By God Imputed to Us

Introduction to Imputation: The Key to Understanding Sin and Salvation

0:03 Now, will you follow in your Bibles as I read two brief and parallel portions of the Word of God? The first, from that passage which formed the focal point of our study in the adult class this morning, Romans chapter 5, Romans 5, and I shall read verse 12 and then verses 19 through 21. Romans 5, 12.

0:32 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned. Verse 19. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, shall the many be made righteous. And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound, and where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly.

1:13 That as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. And now over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20 through 22.

1:39 But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

2:06 Now, I have read in your hearing, as I have suggested, two parallel portions of the word of God. And I want to assert at the outset that it is impossible to understand the teaching of these portions apart from the biblical concept of imputation. The idea that God deals with the many by reckoning to them either the guilt or the righteousness, or the righteousness of the one. And it is in that concept that these two passages read in your hearing find their parallel.

2:50 There is guilt of the one man that comes to the many. There is the righteousness of the one man that likewise comes to the many. And I say that apart from some understanding of the biblical concept embodied in the word, imputation, these passages cannot be understood and must remain to us an unresolved puzzle. They must remain to us a misty kind of enigma.

Imputation as the Method of Justification

3:25 Now, it is just this concept of imputation which constitutes the focal point of our study this morning. Those of you who are the regular attenders upon this ministry are very much aware of the fact that we are engaged, engaged in a study that is seeking to open up the cardinal blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ. Having examined the blessings of calling and regeneration, we are now concerned with examining this great blessing that comes to us when we are called by God's grace into union with Christ, the blessing of justifying grace. And we are using the definition

4:08 of justification in the larger catechism as a framework for teaching this doctrine. Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but only for the purpose, of perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ by God imputed to them and received by faith alone.

4:52 Using this definition of justification as our model for teaching, we have looked at many scriptures which tell us that God is the author of justification, that free grace is the source, of justification, that sinners are the objects of justification, and that the essence of justification is both pardon and acceptance, and that the ground of justification is not anything done by us or wrought in us, but only the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ.

5:36 In other words, the grounds of our justification are found completely external to us. But now this brings the question into sharp focus, by what method does God actually bring us into contact with the grounds of justification? If we are justified, not on the basis of anything done by us, or anything wrought in us, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ,

6:17 by what means do we come into contact with that obedience and that full satisfaction? What is the method by which God makes over to the sinner in all of his guilt the perfect righteousness of the Son of God? And so having examined, the author, the source, the objects, the essence, and the grounds of our justification, we follow the lead of the larger catechism, and we now contemplate the method of our justification, and the catechism accurately declares the biblical method in these words,

The Importance of Theological Language: Why Imputation Matters

7:01 by God imputed to them. And so our great concern this morning will be to come to grips with this biblical concept of imputation. Now as we stand on the threshold of that study, I want to quote a recent author who said, a cheapened language both derives from and reflects a debased culture. A cheapened language both derives from and reflects a debased culture.

7:42 He then goes on to quote a modern writer who reflects this disdain and contempt for language so typical in our society. This modern author has a character called Sweeney, and this is what Sweeney says, I gotta use words when I talk to you, but if you understand or if you don't, that's nothing to me and nothing to you. We all gotta do what we gotta do. Now you see, that's the mentality in our day.

8:15 I gotta use words, because there ain't no other medium of getting sounds between us. But if you understand or if you don't, that's nothing to me, nothing to you. We all gotta do what we gotta do. You see, the only thing that matters is my own experience.

8:35 Well, as surely as a cheapened language both derives from and reflects a debased culture, so a cheapened theological language both derives from and reflects a debased Christianity and a decadent religious experience. And perhaps nothing is a greater commentary on the sad state of the church in our day than the fact that great biblical words and concepts such as imputation, are foreign language to the rank and file of evangelicals. You may as well be talking in tongues

9:19 if you were to go to the average evangelical congregation this morning and say, in fifty words or less, tell me, what does imputation mean and what is its significance for the Christian faith? And people would look at you and scratch their heads and say, what in the world is the poor man talking about? Well, it's out of deep pastoral concern that we do not absorb this debased Christianity and reflect decadent religious experience that I have the temerity to ask you for the remainder of our time this morning to put on your thinking cap and to grapple with me

10:01 in seeking to come to grips with this wonderful, this glorious, this basic, biblical concept of imputation. First of all then, consider the meaning of the word in general usage. If you say to someone, now look my friend, please don't impute those motives to me, what do you mean? You've been talking with someone and they suspect you of being jealous or envious and you say, please don't impute such low motives to me.

