In order to accomplish this grand design, the Apostle Paul had to establish the blessed fact that God justifies the ungodly based on the imputed righteousness of His Son. He had to establish the blessed fact that the moment before God justifies the ungodly sinner, before that justified sinner brings forth any fruit unto God, before that justified sinner even begins his walk of faith, before he performs any acts of obedience in terms of serving the Lord, that justified sinner is already dead to the law, dead to and freed from sin, adopted into God's family, and actually entitled to all grace here and all glory hereafter, including perfect conformity to Christ in Heaven! The Apostle Paul removes all self-righteous and legal thoughts and motives by teaching us plainly that our personal character and conduct plays no part whatsoever in these vital issues! We will become justified, which includes becoming dead to the law, dead to and freed from sin, and actually entitled to Heaven, all based on the death, the righteousness, of Christ alone. If this is not so, God forbid, we will live and die cursed by the law of God and under the dominion of sin.

Think about this. Why would we want our personal character and conduct to play a part in these matters and not attribute them to Christ and His righteousness alone? The only answer is self-righteousness and religious pride. We all by nature think so highly of our personal character and conduct and so little of the merits of Christ's obedience unto death. This is why the religions of man, even counterfeit Christianity, always makes salvation, at some stage or to some degree, conditioned on the sinner. It is true that our personal character and conduct is affected greatly by the accomplishment of all these things based on the righteousness of Christ alone, but it is also just as true that for God to be glorified, Christ to be exalted, and all boasting to be removed in us, our personal character and conduct must be totally excluded as to the ground or cause of these things. The Apostle Paul proves this by the example of marriage in Romans 7:1-4 --

• {1} Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? {2} For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. {3} So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. {4} Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

This example concerning the law of marriage is simple, clear, and known by all without exception who claim to be "Christians." We all know that only the death of the husband will satisfy God's law concerning marriage and set the wife free from that law. Nothing whatsoever that makes up or proceeds from her personal character and conduct can have any part in this matter. Absolutely nothing that she does or does not do, absolutely nothing that she might be enabled to do or not to do could ever satisfy this law of marriage. Her husband's death, and that alone, will satisfy that law and set her free. Everyone knows this.

How, then, do we become dead to the law and married to Christ? Paul tells us in verse 4. This is just as plain and simple as the law of marriage although few know this. First, to become dead to the law is to become dead in the fullest sense of the word dead. It means to be dead to the law's curse and dead to the law's demands of personal obedience in order to attain or maintain any part of salvation. The justified sinner has already attained and is already entitled to all of salvation based on the death, the righteousness, of Christ alone! We, just like the wife in 7:1-3, could never become dead to the law by anything that proceeds from our personal character and conduct. This includes all the things we highly esteem before conversion, because, as the apostle states in Romans 7:5, they are "fruit unto death" --

• {5} For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

This "fruit unto death" includes all the efforts of man in an unjustified, condemned, guilty state trying to establish a righteousness of his own. Such things are an abomination unto God (Luke 16:15) as they are the fruit of self-righteousness and unbelief. The "motions of sins, which were by the law," are not acts of immorality, nor is this referring here to the law's commands stirring up man's rebellious nature due to fallen man natural hatred of authority. It is true that fallen man has a rebellious nature, and it is true, to various degrees, that fallen man defies authority, but this is not the apostle's subject here. The Apostle Paul identifies the subject here as he identifies what it means to "bring forth fruit unto death" in other passages such as Romans 9:31-32 --

• {31} But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. {32} Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

and Philippians 3:4-6 --

• {4} Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: {5} Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; {6} Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

No one expects to be justified before God based on acts of immorality. Remember the apostle's example in Romans 7:1-4. Nothing could satisfy the law of marriage and set the woman free but the death of her husband. By the same token, nothing can satisfy God's holy law and justice in our salvation but the death, the blood, the righteousness Christ established as the sinner's Representative and Substitute. This righteousness must of necessity exclude our character and conduct as to obtaining or maintaining any part of salvation (cf. Gal. 5:2-3). Two things are certain --

• (1) Sin must of necessity bring cursedness, defilement, dominion, and eternal death!



• (2) Righteousness must of necessity bring all of salvation!

All who become dead to the law based on the righteousness of Christ alone are as sure for Heaven as if they were already there. They are already there, not yet in their own persons, but just as surely in the Person of Christ with whom they are all one (Rom. 8:30; Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1-4). All who count themselves as dead to the law based on anything else, no matter how moral, dedicated, or noble it is, even if they attribute it to God or a work of the Holy Spirit in them (Luke 18:11), are lost and under the wrath of God. They need to hear the truth of the Gospel of salvation based on the righteousness of Christ alone and flee from the wrath to come.

