Substitution Righteousness

For centuries terms have been manipulated to swing theology from one camp into another.

Justification - just what is it. Is it always about the righteousness of law or can it be any standard, such as cause to recognize faith or the recognition of a covenental standard.

Justification may just be cause to pronounce us righteous in some way, others may see it as fulfilling the perfect righteous law. Yet, we can have faith and still break law.

How about - faith was imputed for righteousness

Many see "imputed" meaning to stand for something else. In truth God doesn't lie about what something is.

Faith really is righteousness.

God imputing faith for righteousness isn't magic, it really is righteousness to some degree. God just recognized it as such. Imputed or accounted means recognized as much as substituted.

He distinguishes between the righteousness of faith and the righteousness of the law.

Rom 4:13  For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 

The covenental standard was the righteousness of faith.

You see, despite total depravity being fed to us constantly, man does have the ability to have some righteousness. Faith is righteousness to some degree. A person can have sins galore but still have a seed of righteousness through faith.

Gen 7:1  And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

Righteousness means in a sense to be right minded. Faith is right minded.

Notice that Noah was seen as righteous before the waters created the figure of baptism. Before being saved by water. It could be used to say we are saved before baptism, but it never says he was saved i 7:, only that his righteousness was seen. Peter says he was saved through water which hadn't come yet.

That means we have to have the righteousness of faith literally, not in a substitutive manner, before the promise is ours.

Abraham and Moses really were righteous to some degree. It didn't have to be changed, only recognized. To the Jewish mind righteousness was impossible apart from the law, but God showed that righteousness was possible in these instances without the Law. Not perfection, but a seed of righteousness that led to obedience of faith.

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 

Rom 4:24  But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

The mistake many make is that faith imputed (Accounted) doesn't mean justification is finished, it is a necessary step however.

The law of faith is that you must have a recognized righteousness of faith, before total righteousness may be granted. Faith alone can't take away past sins, it requires Jesus death for that. Salvation by faith alone is the denial in a sense of the blood of Christ. Even if you say your faith is in the blood, it follows faith in action. Faith alone is leaving Christ's blood out of the order.

So, was Abraham made totally righteous in Genesis 15:6, or was the righteousness of faith recognized?

Faith is a righteous requirement before the figure can be obeyed, after obedience the blood cleanses our trespasses.

Noah had righteousness of faith recognized by building the ark, he then got on the ark and God preserved him, he then received total righteousness from God. The figure being sin was washed from the earth.