RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPUTED AND IMPARTED

Christ is the believer’s righteousness. Everyone who believes on Christ has been made righteous. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us because Christ has made His people righteous through His obedience. The righteousness of Christ is imparted to us in the new birth, when a new man is born in us, with a righteous nature that can never sin.

This is what David meant in Psalm 7:8 when he said “Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.” Judge me according to the righteousness you imputed to me. It is my righteousness because God gave it to me. And judge me according to the righteous nature that you put in me. The only way David could have made such a bold statement is if Christ had made him actually righteous so when God judges him there is nothing to condemn.

THE EVIDENCE - I John 4:7-8

There is one true evidence of a work of grace, and regeneration in men and women; Love. That one who truly believes, who is born of God, loves God who begat him, and loves all those begotten of him. “Beloved, let us know one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He who loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

Pastor Darvin Pruitt

IF THEY MEAN BY LOVE…!!

I constantly maintain the glories, beauties, and preciousness of love; and yet I am branded an enemy to love. But, if by love, they mean I ought to unite with those who deny the Deity of my God and Saviour; if by love they mean I ought to unite occasionally with people who say without a blush that election is a “damnable doctrine” and hate it in their hearts; that imputed righteousness is "imputed nonsense" (quotes by John Wesley), a doctrine that ought to be spurned by all, which is the very covering that hides all my shame, the very robe that adorns my naked soul, and is the joy and rejoicing of my heart, and which I have found to be the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; if they mean by love that I ought to unite with people who testify that we may be a child of God one day and testify that we may be a child of the devil another; that Christ died and atoned for the sins of Esau as well as Jacob, for Cain as well as Abel, for Judas as well as Peter, and that there are thousands in Hell for whom Christ died; if they mean by love that I ought to unite and call them BRETHREN who profess to believe the doctrines of grace, and call themselves Calvinists, but can declare at times that those blessed doctrines which are so precious and glorious to my soul are non-essential things; that is, if I understand their meaning right, they view them as useless things, and that it is of no consequence whatever whether we receive or believe these doctrines or not, provided we do unite with all sorts, and pray for all, and be candid and mild, and esteem all as partakers of grace; I confess from my heart, if all this be love, I AM DESTITUTE OF IT, and instead of being grieved for my lack of it, I glory in it.

John Warburton

FORGIVENESS

God’s forgiveness of our sins in and by Christ is not partial, but complete. He has forgiven all our sins: past, present, and future. So thorough and complete is our Heavenly Father’s forgiveness that He will never impute sin to us to any degree or for any reason. So absolute is the forgiveness of our sins that our God will never treat us any the less graciously for having sinned!