MERITORIOUS, IMPUTED, OR INFUSED RIGHTEOUSNESS?!- Gal.2:16…

In the world of soteriology, the study of salvation, there are 2 main beliefs that explain what happens when a man is saved. They are imputed righteousness and merited righteousness.

Imputed righteousness is when we are given the grace to believe that results in Jesus’ meritorious works righteousness from Him and placed to our account. This is what those who teach this mean when they say we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

Merited righteousness is exactly what it sounds like. Man merits his own righteousness. This is what Paul was trying to show Israelites in Rom.7 who had come to believe law keeping merited right standing with God. A self righteousness attained through blamelessly keeping the law.

But, recently I heard a Bible teacher speak of another kind if righteousness. One he called infused righteousness. And from what I could tell it is a righteousness that is attained much the same way they teach men are sanctified. A process that separates us more and more unto God as we grow in our relationship with Him.

If it seems confusing to you don’t feel bad. Because it is confusing. Especially when you know the scriptures and believe what they plainly say. Because righteousness according to the scriptures is neither imputed, merited, or infused over time.

Gal.2:16 tells us that righteousness is attained by believing in Jesus as He believed the Father. Here are the exact words Paul used in this verse- “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

When Paul says justified it is the same word in the Greek for righteousness. So what Paul is saying here is that believing in Jesus is righteousness. In fact, believing Jesus is our part of the relationship that completes the circuit that began with God first loving us. The picture that paints of our relationship with Jesus is righteousness.

And in Gal.2:17 we read Paul asking Israel that if it becomes known that we are sinners after we sought to be justified in Jesus is Christ the minister of sin? What Paul means by this is if we return to law keeping for righteousness we are sinning.

That’s why in vs.18 he said, “For if I build again the things which I destroyed(that is righteousness by works of the law), I make myself a transgressor.” A transgressor of the law because righteousness is by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law.

As Paul continues he says by the law he is dead to the law. And that this is so that he lives unto God. How? In vs.20 Paul says this happens because just as the law was nailed to the cross. So was Paul’s beep to live by it. Because now while he lives in the flesh he through by the faith of Jesus. Giving Himself for Paul to set him free from the law.

By this Paul says he does “not frustrate the grace of God”. Because if righteousness, that is our relationship with God, comes through the law, then Jesus has died for nothing.

Everyone who has believed the doctrine of original sin and sin nature twists this passage to their own destruction. Believing that Paul is referring to naughty behavior when he speaks of transgression.

When what Paul is really saying is exactly what he also wrote in Rom.7. Where he told Israel they must be dead to the law for them to be able to be joined with Jesus.

So whether a person believes in meritorious, imputed, or infused righteousness it comes from the same foundational construct of original sin and sin nature. Making it impossible for them to understand rigthteousness that is by grace through faith without works. Anyone’s works.

But, to be born again. To be saved. Paul says we must confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in our hearts by the that He has raised form the dead.

This is what Jesus told Nicodemus as well in John3:1-8. So that being born of the flesh from his mother’s womb. He would know that he needed to be born of God by His Spirit creating a spirit in him that would make him a child of God and heir to His kingdom.

Do this and you will have eternal life now. Do this and you will be made immortal at the resurrection. Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!

This message can also be heard at: https://rumble.com/v7c96pi-meritorious-imputed-and-now-infused-righteousness-gal.216.html