This morning, as you can see,
the title of the message here is Justified by Imputed Righteousness. Now, what is it to be justified
before God? That's something that I think
should be at the top of everybody's list is trying to know what salvation's
all about. how God's going to justify you.
And he is the one that justifies the ungodly. And we all come
to the gospel having some idea of how God justifies you. I know that I was sitting in
false religion and first time I ever heard the phrase being justified by faith. And
I didn't have a complete understanding of what that was all about, but
I did know this, even then, before I actually believed the gospel,
that God was going to save you, not based on any works that you
do, but based on your faith in some way. Didn't understand that
faith real well, But yet and still, I said to myself, I know
I've got to do something for God to justify me. Speaking of
work salvation, now, this morning, we're going to start out here
by looking at these three words here, justified, imputed, and
righteousness. And we're not going to necessarily,
I'm not going to have them in order as I look at them. enveloped
together in some way. But I'll first begin talking
a little bit about the elect's justification before God. Justification
is an imminent act of God. And as a result of that, it is
an eternal act which only resides in the eternal mind of God. only
resides in the eternal mind of God. A good example of an imminent
act is to look at election, where God elected a people which did
not take place in time, but only took place in the eternal mind
of God, before time. The opposite of an imminent act
of God is a transient act, which is an act of God that takes place
in time. Our redemption by Christ is a
good example of that. And it did take place in time.
Christ did in time come to this world, come to this earth, and
he lived that life, a perfect life, and died on the cross.
That would be a transient act. The elect were by God at that
moment, considered and viewed in Christ from everlasting, before
time. The reason is that God elected
a people from the foundation of the earth, and he placed those
elect ones in his dear son, of which God the son did willingly
accept the responsibility for saving them and bringing them
to final glory. This is that covenant that was
made before time, the everlasting covenant between the Godhead.
Now as God considered his elect in Christ, they were either objects
of condemnation or of justification. The elects as objects of condemnation
must be rejected because God from the beginning loved his
elect with an everlasting love. We must realize that if God ever
saw his elect as condemned in his eternal mind, and later viewed
them as justified, then he must be a mutable or changeable God. And we know that's not the case
with the God that we worship. The true and living God of the
Bible is immutable, and he does not change his mind. Some of
these things are kind of hard for us to wrap our minds around
when it comes to God not ever changing. When we know in this
life there's so many changing things, it's constantly change. But you have to realize that
God does not change. All these things were determined
before God, before time. Scripture also says in Ephesians
1 verse 3, blessed be the God and Father by Lord Jesus Christ
who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places
in Christ. The elect were blessed with all
spiritual blessings in Christ before the foundation of the
world and therefore with justification. For justification is the spiritual
blessing. This grace by which we're justified
was given us in Christ Jesus from eternity. Because from eternity,
God loved us in Christ and made us accepted in the beloved in
Christ. When Christ as a surety substituted
and obligated himself for the elect, they were justified. At the same moment in which Christ
became a surety for us, and our sins were imputed and charged
to him, we were set free from any obligation or consequences
of guilt and seen by God as just. That is, actively and really
justified, which was from everlasting and before the foundation of
this world. You see, God eternally decreed and determined not to
punish sin in his elect people. but to punish their sin in His
Son. God the Father decreed to punish sin in His Son, and this
includes His will to impute to Christ, and His purpose not to
punish sin in His elect takes in His will not to impute sin
to His elect. Romans 4.8 says, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. There are, and it
calls here, blessed is the man, there are those that God's not
gonna charge them with their sin. Now, as we see clearly in
this verse that God will not impute sin to this blessed man,
which is surely God's elect, then this must be their justification
from all sin in God's sight because it is God that justifies. You can't separate God's decree
from his will. Now, no new will can arise from
God, in God, that has not already been willed in eternity. God's
will, nothing in time, and if it was eternally willed, the
will of God not to punish sin in his elect people, but to punish
those sins in his son, then they were eternally discharged and
acquitted and found not guilty from sin and secured from everlasting
wrath and destruction. And if they were eternally discharged
from sin and freed from punishment, they were most certainly eternally
justified. There's no limbo here. when it
comes to whether or not you're condemned or whether or not you're
justified. No limbo, no in between. You see, according to 2 Corinthians
5, 19, God was in Christ. And that means in that everlasting
covenant of grace, the father and the son had this covenant together. And it says, God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them. And this was when God chose his
elect in Christ, and that was before the foundation of this
world. So on what basis or condition does God justify his elect? What
basis or condition? Let's look at Romans 4-5. It
states, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
The his faith here is speaking of the object of that faith,
which is Christ, that's revealed in the gospel. It's not just
some kind of faith that you got some strong faith that this is
going to happen or this is going to happen. When it talks about
his faith, it's counted for righteousness. We're talking about the object
of that faith. What are you looking to for your
salvation? Are you looking to yourself?