10:36 What do you mean when you use the word impute? Well, you mean simply, don't lay such motives to my account. Don't charge me or reckon to me such motives. Now that's the way we use the word impute in our common everyday usage.

Meaning of Imputation in Scripture

10:56 Well, what is its meaning in scriptural usage? And here is one of those rare times when our common usage of the word does indeed reflect the way in which it is used in scripture. Let me give you a couple of Old Testament examples and then several New Testament examples. We want to see that the word impute simply means to charge or to reckon something to another.

11:27 The first Old Testament example is found in Leviticus 17.4. This is not the first Old Testament usage, but the first for our teaching purposes this morning. Leviticus, chapter 17, and verse 4.

11:45 In the midst of giving directions concerning the slaughter of beasts, we read in verse 2, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons and unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or that killeth it without the camp, and hath not brought it unto the door of the tent of meeting to offer it as an oblation unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, blood shall be imputed to that man. He hath shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people. Now you see how the word impute is used?

12:28 He shall be charged with having slain that animal and refused to bring it to God as a sacrifice. So to impute means to charge him rightly or wrongly with a certain crime. In 2 Samuel 19.19 2 Samuel 19 and verse 19 we find another common usage of the word.

12:55 Perhaps we should pick up the reading with verse 18. 2 Samuel 18.18 And there went over a ferry boat to bring over the king's household and to do what he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gerah fell down before the king when he was come over the Jordan.

13:13 And he said unto the king, Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem that the king should take it to his heart. You remember Shimei was this man who cursed the king. Now when he's in the presence of the king he says, O King David, don't lay this crime to my account. Don't impute it to me and then treat me accordingly.

13:45 Do not lay the sin to my charge. Though I was guilty of it, don't hold me accountable for it. And then Psalm 32 for the final example of the usage in the Old Testament. Psalm 32 beginning with verse 1.

14:05 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. You see, the man who is forgiven, whose sin is covered, is the man to whom God will no longer charge or lay to the account of that man any iniquity. He is therefore no longer liable to punishment because no sin is laid to his charge.

14:38 So you get a feel, do you, for the meaning of the word impute? It means to lay to the charge of another and to treat accordingly. Now in the New Testament, Romans chapter 4 is the classic chapter for the use of this concept of imputing or reckoning. Romans chapter 4 and verse 6 quoting from Psalm 32 in the section in which the apostle is dealing with this great doctrine of justification.

15:11 He introduces the word impute or reckon. Even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man unto whom God reckoneth or imputeth righteousness apart from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon or impute sin. Verse 11, speaking of Abraham, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith that he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all them that believe,

15:55 though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be, here's the word again, imputed or reckoned unto them. And then verse 22 of the same chapter, wherefore also it was reckoned, it was imputed, it was put to his charge, it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. And most of the writers who seek to illustrate this wonderful truth of imputation use as an example of what imputation involves that statement in the book of Philemon. The book of Philemon, that oft-neglected little letter

16:38 in which Paul writes to his friend Philemon concerning a runaway slave named Onesimus, who has subsequently been converted, whom he is now directing to return to his legitimate master. And then he says this to Philemon concerning Onesimus, verse 18 of Philemon, But if he hath wronged thee at all, or oweth thee aught, put that to mine account. Reckon it as my debt. Transfer the debt from Onesimus to me.

17:17 Now then, in the general usage of this word in the Old and the New Testament, we see that to impute sin is to charge someone with the guilt of that sin and to treat them accordingly. The non-imputation of sin means that sin is not laid to the charge of another, and he's treated accordingly. To impute righteousness is to charge or reckon a man as completely right before the law. Not only is he not liable to punishment for breaking the law, he is a candidate for all the rewards of having kept the law.

