Salvation
Made Plain: LESSON 2
Three Imputations Given In Scripture
1. Adam’s Sin To The Human Race
If you do not see the doctrine of imputation, you will have
difficulty seeing the doctrine of Salvation. We are going to look at Scripture
– because if I cannot back up what I am saying with Scripture – then what I am saying is not worth saying. It is my business
to simply point out to you what the Bible says.
I read verses the way they aren’t so you will see
them the way they are. I am going to deliberately make a mistake –
Romans 5:12
(12) Wherefore, as by one WOMAN sin entered into the world
Why have we blamed the woman? The woman is not to blame! It wasn’t what Eve did that made us
sinners. The language couldn’t be plainer.
(12) 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.
What happened? – sin entered into the
world. And what goes along with that? – death by sin. Death passed
upon everybody because everybody sinned when the first man sinned. That’s what it means.
In Romans
Death Is A
Very Real Thing!!
Illustration
I want to share as I move in with
you. I want you to feel with me. If I don’t feel what I teach, how can
I expect you to feel anything? Now that I
have been at this for a long while, the danger is that I might use too many illustrations – but I’m
going to start back in 1937 when I was a teenager.
In 1918 my mother was dying. The doctor
gave her two weeks to live and she wasn’t saved. She used to say “I saw the flames of hell.” There
on her death bed she called out for Salvation and God saved her and healed her.
She used to go around giving her
testimony. Every dance hall and every schoolhouse was a place to give her
testimony. In 1927 and 1928 she became a fiery evangelist. She preached from about 1928 to 1938 and more
people were saved in a little community through my mother’s preaching, than through many
great
preachers today.
The first meeting that I can remember
attending when my mother preached, was when she gave her testimony at the
There were nine young men who
accepted Christ that night. One of those young men was the brother of the
father of Stan Powers. Elmer Powers accepted Christ that night, and so did
Matthew Powers. Another big fellow was an 18 year-old by the name of Reynolds. He
got up and was going to leave the schoolhouse, and the Spirit of God smote him down across the
doorway, and he got saved on his back. Everybody that went out of that meeting had to step over that
fellow.
I don’t think anybody forgot that
meeting. Nine people got saved – and if they haven’t gone to Heaven yet, they
are still walking with God today!
My mother gave birth to five children. Brother
Burnside’s wife Elsie is my oldest sister. The next was my brother Arnold. He is farming
south of
In 1930 a little baby sister came along.
Her name was Elma. In 1938 another brother Eric came along. He was 5 years old when
I got married, so I really didn’t get to know him.
My mother was one of these kinds of women
who prayed with strong crying and tears. Hebrews 5:7 speaks of Jesus who prayed with
crying and tears. My mother had a very sharp tongue – but I wasn’t afraid of
the sharpness of my mother’s tongue, as much as I was
of her prayers. She prayed the fear
of God into my heart.
We went to school five days a week, and
I suppose there would be at least three mornings out of the five (after
Dad had gone into the field), my Mom would get down and start praying like
this:
“Lord, if Elsie won’t walk with you,
take her home. I didn’t go through the pain of child birth to bring a girl into
this earth to live for the devil. I’d rather see her home with you, than serving the devil.”
I’d like to add to that. When my Dad
died in 1958, all of us came for the funeral and all of us and our spouses
were walking with the Lord. What I want to tell you is that prayer pays off!
Illustration
I want to tell you about my baby sister Elma. She was talented above all our relatives. When
she was 7 years of age (never having taken a piano lesson ) she sat
at a piano and led a congregation of 1000 people in
song. That is the kind of talent she had.
In 1937 this talented little girl suddenly
took sick with Diphtheria. We loved her so much, and we went through a terrible week.
1937 was a hot, dry year. There were no
crops and there was poverty everywhere.
There was no hospitalization and no hospital; the doctor had to come to
our home. On August 15, 1937 Arnold and I were sitting on the bed with little
Elma. We thought she was getting better, but all of a sudden she just
threw herself back on the bed and she was gone – just like that! Arnold and I sat on her bed, as our own
sister died.
There was no money to send her body away
to an undertaker, so the farmers dug the grave, and our neighbor made the casket. I can still
see my own mother (who was also sick with Diphtheria) holding that casket on
her lap and fixing the satin around the face of her little girl. The rest of us
stood around weeping, while the one we loved the most had been taken away from
us.
