The Rev. William Klock: "The Long Robe of Christ's Righteousness"

Prydain ^ | 11/26/2005 | Will

[sionnsar]

From the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon, we have the sermon The Long Robe of Christ's Righteousness, which is based on Jeremiah 23:5-8 and John 6:5-14. In this sermon. Rev. Klock looks at the righteousness of Christ, and its role in our justification:

Jesus didn’t come to enable us to be our own saviours – he came to be our one and only Saviour. When we make him our Lord, his righteousness is accounted to us. We can never be good enough. We come to him as sinners and are forgiven. His goodness is imputed to us and it is then that the Holy Spirit begins to work in us to renew us and to make us more like him. Our sanctification is our being made more righteous and more like Jesus, but that’s what comes after our justification. Our justification isn’t based on anything we do or have done – it’s not based on our becoming good or righteous (that’s what comes later). Our justification is based on the free pardoning of our sins as a result of Christ’s death.

St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.” If our salvation were based on anything at all, no matter how small, that we have done, there would be a reason for us to boast of our own goodness or our own righteousness. But that’s not the case – Christ is our righteousness and he has done it all. If we’re going to glory in anything, it must be in the Lord.

Just as Christ was made sin for us, we are made righteous before God through Christ. Our sin was imputed to him. He’d never done anything wrong. He was totally undeserving of punishment, but our sin was placed on him. We are made righteous by imputation – God places our sin on Christ and Christ’s righteousness on us.

That’s the start. But the life of the Christian should be a life of righteousness, because as we live in the Holy Spirit, God gives us the grace to be his people – to live in ways that please him. Day by day as we spend them in God’s presence and living them in his grace we are renewed to be more and more like Christ, but we are never perfect. We always need to remember that no matter how much we learn, no matter how spiritually mature, and no matter how righteous we may be, Christ is still and always will be our righteousness, as Jeremiah tells us.

I think Rev. Klock has a good and true understanding of the doctrine of imputation of Christ's righteousness to those who believe unto Him for salvation--and the fruits which will flow from that work of God's grace in the life of the believer.

[Kolokotronis]

"Just as Christ was made sin for us, we are made righteous before God through Christ. Our sin was imputed to him. He’d never done anything wrong. He was totally undeserving of punishment, but our sin was placed on him. We are made righteous by imputation – God places our sin on Christ and Christ’s righteousness on us."

Interesting notion. Not that its wrong; it isn't. But it does manifest the West's Augustinian focus on the sacrificial aspects of the Incarnation rather that the destruction of death and the Resurrectional focus of Eastern Christianity.

"That’s the start. But the life of the Christian should be a life of righteousness, because as we live in the Holy Spirit, God gives us the grace to be his people – to live in ways that please him."

As an Orthodox Christian I wouldn't say it was so much living in a manner which is pleasing to an ineffable and utterly transcendant Creator of the Universe, but rather that we should live in a manner which leads us to fulfill our created purpose, which is theosis.