Imputation (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Abendroth here in the helm and gauge. We are talking about the Bible. We are talking about the centerpiece of the Bible, Christ Jesus, and we have this daily radio show, Monday through Friday.

Monday is basically my sermon, preached at Bethlehem Bible Church. Tuesday, I�m with Pastor Steve Cooley. He�s been sick for about three weeks, though, so I think I�m going to have to have a Tuesday show coming up by my lonesome.

Wednesdays, I try to interview people. It doesn�t always happen. Sometimes it�s too hard to actually pull the trigger. These days, the R .C. Sprouls, the Hortons, the Mohlers, the Devers, they don�t do interviews anyway, so why bother, right?

Thursdays, I try generally to talk about something positive. That�s called Caleb Thursday. And then Friday, woodshed Friday. Take them to the woodshed. Go outside and cut off a tree switch. Come on in for your licking.

I�ve never done that, by the way. I�ve never said to any of my kids, �I want you to go out to the backyard and find me a switch off the tree that I�m going to use for you. Boy, but I can imagine how painful that must be.

Not the actual switch applied to the seed of understanding, but the idea that if I got a little flimsy one, my dad would probably give me more. But if I got a thicker one, it would probably hurt more.

So what do you do? You are stuck between a proverbial log and twitch, twig, twitch. We�re talking about imputation. Don�t forget, before we get into the topic, you can go to Greece with us if you�d like, tour.

I�ll teach the Bible there at Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Patmos, Ephesus. I�d love to have you go. I was in Greece a couple of years ago. Don�t worry about the Euro, the drachma, anything else.

Just like Israel, you know there�s going to be all kinds of things in the news, but we trust in the sovereignty of God and we go anyway. For after all, it�s appointed for man once to die. And then the judgment.

Imputation, Adam, and Romans 5

You know, while I�m here, I have something in front of me. Oh, do you know what? That is sad. I�m preaching Romans chapter 5 right now about the imputation of Adam�s sin. Remember last week? We were talking about imputation, crediting something to someone�s account, charging it to their account, placing something in one�s account, attributing things.

And we�re in Romans chapter 5 thinking about this one-man Adam who affected a lot of people. Because Paul is explaining the methodology of justification and he�s going to then go on to show that the actions of one man, Jesus, affect a lot of people as well.

Or to use Romans 5 exact language, the one deed of the one man affects the many. So we were going through that last time in Romans chapter 5, verse 12 says in the ESV, �Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Now we�re going to talk about that a little bit more. But I�ve got a little message moment. I guess that�s not the message moment. What is that? Is that Jeopardy music? I wouldn�t know. I don�t know these things.

I do know that Pastor Dave Jeffrey�s daughter Naomi, who�s now married with a different last name, I forgot her last name, she won a car on �Price is Right. I do know that. �You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we�re in.

First sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses.

So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn�t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God.

But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the one who will get us out of this. Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man�s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God�s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do.

Nice pouring language there for infusion for the Roman Catholic friends there. �There�s no comparison between the death-dealing sin and this generous life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence.

The verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through the one man�s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life in those who grasp with both hands, this wildly extravagant life gift, this grand setting-everything-right that the one man, Jesus Christ, provides?

Here it is in a nutshell. Just as one person did it wrong, I thought maybe God would say did it wrongly, and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right, I�d say did it rightly, and got us out of it.

But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life. One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong. One man said yes to God and put many in the right. Now, if you have the Message Bible, could I try to disavow you of that silly notion that you�re actually reading the Bible?

Now certainly there are some parts of it that echo the truth, frankly because God�s Word is so powerful. But if you�d like to have any technical precision to know anything like imputation, would you get it from that passage?

Could you understand imputation, federal headship, from that passage? Well, besides the poor grammar, despite that, it is just hurtful to use because God is precise. He wants to be precisely worshipped.

He wants to be precisely thought about. Precision here is the key, and church history should tell us that. Is our view of federal representation Pauline? What about seminal headship? What about the realist view?

What about Arminian�s view? What about Augustine�s view? What about Pelagian�s view? That passage by Eugene Peterson isn�t going to help at all. So that was just my little moment. That was my little Friday moment for No Compromise Radio.

Since Steve isn�t here, we had to have our message moment. I don�t know, maybe we should start having 1 banana, 2 banana, 3 banana, 4 music in the background with the banana splits like I used to listen to in the late 60s, early 70s, whenever that might have been.

H .R. Puffin stuff. Now the historicity of Genesis was accepted by Christ Jesus and accepted by Paul because here in the argument, Paul is talking about Adam, a literal historical figure. Listen to Genesis 3.

By the way, I�ll just telegraph this here. Adam�s the one who�s the federal representative. And when Eve sins, she�s affected, but no one else. When Adam sins, after Eve sins, everyone is affected because Adam is the federal representative.

