Imputation: The HOW of Justification

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”—Romans 5:12-21

From the scripture portion above we have before us a passage that serves as a entryway; for in this entryway there are two discoveries: (1) THE BASIS for Justification; and (2) THE BEGINNING of Sanctification. And as we move from an understanding of our salvation by justification, we will not truly grasp sanctification in the chapters that follow unless the Holy Spirit has blessed us with the revelation of IMPUTATION.

Now, even without an apprehension and understanding of these truths, they will most certainly be at work in the believer truly saved by God’s grace; nevertheless, as our minds are being renewed by the washing of the water of God’s Word, our understanding grows with the significant revelation of the knowledge of these truths through God’s Word.

Many of us have heard these words so often that sometimes it makes our heads spin: justification, sanctification, imputation. Yet, it is my earnest hope and prayer that we may understand it in terms from the text in order that our hearts will truly grasp the riches of what God has done in the believer through Christ Jesus.

Let’s define a few of our terms:

1. JUSTIFICATION is a legal act of God, whereby God declares a sinner, not only forgiven of wrong-doing, but also accepted in right-standing. It is a once-and-for-all declaration by God in the court of heaven for the sinner saved by God’s grace through faith; and though justification is a one-time declaration, the manifestation of that justification is evidenced through a continual, experiential sanctification that takes place in a sinner’s life once he or she is saved.

2. SANCTIFICATION means to be made holy. It is initially and immediately imputed to the soul by the declaration of God’s justification. Yet, there is also a very real holiness that takes place through the miracle of regeneration; that a soul dead in trespasses and sins has been made alive through faith in the Person and work of Jesus. That person is born-again. It is written, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthains 5:17). That person is holy by virtue of being miraculously changed into a new creation in Christ.

There is also an ongoing work of sanctification that grows as a person matures in Christ. It is written, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

3. IMPUTATION is HOW God justifies the helpless, hopeless, godless, sinner. This doctrine is the theme of our text, and I believe, the very key to understanding justification. It is a Biblical truth that, when it becomes clear in our thinking and understood in its clear role in justification, it will help us in our growth in grace and strengthen us in our walk of faith. Although we are not to remove justification and imputation from the continuing work of sanctification in our lives since these are eternal, infinite and heavenly truths, it helps us in our understanding to recognize imputation’s distinctive role in justification unto salvation. Okay, so what is IMPUTATION?

Imputation means, “to credit to the account of another,” or “to consider to the charge of another.” I want to illustrate it in a way so as to make it a little easier to understand—

Now, let’s say that I’m the principal of your school (even if you home school your child, that’s okay; just follow me for a moment). I have decreed that in order for your child to go to college (even if it’s many years away), he must take and pass a 613-question essay test on doctorate-level astrophysics. He must score a perfect 100%. I give your child two weeks to study but no matter how hard he studies he still does not get it. Every practice test he takes receives a failing grade because, though he gets some questions partially right, every answer must be 100% completely correct. When the day of the test arrives, instead of handing your child the test, I give it to Dr. Albert Einstein, who not only is a genius and pioneer in physics, but he also wrote the test. Dr. Einstein takes the test and then hands it to me. I take out a huge red marker and I write 100% on the paper. I take another red pen and write 100% in the grade book next to your child’s name. Then I turn at your child and say, “Congratulations, you scored a perfect 100%. You’re going to college… tuition free.”

Did your child actually score 100%? No. Your child didn’t even take the test because you know he’d fail. That’s kind of how imputation works. IMPUTATION is the “how” of justification.

LEAVE YOUR COMMENT. Let us know your thoughts.

Listen to the sermon preached on this text, Romans 5:12-21, “The Reign of Grace: the Blessed Truth about Imputation,” on November 1, 2009 at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church.

Read the previous article in this series, “The Justified Flourish by the Atonement” (Romans 5:1-11).

Imputation: The HOW of Justification

Remember Pearl Harbor!

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Remember Pearl Harbor!

Face to Face Friendship

“But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.” —Isaiah 41:8

Friendship cannot be all on one side. In this particular instance it is intended that we should know that while God was Abraham’s friend, this was not all; but Abraham was God’s friend. He received and returned the friendship of God. From one point of view Abraham was always the object of God’s pity and mercy; but by his grace the Lord lifted him also into another condition, in which he became the object of the Lord’s complacency and delight. God gave Abraham his heart, and Abraham gave God his heart. They were knit together in love. To use expressive Scriptural words, the soul of Abraham was bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord his God. Not only did the Lord speak to Abraham as he did to Moses, “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend,” but he continually treated him as his friend, and communed with him as such.

….Since Abraham was God’s friend, God accepted his pleadings, and was moved by his influence. Friends ever have an ear for friends. When Abraham pleaded with God for Sodom, the Lord patiently hearkened to his renewed pleadings. How instructive is that story of the patriarch’s pleading for Sodom! How humbly he speaks!— “I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, even I that am but dust and ashes.” Yet how boldly he

pleads! for he ventures to say, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The strain of his pleading is worthy of special note. It was not an intercession for Sodom so much as an expostulation with God— friend with friend.

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Delivered Sunday Morning, May 8, 1887

at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 33, Sermon No. 1962,

“The Friend of God”

Face to Face Friendship

Eternal Salvation Debate in New York

Eternal Salvation:

Who Makes the Final Choice, God or Man?