The Three Great Acts of Imputation in Scripture

17:59 All right, we've examined how we use the word don't impute bad motives to me, don't charge them to me, don't lay them to my account and treat me accordingly. We've looked at the meaning in its general usage in the Old and the New Testaments. Now we come to the heart of our study this morning, thirdly, the predominance of the concept of imputation in Scripture. In a very real sense, it is accurate to say that the entire fabric of the Bible's doctrine of sin and salvation is made up of the biblical concept of imputation.

18:40 Now that's a very broad dogmatic statement, but I want to repeat it and then support it from the word of God. In a very real sense, it is accurate to say that the entire fabric, the entire warp and roof of the Bible's doctrine of sin and salvation is made up of this concept of imputation to be more precise, it is comprised of the three great acts of imputation. Why are you and I sitting here as sinners, you sitting and me standing? Why are we here

19:25 as sinners this morning? It's because of the reality of imputation. Why did Christ die the agonizing death of the cross? Why was he made under the law?

19:39 Why did he subject himself to all of the requirements of the law? It is because of the concept of imputation. And if there is any among us this morning who has any grounds to rejoice that before the court of heaven this morning all the claims of the law are fully met so that we can contemplate facing the righteous judge of the universe with absolute confidence that we will be fully acquitted in the last day, it is because of the reality of imputation. So consider with me then these three great acts of imputation which form the heart of the biblical doctrine

20:24 of sin and of salvation and then you will see very logically and inevitably how it works in to the doctrine of justification. The first great imputation then is the imputation of Adam's first sin to all mankind. We had an excellent background for this in our study of the previous hour. I simply by way of underscoring some of the truths Mr. Garlington set before you

20:54 ask you to turn again to Romans 5 and notice how precise is the language of the apostle particularly in verse 12. Having opened up the wonderful truth of justification based on the doing and the dying of another, Paul brings in this section of Adam in Christ, as Mr. Garlington said, not as a stream of consciousness or to fill up space, but he is answering this great question. All right, granted, we are not justified by our own works because our own works condemn us.

21:31 Granted, we are justified on the basis of what Christ did and on what Christ did alone. Granted, we come to participate in that by faith. Granted, but now behind all of that, on what basis, by what method did we come to the sinful state which demands the intervention of a redeemer? And by what method do we actually participate in the redemption of the redeemer?

22:01 And that question is answered in this section. Therefore, verse 12, as through one man's sin, entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, not as you have in the authorized version, for that all have sinned. No, that gives the impression that the rationale for death is the individual sin of every individual sinner. No, the apostle uses a construction that is more accurately rendered in the 1901 edition, death passed unto all men for that all sinned.

22:44 And where and when did the all sin? The all sinned when the one man sinned. It is through the one man that sin entered, and death then, as the inevitable consequence passes upon all, for that all in the one man did indeed pass unto the one man. That is, that all sinned.

23:12 Again in verse 19, as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. Now, could language be more plain? One man's disobedience constitutes many sinners. Or in the language of 1 Corinthians 15, 22, as in Adam, all die.

23:37 Now, how is it that by the one man's sin all are constituted sinners? How is it that through the sin of the one all have sinned? How is it that in the one man all die? There is no answer but the answer of imputation.

23:58 By a sovereign act of God, God constituted Adam, the head of the human race, God constituted him the representative, the one in whom we would stand or fall. And when Adam sinned, God charged the entire human race with that first act of disobedience. Now, that act was not ours personally. We had no existence in time.

24:32 That act was not ours in terms of the sphere of our own conscience. We had no conscious experience. We were never in the garden, let alone eat of a piece of fruit, good or bad, in the garden. And yet the Scripture says that sin was yours and that sin was mine.

24:53 And there is only one way that it can be ours. It is not ours personally. It is not ours in that sense existentially. We have not entered in and actually participated in it in our own space-time history.

25:07 It is ours in our own reputation. God reckoned Adam's sin to be ours. God lays to the charge of every member of the human race that first act of rebellion and of disobedience. And men have scoffed at this teaching.

25:27 Men have cursed at it. Men have sneered at it. Theologians have tried to bleed it away from the teaching of the Bible, but there it stands. As through the one man's disobedience the many were constituted sinners.

