Imputation

Let's bow our heads once again.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that you've given us your Word.

It is the living Word.

It's the Word that gives us life.

We ask, Lord, that you would continue to use it in our body, in our people here.

We want to be formed into the maturity of Christ.

Lord, I do pray that that would happen, that you would use these venues to build us up by the power of the Holy Spirit to the praise and the glory of your precious Son, whose name we pray.

Amen.

In your Bible, let's take a look at Isaiah, chapter 61.

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

Just one verse that will start us off.

We'll have a Bible study today.

We're going to do some page flipping.

We're going to write down a lot of scriptures.

We may write down a few things, and you're going to love it.

Thank you.

You're going to love it.

Isaiah 61 verse 10.

Isaiah 61:10

says in Isaiah chapter 61 verse 10, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exalt in my God." You see the parallelism going on there? Everything that's valuable, everything that you're excited about, everything that you want to jump up and down about is found in the supreme being, the relational one, the God that created heaven and earth, the God that condescends down to us.

Isaiah 61:10

Says this, "For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation." Underline that.

God, this great God, this God that I rejoice in, this God that my soul exalts in, why do I exalt in this God?

It's because He is the God that clothes me with salvation.

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, just in case you didn't know what that meant.

The salvation, this robe of deliverance, is a garment of righteousness.

This is found in the Old Testament.

This isn't the New Testament.

This is the Old Testament, isn't it?

This is wonderful.

"As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." I mean, is this not telling us a little bit about what we know in the New Testament?

That Christ is the one that is married to this one that has snow, white, pure garments that are righteous, pure?

Well, this is what we want to talk about.

We want to talk about this great salvation.

And it comes to us through justification, which by the way is a legal declaration.

It is in the motif of a courtroom.

But what we're going to talk about is imputation, which helps us understand justification even more.

in the motif of the legal setting, but rather it is in the motif of accounting.

Imputation. That's what we're going to talk about. This is a doctrine that we should not shun. God imputes Christ-righteousness to us who are in His This is where God thinks of Christ righteousness as belonging to us.

Or it's where God regards Christ righteousness as something that we personally possess.

I'd like for us to see this motif in scripture as it's in germ form and then as it spreads out and fills the passage.

But I'd like to do this in such a way that it's, well, it's like a painting where you see a picture time and time again where you can look at that same painting and you can see a different aspect of how the artist put certain strokes together so that you see the shading or you see the depth or the intricacies of it.

to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. Here is where we will first get our picture of this idea of God clothing us with His righteousness. You remember the setting. Adam and Eve have sinned. They ate the forbidden fruit from the tree that was prohibited. And the Lord calls them out asking them questions. "Where are you? What have you done?" And then there's judgment. There's judgment that is placed upon the man and the woman and the serpent. And of course we know that in this text right here when he talks to the serpent first that in the midst of the curse we find the blessing, the blessing that there would be one that would crush his head. It's the gospel. Then he deals with the woman next and then he deals with Adam. But look at verse 20 of chapter 3. Here we're told that the man called his wife named Eve, Zoe, because she was the mother of all living. It almost sounds like at this point that Adam has trusted God, believes the promise that was given to us maybe in verse 15. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothe them. You know they hid, they hid from him, they hid from the Lord. They were naked and unashamed in chapter 2, but then when they sinned, they They couldn't stand before the piercing eyes of the Lord.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 3 · chapter mention

They thought that they could put on a little figly for something to hide themselves from the sight of God.

But it wouldn't work.

Their righteous works would not cut it.

If there was going to be forgiveness of sins, there had to be the shedding of blood.

One would have to die in their place.

Where else do you get skins?

But something innocent died in their place.

Covered them.

Clothed them.

Wow.

And that's just in the first book of the Bible.

Isn't that wonderful? Justification. Justification by faith is a marvelous doctrine that we have in Scripture, and as I stated earlier, it is in the legal setting. It is forensic. It is where we look at these declarations where someone where they once were guilty, where they were condemned, a pronouncement there now said they're not guilty. That's what happens. The Lord makes a declaration that we're no longer condemned, but he doesn't leave us there in that state. Something happens because Because that just means that we would be at ground zero and we would be neutral.

How long would it take for you to blow it again in sin on your own and fall short of God's glory?

You need real righteousness.

And that's where Christ righteousness then is given to us.

It's imputed to us.

we're back in not the forensic law motif, but now we're in the accounting motif.

That which was in the account of Christ. All of those riches, all of that righteousness, everything that he did on this earth to fulfill the demands that you failed at, that Adam failed at, all of his righteousness then was put into our account so that when God looks at the sinner that places their faith in Him, God no longer sees their unrighteousness because he sees Christ righteousness.

But it gets better than that. The The righteousness that you had, that you sinned, all of that unrighteousness was placed onto Christ into His account and He bore the wrath of every sin, of everyone who would ever believe in Him.

There is a double imputation, if you will.

unrighteousness Christ bore. His righteousness we receive. Isn't that glorious? You guys are still in Genesis, right? Let's turn to chapter 15.

[ Pause ] From Chapter 12 on for a while we will deal with Abraham, the father of the faithful.

