Classic Friday: Three Imputations (Part 3)

No Compromise Radio. Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse with no compromise.

The Meaning of Imputation and Federal Headship

If you weren't here last week, I could ask you the question, what are the three biblical imputations? You need to know what these three are. There's a debate in evangelicalism, what should we call ourselves?

In the 30s maybe you called yourself a fundamentalist because you believed in the fundamentals of the faith, literal resurrection, virgin birth, etc. But what do we call ourselves now? There are feminist evangelicals.

There are all kinds of other evangelicals. What do we call ourselves? And so when R .C. Sproul was asked the question, what do you call yourself now since evangelical is so nebulous? It doesn't really mean anything.

R .C. Sproul said, I know what word I'm using, I'm calling myself an imputationalist. What is imputation? Instead of going to one passage and working our way through, I'd like you to get your Bibles open first to Philemon verse 18.

Only one chapter, so Philemon 18. I'd like to first give you the definition and then we'll look at the three great imputations. First the definition, then the three great imputations, and then some implications of that truth.

That is to say, if you know something, it should change the way you think about life. And in this particular situation, what you think about God, how you think about God, and this topic makes God big.

He already is big, but it helps our perspective to see that God is God and there's no one like Him. If God sits on the throne, He does whatever He pleases. This is not small God theology, this is not keep God over here in a little box until Sunday morning when we need Him.

You see these three imputations and you think only God. And matter of fact, I'd even go so far to say if it wasn't for God, you would probably not accept these imputations. But what is an imputation? And I think Philemon verse 18, as Paul gives Philemon some instructions, I think it helps you to understand what imputation means, or to impute.

Philemon 18, if he has wronged you, Paul is telling Philemon that if Onesimus has any debts, if he has wronged you or owes you anything, and here comes the definition of imputation, charge that to my account.

Count that to my side of the ledger. Remember, charge it to me, reckon it to me, count it to me. And that's exactly what imputation means, to count it to someone else, to take something into account, to credit it to someone else, to look upon something as someone else's.

And so when you see imputation, when you see, if you have King James, a reckon or count, it's to take something and charge it to someone else. It's very simple. And it's very important theologically for lots of reasons.

Here's the main reason it's important. This is the way God does things in the world. He works by the process of imputation. He's a kind of God who says, in my wisdom, in my authority, in my sovereignty, I take things and charge them to other people's accounts.

You say, well, I don't really like that. I love that. It doesn't matter if you like it or if you don't. It's a biblical truth. And God takes things and charges them to someone else. He makes people into representatives that affect other people.

There's a solidarity to the human race. And God has certain people who lead, and what they do affects other people. Would you think that's a biblical principle? The sins of the father are visited on the children.

What the fathers do affect the children. That's federal headship. The curse of Canaan lands on all his descendants, Genesis 9. Egyptians, all the Egyptians, were punished for Pharaoh's sin. Achan's family died for his crime.

All Israel suffered for David's sin. Leprosy was visited to Gehazi's seed forever. And you say, well, that was back in the Bible days. We're different. We don't go for federal representation. Oh, we don't?

World War II. Here's an illustration of federal representation that I think is quite fascinating. The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and the U .S. Congress calls a vote to declare war on Japan. There was one no vote.

One no vote. Do you remember the no vote? Jeanette Rankin voted no. And she said, as a woman, I cannot go to war and I refuse to send anyone else. And she thought behind the scenes Roosevelt was strategically planning all this and he wanted the war.

Well, the United States Congress voted to go to war. And when that happened, there were binding implications on everyone else, including Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin. And she, later that day, went to war with Japan.

How? Because of federal representation. Everything about representation is important, specifically in the Bible. It determines whether you believe like Roman Catholics or Protestants. It determines what you think about Adam and then the last Adam, Jesus.

And some people like N .T. Wright say that this is, in a mockery, he says, imputation is like a substance or a gas just passing through a courtroom. Is that true? Let's find out. Biblical imputation number one.