The next day a father and three teenage
boys (Arnold, Les, and I) carried that casket to the grave. We took those old ropes (which I hate to
this day) and we lowered that casket into the ground. My Dad jumped in and put
the lid on the rough box. Nobody else could touch it because everybody in our family
was quarantined. All the neighbors had to stand their distance.
Why do
I tell you all of that? I want to tell
you that from that day to this, I hate death!
Death is very real to me. I faced life in 1937 in a way I never faced it before – because I faced death. You really never
face life until somebody near to you dies.
Life has a way of standing up and staring you in the face. Death is very real.
Where did death come from? – right back
at the beginning. Sin was imputed to us. And because
sin was imputed to us, we don’t have to work to get it. The wages of sin is death, it goes along with the package. Because man sins, man dies.
My father went out to the field in
October 3, 1958. He always said he wanted to die with his boots on. He was a
younger man then, than I am now. We don’t know what really happened. He throttled down his big John
Deer tractor and left it idling. He got down on the ground and took his hat off,
and he was found dead right there in the field.
In 1966 when we came out to visit my
wife’s parents, the ambulance took my wife’s father to
In 1969 we were living in
Illustration
Look at that EXIT sign. Do you know what has happened to all the people before us? Every generation has been totally exited from this
world. Everybody has gone through the Exit. There hasn’t been one
generation who hasn’t been totally removed.
One day it dawned upon me that life is
like a queue line. My Gramma and Grampa stood
in front of the queue line. And then my Mom and Dad stood in front of the queue
line. And then my wife’s Mom and Dad stood in front of the queue line. And now my wife and I stand in front of
the queue line.
Do you know what happened? The first went through and we moved up a bit. And
then the next went through, and we
moved up a bit. And now, when my Mom and Dad and my wife’s Mom and Dad are
both gone – we are next! We are
standing right under the EXIT, and the only thing
that can hinder us from going through it, is the Coming of the Lord. If
the Lord doesn’t come, we are going to have
to walk through it one of these days. Death is a very real experience in this life. My
wife and I talk a lot about it now. Don’t let anybody tell you that death isn’t real.
Why
did I take all this time to talk about death? – to do this: The other subject is sin. And sin is just as real as death. If you try to get
away from the reality of death – you will try and undermine the reality of sin. God’s Word is very
specific. There are two things that human beings can do nothing about – death and sin.
Stand by the bed of somebody who is
dying and you will find out that the best hospital in the world won’t save them.
Neither will the best doctors, and the best medicine. When the hour of death
comes, there isn’t one man who can say “have me excused.” The best go out. We can’t stop it. It
is very real.
The
other thing that man can do nothing about is sin.
And that is where the Gospel
comes in. What
did Jesus come into the world to do? Jesus came into the world to do something
about sin, and to do
something about death. His resurrection proves that He
did something about death, and it proves that
He did something about sin. The Gospel has to do with somebody Who came to do something about something we couldn’t do anything about.
Illustration
Men do not want to be told that they are sinners. This thing is
eroding evangelism today. In the May
1983 edition of Moody Magazine there was an article regarding Robert Schuller. He
was promoting a book he had written.
The article said that….. Robert
Schuller did not believe in the full
inspiration of the Scriptures.
I want to warn you. Beware of
anybody who does not believe in the full Inspiration of the Scripture. That is becoming a watershed today.
Schuller claims that….. the truth is
only now revealed by him.
Beware of anybody who says that. All cults have been built by
people who have claimed to have all the truth.
Schuller says (I am quoting from the
article)
What would Jesus say if he could speak to us today? Would
he tell us what miserable sinners we
are? – I think not.
Deep down in our hearts I believe we know what Jesus would say. He would
say something like this:
“You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. You are a
child of the eternal. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Receive and
enjoy the fruit of Salvation – self esteem and self-worth.”
There was a dear old brother who lived
over in the towers, across from
Schuller’s book falls into the formula
of converting nobody.
In his attempt to bring a new reformation, he has merely proposed an unbiblical solution to
man’s need of repentance from sin. Later on in this article Schuller says:
Don’t tell a man he is a sinner.
That is
the worst thing you can do. If you don’t
tell a man he is a sinner, he won’t
be interested in Salvation!
I sat under a preacher who used to say:
You worm on the dung hill! All human
beings are worms on the dung hill of sin. Some are at the bottom of the heap –
some are on the top – but we are all on the
dung hill. You’ve got the up and outers, and you’ve got the down and outers – but
we are all on the dung hill of sin. And that is
where I am. I’m
only a sinner saved by Grace.
