As wonderful as it is, forgiveness is only half the story of the gospel of grace. There are many people who believe God has forgiven us in Christ. Where they have trouble is the second half of the good news: That just by believing in Jesus Christ, God accounts us righteous.

Not everybody believes that - not by a long shot. Various groups have established standards of righteousness, yet they seldom agree upon what those standards should be.

Is Gold In or Out?

Not so very long ago, some groups taught that it was unrighteous to wear buttons. They used hooks and eyes for their garments and wouldn't think of wearing buttons on anything. "You wear buttons?" they'd say. "How unrighteous can you be? Shame!" Even today there are groups who teach that wearing gold is utterly sinful; you cannot possibly be righteous if you wear gold. Throughout history people have established varying standards of righteousness - always with the idea that if they adhered to this particular standard, God would accept them.

There is, however, a real problem with trying to establish a righteousness by laws or by works. The fact is, we rarely live up even to our own standards!

Each of us accepts a moral standard that we consider good and right. This is what I really am, or at least what I would be were it not for outside hindrances. Psychologists call it our "superego," our ideal self. Unfortunately, no one knows the "real me." Why? Because the "real me" is perfect. In fact, I don't even know the real me because circumstances constantly keep me from being as wonderful as I really am.

Along with the superego, psychologists talk about the "ego," which is the real self, the true you. Sadly, the true you is never up to the standards of the ideal you.

Now, if there is a vast difference between your superego and your ego, you're considered a maladjusted person. On the other hand, if you know you're not perfect and you don't have such a high standard for the ideal you, then you are congratulated as a well-adjusted person.

Psychologists often seek to bring down the standards of a person's superego by telling the patient he has set impractical goals. "Nobody is that perfect; nobody is that good," they will say. "What you are doing isn't so abnormal. Everybody does it. You shouldn't be trying to set such high standards for yourself!" These therapists are constantly trying to narrow the difference between the superego and the ego so that we might enjoy more well-balanced lives. They seek a cure by bringing down the superego.

Contrast that with the work of Jesus. He doesn't try to lower the superego; He aims to bring up the ego. He wants to lift up the real you!

Even though the real me is well below the ideal me, nevertheless I am righteous before God and He looks at me as perfectly righteous because of my faith in Jesus Christ.

This is the second aspect of the gospel of grace. First, all of your sins have been taken care of, washed, and forgiven because of your faith in Jesus Christ. Second, God looks at you as righteous because of your believing in Jesus Christ. Apart from what you are doing or not doing, apart from keeping any code of ethics, God is imputing righteousness to your account because you believe upon Jesus Christ.

This is the glorious gospel, the good news. To know that God accepts me by my faith in Jesus Christ and that my righteousness is through faith in Jesus Christ is good news indeed!

The Door Is Open

Why is it such good news? I never need to fear and say, "Oh, I dare not go to God, because I just told a lie. I just lost my temper. I just deceived that person. Oh, I have no right to ask God to help me now because I failed in that task." If my righteousness comes by my works, then Satan can bar the door to God practically all the time, because I am never doing as much as I feel I should. I am never as good as I know I ought to be. I haven't achieved my super-ego. I haven't lived up to my own standards of what I feel is right. Because I have failed to achieve those ideal standards, Satan will use my failure to keep me from coming to God. "You have no right to ask God to help you when you have just failed Him again. You know your action is displeasing to God, yet you did it anyhow. Now you're in trouble and now you want God to help you. You think He is going to listen to you? No way!"

Satan can always bar the door to God if he can cause me to look within myself and at myself. But if I am looking to Jesus Christ and I realize that I am accounted righteous because of my faith in Christ, Satan can never bar the door.

Oh, he still comes to me and says, "Chuck, you are a rotten wretch. You have no right to stand up in front of people and proclaim the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. You have no right to stand up there and teach the Word of God. You have failed in this area and you have failed in that area. You are a mess!"

I always start to smile whenever this happens, because I'm sure I have gotten by with a few things I know there are a few things he hasn't even brought up! I say to him, "Satan, you don't scare me with your accusations; you are not going to cause me to run off and hide someplace. In fact, I know that what you say is true. I know that I have failed. I know that I have a weakness. But you don't drive me from Jesus Christ; you are driving me to Him, because my only hope is the cross of Jesus Christ!"

