Today's post is from material by Tim Keller on the righteousness of faith. I found it to be awesome and thought provoking and I hope you do as well.
"There is a righteousness which Paul calls "the righteousness of faith." God imputes it to us apart from our works- in other words, it is passive righteousness... So them, have we nothing to do to obtain this righteousness? No, nothing at all. For this righteousness comes by doing nothing, hearing nothing, knowing nothing, but rather in knowing and believing this only- that Christ has gone to the right hand of the Father, not to become our judge but to become for us our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, our salvation! Now God sees no sin in us, for in this heavenly righteousness sin has no place. So now we many certainly think, "Although I still sin, I don't despair, because Christ lives, who is both my righteousness and my eternal life." In that righteousness I have no sin, no fear, no guilty conscience, no fear of death. I am indeed a sinner in this life of mine and in my own righteousness, but I have another life, another righteousness above this life, which is in Christ, the Son of God."
"...Anyone who does not understand this righteousness or cherish it in the heart and conscience will continually be buffeted by fears and depression. Nothing gives peace like this passive righteousness. The troubled conscience has no cure for its desperation and feeling of unworthiness unless it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, offered free of charge in Jesus Christ which is this passive or Christian righteousness. " - Martin Luther as quoted by Tim Keller
"Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Jesus Christ in their lives...Many...have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for their justification...drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious , willful disobedience. Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther's platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming to wholly aloent righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality if trust which will produce increasing satisfaction as faith is active in love and gratitude." - Richard Lovelace as quoted by Tim KellerLabels: Faith, Righteousness