Reformed vs. Arminian

a debate between
Pastor Bruce Bennett & Dr. Michael Brown

May 11, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

Grace Reformed Baptist Church
36 Smith Street, Merrick, NY 11566

Download the Debate Flyer Here

Eternal Salvation Debate in New York

Sovereign Grace Baptist Pastors' Fellowship

NOT JUST FOR PASTORS

Parkers Grove Baptist Church
5730 County Rd. 71
Centre, AL 35960

pastor, Donald Guttery

May 16, 2013 Pastor’s Fellowship.
The schedule is as follows:

10:00 Bro David Ash from Hoschton, GA

11:00 Bro. Jim Gunn from Bessemer, AL
 
Lunch provided by the church

1:30 Bro. Terry Worthan from Winston, GA

For more information, please Contact Us.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Pastors' Fellowship

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Book of Martyrs 20

THE BOOK OF MARTYRS

by John Foxe

Chapter Three

Persecutions of the Christians by the Goths and Vandals

Many Scythian Goths having embraced Christianity about the time of Constantine the Great, the light of the Gospel spread itself considerably in Scythia, though the two kings who ruled that country and the majority of the people continued pagans. Fritegern, king of the West Goths, was an ally to the Romans, but Athanarich, king of the East Goths, was at war with them. The Christians, in the dominions of the former, lived unmolested, but the latter, having been defeated by the Romans, wreaked his vengeance on his Christian subjects, commencing his pagan injunctions in the year 370.

In religion the Goths were Arians, and called themselves Christians; therefore they destroyed all the statues and temples of the heathen gods, but did no harm to the orthodox Christian churches. Alaric had all the qualities of a great general. To the wild bravery of the Gothic barbarian he added the courage and skill of the Roman soldier. He led his forces across the Alps into Italy, and although driven back for the time, returned afterward with an irresistible force.

The Last Roman “Triumph”

After this fortunate victory over the Goths a “triumph,” as it was called, was celebrated at Rome. For hundreds of years successful generals had been awarded this great honor on their return from a victorious campaign. Upon such occasions the city was given up for days to the marching of troops laden with spoils, and who dragged after them prisoners of war, among whom were often captive kings and conquered generals. This was to be the last Roman triumph, for it celebrated the last Roman victory. Although it had been won by Stilicho, the general, it was the boy emperor, Honorius, who took the credit, entering Rome in the car of victory, and driving to the Capitol amid the shouts of the populace. Afterward, as was customary on such occasions, there were bloody combats in the Coliseum, where gladiators, armed with swords and spears, fought as furiously as if they were on the field of battle.

The first part of the bloody entertainment was finished; the bodies of the dead were dragged off with hooks, and the reddened sand covered with a fresh, clean layer. After this had been done the gates in the wall of the arena were thrown open, and a number of tall, well-formed men in the prime of youth and strength came forward. Some carried swords, others three-pronged spears and nets. They marched once around the walls, and stopping before the emperor, held up their weapons at arm’s length, and with one voice sounded out their greeting, Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant! “Hail, Caesar, those about to die salute thee!”

The combats now began again; the gladiators with nets tried to entangle those with swords, and when they succeeded mercilessly stabbed their antagonists to death with the three-pronged spear. When a gladiator had wounded his adversary, and had him lying helpless at his feet, he looked up at the eager faces of the spectators, and cried out, Hoc habet! “He has it!” and awaited the pleasure of the audience to kill or spare.

If the spectators held out their hands toward him, with thumbs upward, the defeated man was taken away, to recover if possible from his wounds. But if the fatal signal of “thumbs down” was given, the conquered was to be slain; and if he showed any reluctance to present his neck for the death blow, there was a scornful shout from the galleries, Recipe ferrum! “Receive the steel!” Privileged persons among the audience would even descend into the arena, to better witness the death agonies of some unusually brave victim, before his corpse was dragged out at the death gate.

The show went on; many had been slain, and the people, madly excited by the desperate bravery of those who continued to fight, shouted their applause. But suddenly there was an interruption. A rudely clad, robed figure appeared for a moment among the audience, and then boldly leaped down into the arena. He was seen to be a man of rough but imposing presence, bareheaded and with sun-browned face. Without hesitating, an instant he advanced upon two gladiators engaged in a life-and-death struggle, and laying his hand upon one of them sternly reproved him for shedding innocent blood, and then, turning toward the thousands of angry faces ranged around him, called upon them in a solemn, deep-toned, voice which resounded through the deep enclosure. These were his words: “Do not requite God’s mercy in turning away the swords of your enemies by murdering each other!”

Angry shouts and cries at once drowned his voice: “This is no place for preaching!— the old customs of Rome must be observed!— On, gladiators!” Thrusting aside the stranger, the gladiators would have again attacked each other, but the man stood between, holding them apart, and trying in vain to be heard. “Sedition! sedition! down with him!” was then the cry; and the gladiators, enraged at the interference of an outsider with their chosen vocation, at once stabbed him to death. Stones, or whatever missiles came to hand, also rained down upon him from the furious people, and thus he perished, in the midst of the arena.

His dress showed him to be one of the hermits who vowed themselves to a holy life of prayer and self-denial, and who were reverenced by even the thoughtless and combat-loving Romans. The few who knew him told how he had come from the wilds of Asia on a pilgrimage, to visit the churches and keep his Christmas at Rome; they knew he was a holy man, and that his name was Telemachus— no more. His spirit had been stirred by the sight of thousands flocking to see men slaughter one another, and in his simple-hearted zeal he had tried to convince them of the cruelty and wickedness of their conduct. He had died, but not in vain. His work was accomplished at the moment he was struck down, for the shock of such a death before their eyes turned the hearts of the people: they saw the hideous aspects of the favorite vice to which they had blindly surrendered themselves; and from the day Telemachus fell dead in the Coliseum, no other fight of gladiators was ever held there.

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Book of Martyrs 20