The song goes:
Sinners – sinners – sinners – sinners – Jesus will receive.
Sound the word of grace to all
If you are not a sinner, you are not interested in Salvation. Salvation is not for good people, Salvation is
for bad people.
Illustration
A student gave me this article last
year. It says:
Joan Collins and her new husband Peter Holm are “partners
in sin” – but her response to this poll proves she has a
conscience.
It has been said that
Joan Collins claims to be born again – but I don’t know! This is out of People Magazine. They sent out
this poll, and here is what Joan said:
Homosexuality is fine but within reason – like if two
hairdressers lived together, that’s OK.
Mercy killings of the terminally-ill are justifiable when
the patients are vegetables
This next one kind of
bowls me over.
Pre-marital sex is perfectly normal. What
once was called sin is
really not sin anymore. I
don’t want my children, Tera 22, Sasha 20, and Kathy 13, to marry unless they have
lived with the person for at least one year.
I can’t imagine a
mother saying that – especially a mother who claims to know the Lord! She goes on:
Divorce is better than an unhappy marriage.
Pornography is acceptable for barren sex lives.
Tax cheating isn’t exactly sin – it is just wrong.
On and on she goes!
It is no wonder Philippians says that we live
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
What’s the whole tender of this? – to
make sin acceptable. If you are going to believe your Bible – sin is not acceptable to God.
Something had to be done about sin. The foundation of Salvation is right there.
Psalms 51:5
(5) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my
mother conceive me.
I want you to get this straight in your
thinking. Will you remember that Eve was Adam’s wife before the fall. The
relationship between a man and a woman is not the result of the fall. I repeat – Eve was a wife before the fall. Read it
again.
Psalms 51:5
(5) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my
mother conceive me.
Make no mistake here. That has nothing to do
with the act of conception. That is talking about our condition. We were born sinners. Why are we sinners? –
because our father was a sinner. You inherited sin from your Dad. And why was your Dad
a sinner? – because of Adam.
Adam sinned and he passed it on
☞ to his son
☞ to his grandson
☞ to your grandfather
☞ to your father
☞ then to you.
Don’t expect your children to be perfect. Only perfect parents have
perfect children. I haven’t found any perfect parents yet – therefore I don’t
expect to find any perfect children. You don’t have to teach your kids to be bad.
They just do what comes naturally. You’ve got to be at them all the time to do what is right.
Am I telling you the truth? Does this have a ring of truth to it? Men are born in sin and they are shaped in
iniquity. It has been imputed to the race (charged to the race). Somebody says “I don’t understand
that – I can’t believe that.” Listen, you will never see the Gospel unless you believe that. If it were not that one man made us all sinners, then one Man could not have redeemed us. It is because
we fell in one that we are redeemed in One.
If we hadn’t, then there would have been a redeemer for every individual. We did not
fall individually – we fell corporately. The human race is a fallen race. And the sin of the first
man (Adam) was imputed to everybody.
|
Recap: Imputations |
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First Imputation: Adam’s
Sin - Imputed To The Human Race. |
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Sin was imputed (charged) to the human
race because of Adam’s sin. Because of Adam, all men are born in sin, and with sin comes death. |
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Two things man can do nothing about – sin and
death. Death is very real, and sin is just as real as death. |
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Jesus is different than anybody
else. He is above us. Jesus knew no sin, in Him was no sin, and He did no sin. Because
Jesus was sinless, He was able to do something about sin. |
That brings us to the next step – the second imputation:
2. All Human Sin Was Imputed
To Christ
The first imputation is Adam’s sin to the human race.
The second imputation is our sin to Christ.
John 1:29
(29) The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and
saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the ELECT.
No
- It doesn’t say that.
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the CHURCH.
No
- It doesn’t say that.
It says:
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the WORLD.
When Jesus died He stretched back His arms to Adam, but He also reached forward His arms to you and to every man who
would ever live.
Adam @ @ @ @ @ @ … A A A A A AAll Men
All of humanity was in that stretch –
and He died for you. 1John 2:1, in my opinion, should forever settle this argument in
the minds of men. But for some reason it doesn’t. I don’t know why, but I wish it would!
1 John 2:2
(2) And he is the propitiation (the mercy seat – the meeting place) for our
sins: and not for ours (believers) only but also
for the sins of the whole world.