Adam's Sin Imputed to All His Descendants

Adam's sin was imputed to all his descendants. That's number one. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if you would. Adam's sin was credited to, reckoned to, counted as our sin. The old New England primer, you repeat after you, you fill in the blanks.

In Adam's fall, we sinned all. But how exactly? That'd be a good primer to study with your kids, by the way. In Adam's fall, we sinned all. How? It wasn't our personal sin, it was Adam's sin credited to, imputed to, our account.

1 Corinthians chapter 15, you see the language here of the two Adams. 1 Corinthians 15, 21, for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

Through what process? Through federal representation and imputation. Adam, as the Puritans would call him, was a common man, a public man. He was the stand-in, and what he did affected all of us. He wasn't just the father of the human race, but he was the legal agent of God.

Now let's go to Romans chapter 5, because 1 Corinthians 15 doesn't show us the extent of imputation, it just makes a connection between Adam and us. Romans chapter 5, verse 12, this is the verse, this is the issue of imputation for Adam's sin.

I covered this last week a bit, but I want to double up on it because it is so important. If you don't get Adam's imputation correct, then it will spill over into imputation of our sin unto Christ, which is the second imputation, and Christ's righteousness into our account, the third imputation.

So look at this, Romans 5, verse 12. This is great. All week I've just been studying, and I thought, I cannot wait to preach. I can't wait to come in with the B -29 Super Fortress bombers and come over here and just drop the payload and carpet bomb all of you, and then fly to California and let Steve pick up the pieces.

This has just been the best. This is world-rocking, and there's only one way we can think this way, and that is through special revelation, the word of God. You cannot look up at the stars and figure out federal representation.

He's just been talking about justification, chapter 3, and the effects and the benefits and the fruit of justification, chapter 5, and now he says, in case someone says, how can someone who is a federal representative save anybody else?

How can Jesus as a federal head save anybody? And then he says, well, it's nothing new. There's nothing novel about federal representation. There's nothing new about imputation. Imputation, therefore, Romans 5, 12, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all because all sinned.

Adam was a federal representative, and what he did affected everyone by imputation. His sin was credited to everyone else, and you go, I just still don't like that. What would be a different option? Well, I guess God could have said, every person that's born, they now get tested.

So you get born, and then you have a test, and what do you think you probably would do, by the way, in that test? And then you fail, and then your next kid's born, and then they fail, the next kid born, and they fail.

Listen to what G .S. Bishop said, the 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 what it all meant.

How much better would that have been? How much more just? But could it not have been some other way? There was no other way besides imputation. It was either the baby, or it was the perfect, well-equipped, all-calculating man.

That man was Adam. And by the way, if we could have all gone to the Garden of Eden, and we all would have stood there, and we said, you know, God is going to judge us, I think we all would have said if we voted, let's take a little vote, congregational vote, who votes for you, yourself, to stand before God, and be on probation, and decide whether you're going to sin or not?

Would you have voted for you? Who would you have voted for? I think I know who I would have voted for. I think I would have voted for that man, who? Adam. And if Adam would have succeeded, we all would have clapped for Adam.

Way to go, Adam! And no amount of fame and worship and adoration should ever be given to such a creature. Only the Lord is worthy of that. Here's Thomas Watson's catechism. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?

Answer? The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him, by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression.

One deed affects many. Genesis 2, here's the history, Romans 5, here's the theology behind the mystery. Through one man, Adam, condemnation, through one man, Christ, righteousness. You are saved in the exact way you're lost.

You are saved in the exact same way that you're lost. Adam's sin credited to all of us, one act credited, Christ's righteousness credited to our account, exact same way, through the act of another. Now, look at that passage again, because all sinned, what does that mean?

Because all sinned. We were sinning in Adam? Well, I ask a question, were you in the garden sinning with Adam? Some of you look old, but not that old. But if you were in the garden sinning with Adam, I guess you were at the cross making righteousness and forgiving sins in Christ.

