Three Great Imputations

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Austin, how are you doing today? Oh, Steve, what's going on, Tuesday guy? Where is the Tuesday guy? What in the world's going on? You can watch us on YouTube.

Some of you are right now. Some of you are listening. You can watch if you'd like. And these are the Wednesday shows with Mario the Escobar. And so thanks for watching. Tell your friends, subscribe, like, et cetera.

Recommend a new book today by Abendroth. Patrick Abendroth, Ascension, A Forgotten Gospel Doctrine, published by the Pactum. And I want to promote this book because I think you'll be encouraged as you read it.

Christ's Ascension to the Throne

Just to give you maybe a little teaser, when you think about the ascension of Jesus, what do you think about? Well, probably Acts chapter one and the ascension and up into heaven he goes, he ascends. But I want you to think through a little bit about Jesus, a king who ascends to the throne.

He ascended to the throne. That's what kings do. And so I think that ascension, I think ascending to the throne language will help you. And it might just help you with some eschatological views. Somehow the other day, I was looking up something, comparing preaching and teaching, and I got down the rabbit trail and, oh, you know, I saw it on Twitter.

Somebody said, what are the eschatological views of the Pactum speakers in Omaha, Nebraska? Which after you see this will be a few weeks ago. And it said that Pat Abendroth, John Fesco, Dennis Johnson, and Harrison Perkins were all millennial.

And that Mike Abendroth tends to talk more about the second coming within the framework of the confessions, personal eschatology. Everybody gets a new body fit for heaven or hell. And the personal eschatology of Jesus, he comes back bodily, visibly, to judge the living and the dead.

And just kind of tucking myself underneath that. And so I thought that was interesting that it actually knew. I think it was Grok that knew that. So Grok's pretty smart, but he's not all knowing. That we even call him a he.

Or, you know, in chat, it's like, you know, do you want me to give you more information on how to kill groundhogs? I'm like, you're an it, you're a nothing. You're data, you're ones and zeros. Anyway, you can write me, Mike, at No Compromise Radio.

There's quite a few law gospel books that are being sold these days. So I'm thankful for that. Might add a couple chapters, working on a sanctification primer. And that's about all I got. That's all my antinomian self has.

The Meaning of Imputation and the Three Great Imputations

Another sermon on the two great commandments. Today, part two of imputations. Three great biblical imputations. And imputation means to credit, to count. It's put on your side of the ledger. And it's in King James often used with the word reckon.

He reckoned us, he counted to us. R .C. Sproul was asked the question, Dr. Sproul, since there are so many bad connotations to the word evangelical, maybe we should pick a different word. What should that word be?

And Sproul said, let's start calling ourselves imputationists, which is harder to say than evangelical. I still like evangelical because it comes from good news. And if people distort it, that's on them.

We mean the real gospel, the real good news, the Evangelion. But imputation is not too bad. So three imputations. Last show, last Wednesday, we looked at the first two. And when I say we, Mario, Austin and myself, and now Austin, he's taking his wife to the ballet tonight.

What kind of man does that? I'm going to the ballet. Probably a godly man like Austin. Actually his wife, Ashton, I think she used to be a professional, what are they called? Ballerina? I think that's it.

I'd like to know what ballet, what the root word for ballet is, the etymology for ballet. Maybe it's, it comes from tippy toes. I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea. Imputation number one, we looked at from Romans chapter five, Adam, a federal head, sinned, and his first and only, his first sin and only his first sin were credited to our accounts, spiritual accounts, by the doctrine of imputation.

We weren't there. We didn't earn it. We didn't deserve it, even as it were. We can talk about that a little bit more later, but all that to say, he did it. We got credit for it. And that is God's choice to have Adam to be the representative.

And Adam was upright and Adam was smart. And Adam would be the guy we'd all be trained for. Go Adam. And of course he failed. Romans chapter five is dealing with this subject. How can one man affect another?