He is the covenant head. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, �Did God actually say, �You shall not eat of any tree in the garden

The woman said to the serpent, �We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, �You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, �You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate, then, there�s not a �then� after, she ate, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Adam takes that literally, a real, did I just say Adam? Paul takes that literally, a real Adam. Actually Adam took that literally. Did you know Adam thought he was a literal Adam? He didn�t buy into the whole Tim Keller that he was poetically made and described.

Although I think to be fair, Tim Keller says there was a real Adam. �The federal head was Adam. Nothing happened to the race when Eve sinned, but since Adam was designated by God as the federal head, as S. Lewis Johnson says, after Adam sinned, all hell broke loose.

Now, there�s an old saying that says, �Sin did not enter through the apple in the tree. Sin entered by the pear on the ground R-R-R-R-P-A-I-R. But as funny as that might be, and as cute as it might be, it�s not correct because sin entered by the man, Adam, whose name means ground.

See, not as clever, but it�s through Adam since he�s the federal head. And people get into all kinds of weird notions about what that fruit was. The Middle Ages really thought celibacy was key, so the forbidden fruit was the sex act.

They could just put aside the idea that Adam was already told to be fruitful and multiply, at least right there in the very same context. Some people think that the true meaning of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that it was actually not a tree necessarily, but it was a grapevine.

Maybe before the flood it was a grape tree. And you know what happens when you pick some grapes, don�t you? You put them in a little bag, a little Ziploc bag that they had back in those days. When you store them in some little urn, what happens?

They got drunk. That�s what some people think that is. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Think federal headship. Think it�s an act of disobedience stemming from a heart that doesn�t believe God. All sin boils down to a lack of faith, and then it becomes rebellion epitomized by immorality.

When we talk about original sin, the origination of sin, of course, is found by Satan. But into the human race we have Adam. Sin entered through Adam. Originated through Lucifer, of course, but sin enters through Adam.

It�s what we call the original sin. And when you read the obituaries, if you�re old enough to read them every day, everyone could say the result of sin, the result of sin, the result of sin. S. Lewis�s very great Bible teacher, S. Lewis Johnson, he talked about the country preacher that described Adam as he would take his boys to the Garden of Eden�s entrance to teach them what sin did.

And he took the boys out, and he would have the country language preacher talk, �Take a good look in there, boys. That�s where your ma ate us out of house and home. But Adam was the federal representative.

And think about it. If you don�t want federal representation, someone determining your actions, somebody determining your status, somebody determining all kinds of issues, if you don�t like that, then remember, like I said last show, even though you didn�t earn Adam�s sin, merit Adam�s sin, even though you weren�t in the Garden, you got credited for that.

And don�t forget, that means there�s another man�s work who you can get credit for even though you didn�t deserve that either, and that person�s name is Jesus Christ. So it�s a good deal, believe me. A, because God is wise, and B, we benefit.

Those who place their faith in Christ Jesus benefit from the second man who did one act to have his righteousness credited to our account. So you say, �Well, we could put one person and then the next and the next and the next.

Adam was on probation, then his kids were on probation, Seth and Cain and Abel and one after another after another. And then when is he going to put you on probation? When you�re a baby, when you�re an infant, when you�re a toddler, when you�re a teenager.

That would never work. One man said, �I�m happy that Adam was my representative because if I had been my own representative, I know I should have failed. And if God did not have this representative arrangement, then would we have a representative Redeemer to come?

So I like God�s arrangement. I�m perfectly happy with it. In fact, I rejoice in it. Listen to G .S. Bishop. �A race must either have stood in full grown man with a full-orbed intellect or stood as babies, each entering his probation in the twilight of self-consciousness, each deciding his destiny before his eyes were half-open to all that it meant.

How much better would have been, how much more just, but could it not have been some other way? There was no other way. It was either the baby or it was the perfect, well-equipped, all-calculating man, the man who saw and comprehended everything.

The man was Adam. Had we been present? Had we all, the human race, been brought into existence at once? And had God proposed to us that we should choose one who was to be our representative, that he might enter into covenant with him on our behalf?

Should not we with one voice have chosen our first parent for this responsible office? Should we not have said, �He is a perfect man and bears the image and likeness of God. If anyone is to stand for us, let it be this man Adam.

Since the angels which stood for themselves fell, why should we wish to stand for ourselves? And if it be reasonable that one stands for us, why should we complain when God has chosen the same person for this office that we should have chosen?

Had we been in existence and capable of choosing ourselves? Isn't that good? Why are you bugged with God's choice of Adam to be your federal head? When if you were alive in the garden, all of humanity would say, �Adam.

It would be a hands-down landslide. If it was going to be a democracy, everybody would unilaterally choose Adam to stand in our stead. So, you can either be in Adam or in Christ. I don't want that to get away from us here as we're talking about these issues of imputation.