Doesn’t that include more than just the believers? If language means anything – that verse teaches that
when Jesus died, He died for the sin of every man.
Isaiah 53: 3
(3) He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was
despised, and we esteemed him not.
Now I want you to notice some words
here:
Isaiah 53: 4-6
(4) Surely he hath borne our
griefs and carried our
sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
(5) But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his
stripes we are healed.
(6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we
have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all.
I think that adds to what I have been
saying doesn’t it!
|
Recap: Imputations |
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Second Imputation: All Human Sin Was Imputed To Christ. |
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Jesus died
for the sins of every man in the whole world -- (past,
present and future generations). |
Now we come to the third imputation
3. Christ’s Righteousness is Imputed To the One Who Believes
Romans
3:22
(22) Even
the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe
(unto
all – but only upon all them
that believe)
Adam’s sin was imputed to
the human race. All sin was then imputed to Christ. But
that is not enough to save. Christ’s
righteousness, which is the righteousness of God, is only imputed to those who believe. And we can
only go to Heaven clothed in Heaven’s righteousness.
I
am very interested in Bible typology. Do you understand the word “typology?”
A
“type” is a divinely-purposed illustration of
truth. It is like a picture. It is like a shadow. It is an illustration.
Back
in Genesis you start reading about sacrificial lambs. Remember when Abel took a
lamb from the flock and sacrificed it on the altar. That lamb that died, pictures Jesus Christ. And all the lambs that were slain on
Jewish altars pointed forward to the death of Christ. I have no difficulty seeing
Jesus pictured in a lamb.
Isaiah 53:7
(7) He was oppressed
and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Do
any of you know anything about slaughtering hogs? Do you know
anything about slaughtering sheep? If you go where they are slaughtering hogs,
you can hardly hear yourself think for the noise. But when sheep are being led to be slaughtered, all you
hear is the shuffle of their feet. Sheep – a wonderful picture of Christ. He became a sheep that we might be a sheep.
Leviticus
14 talks about the day of the cleansing of the Leper. They took two birds – alive
and clean. They were clean birds, they were not vultures. Leviticus
chapter 11 separates the clean birds from the unclean birds. They took two clean birds (perhaps a dove). They
held the one bird and slit its throat and caught the blood in an earthen
vessel. Then they took the other bird and dipped it in the blood of the dead bird and let it fly away.
You
see, no one picture can picture all the work of Christ. The dead
bird typifies the death of Christ. The bird
flying away with blood on its wings pictures the Resurrection of Christ. So here
you have the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in a picture. It is so beautiful to see that
a clean bird typifies
Christ. When you go over to the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, it is more difficult. It talks about the Day of Atonement. On that day they took two goats. Goats?
I
can’t remember which church it is, but there is a church which says that the goat represents the devil and not Christ. I myself wondered how Christ could be typified in a goat. When the priest put
his hand on the one goat that didn’t die – they led him
out into the wilderness. They identified with that goat, and
called it the scapegoat.
Let
me ask you this – Have you ever said of anybody – has this expression ever come
from you?– “You know that poor brother became a goat for his neighbor.” Have you ever used that expression? What do we mean when we say somebody became a
goat?
Illustration
I
was Dean in a dorm of a Bible School – and you know, even Bible School students can be cruel. Once-in-a-while
a student would come with a little less upstairs than the rest. Listen, if you
have brains, it is not your fault – you could
have been the other way! Have you ever noticed that some of these
people are the most delightful people in the world?
The
students had certain jobs to do and they would let these lesser intelligent students do their
dirty work for them. They would bribe them with a chocolate bar – to do what they didn’t want to do – and these
people would do it so cheerfully.
Many
times I have seen people become goats for other people. Do you know what that means? – to take
somebody else’s blame. And I reverently say that Jesus became a goat for us. What did He do when he went to
the cross? – He took our blame – not only our sin – but our blame.
Illustration
Now
I come back to Isaiah 53. I didn’t see this for years! 1952 was the first time I went to the
I
have a picture of a woman coming up out of the
We
would see a woman go by, and then we
would see a donkey go by. Brother Arms,
who was sitting beside me in the car, said “I wouldn’t choose to be a donkey or a woman in this land!”