That is, how can Jesus work save you? And what Paul does, he says, of course you know that what one man does influences. Jesus, what he does for you positively influences. What Adam did, it influenced, but it was negative.

And so he talks about Adam's sin credited to our account. And that by the way, is why we're born sinners. Because the consequence of that sin is that we're born sinners. The consequence of that sin is we get sick and die.

If you want to walk through the cemetery and ask yourself the question, how did we get here? You can say, Adam's sin credited to everyone else. Babies don't sin. They can't sin. They can't think through a breaking God's law, but they do die sadly.

And they die primarily because of Adam's sin credited to their account. That's what Romans 5, 12, 13, 14, 15 talk about. One sin, one man affects many. So one righteous action, summarizing Jesus's whole life and death can affect the many.

And that's our third imputation. But the second one I skipped over, our sins credited to Jesus's account. He, the father, made him the son who knew no sin to become sin, a sin offering on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And so three imputations, Adam's sin to us, our sins to Jesus. And then finally on this fortunate exchange that Luther talked about, the great exchange, Christ's righteousness to our account. So the three great imputations spurred on by listening to S. Lewis Johnson, Adam's sin to us, our sins to Jesus, Jesus's righteousness to us.

Christ's Active Obedience Fulfills the Law

So that's the one we're going to talk about today. The active obedience of Jesus credited to our account. And by the way, it's important. You'd like to have assurance? You need this doctrine. Would you like to make sure you have access to the throne of grace?

It's because of this doctrine. This is a key doctrine when it comes to standing before God and having access to God. Just as if I've never sinned, that's imputation number two, because Jesus gets credit for our sins.

And just as if I've perfectly kept the law is this last imputation, his righteousness for us. So if I were to explain this very simply, Adam's in the garden and he's upright and he's told to obey God.

He's a creature and he should obey God. And God says, I want you to put it in first gear and obey me. Let's see, he was in a lawnmower or I have a snowblower. Mario, I used to have a 15 year old snowblower and it worked pretty well as long as he got enough sleep and had a good breakfast.

His name was Luke. Now I have to do it. But I have a snowblower, snow thrower. And so like in your car, drive one, drive two, let's just, for the sake of simplicity, I've got neutral, I've got reverse, I've got forward.

That's my mower, that's my snowblower. And so Adam's in the garden, neutral. And God says, obey, do this, don't do that. And so what does Adam do? Sadly, Adam doesn't even put the clutch in. He jams it into reverse and disobeys God.

And he eats of the forbidden tree, right? He disobeys God, he goes in reverse. Sin, high-handed sin, treasonous sin, sin that damns all those in Adam. So now Jesus comes along, sent by God, ordained by God, divine necessity, planned out by God before the foundations of the world, call that the covenant of redemption.

The unbegotten father sending the begotten son to rescue the bride. And so we're in this position because we were in Adam. We're in reverse, we're negative. And so Jesus pays for all of our disobedience.

Now we're back to neutral, right? It was disobedience that got Adam in reverse, that was reverse, that was doing the opposite of what God said. Instead of going forward in obedience, go back in disobedience.

Now Jesus pays for that disobedience, and now we're back out of neutral. I mean, out of reverse to neutral. But did not God tell Adam to go forward? Did he not tell him to tend the garden and to be fruitful and to multiply and all kinds of things?

Yes, that was still due. So it's not enough. It's wonderful, but it's not enough just to get back to zero, to be back to neutral. God expects obedience from his creatures. And so Jesus, the last Adam, the eternal son takes on flesh and obeys in our place.

And by the doctrine of imputation, Christ obedience gets credited to our account. Christ was inherently righteous. He's the righteous one. He doesn't need his own righteousness. He is righteous. He earns righteousness for us to give us because he's the savior for others.

So think about it this way. When there's a law and you break the law, you did the wrong thing. If there's a law and you kept the law, you did the right thing. And so we could say keeping the law is doing the right thing.