25:48 How? By imputation. Now granted, Adam also became defiled and polluted. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

26:00 And all the sons and daughters of Adam to the present day are not only those to whom that original disobedience has been imputed, defilement is imparted. Yes, that's granted. That's taught in the Scriptures. But the foundation of the pollution is the imputation.

The Imputation of Humanity's Sins to Jesus Christ

26:20 Fundamental to the entire fabric of the biblical doctrine of sin is the imputation of Adam's sin to all whom he represents. But then there is a second great imputation in the Bible, and that is the imputation of the sins of men, to Jesus Christ the Redeemer. To be more accurate, the sins of his people, the sins of his sheep, the sins of his own elect. Now there are many passages that teach this, but I want you to look at just two in the Old and two or three pivotal texts in the New.

27:00 First of all, Isaiah 53 and verse 6. We use the terms so lightly at times, Christ died for our sins, what do we mean? In what capacity and in what manner did he die? Well, he died, you see, within the framework of imputation.

27:17 In that classic chapter on the suffering servant of the Lord, Isaiah 53, we read in verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid the world before us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit the Lord hath laid on him and if you look at the marginal reading you'll find it says this, the Lord hath made to light upon him the iniquity of us all. This text says that in some way or another our iniquities

28:02 have come to rest upon the suffering servant of Jehovah by an activity of hatred Jehovah himself. Jehovah hath made to light upon him the iniquity of us all. And perhaps the best expositor of that concept is the passage that Mr. Lethem opened in your hearing a few weeks ago from Leviticus chapter 16, where you had on the day of atonement the two goats. The one goat is slain and its blood is brought into the presence of God. But then

28:43 there is that other goat, commonly called the scapegoat. And we read in Leviticus 16 and verse 20, And when he hath made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat, and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat. And confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins. And he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a man that is in readiness unto the wilderness. Now notice the language.

29:26 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land. The goat shall bear upon him. Now how can a goat bear sin? A goat has no moral consciousness. A

29:44 goat has no moral accountability. But you see God is giving us a beautiful picture of that great imputation which is now the focus of our study. When Aaron lays both hands upon the head of the goat, he symbolically imputes. He charges.

30:07 He lays to the account. He transfers the liability of all the sins and all the transgressions of all the nation. And the goat bears them. How? Not by moral pollution, because a goat

30:23 is incapable of that. Whatever else a poor goat does. Eating cans and eating everything else. A goat doesn't sin. He's just being a goat. He can't bear them by moral accountability.

30:36 He's not. He is not miserable to the Law of God in that sense. He certainly doesn't bear them by moral defilement and pollution. How does the goat bear them? In one way, by imputation. The sins are charged upon him,

30:52 laid to his account, put as it were upon his head in this act of transferal and symbolically bears them away. Well bring that Old Testament shadow and type into this vigorous language of the New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21, one of the most staggering verses in all of the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. Him who knew no sin, that is, Jesus Christ in his own experience, was a total

31:37 stranger to sin. He never once deviated one hair's breadth from the perfect standard of the law of God. That means from the deepest initial motions of motive and attitude and disposition to the farthest reaches of every deed and every word, our Lord's life was mathematically parallel to the holy standard of the law of God. He knew no sin. As to guilt by deviating from the law of God, as to transgression stepping

32:17 beyond the boundary of the law of God, as to pollution, he knew no sin. And now notice the next phrase. Him who knew no sin, he, God, made sin on our behalf. I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say that is some of the most shocking language in the Bible. The sinless one is made sin.

