give & take

We hear all the time what Christ took. He took upon Himself our sins on the cross. More specifically, He took the punishment our sins deserve from the Father on the Cross. He took hell for us.

What we don't usually hear, is what He gave us. He gave us His righteousness. "Why didn't Christ just come to earth as a man and go to the cross?" some may ask. Because a vital part of Christ's work is His life as well as His death. He had to "fulfill all righteousness". He obeyed the law perfectly - doing what Adam was supposed to do (Rom 5) - and thus fulfilling the covenant of grace on our behalf. He fulfilled the law - doing what Israel was supposed to do after the Exodus.

This righteousness that Christ merited is credited to our account when we are justified (declared "not guilty"). It's not enough for Chirst to die and take our sins, He must also give us His righteousness for us to be justified.

Here's a great definition from Charles R. Biggs:
"Justification, the cardinal principle of the Reformation, is the heart of the Reformed or Presbyterian faith as truly as it is of the evangelical or Lutheran doctrine. It refers to the divine act whereby God freely makes humans, who are sinful and therefore worthy of condemnation, acceptable before a God who is holy and righteous. "Justification is forensic (that is, it is "courtroom language"). We are declared, counted or reckoned to be righteous when God imputes the righteousness of Christ (an "alien righteousness") to our account. In other words, the Judge of all the earth declares us "not guilty" when we believe because Christ was pronounced "guilty" for us on the cross. We are not first made righteous, then declared righteous; we are declared righteous by grace through faith in Christ, then made righteous! When we believe, God imputes Christ's righteousness to us 'as if' it were our own. However, it is HIS righteousness, that is why Paul says in Romans 1:17 that there is a righteousness that has been revealed from God, a righteousness not of our own, but a righteousness revealed from God and freely given to those who do not work, but to those who believe."

Justification Made Plain by C. H. Spurgeon