Hermen. Problems: “Justification” #2. “Imputation” #1

In this part of the sermon: The concept of imputation is introduced using a bookkeeping metaphor (wages and debts) and further clarified by comparing Abraham's justification to David's description of imputed…

Paul uses the metaphor of wages and debts to explain imputation, where an external wage is credited to a person's account, illustrating that righteousness is external to the believer.

God justifies the ungodly who believe. Thirdly, this imputation is described in verse 4 by a bookkeeping metaphor. Paul places the idea of imputation or crediting in the context of wages and debts. Verse 4.

3:12 - 3:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It has to do simply with reckoning, crediting, accounting sin or righteousness to them.

The man who kills an ox or lamb outside the tabernacle has 'blood imputed to that man,' illustrating how one's own evil deeds are reckoned to them.

If he is guilty of a crime, it is reckoned as something he is guilty of and he is treated accordingly. If he has performed a righteous deed, it is reckoned as something he has indeed performed. It is reckoned to him as something he has done. Leviticus 17, 4 speaks of the man who kills an ox or lamb or goat in the camp or outside of the camp and does not bring it to the tabernacle to be offered to the Lord in the appointed way.

25:32 - 25:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It has to do simply with reckoning, crediting, accounting sin or righteousness to them.

Phinehas's act of executing judgment was 'counted to him, imputed to him for righteousness,' illustrating how one's own good deeds are reckoned to them.

Psalm 106, 31, we have reference to the act of Phinehas who executed God's judgment upon an immoral Israelite and the heathen woman with whom he was sinning. We are told that it was counted to him, imputed to him for righteousness. The righteous act that he performed was reckoned to him, put down to his account as it were. We have the example of Shimei pleading with David that his sin against the king and cursing him would not be put to his account.

26:20 - 26:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It has to do simply with reckoning, crediting, accounting sin or righteousness to them.

Shimei asks David not to 'impute iniquity unto me,' illustrating that not imputing sin is equivalent to forgiving it.

He cried in 2 Samuel 19, 19, Lord, let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me. Now, he was indeed guilty of the sin of cursing David but he is asking David not to put that sin to him, not to credit it to him or to reckon it to his account, not to impute it to him. In other words, to forgive it. To not impute sin to one who has committed sin is to forgive that sin.

26:50 - 27:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It has to do simply with reckoning, crediting, accounting sin or righteousness to them.

Bathsheba feared that she and Solomon would be 'wrongly counted offenders' after David's death, illustrating the concept of imputing wrongs to those who did not commit them.

the same concept is used at times to refer to imputing the accomplishment or the deeds of another to someone else or counting those deeds to someone who himself did not actually perform those deeds. For example, we read in 1 Kings 1, 21 that after doing that, after David's death, Bathsheba feared that her and Solomon would wrongly be counted offenders. She feared that offense or crime would be reckoned to them though they were innocent.

28:03 - 28:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It has to do simply with reckoning, crediting, accounting sin or righteousness to them.

The concept of a surety who legally accepts liability for another person's debts is used to illustrate how debts not actually one's own can be imputed.

There's at least an illustration of the concept that we're talking about. Now, this imputation of wrongs to one who has not actually committed them can under some circumstances be voluntarily undertaken in a legal manner. We see that in our own culture and legal system, for example. There's the concept of being a surety for another person, someone who has legally accepted liability for another person's debts.

28:35 - 29:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It has to do simply with reckoning, crediting, accounting sin or righteousness to them.

Paul's offer to Philemon to 'put it to Paul's account' if Onesimus wronged him illustrates the concept of voluntary imputation of another's obligations.

Those debts are not actually yours, but they are imputed to you. We have an illustration of this concept in Paul's letter to Philemon. Paul asked Philemon that if Onesimus, the runaway slave, had wronged him in any way to put it to Paul's, to his account, verse 18. Paul becomes a surety for Onesimus someone who legally makes himself responsible for another person's obligations.

29:02 - 29:29 Read in full sermon

The point: When asked about your righteousness before God, boldly answer that Christ is your righteousness, by virtue of being united to Him.

Luther's quote about boasting in Christ's living, doing, speaking, suffering, and dying as if they were one's own, illustrates the profound implications of union with Christ for imputation.

There is this great exchange by virtue of being one with Him. Imputation is rooted in some even more foundational glorious reality of our union with Jesus Christ. Because I am in Him by faith all that He suffered and all that He did is in a sense as though I suffered it and I did it. Luther puts it this way.

41:55 - 42:13 Read in full sermon