Christ our righteousness apart from the Law

Numbers 36:13 (ESV)
These are the commandments and the rules that the LORD commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

In the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. The Law was given not in the land of Canaan, but in the wilderness. It was given in enemy territory. This was to show that the Law was not something that would be imposed forever, but it was only a temporary measure to bring peple to Christ:
Romans 7:6 (ESV)
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Unlike Moses, Christ proclaimed His Law in the Gospel, not in the wilderness, but in the land of Canaan. Christ Himself is the new Law. He is the standard which we are to follow. His Law does not abolish the moral law of the Ten Commandments, but makes the standard of morality higher than the Moses ever taught:
Matthew 5:17,21-22,27-28,38-39 (ESV)
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. [21] "You have heard that it was said to those of old, ''You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.'' [22] But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ''You fool!'' will be liable to the hell of fire. [27] "You have heard that it was said, ''You shall not commit adultery.'' [28] But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. [38] "You have heard that it was said, ''An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'' [39] But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Christ is the new standard of righteousness. Christ Himself lived like this, never hating anyone, never lusting, loving His enemies to the point of death. He didn't just keep the bare minimum which was the Law, but He kept the Law to its full meaning, the spirit of the law, and not just the letter of the law. He kept it not just in outward action but also with the inner man. He loved people as His own self, and loved God with everything He was. Who can compare with this perfection of righteousness?

This is the standard of righteousness by which we shall be judged. On Judgment Day God will judge us according to everything Christ has done. God will not only judge us by looking at whether we have done this good deed or this bad deed, or whether we kept this commandment or that commandment. But He will look at Christ's life, and then look at our life, and rebuke us for every single point that was not like Christ. God will judge the world by Jesus Christ:
Romans 2:16 (ESV)
on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
We will all each be weighed in the balance with Christ on the other side of the scale. The kings of Judah's life were judged by this one thing: 'Did they live like their father King David?' David was God's standard for these kings. Likewise every person shall be compared with Christ:
1 Kings 11:6 (ESV)
So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.
1 Kings 15:3 (ESV)
And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.
1 Kings 15:11 (ESV)
And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done.

If we fall short of David's standard, how much more shall we fall short of Christ's standard? Indeed, if we are to be judged by Christ, we will all stand before God only condemned. David himself will fall short of God's glory in Christ on that Day. But the Good News is that Christ has provided us God's Righteousness as a gift to be received by faith in Him. Christ, though He had kept the Law to its fullest degree, and kept every dot and iota of it, without failing any point whatsoever, died as though He had broken ALL the laws of God. This was so that all the righteousness that which He worked for, that which He preserved, the righteousness of God Himself, could be ours by faith, through His death:
Romans 8:3-4 (ESV)
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, [4] in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
As our substitute, Christ kept the Law for us, and died also for our breaking of the Law, so that we may be wholly declared righteous on that Day of Judgment. If we haven't done enough good, Christ has got that covered, for His obedience is counted to be ours. If we have committed sins, then Christ died for us, and God sees us as already punished in Christ. And to make sure we don't sin more, Christ lives in us through the Spirit that we may be able to keep His commandments. We are thoroughly righteous before God, all because of Christ.

Moses died in the wilderness to show the weakness of the Law to give us any lasting righteousness. Righteousness which is of the Law lasts only for a moment, as it is written by the prophet:
Hosea 6:4 (ESV)
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
Following a bunch of rules may give you a spark of righteousness and momentary love to God, but will go away after a season. Trial will come and expose your heart what what is really in it, whether you really want to obey God:
Matthew 13:20-21 (ESV)
As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, [21] yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

The Law not only gives instantaneous and fading righteousness, but eventually becomes a source of temptation through the sinfulness of the human heart:
Romans 7:8-11 (ESV)
But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. [9] I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. [10] The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. [11] For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

Law does this to us, not because it is evil, but because WE are too evil for a bunch of rules. Human beings are born hating being told what to do. From childhood we have hated being commanded, by our parents and by our teachers. We hate Law and order, but we love lawlessness, the "freedom" to do whatever we want, even if it is against the nature and order that God has designed the world. We want to be God. We want our own little worlds where we can do anything that our evil hearts desire. THIS is the sin that is running in our veins that we have inherited from Adam. What can rules and commandments do for a people who hate them? It will do nothing but increase sin and rebellion. And this Bible says was the very reason why the Law was introduced:
Romans 5:20-21 (ESV)
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, [21] so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Law came to make man sinful beyond all repair that man would no longer worship himself. It came to show how ugly we really are, so that when we look at ourselves in the mirror of God's Law, we may loathe ourselves, and lose all hope in self in working ourselves to heaven. It came to show how us how evil we are, that this righteous, holy and good law would actually make us to do more evil. It came to show us how much we hate being told by God what to do, but love doing the exact opposite that God says. It came to show how much we hate God, and His will.

