Modern theology is notable for
its complete lack of consistency and its denial of the very basis
upon which a sinful man could be made sinless, and one who
is totally without any righteousness of his own could stand before
the judgment throne of Almighty God as one who is completely
righteous. While many pay lip service to
believing that man, as he comes forth from the womb of his mother,
is dead in trespasses and sins, yet in their adamant determination
to exalt the free will of men, they inconsistently tell us that
man is able to make a choice to either choose the way of life
or reject it. The reality is that man, being
dead in trespasses and sins, not only will not seek the way
of life, but he cannot. For the dead know not anything.
The description of the state of man by nature could not be
any more plainly set forth than that which Paul taught the Romans,
saying, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. So man in his natural state,
as a descendant of Adam, can no more choose the things of
God than he can come back from somewhere he has never been.
Man does not stand in need of exhortations to make a choice,
but rather he stands in need of being given life that he might
see the depraved state in which he presently resides. Dead men
cannot hear the gospel nor believe it. It takes the supernatural
work of God to give a dead son or wife, and the same power to
enable him to hear and believe the word of God. For faith is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Those
who deny the absolute depravity and total sinfulness of men have
no basis upon which to expect that the righteousness of Christ
could possibly be laid to their account. Apart from understanding
the imputation of the sin of the first Adam to all of his
posterity, it is impossible to understand the imputation of
the righteousness of Christ to that people he calls his own.
One of the grandest of all mysteries which is set forth before us
in the scriptures is that of the incarnation of the eternal
Son of God. The scripture says that He dwelt
among us in human flesh. He was also tried and tested
like as we are, yet was completely sinless in His person, so much
so that there was not even a hint of deceit nor any inclination
to evil found in Him. He was pure, spotless, and totally
blameless as that one who walked among men doing good and fulfilling
the law in every jot and tittle. He was completely upright in
his very essence, and he could in no wise be blamed or face
condemnation from any quarter. Such a thought as the spotless
Lamb of God being charged with sin, then, is indeed one which
is disconcerting. except for that grand scheme
of imputation which he hath both devised and implemented according
to the good pleasure of his will, in his determination to present
to himself a bride not having spot or blemish. So unless he
who in his own person is completely righteous and devoid of sin be
charged with the sin of his elect unto condemnation, neither can
they who are without one shred of righteousness ever stand before
the Father fully justified, and without condemnation or sin of
any stripe or kind. He took their sin and made it
His own, bearing it away. In the same fashion and according
to the same power, He did impute His own righteousness, sinlessness,
to that people which He loved with an everlasting love. 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. It is here that the
sons of God have a hope of the resurrection. They have intrinsic
death in themselves as a result of being born of Adam's seed.
Christ, on the other hand, has intrinsic life in Himself, and
death cannot abide in Him at all. He lives because He lives. The sons of God are made to live
in Him by the power of His endless life, as they are born again,
being made complete in Him. If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at 4the4 at windstream.net.