De jure means by right or according to law. De facto means in fact, in reality. We are using de jure righteousness to indicate that which is ascribed to us and de facto righteousness to refer to that which is actually true of us. De jure righteousness is imputed righteousness. De facto righteousness is actual righteousness of behavior.

He who believes in the justifying blood of Christ has been forgiven his past sin and disobedience to God's will. This is de jure salvation—salvation by the Lord's legal provision for us. Through it we receive the authority to be children of God. But eternal life is maintained by actual (de facto) righteousness.

There can be no Divine, eternal Life where sin and self-will are active except as God is leading the believer toward deliverance from such behaviors. Imputed (ascribed) righteousness is an initial reconciliation to God.

Imputed, de jure righteousness is not the Kingdom of God but a provision God has made so people may be able to press forward to the righteousness of behavior that is the Kingdom of God. Ignorance of the proper roles of de jure and de facto righteousness lies at the root of the current error.

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

"From their sins" not in their sins!

To be "saved" in its fullest sense is to be delivered from our sins and our self-will and to be able to live in the Presence of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not only forgiveness of the guilt of our sins but actual deliverance from the presence of sin itself.

Salvation commonly is thought of as deliverance from punishment, from Hell. Salvation is more than deliverance from Hell. Among other things, salvation is deliverance from the need to be punished in Hell.

We may be desiring an amnesty but God is desiring a change in our behavior. Until we, through Christ, overcome the world, Satan, and our lusts and self-will, we remain subject to the authority of the Lake of Fire (Revelation 2:11; 20:6).

Sin is behavior that violates the laws of God.

Self-will is our desire to exist and act independently of God.

Every human being is born with strong tendencies toward sin and self-will. We were born spiritually dead—cut off from the Presence of our Creator.

God gave His only begotten Son, Christ, to save us from our sins—not in our sins but from our sins. Christ saves us by what He Is and by what He does. Christ delivers us from our sins and our self-will. Christ separates the light of our reborn inner nature from the darkness that is in us.

When Christ has completed our salvation, our redemption from the hand of Satan and from the deadly self-will that causes us to destroy ourselves and those around us, we shall experience eternal life and the glorious freedom of the children of God. We no longer will be urged to sin against God's laws. We shall be at rest in the only lawful Will in the universe. Through Christ we are saved, rescued, delivered from all those things in us that result in death and torment.

To be continued.