[ Pause ] And after these things.

The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.

If you're not Abram, I am your shield.

I'm your reward.

And your reward shall be very great.

But Abram said, Oh Lord.

What will you give me?

For I continue childless in the air of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.

Abraham said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and the member of my household will be my heir." If you're not, Abraham, I'm your shield.

I'm your reward.

It's going to be great.

Lord, I believe, but help me in my unbelief.

I don't see how it's going to happen.

Well, the Lord doesn't give up on him just because he didn't see it.

You struggling with your faith?

Stick around with God.

Look to his character, look to his promises.

And behold, verse four, the word of the Lord came to him.

Just like it did in verse 1, "The word of the Lord came." Here it comes again.

"This man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son shall be your heir." And he brought him outside and said, "Look up to heaven.

Number the stars if you're able to number them." This is the Word of the Lord. What do you do with God's promises? What do you do with Holy Scripture?

You take it for what it is. You trust in it. You rely in it. You believe in Christ. You believe in God. You believe in His character. You believe in all that He has done in the past and says, "This is your character. I'm going to believe in that." Abraham, look up in the stars. Number him if you can. This is what your offspring will be like. Verse 6, look at it. And Abraham believed the Lord.

And it was counted to him as righteousness.

You see that word counted?

That's our word.

That's the imputation.

He believed and what happened?

The account of the righteousness that he needed was then credited to him as righteousness.

Isn't that great?

From the very beginning, God's people just look to their great creator and redeemer and trust Him, and that's their righteousness by trusting Him.

I don't know when Abraham was converted.

I don't know if it was chapter 12, I don't know if it was chapter 15.

But in the New Testament, Paul makes a big deal about this text right here.

Really big.

But other people, they're like, "Well, I don't know.

Chapter 12, it sounds like he was converted.

He came out of Ur of the Chaldees." I don't think we have to pick or choose.

Maybe I'm eclectic.

Maybe you don't like that, but let's just play with this one just for a minute.

Maybe it's one of those things where we need to hear the word of God and we need to keep on trusting it.

Regeneration only happens once, okay?

But maybe you're like me and you need to keep on looking to God's word so that it would boost you up, buoy you up and you see that character of God and you're like, "Yes, he is my righteousness.

I'm not trusting in my own works, I'm not trusting in my past, I'm not trusting in my parents, I'm not trusting in my baptism, I'm not trusting in any of that.

It's all filthy rags.

I'm just trusting what God says.

You trust what God says and I'll tell you this, it'll be counted to you as righteousness.

Our confession has something to say about this, chapter 11, paragraph 11.

It says, "Those God affectionately calls, He freely justifies." He freely does this.

He does this not by infusing righteousness to them, but by pardoning their sins and accounting and accepting them as righteous.

Your sins can be forgiven.

They can be blotted out and never brought up in the divine courtroom.

He does this for Christ's sake alone and not for anything produced in them or done by them.

He does not impute faith itself, the act of believing, or any other gospel obedience to them as their righteousness.

No. Instead, he imputes Christ active obedience to the whole law and passive obedience in his death as their whole and only righteousness by faith.

This faith is not self-generated. It is the gift of God.

Well, that's a summary of our confession that helps us look at all different kinds of scriptures so that we can understand this.

But do you see imputation there? Of course you do.

See the cardinal doctrine of justification. It may be defined as an act which unjust sinners are made right in the sight of a just and holy God.

And justification by faith alone means justification by the righteousness or or the merit of Christ alone, not by our goodness or our good deeds.

No. This justification is forensic. It will stand up in the courtroom.

That is that God will declare us or count us or reckon us as righteous when He imputes the righteousness of Christ into our account, which is sinfully bankrupt.

But the account of Christ is infinitely full.

Hallelujah. Well, we've seen it from Moses, right? How about let's go to the Psalms?

How about Psalm 32? Now remember, I'm trying to paint a picture. I'm wanting you guys to see the details of the brushstrokes as they are in the Old Testament. I know, I know some of you guys just want to rush right away to Romans and there's a time and there's a place for that, but everything which Paul wrote about is based upon the Old Testament. That was his Bible, his scriptures, and I want you to see that it's firmly established here. Now of course you guys know what's happening in Psalm 32. This is David, right? David sinned. You could say that he royally sinned. Starting in verse 1. "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Let me make sure I get this right. Transgression, sin, iniquity.

Iniquity. Is that what your Bible has there? There is a blessing for those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. That's imputation right there. How is that going to happen. Well you guys know how this happens. David sinned. He was confronted with his sin by the prophet. There was conviction there. And he said, "I'm the man that has sinned against you and you alone and the Lord forgave him and so it wasn't counted against him.

I love verse 10 of this chapter.

Many.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked.

You might think, oh yeah, that's in this life.

But what about the next?

Aren't they many more?

Infinitely, eternally more?

That's dreadful But the steadfast love surrounds the one whose trust is the Lord That's justification by faith alone trusting in one God who can provide me my only salvation and righteousness Hmm Be glad in the Lord and rejoice. Oh righteous shout for joy all you upright in heart Yes, that is a great salvation. What do you do with your guilt have you ever have you ever Wondered what you're going to do with your guilt No, no, not your guilty feeling Take feelings out of it remember guilt is a declaration What do you do with it?