And so I flee to the only place where I am safe, the only place where I have any hope at all. Surely I have no hope in my own self and in my own righteousness. But I have great hope in the work that Jesus Christ did for me and in the work God is doing in me by the power of His Holy Spirit as He is conforming me into the image of Christ.

Those things that I cannot do for myself, He is doing for me. Those areas where I was so weak, He has made me strong. I have recognized my weakness and I have cast myself helplessly upon Him. In those areas where I was once weak and constantly stumbling, now I stand strong because His strength has been made perfect in my weakness (see II Corinthians 12:9).

Certainly, I am not yet all that God wants me to be. Far from it! But thank God, I am not what I was. Even in my present state of imperfection, God looks upon me and accounts me righteous and holy. That is why I never want to be caught anywhere except in Christ Jesus. We must never see ourselves apart from Him.

No Degrees of Righteousness

If God has imputed the righteousness of Christ to us because we have believed, then it is folly for us to try to improve on that righteousness by doing works. We can't improve on God's righteousness. There is no way we can improve on the right standing that He has imputed to us. We are righteous. That is God's accounting of our life because we believe and trust in the work of Jesus Christ.

Our righteousness now and for eternity is a result of our simple faith in God's Son, Jesus.

No one in heaven will be boasting about how righteous they made themselves. We will not have to listen to Abraham or David or Paul go on and on about all the wonderful things they did to achieve a righteous standing before God. These men simply believed God, and their faith was accounted to them for righteousness.

None of us will stand in heaven comparing good works with one another because there will only be one who will receive glory before the throne of God. There will be only one shining star. There won't be some kind of spiritual caste system where some will bask in the glory of their works while others of us will stand in the corner wondering how we made it there at all. Jesus and Jesus alone will receive the glory for our salvation. lf it were not for Him, none of us would be there.

As Paul put it, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14). No matter how many good deeds we've done for Him, no matter how many people we lead to Him or how many churches we establish for Him, our only glory is in Jesus Christ, who died for us. Our righteousness is not a question of good works, human efforts, or in keeping certain rituals or dietary laws. Our righteousness - both here and now and for all eternity - is a result of our simple faith in God's Son, Jesus.

Righteousness by faith removes all distinctions between those who belong to Christ. I am no better than you, or you than me. We are all sinners, saved only by God's glorious grace. There is no other way to right standing before God. There is only one kind of righteousness that God will accept, and that is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

If I am seeking to relate to God on the basis of my own righteousness or my own works, or if I expect to be blessed because I have been on good behavior this week or I have read so many chapters or prayed so much, then my relationship with God is always going to be tenuous. Sometimes I will feel that my relationship with God is good and at other times I will feel that it is bad. Why? Because I am trying to relate to Him on the basis of my righteousness.

Without grace, my relationship with God is never an established reality and it is impossible to enjoy peace. If my relationship with God were dependent on how I felt or how I was living or on my own righteousness, I would not be able to relate to God most of the time.

When my relationship with God is predicated upon God's grace toward me, however, the door of blessing is never closed. God's blessings are bestowed on the basis of His grace, His unmerited favor. I never deserve or earn a blessing. The blessings that come into my life are always predicated upon God's unmerited favor to me. God loves me so much, He blesses me anyway. God is so good! The truest praise is that which rises spontaneously from our hearts as we recognize God's marvelous grace toward us.

A Stubborn Tendency

We find it very difficult to get away from the concept that our righteousness is somehow related to the works we do for God. We tend to consider some believers as more holy than others because of their performance. We can even find ourselves using this standard to judge others. If someone isn't doing the same degree of works or isn't as zealous as we are, then surely this person just isn't as righteous as we are.

It is extremely difficult to remove this idea of righteousness by works from our thinking. Because this notion is so deeply ingrained, many of us face a constant struggle with guilt feelings. Even as Christians we can find ourselves getting set up for damaging guilt episodes. Because we love God we want to adopt personal standards of conduct in keeping with our identity as children of God. Now that Christ dwells within me, I want to manifest His love, which is patient, long-suffering, kind, gentle, and merciful.

And yet how fragile that love in my life can be! I can be driving along on the freeway when a driver in front of me makes a stupid move and endangers my life. Instantly, feelings of anger come rushing into my mind. I want to lay on my horn and ride his bumper and show that idiot how I really feel about his driving. But then, after doing all these mean things, I remember that my license plate says, "CALVARY." At that moment, all my old, familiar guilt feelings pour into my heart. Accusing thoughts like, What a great witness you are! flood my mind and leave me feeling totally unrighteous. I've blown it again, failing God once more, and I'm left with a sense of total alienation from Him.