If Adam did withstand the probationary period back in the garden and he did not sin, then who would you praise for your righteousness? Who would you praise for your life and salvation? Who would you praise for your time with God?

You'd praise Adam. That's exactly right. Praise Adam through whom all blessings flow. Through whom all blessings flow. See, I can't sing, but I don't care. I'm just sitting here in this room by myself.

A room with a view. Adam would have been glorified. Adam would have been praised. But Hosea 6 says,. �But they like Adam he's talking of Israel, �have transgressed the covenant. They have dealt treacherously against me.

So, Adam's sin put to your account. Thomas Goodwin said, �Moses tells us of the history of Adam's fall, and Paul explains the mystery and the consequences thereof. And so, in Romans chapter 5, here's the point.

This is part 2 introduction for the point of Romans chapter 5. Federal representation is not new or unique. So, when Jesus is our representative, it's not new. It goes all the way back to not to Father Abraham, but to Adam.

Think about how sin entered the world. Think about what Jesus did. Representation isn't anything new. And when you look at this passage, do not forget. Sin, singular, sin, singular, sin, singular. The one sin of Adam.

The first sin of Adam, as the Puritans called Adam, a public person. This is, as Arthur Pink said, the unmistakable testimony of Romans 5. We all are sinners, antecedent to and independent of any personal transgressing of God's law.

Can you imagine? Just try to tell this to people, unbelievers. Try telling this to Christians. You know, they want to have some other kind of view that we'll talk about in a little bit, where Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek in some kind of realist thing, a seminal view.

No, no, no. This is by federal representation. Adam is not just the father of the human race. He is our legal agent, standing in our place. You say, that's not fair. Oh, well, you know what? I guess you don't think it was fair that Jesus stood in our place, even though we weren't back at Calvary.

See, no, you want that, don't you? You want that, and that is the beautiful symmetry. That is a beautiful analogy that's found in Romans 5. So, the way you work through these issues of what is the correct theory of original sin, and what does it mean when all sinned, how do I think about this properly?

Just think about a piece of paper, 8 1⁄2 by 11, and fold it in half. And then open it back up again, you'll see the line down the center. And you'll notice that when you do fold it in half, the exact thing on the left is on the right.

And so, we have the one Adam, we have the last Adam. What Adam did affects many, what Jesus did affects many. Adam's our federal representative, Jesus is our federal representative. And if you try to remember symmetrical, you try to remember analogy, you try to say, yes, I see how these two relate, you are going to navigate the course through all kinds of weird views of what does it mean when it says the text, And so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Now, Pelagians, here's what they're going to say. That all sinned because every person themselves sinned. They all had their own personal fall. Adam gave us a bad example, and we just follow the bad example.

And we imitate Adam's sin. So there's not a real connection between Adam's sin and our sin. We sin because we have an example of Adam. But if you think about children, they haven't actually transgressed in the similitude of Adam's transgression.

That's not the same. That doesn't work. Adam's bad example, so now let's think about that analogy. Let's think about that symmetrical. So we have Adam's bad example leads to our doing things that are bad.

So if you follow Jesus' good example, then you can go to heaven. Now, what does that do to chapter 5, verse 15, where it talks about the free gift, besides teaching works righteousness, besides being pagan and not Christian, and not talking about the salvation which is found alone in God?

You can't say it was a bad example. Why? Because if we follow Adam because of his bad example, then we follow Jesus because of his good example. That doesn't explain anything. By example, that doesn't tell me how Adam sinned.

That doesn't help me at all. Man's free will he had to determine and he had to decide? No. Well, what about hereditary depravity? Our physical relationship to the first man, Adam, puts us with him in the garden because we're physically connected.

This is called the realistic view. And by the way, if you want to study this topic, one of my all-time favorite books, even though it's more of a book list, John Murray's booklet on Romans 5, 12 to 21.

It is absolutely great. I just reread it again the other day. It's the best. You've got to read that book. I should just pick that book up and quote. I don't even know if it's published by a publisher, but you can pick it up.

It's a series of journal articles and it talks about this very subject. This was a view, this realistic view, was a view of a strong shed. It was one of his views as well. And Adam was one race. When he fell, the race fell.

And we existed in Adam's shed, said, in our elementary invisible substance. We inherit a depraved nature from Adam. It's another way you could put it. Well, that's true. I believe that. But that's not what this passage is talking about.

One man sin, one man sin, one man sin, one man sin, one man sin. One man plunges us into sin. So how do we determine what this contagion is? How do we understand this corrupt root? Murray said, The distinction which cannot be questioned is that Adam sustains a genetic relation to the whole race and that all are seminally united with and derived from him.

That does not hold in the relation of Christ to his people. We're going to have to find out what that means because I just looked at the clock. We are out of time. NoCompromiseRadio .com. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text. Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.