Hence the word righteousness, righteously keeping the law by doing the right thing. And so Jesus is born of a woman, born under law that he might redeem those under the law. So he's born under the law and he needs to keep it, not for himself, he's righteous, but for other people.

So Jesus perfectly obeys, loves God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, loves his neighbors himself, honors his, I mean, think about it, even on the cross, he's honoring his mother, right? Joseph, his stepfather's probably deceased.

So he says to John, behold, your mother, take care of my mother. On his deathbed, Jesus is still obeying the 10 commandments, right? He doesn't covet, doesn't commit adultery. He has God at preeminent one, no other gods before me.

And so Jesus keeps the law perfectly because God requires us to keep the law. He required Adam to keep the law and just being forgiven for your transgressions, that's one side of justification. The other side of justification is to get the credit of Christ's righteous keeping of the law.

Think about a law, don't do this. Well, if you do obey, there's a reward. If you disobey, there's consequences. So there's a positive side and the negative side. And so too here where Jesus comes, he pays on the negative side where the law has been broken.

And on the positive side, he keeps that precept. He keeps that law and we get his righteousness. Over and over and over. You see in the Bible, we get God's righteousness. How? Wait a second. If we get the righteousness of God abstractly, think about God the Father as righteous.

Well, we know God is simple. That is to say, he's not full of parts. He doesn't have, he's like, okay, a pie chart. Love, goodness, all knowing, just, righteous. And so he just is. And the language of God is just is to help us because it could just say God is.

Every time you're in a problem, Mario, you're going through a trial, I could just say God is, or I could just say God. And since Mario is smart, he would know, oh, I understand what that means. God exists.

He's faithful. He keeps his promises. He's been good to me. Here's what Jesus did. And I should rehearse who God is. But to help us, as Calvin said, the scriptures are written in baby talk. I mean, how would I try to communicate to some aunt something?

So there's language of accommodation. There's language, it's analogous language, where we say things like God is righteous. Well, God is, and he is righteous, and his righteousness is holy, and his holiness is loving, and his loving is kind, and all these things that God is.

So what I'm saying is you can't get righteousness from God abstractly credited to your account as if it's some substance or thing or something else because God is simple. So how do you get righteousness from God?

Romans 5 and the Righteousness of the Last Adam

It's because Jesus, the man, the God-man, earns righteousness by keeping the law, and then that can be credited to your account. So today, imputation number three, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin.

Here's the imputation so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. Heidelberg Catechism. God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me.

Adam should have obeyed. Jesus did. Adam should have perfectly obeyed. Jesus did. Adam should have exactly obeyed. Jesus did. Adam should have entirely obeyed. Jesus did. Adam should have personally obeyed.

Jesus did. That's the language from Westminster. Personal, entire, exact, perpetual obedience. And so Jesus is our covenant head. He's our federal head. What he does affects those in him. What Adam did affected those who were in him.

His obedience is performed according to his human nature. The obedience of the divine son incarnate as the second Adam, he perfectly obeys the law and accomplishes positive righteousness for you, dear Christian.

You're not getting some divine righteousness stuff from the father. You're getting it from Jesus the son who was sent by the father, thankfully. His essential righteousness isn't transferred to us like a some substance.

It's earned for us by Jesus fulfilling the law. And that is what Luther called a fortunate exchange. I'm gonna read Romans 5, verses 15 and following to talk about this very issue. The imputation of Christ's righteousness to your account.

God looks at you as if you've never sinned and he's looked at you as if you've perfectly obeyed. That's pretty good assurance. See where assurance comes from? But the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin.

For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. There's work, federal headship, but Jesus's work is much better than Adam's.

Not just because it's positive, but because it abounds. Romans 5, 17, for if because of one man's trespass, death reign through the one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Is that the divine substance righteousness that you get? The free gift of righteousness? No, it's by Adam, the last, the federal head, Jesus who earns righteousness for you by keeping the law in your place.

Verse 18, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners or constituted sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous or be made constituted as righteous.

