What can I do to achieve complete righteousness? Does the Bible have a formula for attaining absolute righteousness? Is there an algorithm for total righteousness? Yes! The Bible teaches a guaranteed way to achieve total and complete righteousness.
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! (2 Corinthians 5:16-17 MSG)
All this is God’s doing, for he has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ; and he has made us agents of the reconciliation. God was in Christ personally reconciling the world to himself—not counting their sins against them—and has commissioned us with the message of reconciliation. We are now Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were appealing direct to you through us. As his personal representatives we say, “Make your peace with God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20 PHILLIPS)
For [GOD] hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV)
How to attain the total righteousness of God
Let me emphasize that last verse, here is how to become totally righteous…
God had Christ, who was sinless, take our sin so that we might receive God’s approval through him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 GWT)
Let’s dig deeper and consider that last verse…
Made to be sin (ἁμαρτίαν ἐποίησεν) Compare a curse, Galatians 3:13. Not a sin-offering, nor a sinner, but the representative of sin. On Him, representatively, fell the collective consequence of sin, in His enduring “the contradiction of sinners against Himself” (Hebrews 12:3), in His agony in the garden, and in His death on the cross. –Vincent’s Word Studies
Christ became the offering for our sin (or sin itself; see Isa 53:10) on the cross when he took sin’s penalty on himself and died a criminal’s death. He did this, though he himself never sinned (John 8:46; 1 Pet 2:22; 1 Jn 3:5), so that we might be made right with God—i.e., set in right relationship with God and accepted by him (see Gal 3:13). cf: Isa 53:6, 9; Jer 23:6; Gal 3:13; Heb 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pet 2:22 (New Living Translation (NLT) Study Bible Notes) 2 Corinthians 5:21
the righteousness of God— Not merely righteous, but righteousness itself; not merely righteousness, but the righteousness of God, because Christ is God, and what He is we are (1Jo 4:17), and He is “made of God unto us righteousness.” As our sin is made over to Him, so His righteousness to us (in His having fulfilled all the righteousness of the law for us all, as our representative, Jer 23:6; 1Co 1:30). The innocent was punished voluntarily as if guilty, that the guilty might be gratuitously rewarded as if innocent (1Pe 2:24). “Such are we in the sight of God the Father, as is the very Son of God himself” [Hooker]. –Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
So, what is the formula to be made right with God? How can we get this total righteousness?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)
What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord. ‘ (Acts 22:16)
- What is the Gospel?
- What is Salvation Baptism?
- Saved by Dry Baptism
- More impossible ways to lose your salvation
- What is the unforgivable sin of blaspheme against the Holy Spirit?
The algorithm for total righteousness
But, many will say, that formula is too easy, there must be an algorithm to achieve total righteousness. Yes, there is. Salvation may be free, but it is not cheap. Jesus Christ bankrupted heaven to pay your sin debt. He took the complete penalty for all your sins, past, present, and future, onto himself on the cross. Therefore, he has the right and power to make you righteous.
- For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)
- But you know that Christ appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. (1 John 3:5)
- “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22)
- He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:25)
- Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)
- It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30)
- Why God Refuses to Meet You Halfway (by Levi Lusko) — This is the clearest presentation of the Gospel of Grace I have ever heard. God won’t meet you halfway because he went all the way for you. He did all the work. There’s nothing left for you to do but accept the free gift.
What does total righteousness mean?
Total righteousness means there is nothing you can do to add to your righteousness. You are already totally righteous. You can’t become more totally righteous. So, give up your religious works and accept Jesus Christ’s finished work for you.
Total righteousness means there is nothing you can do to subtract from your righteousness. Jesus Christ did all the work to make you righteous; it wasn’t your work in the first place. So, give up your religious works and accept Jesus Christ’s finished work for you.