4. But his obedience implied more than all this: it implied not only doing, but suffering: suffering the whole will of God, from the time he came into the world, till _he bore our sins in his own body upon the tree_: yea, till having made a full atonement for them, _he_ bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. This is usually termed the _passive_ righteousness of Christ, the former, his _active_ righteousness. But as the active and passive righteousness of Christ were never in fact separated from each other, so we never need separate them at all, in speaking or even thinking. And it is with regard to both these conjointly, that Jesus is called _The Lord our righteousness_. II. But when is it, that any of us may truly say, _The Lord our righteousness_? In other words, when is it that the righteousness of Christ is _imputed_ to us, and in what sense is it imputed? 1. Look thro’ all the world, and all the men therein are either believers or unbelievers. The first thing then which admits of no dispute among reasonable men is this. To all believers the righteousness of Christ is imputed; to unbelievers it is not. “But when is it imputed?” When they believe. In that very hour the righteousness of Christ is theirs. It is imputed to every one that believes, as soon as he believes: faith and the righteousness of Christ are inseparable. For if he believes according to scripture, he believes in the righteousness of Christ. There is no true faith, that is, justifying faith, which hath not the righteousness of Christ for its object. 2. It is true, believers may not all speak alike; they may not all use the same language. It is not to be expected that they should: we cannot reasonably require it of them. A thousand circumstances may cause them to vary from each other, in the manner of expressing themselves. But a difference of expression does not necessarily imply a difference of sentiment. Different persons may use different expressions, and yet mean the same thing. Nothing is more common than this, although we seldom make sufficient allowance for it. Nay, it is not easy for the same persons, when they speak of the same thing at a considerable distance of time, to use exactly the same expressions, even though they retain the same sentiments. How then can we be rigorous, in requiring others, to use just the same expressions with us?