Are you looking to your works? Are you looking to what God enables
you to do? Are you looking to Christ alone
and what he did on your behalf? This was God's promise to Abraham,
or the doctrine of faith. which regards the person and
the work of Christ and the righteousness that Christ would produce. This
is what was counted and imputed to Abraham for righteousness.
God justifies the ungodly, which not only includes Abraham, but
all those that God justifies. So how does God justifies the
ungodly? Well, being without a righteousness
of their own. Speaking of the ungodly, God
imputed to all his elect the righteousness of another, even
that of his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what is this
righteousness that was imputed? Well, this righteousness that
sinners must have to approach this holy God is what was imputed. It's the entire merit of what
Christ did accomplish as he substituted himself in the place of the ungodly
sinners. This is the gospel. This is the
good news of God's grace in Christ. Christ is the one that Abraham
looked to for all of his justification before God. And this is who each
and every true believer looks to as God enables us to experience
and to see through God-given faith, how that God is a just
God and a Savior when He saves sinners. In Romans 4 and verse
6 here, Paul is talking about King David, King of Israel, as
these things were written in the Psalm. Even as David also
described the blessedness of the man to whom God imputed righteousness,
without works. Paul proved that David, king
of Israel, was in full agreement with Abraham on this issue of
how God justifies the ungodly. David knew well the burden of
sin and of guilt. Let's look at David's prayer
after his sin with Bathsheba. Psalm 51 David says, have mercy upon me,
O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash
me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. He
knew that if God were to impute or to charge him with sin, speaking
of David, he would perish eternally. Also look at Psalm 130 verse
three. If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, if you're gonna
charge iniquities, if God's gonna charge iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? This righteousness that David's
speaking of here cannot be man's obedience to the law. For man's
obedience is not a righteousness that satisfies God. No man is
or can be saved by the works that he produces, nor can he
attain to heaven and eternal happiness by the means of his
works, because man's works will always fall way short of what
God requires. Well, what does God require?
Perfection. Perfection. The righteousness
here, spoken of in Romans 4, 6, is the righteousness of Christ. called The Righteousness of God
in Romans 1, 16, where it talks about the gospel. And it says,
for therein, there in this gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed.
From faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live
by faith. This righteousness is complete,
and it's perfect. The law is honored, and God's
justice is satisfied. This is freely and graciously
imputed and accounted to the elect by God, just in the same
way Christ's righteousness become ours, and as Adam's sin became
ours, all by imputation. And in the same way that our
sin became Christ, his righteousness becomes ours. And because we
have no righteousness of our own, when God justifies us, this
must be done by the righteousness of another. And there is no way
that we can obtain this righteousness other by God imputing it to our
account. It must be charged to our account.
