November 8, 2019 – Jeremiah 23:6

This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
—Jeremiah 23:6

If we deny this doctrine of salvation by grace, we turn the truth—the Word of God—into a lie.37 We subvert all Scripture that says we have been saved by grace, not by works, so that no one can boast—that salvation is God’s free gift. For if the whole personal righteousness of Jesus Christ is not the sole cause of my acceptance with God, if any work done by me was in the least looked on by God as a cause for acquitting my soul from guilt, then I have something for which I may boast. Now boasting is excluded in the great work of our redemption. But that cannot be if we are enemies to the doctrine of an imputed righteousness. It would be endless to enumerate how many texts of Scripture must be false if this doctrine is not true. Let it suffice to affirm that if we deny imputed righteousness, we may as well deny divine revelation.
Can you say, The Lord our righteousness? For entertaining this doctrine in your heads, without receiving the Lord Jesus Christ by a living faith into your hearts, will only increase your damnation. An unapplied Christ is no Christ at all.
Is Christ your sanctification as well as your outward righteousness? For the word “righteousness” in the text not only implies Christ’s personal righteousness imputed to us, but also holiness of heart worked in us. These two God has joined together. He never will separate them. If you are justified by the blood, you are also sanctified by the Spirit of the Lord. Were you ever made to detest yourselves for your actual and original sins and to loathe your own righteous acts as filthy rags? Were you ever made to see and admire the all-sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness and excited by the Spirit of God to be thirsty for the righteousness of Christ?
And after these inward conflicts, were you ever enabled to reach out the arm of faith and embrace Jesus in your souls, so that you could say, My lover is mine and I am his? If so, fear not. The Lord Christ, the everlasting God, is your righteousness. Christ has justified you.
Think on the love of Christ in dying for you! If the Lord is your righteousness, let the righteousness of your Lordbe continually in your mouth. Talk of and recommend the righteousness of Christ. Think of the greatness of the gift as well as the giver.
—George Whitefield