Commentator Cranfield said, we take it that by Christ's righteous conduct, Paul means not just his atoning death, but the obedience of his life as a whole. God's law has a precept, obey. God's law has a penalty, suffer death if you disobey.

Christ actively keeps the precepts and obeys, and he pays for our penalty as we have broken the law. And therefore, we get a gift of righteousness. Not getting punished, that's wonderful, but there's not the positive side of that earning righteousness that we need.

It's all about Christ's obedience as a federal head. Adam's disobedience credited to all those in Adam, Christ's obedience credited to all those in Christ. Not talking about universalism here. That's not the point.

The point is federal representation. One man affects many. One man affects many. Haldane writes this, it is impossible to conceive how men could be made sinners by the disobedience of Adam or righteous by the obedience of Jesus Christ in any degree, whatever, if the truth of the doctrine of imputation of their sin and the righteousness of the latter be not admitted.

In other words, what in the world are we going to do without imputation? What one person does affects the many. Christ obeyed where Adam disobeyed. One act of righteousness. Could you not say of the Lord Jesus' whole life and death that he was righteous?

The climax of his obedience was the cross, but he was certainly obedient during his entire life. Now, the Westminster Confession is a brilliant document. And for the most part, I love it. Obviously I'm a Baptist, so there's some differences there.

The Savoy Confession, the Congregationalist John Owen and others used the Westminster as a template and pretty much took most of it. This is not a show on the exact changes, but they did make the wording of Christ's act of obedience explicit.

I think my Presbyterian friends would say that there were some who were writing the Westminster Confession that denied act of obedience, but you could read it and still believe it. But here the Savoy and the London Baptist following the Savoy makes it explicit regarding Christ's act of obedience.

Here's what it says in the Doctrine of Justification, chapter 11, paragraph one. Those whom God affectionately calls, he also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, Rome, but by pardoning their sins and by accounting, reckoning, imputing and accepting their persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them, Rome, are done by them, Pelagian, but for Christ's sake alone, not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness.

Here it is, but by imputing Christ's active obedience under the whole law and passive obedience in his death for their whole and soul righteousness by faith, it is the gift of God. So while Westminster doesn't say active obedience under the whole law like Savoy does, like London Baptist, obviously my Presbyterian friends believe in act of obedience, but here, hardy har har, London Baptist Confession is better than Westminster and it talks about the righteousness of Christ's active obedience language.

Christ's Obedience and the Believer's Assurance

This is what 1 Corinthians 1 .30 says. But by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, that is righteousness and sanctification and redemption. You wanna know what wisdom's like in God's eyes?

We get righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that legal standing before God, we are right. How about this? Here's a verse that not many think of when it comes to active obedience, Christ obeying in your place.

Isaiah 53, verse 11. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.

Wow, imputation number two, bear their iniquities. Jesus didn't have any iniquities, he bore theirs. And to make many to be accounted righteous. That's what happens. You are accounted righteous, like you've never sinned.

That should probably transform your life. And you say, you know what? When I fail, I'm still God's child. When I do something well, I'm not going to boast in it because it has nothing to do with me. I'm suffering, maybe God is displeased with me.

We don't think that way at all. Adam's sin, you got condemned for Adam's sin. Jesus gets condemned for your sin. And we get justification and righteousness through Jesus' personal obedience. When God does something, he does it well.

When God does something, he does it in great wisdom. How can you get sinners to heaven? That'd be a good question. How can the damned, the disobedient, the rebellious, those that miss the mark, how could you get to heaven?

Right? And if it's be good, try harder. Whitfield said, that's like climbing a ladder made out of sand that goes up to heaven. I mean, I don't even know how that exists, let alone if I put my foot on the rung.

Can you imagine? Here's a permanent thing. Justification can never be lost. There's nothing you can do to unjustify yourself because there's nothing you could do to justify yourself. It all has to do with the work of Christ.

