Him to be what He was. "We did not esteem Him stricken, smitten of God"; we reckoned Him to be
1. "TO them that have obtained like precious faith with us," i.e. with us Jews, who have believed
now, and with all our fathers of the past ages, "through (or more properly in) the righteousness of
Him who is our God and Savior." Thus that which is elsewhere called "the righteousness of God" is
here called "the righteousness of our God and Savior," i.e. of Christ. So that "the righteousness of
Christ" is a scriptural expression.
2. In the high priest's breastplate were twelve precious stones, on which the names of the twelve
tribes were written. The names thus graven shone with all the glory of the gems which contained
them. Thus are our names written on the breastplate of the greater High Priest, not only for
remembrance, but for glory. They are enveloped in His glory, and shine as if all that glory were their
own. The luster of the sardius, and the topaz, and the diamond, chased in gold, took away that which
was dark and earthly about the name, or the person, or the tribe; so the more resplendent luster of the
heavenly gems which glitter in the breastplate of the great Intercessor, not only hides all that is
unlustrous in us, but gives to us a beauty such as belongs only to Him.
3. See the Greek of Isa 53:3,4. "He was despised, and we esteemed Him not"; i.e. refused to reckon
Him to be what He was. "We did not esteem Him stricken, smitten of God"; we reckoned Him to be
under the curse of God. The word in these two sentences is the same as is elsewhere rendered
'imputed.''
4. "Justifying righteousness is the doing and suffering of Christ when He was in the world. This is
clear, because we are said to be justified by His obedience-His obedience to the law (Rom 5:19,10:4).
This righteousness resides in and with the person of Christ; it is of a justifying virtue only by
imputation, i.e. by God's reckoning it to us, even as our sins made the Lord Jesus a sinner, nay sin,
i.e. by God's reckoning it to Him. The righteousness of God, i.e. a righteousness of God's completing,
a righteousness of God's bestowing, a righteousness that God gives unto and puts upon all them that
believe,-a righteousness that stands in the works of Christ, and that is imputed both by the grace and
justice of God. The righteousness by which we stand just before God, from the curse, was performed
long ago by the person of Christ." - BUNYAN'S Sermon on Justification by Imputed Righteousness.
5. Thus old Anthony Burgess, in 1655, wrote regarding imputation:' The righteousness the believer
hath is imputed. It is an accounted or reckoned righteousness to him; it is not that which he hath
inherently in himself, but God through Christ doth esteem of him as if he had it, and so deals with
him as wholly righteous. This is a passive, not an active righteousness, -a righteousness we receive,
not that we do. This doctrine of imputed righteousness is by all erroneous persons to be judged to be
like the abomination of desolation. However heretical persons contradict one another in other things,
yet against this they are unanimously conspiring. It is well enough known what reproaches and