Phil 3:9 – And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.
The only righteousness that is acceptable to God is that which comes by faith in Christ. No matter how good or moral or upstanding we may have lived before, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and arrive at the cross in the same lost condition. It is there that we repent, throw ourselves on the mercy of God and receive the gift of salvation and the righteousness of God that comes by faith. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph 2:8-9).
Faith in Christ is the only key by which we gain entrance into the kingdom, and then as we practice an ongoing and abiding faith, Christ sustains us. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall *live* by faith (Rom 1:17). The ”just” are not merely “trusting in what Christ did for us” as if simply believing in and acknowledging a past event, they are living out an abiding and continuing faith which results in Christ working in them, changing them and transforming them. So, the practice of righteousness that comes forth is not “our own” or coming from our own efforts, but the result of inward work of the Holy Spirit that comes by faith. But it’s important to understand that it does indeed “come forth” as a fruit and an evidence of that inward work and we can test the authenticity of our faith by that measure. In fact we are encouraged to “test ourselves” to see if we are in the faith (2 Cor 13:5).
We will be, in practice, forsaking the old man and: “putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph 4:24)”. If a Christian continues walking in sin and unrighteousness after being redeemed, cleansed and made new, it simply means they have not properly received the imputed righteousness of Christ that comes by faith, OR they have fallen from it and they need to repent and return to the Lord. If the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is not transforming our lives and resulting in the practice of righteousness and true holiness, then we need to realize and acknowledge that something is wrong with our faith and it needs our serious attention.
Sadly, this truth has been buried these days in a clever counterfeit that says something like this: “You just need to believe that since Christ has made you righteous, then you are and God always ‘sees you’ as righteous no matter what you do or how you behave as a believer. God will essentially overlook any continuance of sin and see you as righteous anyway…..”. Isn’t that what we’ve heard? That’s the counterfeit. The proper imputation of Christ’s righteousness will result in fruit coming forth from our lives, which is why the Apostle John said: By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother (1 Jn 3:10).
A day is coming when God will separate the wheat from the tares in His house, from those who walk in and practice the righteousness that comes by faith and those who do iniquity: The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matt 13:41-43).