Isaiah 53: 4-6
(4) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
(5) But he was
wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
(6) All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 52:13
(13) Behold my servant (speaking of Christ)
In
certain countries donkeys are used as burden-bearers. They carry heavy loads on
their back. In the symbol of the donkey,
Christ is seen as our burden-bearer – the Promised servant of Jehovah. What
did He do? –
… He hath borne our griefs
… He carried our sorrows
… The chastisements of our peace was upon Him
… The iniquity of us all was
laid on Him
We
are looking at the dying thief as recorded in Luke 23. Two thieves were
crucified. One died a lost sinner – one died a saved sinner. What is it that made
the difference? The major point of
our study, that we have just covered, had to do with the doctrine of imputation. We dealt with the
three, but I want to say more about the third imputation.
|
In Review: |
|
Three Imputations In Scripture. |
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The
first is the imputation of Adam’s sin to the human race. We gave you
additional Scripture (Psalms 51:5, Romans 5:12) |
|
And
then the second imputation is the human race’s sin to Christ. When Christ died,
He died for the sin of every man. |
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And
then thirdly, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to the one who believes. When one
believes, God’s righteousness becomes one’s possession – and it is that which makes one fit for Heaven. |
Before
we enlarge on the third imputation I must
tell you the following: Some years ago, a student asked
me “who were the men who left a lasting impression upon
you?” After thinking for a while, I came up with three men that had impressed
me beyond many others.
The one was a Scotsman whose name was James McNichol. He was a
farmer and he was also the Sunday school teacher when I was a boy. Later on in
1955 I buried him. But there was something about that man, and it was this: There was never a time when he
opened the Bible, that before he was finished he got excited. That’s what
impressed me – the Bible always
excited him.
The other man who impressed me deeply
was a man whose name was Hugh McVety. All three of these men of whom I am speaking, are now in Heaven. Hugh
McVety was a school teacher. He had been Principal of a school in Moose Jaw,
and he became a good Bible teacher.
When I think of brother McVety, I think
of a man who made sense when he opened his mouth. I like that! I like to listen to a man
that, when he teaches, I can understand what he is saying. There seems to me that there is an impression
today that if you can speak so nobody can understand you – it is intelligent. To me that is
stupid! I think you ought to be able to understand what you are
hearing.
Some years ago I was sitting in a church
service in front of Irvin Ellis – the editor of the End Times Messenger. He was
sitting behind me, and a preacher was going on and on and on. Irvin leaned over to me at the end of the
sermon and he said: “Some people are going to say that sermon was really deep, but it wasn’t – it
was muddy.”
You couldn’t understand what was being
said! Well, I hope that what brother McVety did, I am able to do. I pray
that when I speak, you can understand what I am talking about. I think it is one of the greatest things
to have a child come up after a service and say “I understood what you were
talking about.”
Brother McNichol had an imprint upon me
and brother McVety had. But there was
another man who was A.W. Smith. He was a plumber from the city of
I think that all three of those men,
sometime or other, must come out of me, because they had such a deep imprint upon me.
Now getting back to the righteousness of God.
Romans 3:21-22
(21) But now the righteousness of God…..
Stop
for a minute and just think about that. Do you think that you can improve on the Righteousness
of God? Is there any way that you can improve on that? The thing that is good enough for Heaven –
and the only thing that is good enough for Heaven – is the Righteousness of God.
(21) The righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
(22) even the righteousness of God which is by WORKS.
No – it doesn’t say that.
even the righteousness of God which is by EFFORT.
No
– It doesn’t say that.
What
it does say is:
(22) the righteousness of God which is by FAITH of Jesus
Christ unto all, and upon all them
that believe.
Do you believe that word from God’s Word? God
has exchanged your sin for His Righteousness. God
imputes Righteousness to every believer the moment he believes.
There is a little book written by John
Bunyan. You have all heard of “Pilgrims Progress.” They made a great deal of that book – but seldom do
you hear about this little book called “Grace
Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners.” Bunyan wrote it when he was
in jail.
After he got out of jail, he said he was
walking down a road – and one minute he felt saved and the next minute he wasn’t
so sure. Maybe you have gone through that. Most
Christians do. One minute he was sure he was going to Heaven, and the
next minute he wasn’t so sure. Suddenly it was as
if a bolt from Heaven said to his spirit:
“Bunyan, your Righteousness is in Heaven.
You
can’t alter it.
You
can’t add to it.
You
can’t subtract from it.
Your Righteousness is Jesus Christ.”
What Bunyan
heard in his spirit is based on:
1 Corinthians 1: 30
(30) But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30
Bunyan has already made it – and you are accepted in Jesus
Christ. I am accepted – not in my righteousness – but I
am accepted in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ which God has provided
for the one who believes.
