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The Righteousness of God in Christ
Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him. — 2 Corinthians 5:21 | American Standard Version (ASV) The American Standard Version is in the public domain. Cross References: Numbers 7:64; Isaiah 53:12; Jeremiah 33:16; Acts 3:14; Romans 1:17; Romans 3:21; Romans 3:25
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What Do We Say?
John Calvin (1509-1564)
Artist: Enoch Seeman the Younger (British, c.1694-1744)
Date: 1714-1744
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: National Trust Collections, London, United Kingdom
John Calvin, French Theologian
John Calvin (Jean Cauvin) (1509-1564) was born in Noyon, Picardy, the son of an ecclesiastical lawyer. He attended the University of Paris to train for the priesthood but then began to train for the law at Orleans and Bourges and received his first interest in theology. He then began to preach the reformed doctrines and travelled to Paris, Noyon, and Nerac. On his return to Paris, he realized that his life was no longer safe in France and fled to Basel.
In 1536 he published The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin taught that certain people 'the elect' are predestined for eternal life and the remainder are damned, also that salvation was a gift from God and man's good works were a sign of that salvation and not its cause.
He eventually settled in Geneva and took over the work of Guillaume Farel of directing the religious and political life of the city. Among other reforms affecting the lives of the citizens of Basel, he banned all public entertainment, issued regulations on dress and insisted on absolute puritanism in their private lives. He was expelled from the city in 1538, but returned three years later and imposed a code of intolerance on religious matters and strict social and puritan morality.
The ethic of hard work, thrift and sobriety brought great trade and wealth to the city. A college which later became Geneva University was founded to create a body of educated priests who would be able to continue Calvin's work. The presbyterian churches in Scotland, the Huguenots in France and the Dutch Reformed Church were all greatly influenced by Calvin's teaching.
I noticed you said your good can’t outweigh your bad.. I just i want to ask, as a someone who feels they’ve done way more bad than good in their life.. what does that mean for me? I’m a believer in Christ and I talk to God daily.. mostly begging for forgiveness and praising how wonderful he is.. I just question this? Can I do so much bad that it won’t matter if I believe Jesus as my savior?
When I made that statement it was in reply to an anon who believed themselves to be a good person and have earned their way to heaven. My point and intention in stating that our good cannot outweigh our bad was more to explain and help the anon understand that we cannot earn heaven no matter how hard we try. That our good actions don’t cancel out our bad ones. And that our sinful actions have earned us hell and the wrath of God because this is the penalty God gives for sin. For breaking His commands and laws. Just as when a criminal breaks the law of the land their good actions in life don’t cancel out the fact that they committed and are guilty of a crime and must pay the penalty whatever it be according to the law. We can’t earn heaven because we are sinners and have earned death and hell by our sins that’s why Jesus had to come and live perfectly in order to earn heaven for us. We get into heaven because God gave the penalty we earned to Jesus and gave us the reward He earned which is heaven when we place our faith in Him. God basically swapped our lives and looked at Jesus on the cross as if He lived our sinful life and when we stand before Him in judgement it won’t be on the basis of our own life (however good or bad our life is) that we are declared innocent and good and able to enter heaven, it will be on the basis of Christ’s perfect substitutional life death and resurrection imputed to us. My main point is that we need to transfer our faith and trust and effort from trying to earn our way to heaven by our own life because we can’t as we have earned hell as sinners and rather we transfer our faith and trust to the saving finished work of God to be sufficient enough to earn heaven for us. It is on the basis of Jesus’s life death and resurrection that those who have faith in Him get to go to heaven, it is based on His life we go to heaven not our own.
As for your question. You say you believe your bad outweighs your good. I absolutely agree. Scripture is clear that there is no one good. Not even one. That only God is good. And that even our good works are as filthy rags. All of us are dead in sin apart from the saving work of Christ in our lives. Even our good works simply are not good enough for us to earn heaven with. And they don’t cancel out the sins we have committed in the past and unfortunately will commit in the future. But thank God for His grace and mercy to us through the gospel. Thank God that He saw our predicament and hopeless state. That He saw that we have earned death and hell and He didn’t leave us to ourselves to meet our hopeless fate of death and hell that we have earned.
