This is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. Jer. 23:6.

The most revealing name in Scripture given to Jesus, the Messiah, is the prophetic title "The Lord our Righteousness." It is given to no one else but Jesus Christ. He is the one and only revelation of perfect righteousness before God the Father, before the universe, and before all men. In His life on earth, He is the one perfect man. Righteousness became a concrete fact, not just a theory. God is not giving us a lecture on righteousness. He Himself is "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30).

Because He alone is our righteousness, there can be no other source of righteousness whatsoever. The confession of all men must be: "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10). "For I know that in me . . . dwelleth no good thing" (chap. 7:18).

Righteousness is the one thing that sinners must have to be saved. We do not possess this righteousness on our own. Otherwise we would need to be sinless. This would be another source other than Christ our Righteousness and is diametrically opposed to the teaching of Scripture. In this life we must forever look away from and out of ourselves to Christ. This is the only way we are regarded as righteous before God.

As we become increasingly conscious of the sinful nature within us, our only hope is in Christ. His righteousness is the only emancipation we have from the past. Christ alone takes the sting out of sin and robs the law of its condemning power.

We can never know in this life that we have achieved sinlessness. Therefore we have no safety within ourselves before God or in the presence of God's law. Christ is our righteousness, for the past, the present, and the future. That is our security before the universe. This is our confidence in the hour of death and can the day of judgment. "For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits of superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths-nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38, 39, N.E.B.).