Now getting back to the three men that
impressed me the most in my life, I have a letter written in 1948 from the last
of those three men – A.W. Smith. I am inserting
part of it here, because it has to do with this doctrine
of imputation
of the Righteousness of God unto a
believer. The following is a
portion of what he writes:
Some time ago I have received
letters from up in Canada telling me of some of the sins and failures of some
of the people. Of course, I have never
acknowledged receipt of such information – and I was thinking a minute or two
ago of a man named Paul. Maybe you have
heard of him. He wrote a letter –
Romans 1:7a - 8
(7a) To all that be in
(8) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all,
that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole
world.
It is not the piety of
the saints at Rome, nor the failures of
the saints that is noticed – but their FAITH. Notice this – It is faith in Christ that
is the distinguishing mark of the Christian. After a most striking
introduction, he briefly announces the grand truth which
he intends afterwards to establish – that the Gospel is
the Power of God.
Romans 1:16-17
(16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is
the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth.
(17) For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith.
Unless such Righteousness had
been provided, all men must have suffered the
eternal punishment due to their sin, seeing God had denounced His great displeasure
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. Now listen to this very carefully – the Righteousness is offered as a Gift. Now
do you believe that Salvation is a Gift? With
Salvation is God’s Righteousness – and
God’s Righteousness is offered as a Gift.
To be continued in a moment.
Illustration Done In Class
I
have something in my pocket for the first person
who will come and get it.
(Pause)
I
said, I have something in my pocket for the first person who will come and get it. (Pause)
I
said, I have something in my pocket for the first person who will come and get it. (Finally
a student comes forward and receives a dollar bill)
Question:
Did you work for that? Response: No.
Question:
Do you believe it is yours? Response: Yes
Why
didn’t you come sooner – and what are the rest of you doing out there?
I made
a declaration and I said to you “I had a gift to give to you.” There is one
thing about a gift – you don’t work for a gift. And you don’t attain a gift. And you
don’t try to pay for it after you get it. A gift is a gift that is given by the
one who gives it.
God has offered Salvation as a Gift – and most people are
just like the rest of you in this class. You tell them “God has a Gift for you, and all you
have to do is come and receive it” – and everybody is reluctant to receive it, and I don’t
know why!
You can see that it is a good illustration.
Sometimes it has cost me more money than that, just to get the point across – but it is worth it!
Smith letter continued:
Righteousness is offered as a Gift to the ungodly. That’s the
Gospel! It is provided solely by Grace and received solely
by faith. Do
you know what faith is?—believing what God says. God makes the statement and you believe it. It is placed to the account of the believer for
his justification without the smallest regard to his past, his present, or his
future obedience or disobedience. It is absolutely apart from works – in fact – it is only available to the man who worketh not.
Romans 4:5
(5) But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness
If you are going to work for
this – you can’t have
it! If you are going to receive it as God gives
it -- as a Gift -- then you can have
it. But you can only have it in God’s way.
Righteousness is given to the one who believes. This provided Righteousness is placed to the
believer’s account. He is acquitted from guilt – freed from condemnation – and
given eternal life. He
can never be
brought into condemnation, because he is now in Christ Jesus. He is now a believer,
against whom God can bring no charge
forever. His failures and shortcomings are
to be dealt with on a totally different plan and plane – and form a complete and
different body of Truth.
In the Christian epistles where
we are said to be the Righteousness of God in Him – the meaning is: we are made Righteous in
such a degree as admits no addition. We
could not be more righteous if
our whole nature and constitution were made up of this one attribute and where
there is nothing in us at all but righteousness.
After the Lord Jesus Christ
condescended to take upon him our sins
– His responsibility for
them was then the same as if He Himself had committed them. It would not have
been just for Him
not to give an account for them. But glory to God – this is just what He did at
Calvary. On this proceeded God’s treatment of Him in hiding His face from Him
until the debt was paid. He never could have died had He not had this relation to our sin. He
could not, in justification, have undergone our punishment. But get your mouth
open and start to praise God. Unlock your jaw –if you
are a believer – you have the
Righteousness of God imputed to you.
Well Amen! I think that is a wonderful letter. I have
chewed on that many times since.