No, we weren't there in the garden and we weren't there at the cross, imputation of Adam's sin to us, imputation of Christ's righteousness to us. You say, well, you know what? Some people said what Adam did was just a bad example.

The Pelagians think this, he just was a really bad example and like Charles Barkley, you know, don't have a bad role model like that. Well, he was a very bad example, I know that. But if you follow the bad example of Adam, then I guess you're following the good example of Christ, helping to contribute to your salvation.

And by the way, why does everybody follow the bad example? Shouldn't someone in the last six to 10 ,000 years be good? Of course we get our depraved nature from Adam, but that is not Romans five. Romans five is imputation, immediate representative imputation.

Look again in verse 15. I know it's review, but you've just got to get this verse 15 for if by the transgression of the one, see that in the second sentence, the one, the many died. That's imputation.

Five times, it's the one act affects the many. Look at the middle of the verse 16. The judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. Verse 17, the transgression of the one death. Verse 18, so then as through one transgression.

Verse 19, so as the one man's disobedience. When you look at Romans chapter five, all sinned, it's past tense. It's point in time. Who in the past at point in time sinned, Adam did, and then we get credit for that.

All men die because they sin personally. No, that's not what he's primarily after because then everybody would have eternal life because they're personally righteous. All right, now let's think about this for a second.

Well, we'll just stop and detour. Are you saved because of your faith? I hope not because then it's a work. You're saved because the love of God, the triune God, Ephesians chapter four, but because of this great love in which he loved us.

But you're saved through faith. Faith doesn't initiate. Faith is not the cause. Faith is the result. And so too, Adam's sin given to us, imputed by God, isn't the consequence, isn't the fruit of, it is the cause of our sinful nature.

We don't sin and then all of a sudden God says, well, I guess you're a sinner. No, we are federally declared as sinful because of Adam. And then because of that, we have the sinful nature, depraved nature.

The cause of our sinful nature is imputation. Look at verse 13. We need to get on to the second one, but just a little review. Paul proves himself in verse 13, Romans 5, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

Sin is not counted where there's no law. Why did anybody sin between Adam and Moses? There's no law. Sin is a transgression of the law, 1 John 3. There was no law. How could anybody sin? Conclusion God wants you to make, there was an earlier law that was broken and Adam broke it and you got credit for it.

And so did the people between Adam and Moses. How could anybody die between Adam and Moses when God didn't say do this or don't do that? Answer, because there was a law broken by Adam and you got credit for it.

Yes, but through no personal fault of my own, God gives me credit for sin. That's right. And for no personal merit of your own, you are going to get credit for Christ's righteousness. Deal? Sign up for that?

I'd sign up for that. Massachusetts Bible Society wouldn't sign up for that. Don't ever believe what the Massachusetts Bible Society declares it to be. It sounds like it's a good name. It's a tricky name.

Here's what it says. It provides a bridge between the faithful and the skeptical by promoting biblical literacy, understanding, and dialogue in a safe, nonjudgmental environment. Through small groups, lectures, video, and the web, we provide a safe place to explore the Bible in the context of the many voices of Christian interpretation.

That kind of stuff, great on me. And one of the people in the Massachusetts Bible Society said, Adam and Eve didn't exist. Get over it. Michael Ruse. He said, Aristotle thought that some people were born to be slaves.

He was wrong. St. Paul thought we were descended from Adam and Eve. He was wrong. The disappearance of a literal Adam and Eve is not only possible, but something of a relief. The Augustinian scenario always leaves a bad taste about why we should be blamed for the sin of someone else.

Christianity Today, Ruse said, should quit fretting. The president of Calvin College should be proud of his faculty. People that are denying Adam. This is not only the right way to behave. There's no Adam.

Listen to this. This is worth it. It's the Christian way to behave. It's the Christian way to behave, to not get all caught up in a literal Adam. Friends, no literal Adam. Here's my point. No literal Adam, no literal imputation, then no need for a second, last Adam, and the need for him taking our sins by imputation and us receiving his righteousness by imputation.