This has everything to do with practical application. Do you know what? When you're struggling in your sin as a Christian and you're tempted and you're despairing, you are just as justified as the strongest, most mature Christian.

You are just as loved as the most strong, mature Christian. And you don't have to say, well, you know what? Today I'm gonna start off with Bible reading and it's gonna make my day go great. Some kind of talisman.

Of course, read your Bible. But you know what? You're not made right in God's eyes by reading your Bible or having your devotions or anything else, being a good husband. No, no, you're counted as righteous based on the work of Christ.

One writer said this, we ought to adore the wisdom, purity, sovereignty and grace of God, which are herein discovered. When it comes to the law has been kept, we just, I mean, how many times do I watch these body cam videos of police officers and they risk their lives pulling people over and arresting them.

And then the follow-up is they went to court and the liberal judge let him out. And you're like, that guy's got 40 felonies and he gets released again and then he murders someone else. I think the judge should have to pay for that when they let him out over and over and over and over because of DEI and this, that, and the other.

God's Justice Requires Christ's Satisfaction

And you say, I want justice. Isn't there everything in us that say that law has been broken, it has to be paid for. They have to pay for it. And so how does God be the just and the justifier to use Peter's language?

A law has been broken. There has to be punishment, but God loves his creatures and wants to have fellowship with them. How can it happen? Well, I just forget it. I mean, think about it. If I sin against Mario, please forgive me.

Mario says, I forgive you. That all he does is he has to say it. But in the eternal realm of God, the thrice holy one, just asking isn't gonna be enough. I could say, God, please forgive me as an unbeliever.

Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. And the only way I can be forgiven is the satisfaction of Jesus. It has to be him. While it's good to ask for people for forgiveness, it's good to ask God for forgiveness, but it's based always on the sun.

And when I say the sun, it just gets dark in here all of a sudden and the lights go out and I've got three minutes to go and he's getting the backup battery, but we don't need it because we have the sun, the S-O-N.

We don't care about the S-U-N. There, see? Let there be light. You can't do that on the Sabbath because that's like lighting a fire. I have to pay for people in my house to do Shabbat stuff. The law was magnified.

And as John Bryan said, every divine perfection shines forth in its brightest luster in our certain and complete salvation upon the due consideration of the constitution of Christ's person. Does one man's actions affect many?

Yes. Adam's sin credited to your account by the wisdom and decree of God. But there's good news. Even though you didn't deserve that, even though you didn't merit that, even though you weren't there, Jesus, the last Adam, did way better than the first Adam.

And you didn't deserve it. You didn't merit it, but you get it by grace. I've graced you. If I just handed Mario a million dollars and say, here, it's tax-free, it's on me. Enjoy. Don't forget to tithe.

I wonder what Mario would say. He'd be in shock. I could ask him for any favor the rest of my life and he'd do it. He'd call his wife right now, probably with tears of joy. Probably go out and have dinner.

It's just like, wow, I just got a million dollars. And could you think there's something better than a million dollars? You're right with God. You deserve hell, you get heaven. He gave his only son. I know what it's like to have a son.

To give for a rebel, to give for a murderer, to give to an adulterer so that my son might die for them. There's no love like that in the world. It's only found in the Lord Jesus. And so, dear Christian, you're loved.

It's demonstrated by Jesus. His obeying and his punishment for your disobedience. And it's better than a million dollars. You're not gonna be able to take any money with you. Money's just money. By the way, sometimes God judges people by giving them a lot of money.

So I won't give Mario a million after the show because I don't want him to be judged. But seriously, if we think a million's great, I mean, are we not rich? God has blessed you in the heavenly places with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.

You are rich beyond measure. And it's not just because when you put the tap water on, clean water comes out. You have it all. You have everything by grace. Shouldn't that make you thankful? Shouldn't that make you content?

That make you secure in Christ? You don't have to worry. You don't have to fret. You don't have to be concerned about every little detail. There's a Father who loves you with an everlasting love, proven by Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection.

And ascension. See you next time.