Many people understand imputation like this: God imputes the righteousness of His Son to me so that I have a legal righteous standing before God even though I am not really righteous. Such a view is dishonoring to God! In I Corinthians 4:1, Paul said, “Let a man so account us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” The word account is the same Greek word that is translated impute. Paul is not telling us to account him a servant and a steward even though he really is not a servant and a steward. Impute this to me because that is what I am. We have righteousness imputed to us because we are righteous!
All that Christ died for have no sin, no guilt, and are perfectly righteous before God. When Paul said, “Reckon (impute) yourselves to be dead to sin”, it was not that we are to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin though we really are not. By Christ’s work on our behalf we are dead to sin! It has nothing to say to us. That is realized by faith.
Pastor Todd Nibert
God’s mercy is freely bestowed upon His chosen people. But not at the expense of His Holy Justice. God CANNOT, and WILL NOT, pardon you, or me, unless we have honored His Holy Law perfectly. He CANNOT, and WILL NOT, have mercy on you, or me, unless we have perfectly satisfied His Holy Justice! Jesus Christ is the only man who walked on this earth in perfect obedience to God the Father. Christ our Saviour is every believer’s representative. He didn’t come to change God’s law; He came to fulfill it. AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID! While He was here on this earth, Jesus Christ pleased God the Father in everything that He did (Matthew 3:13 - 17; John 8:29). He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). His perfect obedience satisfied the holy justice of God for His chosen people. Absolutely NOTHING can be laid to the charge of God‘s elect (Romans 8:32 - 33). That’s why God has mercy on those Jesus Christ suffered and bled and died for. Our Heavenly Father sees no sin in Jesus Christ our risen Saviour. “There is therefore NOW no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
Pastor Gene Harmon
GOOD NEWS FROM HEAVEN
The good news from heaven to lost sinners, that glorious gospel of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, is not a message of God’s hopeful expectations to save, but of a salvation purposed and accomplished. It is not a message of Jesus Christ knocking at the door of the sinner’s heart, hoping to gain an entrance, but of his will. It is not a message of the Holy Spirit striving with the sinner’s natural will, hoping to influence him to decide for Jesus, but of His purpose and ability to “make sinners willing”, causing them to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. (See II Timothy 1:9; Psalm 110:3, John 17:2; Isaiah 53:11). “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Just as sure as his name is JESUS, he shall save his people, ALL his people, from ALL their sins. What a Savior!
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