32:50 Now in what sense can Jesus Christ be made sin? Well, he cannot be made sin by actual participation in sin. That would negate the first statement. Him who knew no sin. For the moment he experienced

33:10 one area of inner consciousness or external behavior that it was not perfectly conformed to the law of God, it could not be said of him. He was separate from sinners. He knew no sin. And yet the text said he was made sin. Well, he could not be made sin in the

33:30 sense then of having guilt of his own. He could not be made sin in terms of the defilement or pollution of sin. He could not be made sin in terms of the defilement or pollution of sin. For he was wholly harmless, undefiled, says the writer of Hebrews. Well, you see

33:48 it leaves us only one way in which he could be made sin. By imputation. That is, the father charges to his son all of the guilt and all of the liability and all of the deservedness of the wrath and anger that should come upon him. And he says to him, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, I say to you, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And you see the only answer

34:28 to this text is the concept of imputation. Jesus Christ says, and blessed be God that he says it, one runaway slave who may owe a few shekels to a former master. But he says to the Father concerning all who are chosen in him, if they owe thee anything, charge that to my account. And the Father charges to the Son, makes him accountable for all the liability of all of his people

35:09 through all the ages for the entirety of their sin. And then we turn to Galatians chapter 3,

35:20 another text which cannot be understood apart from the biblical concept of the imputation, the charging of the sins of men to Christ. Galatians chapter 3, we can start the reading with verse 11, Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous shall live by faith, and the law is not of faith, but he that doeth them shall live in them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written,

36:02 Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Our Lord's manner of death with its roots in the Old Testament was to be the visible manifestation in the court of human experience of that which was transpiring in the invisible court of heaven. And the very nature of his trial and his subsequent death as a common criminal was sovereignly ordained of God to display visibly in the realm of sight what God was doing in the realm where human eyes cannot penetrate. Jesus Christ is arrested as a criminal.

36:45 He is tried as a criminal. He is put to death as a criminal. And he dies as a criminal in the eyes of all humanity. Why?

36:59 Because he was a criminal.

37:03 He was charged with sin.

37:08 Sin was laid to his account.

37:13 He appears in the role of a malefactor of a common criminal because in the court of heaven he was constituted a criminal. Not by personal involvement with sin. Not by any defilement incurred. But by imputation.

37:36 He was made a curse for us. Our sins were truly reckoned as his.

37:45 And he took them. And in taking them, the Father deals with him as the guilty one. And since the law said, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things that are written, Jesus Christ bears nothing less than that curse.

38:08 And then the vigorous language of 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 24. Speaking of our blessed Lord, Peter says, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 24, In the midst of a very practical exhortation to believers concerning patience under suffering, he then sets forth Christ as the great example of suffering. And now he says in verse 22, Who did no sin? There was never any personal defilement or guilt.

38:45 Neither was guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Now here's the text.

38:58 Who his own self bear our sins in his body upon the tree, or as the marginal reading has it, carried in his body our sins to the tree. Now do you get something of the vigor of Peter's language?

39:22 Here he is, the sinless one, and yet he's carrying sin. Well, by what method does he carry it? If he does not carry it, if he does not carry it by personal guilt as we do, if he does not carry it by personal defilement as we do, what is the only way that he can carry sin? By imputation.

39:44 It is laid to his account. It is charged to him. It is reckoned to him. And when he carries it to the tree, this reckoning is no legal fiction.

39:54 This reckoning is real. So that the sin bearing is real. It's as real as the blood that flows, poured from his holy veins, as real as the shrouded heavens which hid from him as it were, in the court of the visible, even the comfort of the warmth of the sun's rays. It was as real as the pangs that entered his soul and wrung from the depths of his soul the mysterious cry, My God, my God, why hast thou played games with me?

40:33 Now, why hast thou abandoned me? How real was the imputation? How real was the treatment of the Father, of the Son, in the midst of the imputation? As real as the fountains of hell.

40:59 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Sins that were not his by personal commission, sins that were not his, by inward defilement, sins that were his by imputation,

The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to Believers

41:19 he bore the guilt that we deserved. So that second great imputation taught in the Bible, the imputation of Adam's first sin to all mankind, the imputation of the sins of God's people to the Lord Jesus. Now, thirdly, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to all mankind. To all believers.

41:46 Romans 5 and verse 19.

41:49 How, what is the method by which we come to possess a righteousness grounded not in what we do or even in what God works in us, but solely grounded in the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ? What's the method by which we come to possess it? Here's the language of Romans 5 and verse 19. As through the one man's disobedience the many were constituted sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be constituted righteous.