Trying to relate to God on the basis of effort and works is always a struggle. We can't know the peace Of God until we experience the grace of God.

What's difficult to grasp is that although my behavior is wrong, it has nothing to do with my right standing with God. It is so hard to disassociate the concept of works and law from the idea of righteousness! My conduct and my standing before God seem to be inseparably related, and yet they are totally unrelated.

The truth is that God Himself has imputed right standing to me simply because I believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. If keeping a list of rules such as "never get angry when driving" or "never lose your temper with your children" could have brought us into a right relationship with God, then my conduct and my standing with God would be related. But there are no rules that give life, because sin has brought alienation and death. In order for us to have life, God had to establish a New Covenant based on better promises than works-righteousness. That New Covenant is the gospel of grace.

Grace and Peace

Maybe you have been a wretch. You have been irritable and miserable and you feel that God can't possibly love you. You feel utterly disgusted with the failure of your flesh. You know that all you deserve is the back side of God's hand in judgment.

Then suddenly, out of the blue, God gives you some glorious blessing. At that moment there rises from your heart spontaneous praise to God in worship. This is the truest form of praise - the kind of worship which erupts spontaneously in response to God's grace. This is the kind of praise that says, "God is so very good to me. I don't deserve a bit of it."

Because I relate to God on the basis of grace I am never, ever, cut off from His blessings. On the other hand, if I am expecting God's intervention on my behalf on the basis of my goodness or my deeds, I am cut off much of the time.

I have discovered that the lack of God's blessings on my life has nothing to do with my outward performance, but rather stems from my lack of faith in God's grace. I have learned that God's blessing is unconditional. The more I see His blessing in my life, the more I realize how totally undeserving I am. Because of this truth, I can have glorious peace. I have no need to worry.

If we are trusting in our righteousness as the basis for our relationship with God, we will never experience consistent peace. Trying to relate to God on the basis of effort and works is always a struggle, always a strain, always pressured. If we are ever to come to know the peace of God, we must realize that this amazing grace of God first flows toward us even though we're rotten and undeserving of it.

Then, after accepting this glorious grace of God, the peace of God fills our hearts and lives. We know that He loves us - even though we are far from perfect, even though we have failed. Even when it seems as if nobody else loves us (and we don't blame them, because we don't even love ourselves), still God loves us.

Have you ever heard of the Siamese twins of the New Testament? They're the two little words, "grace and peace." They are always coupled together, in that order. We might say that the elder of the twins is grace. It is always grace and peace; we never read a salutation of peace and grace. Why? Because that would be putting the cart before the horse. The proper order is always grace and peace, because we cannot know the peace of God in our own hearts until we have first experienced the grace of God in our lives.

As Pure as Jesus

The Bible says that someone who places his faith in Jesus has been "justified." What does that mean? It means that God has granted us a standing before Him just as if we had never sinned.

This was no small feat for God to accomplish! For if we have all sinned and missed the mark, how can God look at us as if we had never sinned and still be just? If He sees our lives as they truly are and must act according to His attribute of justice, how can He treat us as though we were perfect?

This is where the power of the gospel comes in. God made the sinless Jesus to be sin for us. The Scriptures declare that God laid on the innocent Christ the iniquities of us all. Jesus literally took my place and took the punishment that was due me as a guilty sinner.

This is the glorious gospel of grace. We can have a standing of righteousness before God far superior to anything we could achieve under the law. For no matter how meticulously we try to keep the law, we always fall short. The righteousness which comes through faith in Christ, however, is imputed to us and is complete. There is nothing that can be added to it. In Christ, I have an absolutely perfect, righteous standing before God. There are no charges against me. In His eyes, I am perfect. That doesn't mean that I am a perfect man - not by a long shot! It means that Jesus Christ is perfect and I have His righteousness credited to my account because of my faith in Him.

How I praise God for the knowledge of the grace of God that He brought to my heart and for the love relationship that I have with Him! It doesn't alter. It doesn't change when I am depressed, or wrong, or angry. It is a flowing relationship that is steady and always present. He loves me when I am sweet and He loves me when I am mean. How good it is to know the grace of God and the gospel according to grace!