All of this is done without our works, but not without the works
of Christ, of which this righteousness entirely consists. This is done
without the center's works and without any consideration of
what the center might do or what the center might be unable to
do. The center's deeds of law are completely excluded from
justification. If a center's deeds of law was
ever considered or come into account, it would not be of grace,
but of works. And the Apostle Paul says in
Romans 3.28, therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. Scripture's clear. All who have
this righteousness imputed to them are justified from all sin
and free from all condemnation. Their persons and services are
accepted by God. David gloried and rejoiced in
the non-imputation of sin and in the imputation of Christ's
righteousness to himself. Psalm 103, verse 12, here, as
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. This is King David here in the
Psalms. David, the king of Israel, knew
that God imputed righteousness without his works. This is without
David's efforts to obey the law. This can be no other than the
righteousness which the Lord Jesus established on the cross,
in obedience unto death. And the righteousness the Father
imputes to the account of every one of his elect, those that
come to him by faith, God-given faith. David looked forward,
he looked forward to the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
to honor the law and completely and perfectly satisfy God's justice
in his place, in his stead. Even before time, God imputed,
freely imputed the merits of his son's death, his righteousness
to each of the elect, whether in the Old Testament or in the
New Testament. This was done in the eternal
mind of God as he viewed what Christ would accomplish in time
as the elect surety. As Christ took on that office
of surety before time, he stepped up and obligated himself in the
place of those elect that God had given him. All that the Father
giveth me, scripture said. He stood in their place come
in time and pay the debt. And so that debt was charged
to him. And the elect was relieved of
any responsibility of paying the debt. Now, Romans 4, 7, once
again, speaking of King David, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. God the Holy
Spirit in this verse reveals that this was David's understanding
and message when he inspired David to write Psalm 32. Now, Paul quotes here in Romans
4-7, he quotes Psalm 32 verse 1 and 2. where it said, blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and
in whose spirit there is no guile or deception in any way. David
also knew that forgiveness of sin could not be without law
and justice being satisfied. The wages of sin must be paid,
Psalms 85, 10 through 13, Says, mercy and truth are met
together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the
Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield
her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him and shall set us in the way of his steps. And in Psalms 89,
14, Justice and judgment are the
habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before
thy face. An old writer, John Gill, a few
hundred years ago, says of these verses here, and I quote, righteousness
may intend the essential justice of God, which will not admit
a pardon and justification of a sinner, without a satisfaction. Wherefore, Christ was set forth
to be the propitiation for sin, the satisfaction of sin, to declare
and manifest the righteousness of God. God's strict justice,
that he might be just and appear to be so when he is the justifier
of him that believes in Jesus. And Christ's blood being shed
and his sacrifice offered up God is just and faithful to forgive
sin and cleanse from all unrighteousness. Close quote. The Apostle Paul,
being in full agreement with King David, Romans 6, 20, 23,
says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And in Hebrews 9, beginning
verse 22, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood,
and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore
necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should
be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with
better sacrifices than these, for Christ is not entered into
the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. After he ascended, after he was
resurrected from the dead, he ascended to the Father and is
seated now at his right hand. All of the Old Testament saints
look forward to the coming Messiah that would come in time and put
away sin. And all of God's saints today look back to where Christ
did come and put away sin. He worked out a righteousness
that the Father accepted. And proof of this acceptance
is that he raised Christ from the dead. He was satisfied with
what Christ had accomplished. This revealed that Christ satisfied
law and justice on behalf of all those that the Father gave
him. These verses here in John 6, beginning verse 37, is they're so full. This is Christ
speaking here. He says, all that the Father
giveth me in that everlasting covenant of grace, when He elected
the people and He giveth them to Christ, for Christ to stand
in their place, their substitute and their surety. He says, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me in time. And him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, Then Christ said, for
I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will
of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this
is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth
the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life, and
I'll raise Him up at the last day. We also know that if we
do come to Christ, the true Christ, God has already regenerated us
through the new birth by his power, the power of the Holy
Spirit, who gives us spiritual life, brings us from darkness
to light, gives us spiritual ears to be able to discern and
hear the gospel and believe. And he causes us to believe on
Christ and trust in him for all our salvation and justification.
