Is the Christian righteous or unrighteous? A simplistic yes or no answer to this question is misleading because it's a tricky question that calls for theological care and it's a question we have received from a listener named Jason. Pastor John, I have recently been listening to your old sermon, Our Hope, Righteousness.

In it, you mentioned that full and perfect righteousness lies in the future. It is our hope, not our possession. This is in reference to Galatians 5.5, "For through the Spirit by faith we wait for the hope of righteousness." Can you clarify for me what it means to be righteous?

I thought it meant right standing. In placing my faith in Jesus, does that make me righteous at the time of my profession? Or does righteous mean perfect? And that's why we're not righteous now. Can you clarify for me the various stages of righteousness in the history of a believer?

Oh, I will love to try, because this is just so close to the heart of what the Gospel is and who Christ is to us, and getting this distinction is right at the heart of the Gospel, right at the heart of Reformation discoveries 500 years ago. So here we go.

Let's try. Even though there are particular passages about righteousness which are unclear to me, frankly, as to their precise meaning, nevertheless, the overall picture, I think, in the New Testament is clear. So just to keep matters as simple as possible, without distorting the reality, I would love to say there are two basic uses of the word righteousness in this regard.

One that is reckoned to us, counted to us, imputed to us—pick your word—reckoned to us through faith and which comes from God as a gift in the moment that you receive it by faith. That would be because Jesus has done that righteousness. He has performed that righteousness, and His is counted as ours.

We call that imputed righteousness. The other use of the word would be righteousness that we ourselves are acting out, living out in our daily lives, and both of them—not just one of them—both of them are through faith, but not in the same way through faith. The first is an imputed gift, counted as ours, that gift received through faith.

The second kind is an imparted gift—not an imputed gift, but an imparted gift—which we ourselves perform. We ourselves perform by faith in His power. 2 Thessalonians 1:11. So the first kind of righteousness is perfect. The second kind of righteousness is progressive and will someday be perfected at the end of our lives when God completes our process of becoming practically and personally perfectly righteous, but which now in this life is not yet perfect.

And the relationship between these two kinds of righteousness is that we can't make any progress in practical, lived-out righteousness until we are accepted by God, forgiven for our sins, and declared to be perfectly righteous with the imputed righteousness of God in Christ. That's tremendously important to see, because it means that the effort—the effort that we make by faith through the Holy Spirit to put to death sins and become more and more practically righteous—that effort is not the basis of our right standing with God, but the consequence or effect of our right standing with God.

That's huge. If we get those switched around, we don't live the gospel. We don't have the gospel. The gift of the first kind of righteousness is called justification. We receive it by faith alone. Romans 3:28, Romans 5:1. This means that it happens instantaneously through our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord and treasure at the very instant of our first act of saving faith, which God gives us in the new birth.

At that very instant, God is then and from that moment on 100% for us and not against us. No condemnation. Romans 8, 1. Even though before that we were children of wrath. Ephesians 2, 3. At that moment then, for the first time, by the Spirit through faith, we are able to kill specific sins and make progress in God-pleasing, practical, lived-out righteousness.

Before we had faith, we could not please God at all or perform true righteousness, because without faith it is impossible to please God. Hebrews 11, 6. But as soon as we were given faith, in that instant we were justified. So none of the works of righteousness, none of our own works of righteousness that come from faith could ever be the basis of justification, because we are justified with Christ's perfect righteousness the very instant that we have faith before we do any works of faith.

Now if that's a complicated paragraph, stop, back it up, listen again, because I meant what I said and I think it's biblical. So let's look at a few passages of Scripture to show that these things are so. That's just what I've been saying so far is almost all theological conception is built on text, but here are the texts.

Let's start with imputed righteousness, the righteousness that is reckoned to us by God because of Christ. Romans 5, 19. As by one man's disobedience the many were appointed sinners—that's Adam—so by one man's obedience—that's Christ—by one man's obedience the many will be appointed righteous. That's what I mean by imputed righteousness.

Or here it is from Romans 4, 6. David speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts. So there's the biblical basis of the word "imputation" or "reckoning." He counts righteousness apart from works of the law. Or Philippians 3, 8, and 9. "I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found"—here are the key words—"be found in Him"—in union with Him, and that's the basis of it—"in union with Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from law, but that which comes through faith in Christ." The righteousness from God that depends on faith.

So those are at least three illustrations of righteousness that we have as a gift from God through faith. None of our practical, lived-out righteousness is the basis of that gift. As Paul says in Titus 3, 5, "God saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness." So he refers to good works of righteousness that we can actually do.

And then he says, "Those aren't the basis." God saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit. Now what about the practical, lived-out righteousness? That's what we do now, by the Spirit, since we have been made alive through faith by the Spirit.

Here's Romans 6, 13, "Do not present your members"—that is, your hands and your feet and your tongue, your sexual organs—"do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God"—here it is—"as those who have been brought from death to life." Make yourself alive by doing this.

You've been brought from death to life, and your members now present them as instruments of righteousness. And Paul says clearly that in this life we are not yet perfect in righteousness of our own. Philippians 3, 12, "Not that I have already obtained or am already perfect"—oh, that's so important for perfectionistic people—"but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own." So here's the glory and the mystery of the Christian life.

We are already righteous in Christ, and so we have peace with God. Romans 5, 1, "And in the peace of that acceptance with God, we strive for righteousness in our daily lives, because we know that this not only confirms that we are God's people"—2 Peter 1:10—"but because this is the most deeply satisfying way to glorify Christ." Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for the great question, Jason.

If you have a question for Pastor John, send it to us. Go to our online home, DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn, and submit a question of your own. You'll see the box. Click on it. You'll send us an email. And I thank you in advance. Well what genuine authority does Satan wield over this world?

It's another really great question we need to address, and it's up next on Wednesday. I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you then. "And in the peace of that acceptance with God, we strive for righteousness in our daily lives, because we know that this not only confirms that we are God's people"—2