Righteousness Lost

 

ÒWherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.Ó(Romans 5:12)

 

All the sons and daughters of Adam are all sinners. We lost all righteousness before God in the garden. We are all totally depraved. We have all gone astray from the womb speaking lies. We all drink iniquity like water. So thorough and complete is the depravity of man that even our works of righteousness are filthy rags before the holy Lord God; and we are all at our best estate altogether vanity! But these things were not always so.

 

                  God created man in righteousness and true holiness. We were all created in the image and likeness of God himself. One aspect of that created image of God was an uprightness of nature (Eccl. 7:29). How long Adam lived in this state, we do not know. But it appears to have been a relatively short period of time. Then something happened. Our father Adam sinned against God and plunged the entire human race into sin, death, and condemnation (Rom. 5:12; Ps. 14:2-3). Because Adam was our divinely appointed representative and federal head, his sin was imputed to us in divine judgment. And his sin nature was imparted to us by natural generation (Ps. 51:5; Jer. 17:9; Matt. 15:19).

 

Threefold Loss

 

By the sin and fall of our father Adam, we all suffered a threefold loss of righteousness. This is a loss that simply cannot be denied. First, when Adam sinned in the garden, he lost his righteous nature, and we did too. Before the fall, man was righteous. After the fall, he had no righteousness (Matt. 15:19). We are all, by nature, sinful, guilty, condemned, and lost.

 

                  Second, Adam lost all legal righteousness, and we did too. Because man is sinful, he cannot approach God. Adam was expelled from the garden and separated from God. Because our sins have separated us from God, we cannot approach him (1 Tim. 6:15-16).

 

                  Third, once he sinned, fallen man lost all knowledge and understanding of righteousness. As soon as he lost righteousness he went about to establish righteousness for himself, sewing fig leaves together to make himself presentable to the holy Lord God; and man has been doing the same ever since (Rom. 9:31-10:1-3).

 

                  The natural man has absolutely no idea what righteousness is, where it is to be found, or how it can be obtained. But he thinks he does (Luke 16:15). This is the first thing to be established. We have no righteousness, and no ability to produce righteousness.

 

8

None Righteous

 

Yet, our Lord said, ÒExcept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.Ó In making that statement our Lord declared that there has never been one son or daughter of Adam on this earth good enough, righteous enough, or holy enough to inherit and inhabit the kingdom of heaven. There is not now and never will be one person in heaven who is there because he was good, righteous, and holy in this world. — ÒMan at his best estate is altogether vanity.Ó — ÒOur righteousnesses are as filthy rags in GodÕs sight

 

                  We must get the idea of ÒrighteousnessÓ out of our minds and get the word ÒrighteousnessÓ out of our vocabulary, insofar as any human works are concerned in GodÕs sight. Our righteousness is filthy rags before the holy Lord God! (Isa. 64:6; Isa. 1:16-20). Every imagination of the thoughts of manÕs heart is only evil continually (Gen. 6:5). Read the Book of God and you will discover that every person in the Book who knew God, who knew the righteous character of God and had been made righteous in Christ, lamented his own utter wickedness.