Of course I see the difference! This was MY point! "Our righteousness" does not exist! It is Christ's righteousness which has been imputed to us. We did nothing, He did everything!
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The point is that HE DID SOMETHING!!!!
That has never been disputed. The question is not has Jesus done something or has God done something, but WHY did they do what they did.
How many times would you like for me to quote Romans 5:8? And it is that righteous act which makes it possible for God to justly declare us righteous.
No disagreement there.
Without it, God could not do so and remain righteous Himself.
Correct, God had to do that which His nature dictates.
No matter how many times you try you very simply will not succeed in divorcing God's righteousness from God's action.
On the contrary, you cannot divorce God's actions from His righteousness. He must act in accordance to His nature.
It is His decision (an act of the will) which makes Him righteous. Without choosing to act, His action has no virtue of any sort.
God is not "made" righteous., any more than He is "made" light or truth.
e4e said:
A righteous act proceeds from a righteous character that we have received from God.
This statement is true of us but only because we are born with a fallen nature and require God's life in order for our nature to be considered righteous but even before we are saved, we can act in the best interest of others and thus act, in that instance, righteously.
Clete, think about what you just said here. We are righteous if we have God's life and it is our nature that is righteous. This is true. Earlier you said... "Our righteousness" does not exist! That is correct, before we are given God's nature when we receive His life by His Spirit,
there is none righteous, not even one, and yet, like you said we could do those things that were righteous acts. We could perform the same acts then that we do now, but we were never righteous until we became a new creature in Christ! Why, because righteousness as a condition that brings about righteous acts, just as light is a condition that dispells the darkness.
Again this idea that no one with a fallen nature is capable of acts of righteousness is simply not Biblical. No one in the Old Testament had anything but a fallen nature and there are hundreds of actions throughout the Old Testament which God calls righteous and people whom He calls friends.
Once again, as you already affirmed...
"Our righteousness" does not exist!"
These were inaccordance with faith. Just as Abraham was accounted righteousness.
If it is not God's actions (whether in thought or deed) which makes Him righteous, then what does? How does one define righteousness apart from action?
In responding to this post, an idea came to mind.
I know that we both have about the same view of "time", and that it is not a thing. Time exists, because God is active, and there has never been a time when God has been inactive. It's a which came first scenerio, and obviously we know that God is the first and the last. Are you pouring the same meaning into righteousness as you are into the time scenerio? Are you saying that righteousness exists because God exists, and that there has never been a time when God was not active? You see the same thing can be applied to light. There has never been a time when God's light has not shined in the darkness.
Therefore the question remains, is righteousness the substance of His nature, just as light is, or is it more like time, and exists because He is active.
You might choose the latter, but I am more inclined to believe that righteousness is related to His being than to His activity.
Certainly both are worth further consideration.
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