"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
It is plain that if one is to get righteousness he must get it from outside himself. He must, in fact, be made into another person. He must have a life entirely different from his natural life. This is dimly recognized in the frequently expressed desire to "live a different life." That is just what everyone needs to do.
The trouble is that so many try to live another life with the old life of sin, and that is impossible. In order for one to live a different life from what he has been living, it is necessary to have a different life.
One's life is just what his ways are, and all God's ways are right. The law of God expresses His ways. His ways are as much higher than our ways as the heavens are higher than the earth.
Now the righteousness of God is something that we may have. The Saviour said to His disciples, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matt. 6:33). But where are we to seek for it? In Christ, because God has made Him for us "wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30).
It is in Him that we may be "made" the righteousness of God. But since God's righteousness is His life, it is impossible for us to have His righteousness without having His life. This life is in Christ, for Christ is God, and "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19). The only life ever lived on this earth that was perfectly righteous was the life of Christ. His life alone could resist sin. "You know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin" (1 John 3:5). The life of Christ is the righteousness of God. It is that which we are to seek. [1]
"Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Luke 11:10).
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