What a precious open greeting is this by which Peter commences his second general letter. When we commence a letter we simply say something like 'Dear......', and that is all' The New Testament letter writers used a much longer and blessed greeting. Peter, after he has introduced himself with the words 'Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ', goes on with the words of our text, which sums up the blessed condition of every born again believer to whom he wrote.
He identifies the believers he is writing to with the words 'To those' and then expresses the glorious blessing we have been granted. The first thing that we are granted is 'Faith as precious as ours'. The wonder of God's election to salvation is that we are given a precious faith. It is precious because it is faith in Jesus, and it is precious because of what we have been given the grace to believe, which is the work of Jesus that he has done to provide our salvation.
What is the salvation? Peter expresses it as 'the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ'. What is this righteousness? It is a righteousness that meets all the demands of God's holiness which opens heaven to us, and makes us welcome in heaven. It is a righteousness which is an expression of pure holiness that God requires of all who he welcomes as his family.
Jesus worked this righteousness in his sinless life and in his vicarious death for all who believe on him. We are sinners, and have no righteousness acceptable to God. We are helpless, however hard we try, to work the righteousness required for God to accept us. God sent his Son, our God and Saviour, to provide this perfect righteousness, which is then put to the account before God of all who believe in Jesus as Saviour, so to provide a righteousness for God to forgive us and remember our sins no more.
Jesus lived a perfect righteous and sinless life. This we can call his active righteousnes. Then he took reposibility for all our sins, and God then punished him with the full punishment our sins require and deserve. In this punishment he went to hell in our place, and all the suffering of eternal death in hell was visited on him. This Jesus expressed in his cry on the cross 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me'. This we can call his passive righteousness, because he passively and willingly bore our sins in his body on the cross.
When we are given the gift of faith in Jesus our God and Saviour, he met all the demands of God's holy law for us, in order that this righteousness may be imputed to us sinners so that we are welcomed by God in his eternal family in heaven.
What a precious faith this is.