This tract focuses upon the fact that it is only perfect righteousness that God’s Justice can accept. Comparative goodness or relative righteousness just will not be acceptable, no matter how good a person thinks he is. Someone who thinks that his good works and basic good living are somehow going to work in his favor when he stands before God, needs to be confronted with the fact that God can only accept perfect, flawless righteousness. Nothing less will do. And, in view of this, he needs to face up to the fact that he does not have perfect righteousness on his own.

Being perfectly righteous in God's sight is the very thing every person needs in order to NOT come under the judgment and wrath of God. Not just being good, but perfectly righteous.

However no one is perfectly righteous by nature, nor can anyone make himself perfectly righteous before God by any good works or deeds. No matter how good a person may think he is, or how good he may try to be, no one is without sin. Hence no one is perfectly righteous on his own in God's sight.

This is why God's word declares in Romans 3:23 that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." And likewise in verse 20 that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified (made righteous) in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

Now what God's word declares is true of all of us — including you. All people have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And you, along with all other people, are unable to make yourself perfectly righteous in God's sight. Trying to make up for your sins, turning over a new leaf, doing works of penance, and the like, just will not work.

In fact if people could make themselves righteous on their own then there would have been no need whatsoever for the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, to have died on the cross of Calvary as our substitute-Redeemer. It would be just as the Apostle Paul states in Galatians 2:21, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." The Lord Jesus Christ died aimlessly if you can become righteous in God's sight by your own good works.

The Only Way There Is

No, you cannot justify yourself, or make yourself perfectly righteous in God's sight, by your own good works. But the good news is that God Himself offers to justify you "freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," just as Romans 3:24 says. And indeed this is good news. For there is no way for us to be perfectly righteous before God, unless He undertakes for us.

Our Substitute-Redeemer

When the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross of Calvary in your place, He did so to completely pay the debt and penalty of your sins for you. And in doing so, Jesus Christ made it so that God not only can forgive you all of your sins, but also He made it so that God can give unto you His perfect righteousness as an absolutely free gift. As Romans 4:25 states, the Lord Jesus Christ was "delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." Hence everything you need to be perfectly righteous in God's sight was purchased for you by the Lord Jesus Christ.

God's Only Requirement

There is one condition that God has put upon His offer to justify you. And that is that you have complete faith in the sufficiency of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you. Justification in God's sight is received by us on the basis of faith alone in Christ alone. As Romans 3:26 says, "that he (God) might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." And again in Romans 4:5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."

Having faith in someone is the issue of placing your complete trust, reliance, or confidence in him; depending solely upon him and his ability to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. And this is just what placing your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ means. This is what "believing in Jesus" means. You depend upon His death payment for your sins as your only means of acceptance with God, and not upon any of your own works.

When anyone does this, then God counts his faith for righteousness, just as His gospel declares. God freely forgives him his sins and gives unto him the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And at that moment he is justified unto eternal life with God.

Have you received God's gift of perfect righteousness and eternal life? Are you perfectly righteous in God's sight? If you have never settled this issue, we urge you to settle the matter right now. And you can.

Right now and right where you are, "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." God can look upon your heart and He can see your faith. And when He sees it, He will do exactly what He says He will do — He will count your faith for righteousness. If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as your all-sufficient Savior, then the following is now true of you:

¹ Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

² By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

— K. R. Blades