Righteousness by faith
Among professing Christians there has been a growing trend to downplay the importance of strict obedience to every Word of God, which no doubt, explains the sad condition of the man expelled from the wedding feast of the king’s son because he wasn’t wearing a wedding garment (Matthew 22:2). In Isaiah 61:10 the wedding garment is called the garments of salvation, a robe of righteousness, which simply put, is Christ’s righteousness.
This priceless robe, woven in the heavenly loom of Christ’s perfect, sinless life, has not one thread of human devising in it. The only way it can be received is by faith, allowing Him to impute/credit it to us, which is why it’s called righteousness by faith. When covered with this precious garment our heavenly Father cannot see our unworthiness, rather, He sees the perfect sinless life Jesus lived, given to our credit as if we lived it.
Christians often define “Righteousness by faith” as including the righteousness by which we are justified, meaning, His sinless life imputed to us, and the righteousness by which we are sanctified, meaning, becoming more like Him in our life. Therefore, “righteousness by faith” is seen as a general heading with two subheadings under it called “justification and sanctification,” or, “imputed and imparted righteousness.”
But, there can be no subheadings under righteousness by faith. “Righteousness by faith” is God’s plan for saving us and simply means that through our faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus we are justified and accounted as righteous in His sight.
Imparted righteousness, which is also faith based, reveals itself in a daily transformation of our character into His likeness, which means, the greater our likeness to Him becomes, the greater our ability to render more perfect obedience to all ten of His Commandments.
But in no way does any degree of our obedience contribute to our entitlement to heaven (Ephesians 2:8, 9). Our entitlement to heaven is all about Jesus and His perfect obedience, credited to our account.
“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets” (Romans 3:21). “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works” (Romans 4:6). Good works, motivated by love (John 14:15), are only a validation of justification and sanctification.