Scripture says that we love God because he first loved us. Then
in John 6 beginning verse 45, Christ again speaking says, no
man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw
him. and I'll raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all
be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me." After seeing
how that the Old Testament saints, as well as the New Testament
saints, Look to Christ for that blood-bought sacrifice. Let's
look at the word forgiven here in this verse that is mentioned
here in Romans 4-7 where it says, blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven. The word forgiven here has the
idea of putting something away. To send away is pictured with
a scapegoat. a picture of Christ, which was
a picture of Christ in the sanctuary service in the Old Testament,
that old covenant. That scapegoat that was sent
away on the day of atonement once a year, never to be heard
from again, God being satisfied. It means this was a picture in
time of Christ. It means to lay aside and as
used in the present context means that God has let go of the obligation
that we owed him because of sin against him. It means to remit,
to release from the guilt and the penalty as one would be released
from a financial debt. How could God justly release
King David from the guilt and penalty of sin since Christ had
not already came and paid his debt. David's debt had already
been laid and charged to the account of Christ as David's
surety and substitute and that before the foundation of this
world in that everlasting covenant of grace made with the Father
and the Son. Christ had not paid David's sin
debt at that time. Christ had not redeemed those
that the Father had given him at that time. But the dead had
been imputed and charged to Christ, David surety, and therefore not
charged to David's account. David clearly states this in
Psalm 32 verse two. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputed, not iniquity, didn't charge him with sin. David
believed that God would not charge him with his sin and that Christ
would come in time and pay his sin debt and therefore put away
all his sins and establish righteousness for him. Remember what Paul says
back in Romans 4, 6, when he says, even as David also described
it, the blessedness of the man of whom God imputed righteousness
without works. David, as well as all of God's
elect, have a righteousness that enables them to stand before
God without blame. Not a righteousness of their
own, one that they worked out, but the very righteousness of
the Son of God, our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now
let's go over the last part of Romans 4-7. where it says also,
speaking of David, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Where it says whose sins are
covered, covered literally means to conceal, to hide, to cover,
or to cover over. Figuratively, it means to cover
over sins or forgive or pardon. It is the equivalent to the Hebrew
word to atone. It signifies not merely a covering,
but the removal of guilt under that covering. It means to make
reparations for sins or the restoration of something to good condition.
When believers in the Old Testament offered up blood sacrifices,
and we're talking about believers here now, offered up blood sacrifices
to God, they were looking to Christ. who would come in time,
fulfill these types and pictures that they were given, these types
and pictures that pictured his death, they, speaking of believers,
had God-given faith and confidence that in Christ's work, a substitute
and surety, which those sacrifices represented, that God would not
charge them with their sins. and that their justification
before God was based entirely on the shed blood of the coming
Messiah, Christ Jesus. Those Old Testament saints knew
that sins were imputed to Christ their surety, and that in time,
those sins would be removed by the death of Christ. Micah 7,
verse 19, says he will turn again, he will
have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities, and that
will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. And in
John 8, 56, this is Christ speaking, your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. This was Christ
as he was speaking to the Pharisees. Talking about Abraham, which
was the Pharisee's physical father, not spiritual. But he says that
Abraham, he says, Abraham saw my day. He saw it and he was
glad. Now, Romans 4, 8, the last verse
we'll look at here, said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin. I know we've said imputed a lot
this morning. And I just want to say this. Back in false religion, I can
remember the first time I heard the word impute or imputation. And I was sitting in a classroom.
We were just going over a Bible study. And we were speaking of
a writer that this guy had read about. And he mentioned the word
imputed. I didn't know anything about
what that word meant. It was foreign to me. I knew
the word imparted. I'd heard it. So what I did,
God caused me to start searching him out. What does that mean? And what a blessed, blessed doctrine
of imputation, where God imputed my sin to his son, charged him
to his son, and he charged me with the very righteousness of
Christ himself. Perfection, perfection, obedience
to the law and the justice of God charged to my account. Well, here we see with the preceding
verse the direct connection between the death of Christ for forgiveness
or removal of sin and the imputing of righteousness. David expressed
his hope in the promised Messiah to come in time and put away
his sins. Let's look back at Psalm 32,
1 and 2. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputed, not iniquity. David's and all of God's elect,
their justification before God, therefore, was not by our own
works, but by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ being
imputed to us, accounting, a charge, dry account. Well, this is, these doctrines here,
a blessing to my heart, being justified before God, not based
on my works, but based on Christ himself. Amen.