42:31 It is by the imputation of the perfect obedience of Christ, his entire conformity to the law which earned life, for all those, on whose behalf he obeyed, his perfect satisfaction to all the curse, demands of the law, on behalf of all for whom he died, so that both the precepts in its demands, the penalty in its threats, fully met in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now that perfect righteousness of his doing and his dying, that perfect,

43:14 perfect righteousness of His obedience is imputed to all who are in Him by faith. This is why the last part of 2 Corinthians 5.21, and I omitted reading it purposefully, this is why it follows as the inevitable consequence of the imputation of our sins to Him. Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin on our behalf.

43:46 Why? Why was there this imputation of our sins to Christ that we might become by a counter-imputation the righteousness of God in Him? You see, if you take from the fabric of the Bible the concept of imputation, you see, if you take from the fabric of the Bible the concept of imputation, you see, if you take from the fabric of the Bible the concept of imputation, you've robbed man of the only method by which he can find acceptance with the living God. Now, having expounded briefly the meaning of the word in common usage, the meaning in Scripture, the three great imputations of Scripture,

The Basis of Imputation: Representative Union

44:29 now I want to conclude by directing your minds very quickly to what I'm calling the basis of this imputation. Is it mere sovereignty by which God, God imputes the sins of all mankind to Adam and the sins of believers to Christ and the righteousness of Christ to believers? Is it mere legal fiction, God just playing with the record books of heaven? No, no, my friends.

44:59 The basis of the imputation found in the Bible is the relationship which all mankind sustained to Adam and Adam to them and the relationship which all mankind sustained to Adam and Adam to them and the relationship which all believers sustained to Christ and Christ sustains to believers. In other words, the imputation rests upon the relationship that exists between the two men, Adam and Christ. 1 Corinthians 15.22 says, As Adam all die, God reckoned the entire human race as being in Adam,

45:41 representatively, you'll hear people use the word, there is a solidarity, that's all they mean by that. The entire human race is not conceived of in that sense as so many little individual integers with no cohesive bond that binds us as one. No, no, the original humanity existed in Adam. Had he stood, we've stood in him.

46:07 He fell, we fell in him. You say, but I didn't vote. I didn't vote for that arrangement. No, you didn't.

46:14 But you're a part of it, vote or not.

46:18 Think, it's not a matter of whether you think it's fair. But I don't like...

46:22 It's not a matter of whether you like it. God constituted the entire human race in that sense in the first Adam. As in Adam all die, sin is imputed because of the relationship he bears to us as our representative and the relationship we bear to him in that solidarity with him. And likewise, when Christ's righteousness is imputed to believers, it's because of the relationship he sustains to us and we to him.

46:58 What relationship does he sustain to us? It's a relationship that goes back to eternity. For according to Ephesians 1, 4, we were chosen in him. And in eternity, he undertook or committed himself, to undertake for all the liabilities and debts of his people.

47:20 And in time, he is identified with us in the incarnation he takes upon him, not the nature of angels, says the writer to Hebrews, but the seed of Abraham.

47:32 Thus it becometh us, he says to John, to fulfill all righteousness made of a woman made under the law. And in that incarnate state, he perfectly obeys, all of the demands of the Father, on behalf of those for whom he had become incarnate, who were precisely the same number who were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. And it is in that sense in covenant union with his own people that he lives and that he dies. This is why the scriptures can say, we were crucified with him, buried with him, raised with him, ascended with him.

48:14 Why? Because he had entered into this union with his own. And then when by faith and by the indwelling of the Spirit, there is the answer of that union from the human perspective and we are united to Christ, then you see the perfect righteousness that he has wrought becomes ours where? In him, that he might be made the righteousness of God in him.

48:42 And so it is in Christ, that that perfect righteousness is imputed to us. Now let me emphasize, it is entirely external to us. It is the righteousness of his obedience. It is the righteousness comprised of the perfection of that obedience even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.

49:04 But it is not ours just as a juggling of the books of heaven in detachment from the one who perfected that righteousness. It is the righteousness. It is the righteousness of God. It is the righteousness of God in him.

49:17 And therefore we are constituted righteous with the very righteousness of Christ when we are united to him. And therefore we can say with the prophet in the Lord, yea, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Again with the prophet we can say Isaiah 61.10, he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.

49:44 That's why the old, the old catechism is right when it says, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ, perfect obedience in full satisfaction of Christ by God imputed to them.

