Grace is Good News

We can't reach righteousness, so in Christ righteousness reached us.

This is actual a marvel of biblical morality. God does not change the law. God does not lower the standard. Nor does God simply allow his righteousness to crush us. Instead the Father sends his one and only Son, Jesus Christ to be our righteousness. In doing so, Paul tells us that the law is upheld (Romans 3:31). The gospel actually upholds the law of righteousness and makes it possible for sinful people like me and you to become righteous! That's what Paul is getting at in 2 Corinthians, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians. 5:21). God makes his unattainable righteousness available to us through Christ.

The gospel does not mean the law does not have to be kept.
The gospel means the law has already been kept in Christ.

You see ...

Moralism changes the law to make righteousness attainable.
Modernism relativizes the law to make righteousness personal.
But Jesus upholds the law to make us the righteousness of God.

That's grace.

Grace changes the way we live. When we live by grace we are not devastated when we make mistakes ... we are not crushed when we learn something new about God ... we aren't shamed when we aren't perfect ... we don't boast when we do good ... because we are not dependent on a righteousness we've earned but on the righteousness we've received by grace and love.