EVERLASTING righteousness comes to us through believing. We are "justified by faith," the fruit of which is "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1).

It is of this "everlasting righteousness" that the Apostle Peter speaks when he begins his second epistle thus: "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (2Pe 1:1).

This righteousness is "reckoned" or "imputed" to all who believe, so that they are treated by God as if it were actually theirs. They are entitled to claim all that which such a righteousness can merit from God as the Judge of righteous claims. It does not become ours gradually or in fragments or drops, but is transferred to us all at once. It is not that so much of it is reckoned to us in proportion to the strength of our faith, or the warmth of our love, or the fervor of our prayers; but the whole of it passes over to us by imputation. We are "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph 1:6). We are "complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Col 2:10). In its whole quality and quantity it is transferred to us. Its perfection represents us before God; its preciousness, with all that that preciousness can purchase for us, henceforth belongs to us (1Pe 1:7).

The Stone, the chief Corner Stone, elect and precious (1Pe 2:6)—this Stone in all its preciousness is ours, not only for resting on, not only for acceptance, but for whatever its divine value can purchase for us. Possessed of this preciousness (imputed, but still ours), we go into the heavenly market and buy what we need without stint[1] or end. We get everything upon the credit of His name because not only has our unworthiness ceased to be recognized by God in His dealings with us, but our demerit has been supplanted by the merit of One Who is absolutely and divinely perfect. In His name we carry on all our transactions with God and obtain all that we need by simply using it as our plea. The things that He did not do were laid to His charge, and He was treated as if He had done them all. The things that He did do are put to our account, and we are treated by God as if we had done them all.

This is the scriptural meaning of reckoning or imputing, both in the Old Testament and the New. Let us look at a few of these passages:

"It was imputed to him for righteousness" (Gen 15:6), i.e., it was so reckoned to him, that in virtue of it he was treated as being what he was not.

"Are we not counted of him strangers?" (Gen 31:15). Are we not treated by him as if we were strangers, not children?

"Neither shall it be imputed unto him that offers it" (Lev 7:18). The excellence of the peace offering shall not be counted to him.

"Your heave-offering shall be reckoned unto you as though it were the corn of the threshing-floor" (Num 18:27). It shall be accepted by God as if it were the whole harvest, and you shall be treated by Him accordingly.

"Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither remember that which your servant did perversely" (2Sa 19:19). Do not deal with me according to my iniquity.

"Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity" (Psa 32:2), to whom God does not reckon his iniquities, but treats him as if they were not (see also Psa 106:31).

"It was counted to him for righteousness" (Rom 4:3).

"His faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom 4:5), i.e., not as the righteousness or as the substitute for it, but as bringing him into righteousness.

"Unto whom God imputes righteousness without works" (Rom 4:6).

"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Rom 4:8).

"That righteousness might be imputed to them also" (Rom 4:11).

"To whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Rom 4:24).

"Not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2Co 5:19).

"It was accounted to him for righteousness" (Gal 3:6).

Thus the idea of reckoning to one what does not belong to him and treating him as if he really possessed all that is reckoned to him comes out very clearly. This is God's way of lifting man out of the horrible pit and the miry clay, of giving him a standing and a privilege and a hope far beyond that which mere pardon gives and no less far above that which the first Adam lost. To be righteous according to the righteousness of the first Adam would have been much; but to be righteous according to the righteousness of the last Adam, the Lord from Heaven, is unspeakably and inconceivably more.

"It is God that justifieth" (Rom 8:33), and He does so by imputing to us a righteousness which warrants Him as the Judge to justify the unrighteous freely.

It is not simply because of this righteousness that Jehovah justifies; but he legally transfers it to us so that we can use it, plead it, and appear before God in it, just as if it were wholly our own. Romanists and Socinians[2] have set themselves strongly against the doctrine of "imputed righteousness." But there it stands, written clearly and legibly in the divine Word. There it stands, an essential part of the great Bible truth concerning sacrifice and substitution and suretyship.[3] It is as deeply written in the Book of Leviticus as in the Epistle to the Romans. It spreads itself over all Scripture and rises gloriously into view in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ where the "obedience unto death" which makes up this righteousness was completed. There He, Who as our Substitute took flesh and was born at Bethlehem, Who as our Substitute passed through Earth as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, consummated His substitution and brought in the "everlasting righteousness."

This is the righteousness of which the Apostle spoke when he reasoned that, "as by the disobedience of one many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom 5:19); when he proclaimed his abnegation[4] of all other righteousnesses: "and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Christ, even the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phi 3:9). This is "the gift of righteousness" regarding which he says: "If by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:17). The one man's offence rests upon all men "to condemnation" (Rom 5:18); so the one Man's righteousness, as the counteraction[5] or removal of this condemnation, is available and efficacious[6] "unto justification of life." The imputation of the first Adam's sin to us, and of the last Adam's righteousness, are thus placed side by side. The transference of our guilt to the Divine Substitute and the transference of that Substitute's righteousness or perfection to us must stand or fall together.

This righteousness of God was no common righteousness. It was the righteousness of Him Who was both God and man; therefore it was not only the righteousness of God, but in addition to this, it was the righteousness of man. It embodied and exhibited all uncreated and all created perfection. Never had the like been seen or heard of in Heaven or on Earth before. It was the two-fold perfection of Creaturehood and Creatorship in one resplendent[7] center, one glorious Person. The dignity of that Person gave a perfection, a vastness, a length and breadth, a height and depth, to that righteousness which never had been equaled and which never shall be equaled forever. It is the perfection of perfection, the excellency of excellency, the holiness of holiness. It is that in which God pre-eminently delights. Never had His Law been so kept and honored before. Son of God and Son of man in one Person, He in this twofold character keeps the Father's Law, and in keeping it provides a righteousness so large and full that it can be shared with others, transferred to others, imputed to others; and God be glorified (as well as the sinner saved) by the transference and imputation. Never had God been so loved as now, with all divine love and with all human love. Never had God been so served and obeyed, as now He has been by Him Who is "God manifest in flesh" (1Ti 3:16). Never had God found one before who for love to the holy Law was willing to become its victim that it might be honored; who for love to God was willing not only to be made under the Law, but by thus coming under it, to subject himself to death, even the death of the cross; who for love to the fallen creature was willing to take the sinner's place, bear the sinner's burden, undergo the sinner's penalty, to assume the sinner's curse, die the sinner's death of shame and anguish, and go down in darkness to the sinner's grave.

From The Everlasting Righteousness by Horatius Bonar reprinted by Chapel Library.

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889): Scottish Presbyterian minister whose poems, hymns, and religious tracts were widely popular during the 19th century. His three series of Hymns of Faith and Hope (1857-66) introduced hymns that are still sung throughout the English-speaking world, such as I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say, I Was a Wondering Sheep, and I Lay My Sins on Jesus. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1 stint — limitation; restriction.
2 Socinians — followers of the sect founded by Faustus Socinius, 16t h century Italian theologian, who denied the deity of Christ and denied that the cross brought forgiveness of sins.
3 suretyship — the act of one undertaking responsibility for someone else's debt.
4 abnegation — formal rejection; denial.
5 counteraction — defeating by contrary action; neutralizing an action.
6 efficacious — having power adequate to the purpose intended.
7 resplendent — splendid; dazzling in appearance.