My Righteousness is Jesus Christ Himself

The following quote comes from John Bunyan (a 17th century, English writer and preacher):

“But one day…  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, as my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say to me “He wants 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.”

Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed…  Oh! methought, Christ!  Christ!  there was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes…  Now I could look from myself to him, and would reckon that all those graces of God that now were green on me, were yet but like those cracked groats and four-pence-half-pennies that rich men carry in their purses, when their gold is in their trunks at home: Oh! I saw my gold was in my trunk at home!  In Christ my Lord and Saviour.  Now Christ was all; all my righteousness, all my sanctification, and all my redemption.”