Thy righteousness is in heaven

Because of Clay's encouragement, I recently relistened to John Piper's biography of John Bunyan. The sermon is full of rich insight in the areas of suffering, God's sovereignty, and Bible memory, but the most significant thought for me in the last couple days came from Bunyan's conversion experience. He says this:

"One day as I was passing into the field...this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And methought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he wants [=lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, 'The same yesterday, today, and forever.' Heb. 13:8."

What a wonderful thought that is. When we sin overtakes us and wants to condemn us, all we have to do is look to Christ and claim His perfect righteousness as ours.