The term Christ our righteousness implies that someone else is righteous for us, that we have substitutionary righteousness, that someone takes our place not only in death but also in righteousness. Most Christians can accept the idea that Christ died in their place, but it becomes a little more difficult to understand and accept the idea that He lived, or is righteous, on my behalf, and takes my place that way. So this topic in and of itself causes us uncertainty. This study deals with this idea that Christ is the One who takes my place to provide righteousness for me on my behalf.
There are two men who are involved in a proper understanding of Christ our righteousness. The first of these two men is identified by the apostle Paul: “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam], sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” Romans 5:12. The other Man you will find in verse 15: “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” Here are the two men. I call them “men” because Jesus was called the “Man Christ Jesus”; and in no way do we deny or neglect His divinity by saying this. Paul also refers to them as the two Adams in 1 Corinthians 15 (the first Adam and the second Adam).
Paul is here explaining that condemnation and judgment came from the first Adam; and that from the second Adam there is life, justification, and righteousness. These are the results of the acts of the two persons. One brought death upon mankind, the other brought life.
Verse 18 is a unique verse in the Bible, and one which we want to look at very closely: “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” Other translations have variations of this. In the Revised Standard Version it reads, “One man’s trespass [singular]”; when in the King James Version it says “by the offence of one.” In the American Standard Version it reads, “by one transgression and one act of righteousness.” In the Good News Version it reads, “one sin and one righteous act.” These verses establish that there was one act performed by each of the two Adams, and each of those acts is very unique in that it had a major result upon the condition of mankind. By one act of Adam, certain things happen to us. By the act of the second Adam, certain things also happen to us. One of those acts was an act of sin, and the other act was one of perfect righteousness.
Paul described the results of those two acts: “For as by one man’s [Adam’s] disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Romans 5:19. Almost all translations agree with the fact that by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners. The disobedience, according to verse 18, is isolated to one act of sin; and then by one Man’s single act of perfect righteousness, many are made righteous. Those two acts are what we want to discuss in detail.
Some people become alarmed about this because when we talk about the one act of Adam, we get very close to original sin, and many people do not know what to think about the idea of original sin. Remember that the genuine and the counterfeit are not total opposites. They are very similar. A counterfeit is something that can deceive us. Don’t go too far away from the teaching of original sin or you might miss the truth entirely. Stay close to it for there is much there if we understand it correctly.
Note that verse 18 says that “judgment came upon all men to condemnation” by the offence of one man, and that “by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification.” These are things that come to us. But verse 19 talks about something that it does to us. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” By the sin of Adam, we were made sinners. By the obedience of Christ we are made righteous.
How can one person make another sinful? How can one person make another righteous? That is not easy for us to understand. Both of these two persons are called “Adam,” and both the first and second Adam had unique qualities and positions. Adam was the father of all living. Every person who has ever lived has come from Adam.
Christ is also called “the everlasting Father.” Isaiah 9:6. By redemption He is called a quickening Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15. All those who come to Christ He quickens, or gives life to. By His resurrection He has accomplished this. Therefore, He is the Life Giver. Thus, in a sense, He is the Father of all who live. He was the Creator originally, and He is the Re- Creator through His resurrecting power. So both Adams are fathers of the human race; and fathers and children have unique relationships. Fathers can influence their children by heredity; and there is spiritual heredity as well as physical heredity. We are here largely emphasizing the spiritual aspects in heredity rather than the physical. Both are fathers and both can give something to their children, both by heredity and also by environment.
This is made obvious in Galatians 6:7 where it talks about the natural laws that govern us as human beings, and also plants and animals. The last part of the verse reads, “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” If you plant corn you never get potatoes. If you plant peas you never get oranges. Like always produces like. Therefore, Adam would produce after his kind, and Christ (the second Adam) would produce after His kind. This is true if you understand genetics, and this is true in the spiritual realm as well as in the physical.
Consider our first father Adam and our relationship to him. “As related to the first Adam, men receive from him nothing but guilt and the sentence of death.” 6BC 1074. “I am lost in Adam.” SD 120. Adam’s sin causes me to be that way. “Because of sin, his [Adam’s] posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience.” 5BC, 1128.
This is discussed in the Bible. “This is the book of the generations of Adam [his offspring]. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him.” Genesis 5:1. When He made Adam, He made him like God; but things changed by verse 3 because Adam had sinned. “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness.” Adam was made in the likeness of God. But now it says he begets a son in his own likeness. Adam had been changed because of sin, and Seth had become like Adam. He still had some of the image of God in him, but his nature had been changed.
