The Lord illustrated the importance
of a proper foundation in His parable of the two men who built
houses. The wise men built his house
upon the rock, and the foolish men built his upon the sand.
When the storms came, only the one which was built upon the
rock stood, while the other was swept away and destroyed. Thus
he illustrated the contrast between the basis of the kingdom of heaven
and that of this world. Those who trust in the arm of
the flesh will find that it has no power to deliver them. Yet
those who have fled for refuge to Christ shall find rest to
their souls, because their confidence is in Him who alone has the power
to deliver them. Paul instructs the Corinthians
on the necessity of building on the one foundation upon which
all sound doctrine must stand. For of the foundation can no
man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. There are several
basic truths which are the underpinnings of the gospel. which when ignored,
misapplied, or misrepresented leave those who would claim to
be the followers of Christ with no actual basis of that faith
which they profess. Everyone who calls himself a
Christian claims to believe in Christ, but sadly the vast majority
of them have no idea exactly what Jesus Christ accomplished
in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Many talk of faith,
but they are convinced that it is their faith, which is a product
of their free will, which justifies them before God. There is much
rhetoric about the love of God for all of mankind, which actually
cheapens the very concept of the love of God, which is described
in the scripture as both particular and eternal. One of these foundational
truths without which there is no gospel, which one seldom hears
preached upon in this day of feel-good, act-good, and be-blessed
pablum masquerading as gospel preaching, is the doctrine of
imputation. Imputation is basically an accounting
term which means to apply to an account. Any accountant who
is worth his salt knows that you cannot impute a transaction
to an account without a proper basis, and you cannot create
that basis out of thin air. The IRS frowns upon this practice,
but many modern day preachers make it their constant practice
as they make the salvation of men to rest upon their free will
choice. There is a basis upon which the
Lord imputes or accounts men as sinners. That basis is His
law. When men break the law, they
are counted as sinners upon this basis, and nothing can change
that nor cause that basis to be altered or to fail. All men
die because all men are accounted as lawbreakers. That is the basis
of their condemnation. Thus it is impossible for a man
to cease to be a sinner by anything which he might undertake or what
obedience he might carry out. The basis of his condemnation
is inalterably fixed and cannot be modified by anything which
he may perform. In like fashion, if a man is
to be accounted as righteous, there must be a basis upon which
that imputation takes place. In order for a man to be accounted
as righteous, he must be seen as without any sin, perfectly
obedient to the law both presently and in the past as well as the
future. No sinful man could possibly find himself in this condition
by his own effort, as is demonstrated by the fact that all our sinners
have sinned and will continue to be and do the same. The scriptures
tell us that man can be justified by faith, but this faith by which
a man is justified is not the act which he performs. Rather,
this faith by which he is justified is that which is of one whom
the law recognizes as completely without sin. So the faith which
justifies is not the activity of believing, but rather the
object upon which a man is caused to believe and ultimately rest
in, ceasing from his own labor. Christ is the justifier. He is
pleased to apply his righteousness to the account of those whom
he has loved from the beginning. This imputation has nothing at
all to do with their activity, but rather his own. Christ has
taken the sin of his elect upon himself, as the scripture says,
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Upon this basis
alone do we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of the
blessed God. Upon what basis does your righteousness
rest?