Chad,

Chad,
> Righteousness/eternal life only comes through keeping the law to 
> perfection, 
> a point that Christ emphatically impresses on the lawyer who 
> challenged him:

False.  

It is clear that, "To those who by persistence in doing good seek
glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life," (Romans 
2: 7).  At the same time, it is clear that, "There is no one righteous,
not even one." (Romans 3: 10, Psalm 14: 1-3).  If your statement
here were reflective of the totality of Christ's teaching on the
subject, we would all be damned without hope.  

However, Christ also taught, "For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life."  (John 3: 16)  Thus, Christ also
taught that eternal life comes through faith.  This shows your
statement above to be false.  Eternal life comes through faith as
well as through perfect obedience to the law.

Of course, it can be argued that faith is just as impossible as
perfect obedience.  That is true.  But although the Bible never
states that there is a God-arranged means by which a man can
be changed so that he perfectly obeys the law, it does teach
that there is a God-arranged way by which righteousness is
reckoned to him.

Paul explains this in Romans.  He says about the Gospel,
"For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith
to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1: 17)
This is a righteousness of God that is revealed apart from law
and apart from the law, because it is revealed from faith to
faith.  It is that he who through faith is righteous shall live.

Paul later says, "But now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the 
prophets;  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for
there is no difference:" (Romans 3: 21-22).  The apostle
writes that this is a righteousness without the law, yet it is
witnessed by the law and the prophets.  This is a righteousness
of God that is by faith in Jesus Christ.  Both here and in the
verse quoted above, this righteousness is described as being
"righteousness of God."  Since it is "of God," a simple
genitive case in Greek, it is in no whit less righteous than the
righteousness that is an attribute of God.  At the same time
it is a righteousness by faith, from faith, to faith.  

Jesus Christ supplies this righteousness, as Paul explains,
"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance 
of God;" (Romans 3: 25)  Christ is the propitiation, set
forth by God for that specific purpose.  This is through
His blood and is for the remission of sins.

So this righteousness is on the basis of Jesus Christ and
is given through faith.  Paul writes, "For what saith the
scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted
unto him for righteousness." (Romans 4: 3)  This is
imputation.  Paul applies it to all who believe, "But to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.  Even as
David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works,"
(Romans 4: 5-6).  

And the purpose of this righteousness, which is also
called the righteousness of faith (Romans 4: 13), is that
"grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by
Jesus Christ our Lord."  (Romans 5: 21).

As you can see, Chad, there is a righteousness that comes
by grace through faith on account of Christ.  It is wholly
apart from law.  It is equal in righteousness to God's own,
but it is an imputed righteousness and not an actual one.

Jim Drickamer