“Yet he [Seth] was a son of Adam like sinful Cain, and inherited from the nature of Adam no more natural goodness than did Cain.” 3SG 53. “While Adam was created sinless, in the likeness of God, Seth, like Cain, inherited the fallen nature of his parents.” PP 80. There was a different likeness, a different image, than there was originally in Adam. “Christ redeemed man from the penalty of Adam’s disgraceful fall.” 6BC 1092. Not man’s fall, but Adam’s fall. Some penalty has come to us because of Adam’s sin.
This gives you some idea of what has happened to us as human beings because of heredity. There are certain things that come to us about which we had no choice. All we had to do was to be born, and we had no choice about that. If I can inherit certain things from Adam, I can also inherit things from Christ. It functions the same way. Now we are going to the positive side.
The Bible discusses some of this inheritance from Christ. “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second Man is the Lord from heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:45-47. Then skipping to verse 49: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy [of Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly [of Christ].” We receive something from Adam by heredity, and we receive something from Christ the same way; and we will bear His likeness.
“As related to the first Adam, men receive from him nothing but guilt and the sentence of death. It places him [man] where, through accepting Christ as his Saviour, he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Thus he becomes connected with God and Christ.” 6BC 1074. By being born of Adam, man became a partaker of his human, sinful nature. By Christ becoming a human, and by my receiving Christ as my Savior, I can partake of His divine nature. So now, through Christ, there is a relationship established with God. “As many as have received Him, to them gave He power [which means the authority or the right] to become sons of God.” John 1:12. If you are a child of God, you are born of God, and you take after the likeness of your heavenly Parent. God is reproducing Himself in His children. The purpose of the new birth is that God may dwell in man. That is what He wants to accomplish.
There are many texts about this. “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” Colossians 3:10. “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” 1 Corinthians 15:49. “…but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him…” 1 John 3:2. “...until Christ be formed in you.” Galatians 4:19. “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Galatians 4:19. Christ is to be reproduced in us.
“In his relation to Christ, he will be bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, one with Christ in a peculiar relationship, because Christ took the humanity of man.” 7BC 926. We can be one with Christ in a peculiar relationship. What Adam has done to us by heredity, Christ comes along to undo by our being born again. Christ in you, that we may bear the image of the heavenly, even if we are born of the earthly.
We do not often realize why we are the way we are and what we can be by the work of Christ. This is so important. There are other influences and powers that the two Adams possess, besides being a father, that also have an influence upon us, that also have a control, and that also do something to us and for us. You cannot avoid being born of your parents. The next one is similar to it in many ways. Christ and Adam are both kings as well as fathers; and kings do things to their people, often about which the people have no choice. Just because you belong to that kingdom, the king can do something to you or against you. Adam was a king and Christ was a King.
After God made man, He said, “…let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26. Adam and Eve were given dominion over every living thing. “While they remained true to God, Adam and his companion were to bear rule over the earth.” PP 50. Unlimited control was given them over every living thing. They ruled the animals, they ruled the earth; but Adam never had the opportunity to rule man, because he was still only with his wife. Apparently at that point, others had not come along. When others had come along he would have ruled them; but he forfeited his kingship when he succumbed to Satan.
“At his creation Adam was placed in dominion over the earth. But by yielding to temptation, he was brought under the power of Satan. ‘Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.’ 2 Peter 2:19. When man became Satan’s captive, the dominion that he held, passed to his conqueror. Thus Satan became ‘the god of this world.’ 2 Corinthians 4:4. He had usurped that dominion over the earth which had been originally given to Adam.” PP 67. When Adam succumbed to Satan in the first act of sin, the devil then usurped the position of being our king, and he fashioned himself the king of this earth, and our king without our choosing, as did Adam. Christ came to undo that. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan showed Him the kingdoms of the world and then said, “All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:9. Satan professed to be the king, or the god, of this world. But those kingdoms were really not his; he only claimed them as his.
“After tempting man to sin, Satan claimed the earth as his, and styled himself the prince of this world. Having conformed to his own nature the father and mother of our race, he thought to establish here his empire.” DA 114. Adam and Eve had become like the devil in that their natures were conformed to the devil’s. If Adam gives you his nature, what nature are you really receiving? Isn’t that a nice, pleasant thought? Through Adam the devil can pass on to me the nature conforming to that of Satan himself.
“Having conformed to his own nature the father and mother of our race, he thought to establish here his empire. He declared that men had chosen him as their sovereign. Through his control of men, he held dominion over the world. Christ had come to disprove Satan’s claim. As the Son of man, Christ would stand loyal to God. Thus it would be shown that Satan had not gained complete control of the human race, and that his claim to the world was false. All who desired deliverance from his power would be set free. The dominion that Adam had lost through sin would be recovered.” DA 114,115.