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Recap: |
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Third Imputation: Christ’s
Righteousness Is Imputed To The One Who Believes. |
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Jesus became a sheep that we
might be a sheep. |
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Jesus became
our scapegoat. |
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God exchanges
our sin
for His Righteousness. God imputes Righteousness to every believer the
moment he believes. Your
Righteousness is Jesus Christ. |
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With Salvation
is God’s Righteousness – and God’s Righteousness is offered as a Gift. You cannot work
for it. You cannot add to it, or subtract
from it. |
Now let’s go back to the bottom of our
chart.
IN LIFE
We mentioned the one sinner had sin IN him – and the other sinner had sin IN him. But Jesus had no sin in Him. He who knew no sin, did not sin, and in Him was no sin.
IN DEATH
The lost sinner had sin IN him and he had sin ON him.
John 8:24
(24) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins.
The story of the thief on the cross has
to do with two men who lived, and two men who died. The question of the hour is not merely “How are you living?” – But “How are
you going to die?” If your faith isn’t good enough to live with – it isn’t good enough to die with. But Praise God –
if it’s good enough to live with – it’s going to be good enough to die with.
John 8:24
(24) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in
your sins: for if ye
don’t keep the LAW.
No
– it doesn’t say that
are not GOOD
No
– it doesn’t say that either
None of those things are in there. What
is the following statement made by the Lord Jesus?
John 8: 24
(24)I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your
sins: for if ye
BELIEVE NOT that I
am he, ye shall die in your sins.
Believe
what? – That He is the Savior.
Could the language be any plainer? What is it that saves a man? – believing! What is it that is going to condemn the man? – His unbelief! – His rejection
of Christ.
Today
the question is not sin – the question is “What are you going to do with the Savior who came to do
something with your sin?” The thing that will send men to a lost eternity is the rejection of Christ. I think you can see that plainly.
The lost thief on the left cross died in his sin. The saved thief on the right
cross died with no sin on him. This next verse makes a tremendous statement. It bears on what we
have been talking about.
2 Corinthians 5:21
(21) For he (God the Father) hath
made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Do you believe that when Jesus died He
was made sin for you? That was the reason for His death. And
when you believe --- your sin is exchanged for His Righteousness. That is what happened to
the dying thief. When he turned to Christ, he died, and his sin was no longer on him – his sin was on Jesus. Jesus died that he might live.
Now you will notice three words. It says
the first man died IN sin. Jesus died FOR sin. But the saved thief died UNTO sin. I could get happy about
that – and I often do get happy about that.
If you are a believer (if you have
really accepted the Lord) – down inside there is a built-in something (that I
can’t describe) that longs for Holiness. If you don’t long for Holiness, you better get
saved! I say that because – you cannot be a partaker of
the Righteousness of Christ and not long to
walk righteously. The one is the outcome of the other. The
Bible says that I am destined, I am predestined,
to one day, be totally like Jesus. Isn’t that good news!
1 John 3:2
Beloved now are we the sons of God. It doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but
we know that
when he shall appear we shall be like him.
Basically, it is not talking about our physical body. The body is another subject. We will be
like Him.
What did we just study? – Jesus knew no sin – Jesus did no sin – in Him was no sin. And when the Lord is finished with me – I’m going to be like that. Isn’t that good news for all of you bad
people!
That man who died saved, died unto sin – he never sinned again!
That was the end of sin for that man. He had lived a sinner – he was a thief. And now he dies believing in Christ, and
from that moment until this moment, and throughout eternity – he has not, and he will not, and he never will sin again.
Some day that is going to happen to you. You’re going to be
saved – totally like unto Christ. And the glory of it is – you’ll be delivered from sin forever and forever. I
just love the thought that that day is going to come. I wrestle with the thing now – and there are days
when it gets me down – but it doesn’t knock me out! Praise God the day is going
to come when I will never sin again. I will die unto sin forever.
The
word die means “be
separated” – separated forever from sin. Oh what a day that is
going to be! If you are saved – that is what makes Heaven look like Heaven.
That
is what is going to make it worthwhile. There is going to be no sin in Heaven. Nothing that defiles
is going to be there. Praise the Lord!
The Bible talks about the
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Recap: Three Imputations |
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The first is the imputation of Adam’s sin to the human
race. We gave you additional Scriptures -- (Psalms
51:5, Romans 5:12) |
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And then the second imputation is the
human race’s sin to Christ. When Christ died, He died for the sin of every man. |
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And then thirdly, Christ’s Righteousness is imputed to the one who believes. When one
believes, God’s Righteousness becomes one’s possession – and it is that, which makes one fit for Heaven. |