to enter into the kingdom of God and that He would be the one to fulfill all righteousness. The level of righteousness needed and that which we can perform are infinitely far apart. He was saying you cannot do it, but I can. We need an altogether different righteousness. One that only He could earn. The righteous attribute of God could not be transferred to us, it would take a righteousness worked out to be imputed. This was the purpose of Christ. He was born into this world to work out that righteousness. When He was done, when He cried it is finished that is what remained. Not before and not after but then and there that righteousness was fulfilled. It was the product of the perfect fulfillment of the law of God. He followed it both in letter and in heart.
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
This was a righteousness that could stand up to the requirements of God. This righteousness came by His obedience. It was completely outside of us. The price of this righteousness was Christ’s obedience unto death and nothing more. This righteousness would be imputed.
Romans 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
When the condition was fulfilled, righteousness would be imputed. Righteousness could not be imputed until it existed. The condition was Christ’s obedience. When this condition was fulfilled, its product could then be imputed. Not before and not after but at the fulfillment of the condition. By the obedience of Christ unto death righteousness came and God required nothing more. God not waiting for anything in addition to the work of His Son imputed the merit of His work then and there. Let’s look again to Romans 5 for Paul’s answer to the where and how of justification.
Justification is the central theme to this epistle. Previous to chapter 5 Paul has walked us through how God was just to condemn all humanity and also how He was just in the process of justifying His people. Here in Romans 5 he shows us when this took place. Adam is used as a side by side comparison to the work of Christ. Though Adam is here, the theme is Christ and His justification. In verse 15 by the offense of one, Adam, many were made dead. In a similar but much more astounding way by Jesus Christ came grace unto life. By the disobedience of Adam came condemnation to all those who were in Adam. Romans 5:12 above tells that sin and death passed to all men. The imputation of sin came to all due to the sin of our representative. So intwined with all men was that sin that it was as if each and every one of us were there and committed Adam’s sin. We must understand that we were represented by these two men. Sin came by Adam to all. That sin brought condemnation to all. All, no exceptions, were condemned in Adam. All who Adam represented were condemned. Every human who ever lived was condemned then and there.
Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
All were condemned in Adam by representation. All received the consequences of his disobedience. Paul is showing us that in the same way all that Christ represented received the consequences of His actions. The action of Adam was disobedience that led to sin and death and condemnation for all he represented. Sin and death came to all mankind at the point of his disobedience. Sin was imputed to all then and there. The action of Christ was obedience that led to righteousness that was imputed in the same manner to all He was representing. This imputation to all His seed all at one time is what justified them in the eyes of God. Just as it was as if we sinned with Adam, it was just as if we obeyed with Christ. The effects of both actions were immediately transferred to those they represented. God did not require an action by us to impute sin just as He did not require an action by us to justify. Only the actions of the first and last Adam were taken into consideration. By the first sin was imputed and death came to all, and by the last righteousness was imputed and life came to His all. There is no biblical evidence of individual imputations. For righteousness to be withheld is to say God waited on some additional condition so that righteousness could then be imputed. Scripture tells us that Christ said His work was finished. When He was done, He sat down.
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
Rest in a justification that does not wait on man. Christ sat because God was satisfied. He requires nothing further from you or me.