When does God impute His righteousness to a person?
God imputes His righteousness to a person when that person believes the gospel—that Christ died, was buried, shed His blood, and rose again. Just as God saw Abraham believe and counted him righteous, so God credits His own righteousness to believers. It is all of His righteousness, none of our own.
Les explains that salvation is not based on human works or trying to merit favor with God. A person cannot put God in debt by doing things and then demand heaven, because God will never owe any man anything, not even a righteous man like Abraham. Les teaches that all people are sinners by virtue of being born from Adam, and the only remedy for sin is the gospel: Christ died, was buried, shed His blood, and rose from the dead. When a person believes that gospel, just as when God saw Abraham believe, God imputes His righteousness to them. It is not our righteousness; it is all of His.