Pastoral Application: In Which Man Are You?

50:07 Now my friend, I want to close with asking the simple question,

50:11 in what, in which man are you this morning? There's a sense in which every one of us is beheld by God, either in Adam or in Christ.

50:26 And there's no neutral ground. Where are you this morning?

50:31 In Adam, condemnation. Death, judgment, the horrors of the hell to come.

50:44 In Christ, perfect righteousness imputed. All the claims of the law satisfied. Its threats forever silent.

50:57 Its demands, no longer held over me as a path of life, but as a gracious guide as to how I can please my heavenly Father, knowing that if I displease Him, I may come under His fatherly frown, but I shall never come under His condemnation as the judge of the universe. Why? The guilt of all my sins were pronounced over His holy head, not by Aaron, but by the Father Himself.

51:33 And my guilt being transferred to Him, that guilt is no longer resting upon me. In which man are you this morning? Are you in Adam? Are you in Christ?

51:51 Mr. Garlington was right when he said, in a real sense, only two men matter in the whole universe, Adam, Christ.

52:01 You have no choice about being in Adam. God made that choice. But my friend, you are responsible for the choice you make as to whether or not you will be incorporated into Christ. And that responsibility is the responsibility of obedience to the gospel.

52:21 Ah, but you said, Pastor Martin, you said people are in Christ, first of all, because God chose them in Christ, assumed all their obligations and liabilities in eternity. Yes, I said that because the Bible teaches it. But when it comes to whether or not you will pass out of Adam and into Christ, your responsibility is not to do with God's electing purposes, which are secret, but with the pronouncement of the gospel, which is public and general and sincere. And God says, flee from your sins, run to His Son, find in Him your righteousness, repent and believe the gospel, and in Christ,

Daily Comfort and Strength for Believers

53:06 the very righteousness of God will be yours. And child of God, you will not make much progress, in the Christian life, until you learn how to take this great theological truth of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ and make it your daily companion in the struggle with sin. For when conscience smites and the spirit is bowed down with the sense of failure and disobedience, what does one do? Where does one get a foothold to get back into the path of joyous obedience?

53:47 He must start with the reality that in spite of the failure, in spite of the disobedience, in all of their wretchedness,

54:00 He made Him to be sin, the one who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And on the ground of that fact, we go to God and we ask pardon for the sins we have committed, we ask the restoration of His fatherly smile and the sense of His fatherly love and fellowship and communion, but we do not allow ourselves to come back under a sense of condemnation and bondage to the law. It would be a reversal of God's immutable, irreversible act of imputation,

54:43 imputation of our sin to the Savior. It results in the imputation of His righteousness to us. Who is He that condemneth? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

55:00 It is God that justifies. What's the method? Imputation. I hope that word will no longer just be a 25-cent theological term to you, but it will be, as it were, a finger pointing in the direction of the Lord.

Prayer of Adoration and Intercession

55:19 Of the preciousness of salvation in Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

55:35 Our Father, our minds stagger before the weight of the wonderful and expansive treasure that is in Christ Jesus the Lord.

55:54 Our Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot fathom why You would be willing to have our sins imputed to You,

56:05 imputed in such a way as to make You chargeable with the guilt of our sin, so chargeable as to feel the pangs of the hell that we deserved.

56:19 O Lord, we desire to show our love and our appreciation for Your grace by loving You with a more pure love and serving You with a more fervent and constant zeal. We pray for those who are yet in Adam. It's a frightening thing to us, O Lord, to think that sitting here this morning are men and women over whom the sentence of eternal death hangs and only Your goodness keeps them from dropping into hell. Have mercy upon them, we pray.

56:59 May the proclamation of a perfect righteousness not only fully wrought out in another, but subsequently sincerely offered to them in the name of the God of heaven. O Holy Spirit, make that offer effectual and bring them to the place of repentance and faith. Write these truths upon our hearts. Receive our thanks that You've ever revealed them to us.

57:30 Receive our thanks that You've kept these truths alive through the ages. O God, may these truths be kept alive and brought to bear upon the conscience of our generation.

57:44 And to Your name be praise and honor and glory through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.