Lesson One - Going Deeper Section 3

Romans 3:22-24
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Galatians 5:2-4
Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

Ephesians 2:4-7
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

What is the relationship between the grace of God and the righteousness of Christ?

We receive the grace of God through the righteousness of Christ. If you try to justify your life through your actions being good you have pushed yourself away from Christ. When God looks at us he sees Christ's perfection. That is what lets Him show us his Love/Mercy/Grace - even though we are imperfect.

In essence, you cannot have the grace of God without the righteousness of Christ, but it is through God's grace that we were given the gift of Christ. It's sort of a which came first, the chicken or the egg question, isn't it?