But there is another righteousness apart from the Law: the righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ. This righteousness is lasting righteousness. Mainly, this is because this righteousness is not ours. It is outside us, untainted by our failures. It stands as long as Christ is alive. Just as Christ has died, yet was risen, and lives forever more, and corruption has no hold on Him, corruption has no hold on our righteousness which is in Christ. Christ is our righteousness. It does not matter whether we move one inch to the left or to the right, we are righteous before God because of Christ. And since Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, so is our righteous standing before God eternally unchanging.

This incorruptible, perfect righteousness is received through faith, through hearing and believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is how Abraham became accounted to be righteous:
Genesis 15:5-6 (ESV)
And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." [6] And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Abraham believed in God's words about Jesus, and this belief was counted to God to be righteousness. Christ's righteousness was imputed to be his. It was not that the act of faith itself was righteous. Faith is virtuous indeed, and without it is impossible to please God, but it is not necessarily as though God takes that virtue to be so great that he justifies the believer. It is because Christ by grace lived and died for those who believe in Him. Faith is only a gift and the instrument that God gives to the elect, for whom Christ chose to die for, that they may be saved through believing. Christ died so that we may believe:
Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Righteousness that is by faith also is a better righteousness than that of the Law, because it is relying on another strength that this righteousness may be realized in the person, namely in sanctification. The person who is trying to be righteous by Law is basically something who is trusting in his own ability to be righteous. But the Christian believes in God's strength to change him. He does not ask that God gives him some strength in his personal attempts to become righteous, mixing God's strength with his, as though it is some joint-operation with God. But he trusts himself wholly to God, and expects God to do the entire work in and through him. The believer says that God Himself is his Strength:
Psalm 73:26 (ESV)
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

The believer has no hope in himself, but only in God. The believer realizes that his heart is wicked and cannot be trusted, that it is always bent to do evil. Therefore he trusts God to sanctify him, to change him, to make him to do that which is good. And because all things are possible to those who believe in God, this righteousness will be realized, and it will grow gradually in the believer. However, those who believe in their own strength to be sanctified will become more and more wicked and sinful. For it is written:
Galatians 3:10 (ESV)
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them."
But as it is written of those who trust in God:
Jeremiah 17:7-8 (ESV)
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. [8] He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green,and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."

Read what it says above. The man who trusts in the Lord is like a tree that will not cease to bear fruit. Fruits of the Spirit are not given by striving, but by trusting in God. God will make us bear fruit by through the roots of faith. Let us therefore put our trust in God, and give Him the glory through faith in our sanctification. Law is not of faith in God, but it is of faith in self, of a 'working hard and hoping for the best' mentality. But those who put hope in themselves will be ashamed, for they are like trees that have planted themselves in the desert. They shall have no fruits, for they have turned their backs on the river of life, but trusted in empty cisterns of their own depraved hearts. Yet they who trust in Christ, His works and His strength, shall never be ashamed. They shall rise as upon eagles' wings, and they shall run, and not be tired, for they trust in Another's strength. Let us trust Him:
Romans 9:31-33 (KJV)
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. [32] Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; [33] As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Another thing we can learn from God having given the Law in the land of Moab, is that God speaks to us in through adversity. God speaks to us through opposition, through suffering, through distress, through trouble, through hardship, and through sorrow. Jesus Christ, though He spoke the Gospel in the land of Canaan, the land at that time was occupied by the Roman Empire. He spoke the truth to His people through the thick and gross darkness that had come over the land. His appearance was like a bright light through the spiritual, social and political darkness that had come upon the land:
Isaiah 8:22, 9:1-2 (ESV)
And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. [2] The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.

It is when we are going through the bad times that we learn more about God than through the good. Only through challenges and difficulties we are able to build our character, and become mature, not through having an easy, trouble-free life. It was through the Cross, through His death, that Christ spoke to us the most than through His miracle-filled 3 year ministry. It was through the Cross that Christ was glorified to be the Name above all names. Likewise we can't have glory without the cross. We can't become like Christ without pain and hardships. Let us have the faith to hear Christ's voice through the storms of life that we go through. Through suffering we will learn more about our weakness, that we may trust the more in Christ. David's life was full of troubles, but how glorious and Christ-like was his life because of them? But he said that God delivered him from all his troubles. Through them we see that God is a God who saves, that He is our rescuer and our ever present help in the time of need. Jesus Christ is our brother born for adversity:
Proverbs 17:17 (ESV)
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Let us not be so foolish as to think that God is far away from us when we find ourselves in trouble. It may be that He is nearer to us in those times, and far away from us when we are at ease and comfortable:
Psalm 34:18 (ESV)
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
It is good to have a God who is near us when we are brokenhearted and crushed. Let us then cling on to Him who is near us, and plead for Him to rescue us, that we may glorify Him. As long as we repent of our sins, He will always hear us, and He will save us:
Psalm 34:17 (ESV)
When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
Psalm 50:15 (ESV)
and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."