It is a unique thing that our first parents conformed to the image, or nature, of Satan. This happened by their act of sin. That is what Adam bequeathed to us. All of this is accomplished when Adam the king was conquered by another power.
This can best be explained by looking at king David before he was king. You remember how Goliath came out from the Philistines to challenge the Israelites. Instead of the armies engaging in a general war, they had devised a scheme where Goliath announced that if there was one Israelite who could defeat him, then all the Philistines would be defeated; but if he defeated that one man, then all the Israelites would be defeated. Day after day he came out and bellowed at the Israelites to send out their man; and day after day Israel was defeated by that one person. He looked enormous to the Israelites, didn’t he? But he really wasn’t that big. Then came David, a man not very large or experienced at warfare, and he asked, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 1 Samuel 17:26. You know the story well, having learned it as a small child. When David defeated Goliath, every Israelite was victorious. David and Goliath never actually fought each other. But by one man’s strength and by that one act, all the Philistines were defeated and Goliath was dead; and all of Israel was victorious and they acted victorious. Right away they started pursuing the Philistines and drove them out of the country. Before that they were cowardly. Now they were conquerors, and all because of one person. I am not only talking about David and Goliath. I am talking about the great controversy that all this symbolizes.
As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. They all conquer in Jesus. As in one man’s disobedience all are defeated and disobedient, so in one Man all are righteous. Is Romans 5:19 true when it says that “by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life”? Many have trouble believing this is true.
“When man transgressed the divine law, his nature became evil, and he was in harmony, and not at variance, with Satan.” GC 505. We had joined the devil’s team. Adam started the whole thing rolling. Now, all of this has an effect upon us that is similar to heredity and by the fact that we did not choose it. It came about because our king was conquered, and therefore all his subjects were conquered with him.
Some people do not understand the kingship of Adam and that we are his subjects. In the Old Testament patriarchal system, the eldest son received the birthright. The birthright made him, first of all, priest in the clan. Second, it made him king; and thirdly, he received as an inheritance a double portion of his father’s properties. The eldest son of all living on this earth is Adam. He is rightfully priest and king and has a double portion. No matter how you approach the problem, Adam was king, and all the younger brothers (the rest of us) are subject unto him. We do not understand kingdoms and monarchies very well because most of us have not lived in them; and we are talking about a typical, ideal monarchy and not the provisional type that they have in these days that are very much like a democracy. Adam was a true monarch, and when Satan overcame him, he overcame Adam’s subjects as well; just as in the old days when a king was conquered or killed, the whole nation was enslaved.
We all are descendants of Adam and subjects of the kingdom that he once ruled in this world. Satan took over that kingdom and now we are all his subjects and are enslaved by him. He claims that we belong to him. This defeat, this captivity, and this harmony with Satan’s nature are passed on to us. This happened when Adam, our first king, succumbed.
The opposite is also true. When Jesus came, He was a new King. Not many people recognized Him, but some of the heathen kings from the east knew that He was King. They knew He was God and they brought Him king’s gifts, and they worshipped Him as King and as God. When Jesus came preaching, He talked about His kingdom, for He was King of the new kingdom—the kingdom of grace—that He established in His ministry.
Jesus came to undo our bondage to the kingdom of Satan, and to prove that Satan did not have that kind of control. When Christ overcame Satan in the wilderness and on Calvary’s cross, He was setting every one of His subjects free! Every one of them! Satan is a dethroned king. He is no longer conqueror. He was defeated! Every one of Christ’s subjects is a conqueror in Christ. Just as though we were defeated in Adam, so we are victorious in Christ.
These are two explanations of Romans 5:19 about how Adam made us sinners and how Christ makes us righteous. This is all accomplished by just one act of each of the two Adams. “So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life.” Romans 5:18, ASV.
We understand Adam’s one act of sin, but it is a little more difficult to understand Christ’s one act of righteousness. What was that one act of righteousness? Since Christ did no sin, His whole life was righteous. What is that one act of perfect righteousness by which many are made righteous?
Recall the quote from page 18 of Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing that “righteousness is love.” John taught that God is love, and since the law is a transcript of God’s character, the law is love; and therefore the keeping of the law is love. For this reason, obedience is righteousness, and that is love. Righteousness is love. Therefore, the greatest act of righteousness is the greatest act of love. By that one perfect act of righteousness, or of love, He made many righteous.
I would like to suggest that Jesus defined that one, perfect act when He explained to His disciples that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13. You cannot conceive of a greater act of love than this, and therefore it is the greatest righteousness. Calvary was that one perfect act of righteousness where Jesus laid down His life for His friends. Therefore, the one righteous act is the death of Jesus on the cross. There is nothing else like it. It stands apart distinctly as does the sin of Adam in the garden. These two acts of the two Adams have an unusual quality in them.