You're like, "What do you mean, guilt?" Well, there's lots of guilt.

There's condemnation because we fell an atom.

And there's actual sin in what we think and what we say and what we do.

There's condemnation for us because of our personal sin.

because we're in Adam. But with the declaration, for those that are trusting in God and his promises because of the works of Christ, yes we are forgiven. The slate is wiped clean. There is no more chalk on the board. It hasn't been Smudged off by an eraser, it has been completely washed out.

Mutation of Christ's righteousness to ours. What do you do with your guilt? You come before God and you confess that you're guilty and that He is your only hope. Yes, in Adam we fell. There is real sin, there is real guilt, and we have the consequences of that. But when we trust in Christ and in His work, our sins He bears, His righteousness we receive. I want to make this abundantly clear. So let's look at one more stroke of the brush on this canvas by turning to the second to the last book of the Old Testament. Turn to Matthew and then go left two books to Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 3.

Zechariah 3 · chapter mention

This may be described as the gospel according to Zechariah. Some of you young people, you haven't claimed a life verse that maybe this should be a life chapter right here out of Zechariah. One that you just want to doodle in your notebooks.

You kind of want to highlight this one in your Bible because in Zechariah chapter 3, we are going to walk into once again a courtroom setting. We will see it in verse 1 right out of right as we start and then we'll also see the courtroom setting again in verse 6. Once again I'm trying to give you guys pictures of this of this wonderful doctrine. "Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand accusing him." Do you see the attorney that's pressing charges?

Zechariah 3 · chapter mention

Yes, Satan is accusing.

And the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you." Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?

Lord has chosen, elected. Yes, yes, you may be elect, but you're condemned. You're a brand.

You're perishing. Verse three, "Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed in filthy garments. Back to that motif. This is not what people should do if they're trying to serve the Lord. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments. You know what happens at justification? We're no longer condemned.

We're justified. We're no longer guilty. But as you know, that doesn't do us a whole lot of good unless we have active righteousness. Remove the filthy garments from Him. And to him, he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away, away from you." And now we see the imputation, "And I will clothe you with pure vestments." They're not your vestments, I'm going to give them to you. Isn't this wonderful? Yes, this is the gospel according to Zechariah.

So he put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord was standing by, accepted, justified.

Christian, you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but he clothes you in his righteousness.

in that, not your wrongdoings or your rightdoings.

Well there's a whole lot of other verses here, but I do want you to see the courtroom setting in verse 6, "And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua." Once again that's forensic language, it's the courtroom.

But that's all I'm going to say about that for right now.

If we wanted to hit one of the solas, we would say that salvation is by faith alone, right?

Romans 4, okay, I'm finally getting there for some of you that were just like waiting for this.

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

Who does he justify?

Not the righteous, he's justifying the ungodly.

Sinner, I'm talking to you.

You can walk out of this room right now and be forgiven of all your sins, every one of them.

His faith is counted, it is imputed, it is reckoned as righteousness, just as David speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

Decades ago the alliance of confessing evangelicals said that our theology must be faith driven and so they said we affirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice. Do you remember Galatians 2? 16? We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

See faith alone protects us from the erosion of the chief article.

That's why we deny that justification rests on the merits to be found in us or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.

You know what Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith." This isn't your own doing, it is the gift of God.

Not a result of your works, so that no one may boast.

Let's summarize what imputation is with the words of John Gershner.

He says, justification has a positive and a negative element.

It consists at once in the removal of guilt and the imputation of righteousness or the granting of righteousness.

It rescues the sinner as a brand from the burning and at the same time gives him a title to heaven.

If it failed to do either of these, it would fail to do anything.

For man, as a sinner against God, must have that enormous guilt somehow removed.

But at the same time, if he had the guilt removed, he would still be devoid of positive righteousness with no title to heaven and would also be certain to fall again into sin and condemnation.

If Christ only canceled our guilt, he would merely return the sinner to Adam's original state without Adam's original perfection of nature.

Then he hits the punchline,"There must be a double cure." We sing that, don't we?

Because in imputation, once again, Our unrighteousness is placed upon Christ on the cross.

His righteousness is then given to us.

This ought to cause us to sing and thank our savior for justifying the ungodly us through faith, where he takes on our unrighteousness and he gives us his.

Let us pray.

Oh Lord, we are so grateful for your marvelous plan of salvation that is of free grace.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you for the righteousness of Christ, for his active obedience, for his passive obedience.

Oh Lord, you are great and greatly to be praised.

You are the one that clothes us in the robe of salvation, in the garments of righteousness, and we do worship you because of this. Lord, I pray for those that are here that they would be encouraged in their faith that are in Christ, that you have done it all. We are accepted because of your beloved Son, and for those that are not in Christ that haven't placed their trust in you, Lord would you convict them of their iniquity, of their transgression of their sins and may they place their confidence in your son.

It's in Christ Jesus name we pray.