Of course, unbelievers don't like this doctrine. If you only say Adam's sin credited to our account, well, I know it's not really likable, but you have to say there's two things going on here. I get credit for something I didn't do, sin, and I'm also going to get credit for something I didn't do, salvation.

Christ's Sins Imputed and His Righteousness Credited to Believers

Imputation number two, the imputation of the sins of God's people to the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. So, we've got Adam sin credited to our account. Christ, though not a sinner, has our sins credited to his account.

This is the concept of substitution, legal standing. Jesus was not made a sinner. He was just counted in a legal way as a sinner. This is not an unusual idea, transferring sins by representation. Just listen to this and ask yourself the question, from what book is he reading?

When he had made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of the meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat, and Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins.

And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all the iniquities of itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness, transferring, reckoning as it were, the sins of the people onto the scapegoat, Leviticus 16.

It's not a new idea. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. This really is the passage when it comes to the second and third imputation. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. If you're trying to get caught up to speed again mentally, A, you're going to need your Bible open, and B, we're trying to figure out how God works.

God works this way, by having people represent other people. God works by having Adam do something that's credited to our account, even though we didn't do it, even though we weren't alive. And likewise, he has Jesus do things that even though we weren't alive and even though we didn't do it, it's credited to our account.

So this is just the way things work. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. Let's just stop there. For our sake he made him, the father made the son to be sin, and by the way, comma, who knew no sin.

That is Jesus Christ. The sins of the people were set to the account of the Lord, and he bore those sins on his body on the tree. If he would have had his own sins, he would have had to bear his own sins, but he did not have any sins.

First Peter 2 says he committed no sin, and no deceit was in his mouth. Remember when Jesus challenged the Jews in John 8, prove me guilty of my sin. I was telling Steve in my study earlier, there's a story of Bronson Alcott, the New England dreamer who had a conversation with Carlyle, and he said to Carlyle that he was just as much one with the father as Jesus was.

Carlyle said, well, that may be so, but Jesus got men to believe him. I thought that was pretty good. The Jews even knew there was no sin in him. That's an amazing statement. No sin, no guile, no anything.

And so here's what happens. Imputation says Jesus didn't sin, but the sins of all the people who will ever believe will be placed into the spiritual account, not infused in, not imparted in, not making Jesus a sinner.

Was the Holy One ever a sinner by nature? No, but was the Holy One ever declared to bear sins? You say, yes, that's imputation. That's why it's so important. An accounting thing doesn't change the nature of something.

People say, well, God judged sin on Jesus, therefore Jesus must have been defiled by it. The mistake is not understanding imputation, declaration, forensic judge kind of language. The judge doesn't make the criminal good, he declares him not guilty.

So here we have sin imputed to Christ, to his account, as if they were his, as if he committed them, as if perpetrated by him, but he didn't. Turn to Galatians chapter three for a moment. This is one of those passages where you think, can't I use this to talk to my neighbor who thinks that they get to heaven by being good?

Answer yes. And if you're here this morning and you think you're going to get to heaven by being good and doing good, you need to know this passage. Why kill Jesus if you can get there on your own? But look at what Galatians 3 .10 says, it's fascinating.

The law can't save anyone. It's not meant to. It's impossible. You mean to tell me we're going to have a person with Adam's sin credited to his account and then he's going to get rid of that divine accounting by being good, by having some water splashed on his head?

No. Look at verse 10, Galatians 3, for all who rely on works of the law, doing good and being good, are under what? Actually in America, people that obey the law, I'm glad for them. I'd rather have a next door neighbor who's a moralist than a licentious person, wouldn't you?

Would you rather have someone who lives in a convent or someone who is a drug lord? For society, we know which one is nicer for us. But in terms of pleasing God, you can't get there from here. Are under a what?

A curse. Society thinks that a prey of mine thinks that mine that's been affected by Adam's sin says I'm just going to do good, I'm going to be good, and at the end there'll be an accounting and I'll have more good than bad.

And God says if you think you're going to get to heaven by that way, you are what? Cursed.

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