Righteousness by Faith is the "obedience of one,"the "righteousness of one" reckoned to believers. Christfulfilled all righteousness (Mt 3:15) and condemned sinin the flesh (Rom 8:3). He was "that righteous One," theJust," "who knew no sin." He did "always" those thingswhich pleased God, and could ask "Can any of youprove me guilty of sin?" (In 8:46). "'He committed nosin, and no deceit was found in his mouth'" (l Pe 2:22).Jesus had no need to be born again.

Such sinless behavior is possible only to a sinless natureas surely as sinful behavior is explicitly declared to springfrom sinful nature (Mt 12:33-35;Mk 7:21-23;James 1:14;4:1-3). The law of God requires not merely righteousacts but a righteous nature. Orthodox Christianity hasever taught that sin "may be defined as lack of confor-mity with the will of God whether in act, disposition, orstate."

Because the law of God is the expression of God'sown nature, it demands that humanity's nature, and notmerely its acts, conform to the divine. This divine law isnot only unchangeable, unalterable, and eternal, but infi-nite (Ps 119:96). As such, the law requires that the heartitself be pure and the mind holy, that the thoughts andfeelings may be in accordance with God's standard of

5

love and righteousness. The law requires that a person''be filled with the Spirit" (Eph 5:18), "having no partdark" but "full of light" (Lk 11:36),loving the Lord Godwith all "heart, mind, soul and strength" and one'sneighbor as oneself.

Sin Also a State

Scripture sets forth both sin and righteousness asstates. The words translated sin or used as synonyms forit apply to dispositions and states as certainly as acts.Thus chattah and hamartia, for example, both mean "afalling short." Anomia in 1 John 3:4 means not so much"transgression of the law," but "lawlessness." ThusScripture can speak of the "evil heart" (Heb 3:12), andthe condition of the heart which gives rise to wrong de-sires and acts is expressly called "sin" (Rom7:8,11,13,14,17,20).There is sin in the desire of sin, andthe law requires that we not only hate evil enough toovertly refrain from doing it, but that we should hate itwith all our being and repudiate immediately its slight-est approach in temptation.

Sin is declared to exist in our being prior to our ownconsciousness of it, and as that which is discovered and

Jesus Had a Sinless Human Nature

in every way compared to Adam. But that does not im-ply a single evil proclivity.

Part of Christ's substitutionary work on our behalfwas a vicarious confession and repentance as symbol-ized by his baptism. But confession and repentance that arecomplete can only be made by One who needs neither on hisown behalf. Just as certainly as only a sinless One feelsthe full strength of temptation because of sensitivity tosin, so only One thus perfectly holy and needing no re-pentance could adequately confess and repent vicari-ously.

For Christ to be the second or last Adam he, the di-vine One, must possess a sin-less human nature. Other-wise he could never havemet the law's demands forsuch. Neither could he havebeen an acceptable Represen-tative, or Substitute, to pro-vide infinite merits for impu-tation to the guilty.

To teach that Christ was____ _ . possessed of sinful propensi-

ties is to teach that he him-self was s sinner in need of aSavior. It makes his ministrynot one of substitution, butof example only. His vic-tory, then, is not that of thelast Adam representing therace afresh but a victory overhis indwelling sinfulness.Such a teaching veers towardpantheism; even God isfound to be in sinfulness.Such a teaching tends to pro-duce the heresies of legalismand perfectionism. It causesChristians to endlessly striveto find acceptance with Godby their own complete fulfill-ing of the law's demands.

The issue before the uni-verse is not whether fallenhuman beings can keep thecommandments of Godfaultlessly, but whether hu-

mans, as created by God, could obey every divine re-quirement.

.----=----- -=~~~=-~~~~~-~~._-------~-------

Human Beings a Unity Nota Duality

awakened by the law (Rom 7:9-10). It is set forth as apermanent power and reigning principle (Rom 5:21;6:12). Thus, the Beatitudes are pronounced not uponacts but upon states of mind, heart, and character; whilethe curses of the law are pronounced not so muchagainst single acts of evil, as against the evil dispositionsfrom which they spring.

In both "the acts of the sinful nature" (Gal 5:19)and"the fruit of the Spirit" (Gal 5:22) dispositions ratherthan actions predominate. For the same reason we dis-tinguish between murder and manslaughter. Not theoutward result but the motive differs, and motive has todo with our condition of heart. Scripture clearly teachesin Romans 7 that there is guilt in evil desires, even whenresisted by the will. Temptation is not sin, but the fail-ure to repudiate temptationimmediately and whole-heartedly is sin, and the verypresence of depraved desiresreveal the existence of a na-ture which is sinful. Fallenhumanity's state, and notmerely its behavior, is natu-raIly sinful.

