Imputed Righteousness

The teaching is that the obedience of Messiah gets placed on a believer's record, so when Yahuah looks at the man He sees somebody else's life instead. Nothing the man does afterward improves the paperwork, and nothing he fails to do damages it. Two verses hold the whole structure up, and both have been carried well outside their own fence. The filthy rags line in Isaiah 64:6 is describing a nation in open rebellion, not a man keeping the commandments — Isaiah is naming the rags of people who had quit, and the pulpit has turned it into a verdict on obedience itself. Ezekiel 18:20 says the reverse of a transfer: the righteousness of the righteous stays on him, and the wickedness of the wicked stays on him. Righteousness is not a certificate that changes hands. Blood pays what a man owes. It was never meant to live his life for him.