First, look at Adam’s quality, or problem. The serpent said to Eve, “ye shall be as gods.” Genesis 3:5. Then she went to her husband after she had eaten and tempted him. Ellen White described how Adam and Eve felt: “She reasoned that this must be true [Satan’s lie that they would not die], for she felt no evidence of God’s displeasure, but on the contrary realized a delicious, exhilarating influence, thrilling every faculty with new life, such, she imagined, as inspired the heavenly messengers.” PP 56. The quote continues speaking of Adam: “After all, he reasoned, might not the words of the wise serpent be true? Eve was before him, as beautiful and apparently as innocent as before this act of disobedience. She expressed greater love for him than before. No sign of death appeared in her, and he decided to brave the consequences. He seized the fruit and quickly ate. After his transgression Adam at first imagined himself entering upon a higher state of existence.” PP 56,57. He thought he had become like God. This was part of the temptation, and this was part of his sin.
The Bible talks about the second Adam and His one perfect act of righteousness: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:6-8. The first Adam said, “I want to be like God,” and he imagined himself as though he were. The second Adam, who is God, left His throne. He thought it not something to grasp at that He must attain to. He left heaven and made Himself of no reputation. He became a human being and a servant to mankind. And as a man He humbled Himself even lower “and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:8.
Jesus’ life was one of condescension where He went down and further down. Adam wanted to rise higher and higher and be like God. Which act is God-likeness? Which is the direction that leads toward God? God is righteousness. God is love. Adam was the opposite. He conformed to the nature of Satan when he aspired to be like God, for Satan said, “I will be like the most High.” Isaiah 14:14. Adam became just like Satan.
Jesus, who was God, became a man, and humbled Himself, even to the point of dying on a cross like a common criminal. In that one righteous act we see more of God’s true character than perhaps in any other act of the Bible; for God is love, and God so loved the world that He gave His Son to do that. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. God was lowering Himself, way down even unto the death of the cross. The Father did not forsake His Son. He was with Him in all of that experience.
How do you imagine yourself to be God-like? Are there any of us who, like Adam, have not aspired to climb up to some more exhilarating position or experience? Jesus tells us by His condescension that if we want to rise higher, we must be like Him. To be condescending and humble is to be God-like. In God’s kingdom, the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life. This love is self-sacrificing, self-denying, self-forgetful. God did not think of Himself. He thought of us. He did all this for us because He so loved us. He wanted to save us. By that one righteous act, many were made righteous. God was manifesting selfrenouncing love, and that love does something to us.
Calvary is much more than dying for us. Calvary is righteous living at its most exalted level. Calvary is not dying. Calvary is living! Calvary is seeing God made manifest as a human in the fullness of His glory and love. There our God was living, showing us His love, doing for men what they cannot do for themselves. There you see the righteousness of God demonstrated right before your eyes in the magnificent glory of His character, radiating out to us. He does more than make up for the past where we failed. Calvary is the transforming power, for the power of His love comes down and changes our hearts. “We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. And as day by day I come to Calvary and kneel there, it is doing something for me. It is more than one act of justification at the beginning of my Christian experience. Every day of my life His love is manifested in Calvary, and that has a molding influence. It is a power for good, a power of righteousness; and as I kneel there, the Potter still is working and the clay is still being molded. The pot is never finished until the life is over. It is not finished when I am justified. The Potter keeps on working, and He molds me by the one righteous act of Calvary, over and over again until my heart is melted and the clay is softened, and He is able to change the rough corners of my life, until I grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ, and you behold Him in me.
The one righteous act made many righteous. Friend, we must never minimize Calvary. There was a good reason why Ellen White wrote that we ought to spend a thoughtful hour each day beholding those scenes, for only there do I truly comprehend the magnificence, the grandeur, the magnitude of the love of God for me.
By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. But those other verses say, where sin abounded, what happened? Grace did much more abound. The results of Adam’s sin were tremendous, but that did not matter. The second Adam came and overwhelmed all those evil consequences. Grace much more abounded. The love of God can do more than take care of the past. He leads us into a more glorious experience so we would be higher—as though we had never fallen. That is where He leads us. And all by one righteous act of our Father, for Jesus is called Father; and of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Will you receive Him as your Savior from all sin? Will you make Him the Ruler of your whole life and be subject unto Him? Will you say as did Thomas, “My Lord and my God. Rule me, dominate me, use me, mold me, make me righteous.” This is the magnificence of the plan of salvation—Christ our righteousness. May God help us to know and understand and receive what Jesus has done for us in what the Bible calls the one act of perfect righteousness.