Some among us havewished to have a Christ whoexperienced evil propensitiesin his flesh but not in hismind. The biblical teachingof the unity of the humanbeing forbids any suchdualism. Propensities are real-ized only in the mind, and it isnot possible for one part of aperson's nature to be depravedand another not. And such di-chotomy of nature as pro-posed by these theorists iscompletely unbiblical. Thusthe necessity for the perfecthealth that Christ possessed,and the perfect harmony ofhis faculties.

(The phrase "Son ofMan" was not only a messi-anic title but also an intima-tion that the Messiah answered to the perfect idea ofhumanity as it first existed in the mind of God. SeeWestcott's Commentary on John, pp.32-35.)

Humanity Originally God's TempleThe Difference Between Weakness and Badness

Others confuse infirmities with propensities, but there is aworld of difference between weakness and badness. Christ ac-cepted the results of humanity's being shut away fromthe Tree of Life. He, therefore, had a lessened capacity

6

Adam and Christ were both temples for the indwell-ing of the Holy Spirit. That which David feared-"Donot cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spiritfrom me" (Ps 51:11}-became a reality for Adam at theFall. Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for

God. Humanity became "sensual, not having the Spirit"(Jude 19KJV). When Christ gave a preintimation of Pen-tecost by breathing upon his disciples and imparting tothem the Holy Spirit (In 20:22), he duplicated his ownaction of millenniums before (Gen 2:7). Thus was shownhow the new birth (which is when a believer receives theSpirit) was intended to restore humanity to its originalposition of rectitude (though this will not be completeuntil glorification-1 Jn 3:2).

Smeaton says:When God breathed into man the breath of

LIFE ... we must understand life in the HolySpirit as well as animal and intellectual life....If further proof of the correctness of this inter-pretation were necessary, it is furnished by thecontrast of DEATHthreatened in the pen-alty, which certainly can-not be limited to naturaldeath. Adam had theSpirit in the state of in-tegrity, not only for him-self, but for his seed; andhe walked after the Spiritas long as he stood in hisintegrity.

On exegeticalgrounds as well as onthe ground of analogy,we must hold that manas he was formed ... wasthe temple of the HolyGhost .... This has notbeen denied in any quar-ter entitled to respect,Pa tristic or Protestant.(The Doctrine of the HolySpirit, pp. 10-12,14).

Christ's Human Nature-God's Temple

Christ's human naturewas "a body ... prepared"for him by the miraculouscreative work of the HolySpirit (Lk 1:35cf.;Gen 1:2). Itis not true to say that Christwas born of Mary as waterpasses through a pipe whiletaking nothing from the substance of the pipe. It is trueto say that God took the substance of Mary and moldedit into a perfect nature for our Lord, just as in the begin-ning the Holy Spirit took chaos and made a perfectworld.

We have so far emphasized that Christ's nature hadto be sinless because the holy law demands just such aholy nature; and that Christ would have had no right-eousness to offer us unless he was all that God's lawdemanded. We will now consider our need of Christ's

7

imputed merits all the days of our life.

Our Human Nature Corrupt

If, in contrast to Jesus, my own nature is sinful,wretched, and depraved, as Scripture clearly asserts; andif this remains the case after conversion (again, clearlytaught in Scripture); then sanctification can never be saidto be complete in us but remains the 'work of a lifetime.'Even Christ's works in and through me are defiled be-cause of the corrupt channel of my humanity, and unlesspurified by Christ's blood, such works can never bepleasing to God (Rom 7:14;8:3-4;1 Pe 2:5).

Because of my remaining depravity, imparted righteous-ness can never meet the infinite standard of the law of God.

Imparted righteousness cannever be part of Righteous-ness by Faith. In Scripture,Righteousness by Faith isused for that status of perfectstanding with God which isbased on God's law havingbeen fulfilled 100 percent inChrist's life of perfect obedi-ence and all-sufficient sacri-fice.

Summary

In summary: First, thequality of righteousnesswhich is ours by faith de-pends on the quality of himwhose righteousness it wasoriginally. Second, ourawareness of our everpre-sent carnality enables us tosee that only Christ's workFOR us and never his workIN us can provide our accep-tance with God. To put itanother way, justification, notsanctification, is the Righteous-ness by Faith of the New Testa-ment. Such righteousness isthe gift of the incarnate, cru-cified, and resurrected Lord.

Christians in all ageshave affirmed:

"I am guilty before God:but Jesus is my Advocate. I have transgressed His law. I can-not save myself; but I make the precious blood that was shedon Calvary my plea. I am lost in Adam, but restored inChrist. God, who so loved the world as to give His only begot-ten Son to die, will not leave me to perish while repentant andin contrition of soul. He will not look upon me, for I am allunworthy; but he will look upon the face of His anointed, Hewill look upon my Substitute and Surety, and listen to theplea of my Advocate, who died for my sin, that I might bemade the righteousness of God in Him." .:.