But instead He sent Jesus on our behalf to live the perfect life we were called to live but failed to do so. If we have faith in Jesus, Jesus’s perfect life has been credited to us. On judgement day, God will judge you based on Jesus’s perfect life as if you literally lived Jesus’s exact perfect life. That is how anyone gets to heaven. Not because of their own life because their own life deserves hell. Jesus went to the cross and bore God’s wreath as your substitute. God judged Jesus on the cross as if He has lived your sinful life. So you no longer have to fear facing a penalty because your sinful life has already been punished for on the cross with Christ. And you can look forward to heaven because Jesus’s perfect life has been credited/imputed to you. God looked at Jesus as if He lived your sinful life so He can look at you who have faith in Him as if you lived His perfect life. He swapped you and Jesus’s life.
You ask if you can do so much bad that it won’t matter if you believe Jesus as your savior. If you as a lifestyle do bad/sin continually as a style of life and lack an attitude of repentance and you love to sin and enjoy sin and don’t hate sin and don’t constantly crucify your sin nature daily, confess your sins when they occur, and don’t see your sins as sins, then I would say you aren’t saved because someone who is saved and justified according to the Bible is born again and regenerated and given a new nature that desires holiness and to obey God and the Bible. The Bible says you will know them (believers) by their fruit. By their style of life. Yes, faith without works is a dead faith and it would mean that you don’t have a true faith in God to begin with if your style of life isn’t characterized by obedience and then confession, repentance and hatred of sin when you do fall and stray off the path. However, If you are a true believer and truly belong to Jesus, and your faith is true no you can’t do too much bad that your faith won’t matter because we all were dead in sin and are inherently sinful. Because It isn’t on the basis of our own life that we are saved and justified. It is on the basis of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection that we are saved which is absolutely sufficient to save you and keep you. Jesus’s death is sufficient for all your sins, past present and future no matter how many there are or how big they are taking the penalty for all of them and His perfect life is absolutely sufficient to reconcile you to God and grant you the ability to enter heaven.
And also you need to remember that it isn’t even your faith and the strength of your faith that saved you and justified you before God. It is the object of your faith that saved you: the saving work of Jesus in His life death and resurrection. Your faith is that you trust and believe that this has earned you heaven and reconciliation with your Creator and you rest from trying and failing to earn this reconciliation yourself because we never could because of sin. Jesus had to earn it for us. He saved us. And you must have faith that He saves you and you don’t save yourself. Your life doesn’t save you. Your life condemns you. His life saves you.
This was a very important question and a very important thing to understand so I hope this clears things up for you.
That We Might Become the Righteousness of God
He made the One not having known sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. — 2 Corinthians 5:21 | Berean Literal Bible (BLB) The Berean Literal Bible © 2016 by Bible Hub and Berean Bible. All rights Reserved. Cross References: Numbers 7:64; Isaiah 53:12; Jeremiah 33:16; Acts 3:14; Romans 1:17; Romans 3:21; Romans 3:25
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What Do We Say? (2 Corinthians 5:21)
The good news is that God justifies the ungodly freely, by giving to all who believe a righteousness that is not their own.
R. C. Sproul
The Wrath and Love of God
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that…
The Pursuit of Righteousness
Righteousness originates with God. He is perfectly righteous in His nature and in all His ways. Moses declared, “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He” (Deut. 32:4). Because God Himself is righteous, His Word becomes the absolute standard for determining what is right. David affirmed this when he wrote,…
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Salvation: One Plan, Three Phases
Scripture presents salvation as a complete divine program with distinct phases accomplished by God. The New Testament distinguishes justification (Rom. 3:28; 5:1), sanctification (Rom. 12:1–2; Jam. 1:21), and glorification (Rom. 13:11; Phil. 3:20–21). Our justification and glorification are accomplished entirely by God, apart from any human effort or works. Sanctification, however, though fully…
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