Christ our Righteousness

​     The God-man, Christ Jesus, united a sinless humanity to Himself, that by entering into every part of our obligation as creatures and sinners to the law of God, He might bring in an everlasting righteousness. Until the law received its satisfaction in this two-fold respect, that is by obedience to its requirements and penalty for breaching its commands, the Supreme Judge could take no one into His Favor. The humanity Christ wore was made by Him an instrument which He used for the great purpose of bringing in the Righteousness of God or, to put the matter in a personal and concrete form, Christ Himself is the Righteousness of God. The Son of God made flesh, obedient in life and death, is our righteousness before God. The entrance of Christ’s sinless humanity with the law in His Heart became the central point of all time, to which previous ages look forward, and after ages look back. 

George Smeaton: Christ’s Atonement According to the Apostles