[HarleyD]

But the two sides disagree about what the phrase "the righteousness of Christ" means.

I'm sorry. While this author does an excellent job in explaining the Protestant and Catholic views of justification; not surprisingly, he is erroneous in picking the correct theological doctrine. Our justification rest with Christ-not works that we do after we have been made into believers.

First, moral realism demands it. ...Our actions are either right or wrong, good or bad, and they are that way objectively, regardless of how we feel about it. ...So moral realism—to which Protestants are firmly committed—requires us to say that guilt and innocence, righteousness and unrighteousness, are exactly the kind of objectively real properties that Catholics say they are.

What the author fails to explain is that Protestants believe that redeemed man is now capable of making a choice-good or bad-in regards to sin. If redeemed man chooses to sin, our souls don't grow "dark". They cannot for we have the Holy Spirit of God residing in us. And, after all, isn't He the Light of the world? The souls of a true believer can't grow dark because we are the light of God.

Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

Rather God will chasten us to bring us back into fellowship with Him. It would be prudent not to sin, but He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin.

Another reason why Protestants need to accept the language of objective guilt and innocence is that the Bible itself uses this kind of language. It often speaks of guilt and innocence in terms of objective properties, such as colors or cleanliness. Scripture speaks of our sins being "crimson like scarlet" (Isaiah 1:18), and the Psalmist says "wash me with hyssop and I shall be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51:7).

The author mistake these verses as applying to "redeemed" man. This is not what these verses are talking about. Though our sin be "crimson like scarlet" has always been applied to the saved verses the unsaved. Please note Psalms 51.

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Psa 51:6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom.
Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psa 51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which You have broken may rejoice.
Psa 51:9 Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

...you will recall that Protestants often say that we receive Christ's own personal righteousness when we are justified. This is what they have in mind when they say that when we are justified God treats us just like Christ—that God looks at us and sees Christ instead. Now this is a metaphor that not all Protestants accept. Even Keith Green, the noted anti-Catholic, God rest his soul, rejected it. He recognized that when God looks at us he does not see Christ.

Perhaps some Protestants do not believe our salvation is based upon the righteousness of Christ. It would not surprise me as Protestants, in most cases do not understand doctrine as well as they should. Regardless of what theological ideas bounce around in their heads, God has stated that He has imputed Christ righteousness to us.

Rom 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Rom 4:23 Now it was not written for him alone that it was imputed to him,
Rom 4:24 but for us also to whom it is to be imputed, to the ones believing on Him who has raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
Rom 4:25 who was delivered because of our offenses and was raised for our justification.

First, if God simply saw us as Christ, if he gave us Christ's own personal righteousness, then we would all be rewarded equally in heaven. We would all be as righteous as Christ and so we would all be rewarded equally.

I will go outside Protestant doctrine and simply state that rewards will be meaningless in heaven. God does not have to treat us all equal and that is not the way He created His universe. There are different levels of angels and you certainly don't hear any of them complaining about one angel getting something more than another. The least in heaven will be no worst than the greatest. Rewards will mean nothing and in the end we will all throw down our crowns at the feet of Christ for we will see that it is He that has accomplished all things.

Finally, there are simply no verses in Scripture which state that we receive Christ's own personal level of righteousness. None!

Well, Romans 4:22-25 posted above not withstanding, I would also point to Philippians or Peter:

Php 3:9 and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith,

2Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ,

In both cases we are referred to the righteousness of God, not our righteousness.

Regrettably the author seems to not understand that our salvation does not rest upon our merits of things that we accomplish after we are saved. Our salvation and justification rests upon the merits of Christ and the things He has done for us. We are justified, and remain justified, simply because we are in Christ and rest upon His actions-not our own. Any good work that we do or accomplish is because of Him working through us-not by our righteousness. He is the vine-we are the branches. Mary understood this when she stated:

Luk 1:49 For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.

[Iscool]

Nice summary...

[annalex]

Our justification rest with Christ-not works that we do after we have been made into believers

Akin explains that being "made into believer" is really a process; see also the preceding thread, linked in the article trailer. Since it is a process, the righteousness of Christ that we receive has degrees. We see it around us, and the scripture makes references to degrees of righteousness, as the author notes, for example, when it describes human life a a process of building in 1 Cor 3. I know you would disagree, but you don't seem to have a scriptural arguemnt here, or do you?

our souls don't grow "dark". ... Rather God will chasten us to bring us back into fellowship with Him.

I think you are arguing with metaphors here. The Catholic view is that whatever metaphor you like, sin and righteousness are objective, real conditions of the soul, rather than judicial fiction. Eph 5:8 does not dispute moral realism.

mistake these verses as applying to "redeemed" man

The author, being Catholic, does not subscribe to the notion that redeemed is a binary condition. This is the whole premise, that redemption is a lifelong process (and in fact it is resumed in Purgatory, as 1 Cor 3 teaches, but that is for some other thread). Botht he white color of righteousness and the red of sin are objective progressively changing conditions of the soul.

I will go outside Protestant doctrine and simply state that rewards will be meaningless in heaven

That is going outside of the scripture also; are you aware of that?

Romans 4:22-25 posted above not withstanding, I would also point to Philippians or Peter

But none say that God sees us exactly as Christ. They simply relate our righteousness obtain through faith to the work of Christ.

the author seems to not understand that our salvation does not rest upon our merits of things that we accomplish after we are saved

Did you read Part V? I think, you illustrated the same "hangup about the word merit" that Akin tries to dispel.