Salvation is attained and maintained by perfect righteousness alone, and this righteousness does not proceed from our personal character and conduct at any time to any degree! The faith that proceeds from our personal character and conduct is the fruit and effect of God the Holy Spirit working in us in regeneration and conversion (the new birth). This justifying faith believes that Christ's righteousness alone has entitled us to all of salvation, including the work of God the Holy Spirit in us! This justifying faith sees that our personal character and conduct, as well as faith itself, plays no part whatsoever in attaining or maintaining any part of salvation. This is all attributed to the sovereign grace of God based on the righteousness of Christ alone! Faith is the means of perseverance, but persevering in the faith means that we see ourselves as certain for Heaven and all of its blessings based on the imputed righteousness of Christ alone! This is the justified sinner's, the believers, hope and confidence (2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 3:6,14).

We can see then that our personal character and conduct is vitally affected when we believe that God's holy law can never again curse us for any past, present, or future sins, nor can God's holy law demand any obedience whatsoever from us in order to obtain or maintain that which we have already obtained and are fully entitled to based on the blood and righteousness of our Lord and Savior. Our personal character and conduct is vitally affected when self-righteousness and legalism is removed. Then, and only then, are we married to Christ and begin to bring forth "fruit unto God." Then, and only then, can we truly cry, "Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15), which signifies the special relationship between God our Father who justifies the ungodly based on the merits of Christ's obedience and death. Then, and only then, do we begin to love God and serve Him from a spirit of liberty and gratitude rather than bondage and legal fear. Then, and only then, can we truly rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Then, and only then, will we repent of the sin that deceives us all by nature (Rom. 7:11), the sin that is only exposed by the light of the Gospel wherein Christ's righteousness is revealed as the only ground of salvation (John 3:19-20; 16:8-11). Then, and only then, will we repent and be ashamed of all the things we once highly esteemed, the things proceeding from our personal character and conduct that we once believed helped us in some way to either attain or maintain some part of salvation (Rom. 6:21).

Once, as believers, we realize the reality of the completeness of salvation based on the righteousness of Christ (Col. 2:9-10), our personal character and conduct is vitally affected because now we behold "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). Now, we can desire to please our Heavenly Father without thoughts or motives of legalism. It is true that we must continually fight self-righteousness and legalism in our lives. We will have to fight these sinful principles as long as we are in this body, but now we have the right weapons to engage these enemies of grace and, by the power of God's grace in Christ, not by legalism, defeat them in each battle. Now, we truly know that all of our sincere attempts at obedience are pleasing to God, not because they meet up to the standard of righteousness, and not because they earn anything from God, and not because they make us more saved, or more fit, or holier, but because of three reasons:

• (1) They are performed by one who has been justified by the grace of God based on the righteousness of Christ;



• (2) They are the fruit of justifying faith; and



• (3) They are motivated by the certain assurance of salvation and final glory based on the righteousness of Christ alone.

We can now diligently and sincerely seek to avoid sin and to obey God's laws without any legalism because we know that compared to Christ's righteousness, all of our righteousnesses are "filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6). We can say with the Apostle Paul that even though we desire to please God in our personal character and conduct, we do not desire to appear before God pleading anything proceeding from our character and conduct. We desire to appear before God pleading the merits of Christ's obedience and death alone (Phil. 3:8-9).

All of these truths apply also to the reality of becoming dead to and free from sin. We become dead to sin's guilt, defilement, and dominion based solely on the righteousness of Christ. Our personal character and conduct, though greatly affected and changed as the fruit and result, has no part whatsoever in these vital issues of salvation as to the ground or cause of obtaining or maintaining salvation. Remember, God justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5), and all who are justified by His grace in Christ Jesus, become dead to the law and dead to sin before they bring forth any fruit unto God. Consider the following scriptures from Romans 6 --

• {2} God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?



• {7} For he that is dead is freed from sin.

• {17} But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. {18} Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.



• {22} But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Consider Romans 6:18. When did we become dead to sin and freed from sin? Romans 6:17 gives us the answer. It was when we believed, when we were convinced of something we heard. We heard and were convinced that God the Father is faithful and just to save us and keep us saved based on the righteousness of Christ alone. We learned and were convinced that our personal character and conduct has no part whatsoever in these vital issues of salvation! How do we become dead to and free from sin? Again, it is by the body, the death, the righteousness of Christ alone! In light of this, we who believe God's Gospel, who have repented of dead works and former idolatry, who rejoice in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh, can consider ourselves as completely dead to the law and dead to sin by virtue of what Christ did for us. We do not have to pray to be justified or to become dead to the law or dead to sin. We are already justified, dead to the law, and dead to sin. Now, we must continue to pray to be delivered from the remaining power, presence, and influence of sin, as we see this all too well in our lives (Rom. 7:24-25). But thank God, having already been justified, become dead to the law, and dead to sin, by the body of Christ, we are certain to be delivered from sin's power, presence, and influence, based on that same ground -- the righteousness of Christ freely imputed --

• Romans 8:1 -- There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.