What is Double Imputation?

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Now on today's program we're going to do something a little different than we've done in days past. We're following our daily Bible reading that we're doing at Sovereign Grace Family Church and every day as you know if you watch the program we go chapter by chapter through the New Testament readings that we have put out at the beginning of the year 2020.

These readings take us through the New Testament in the order that the books were written and it takes us all the way up to Christmas. Christmas is our last reading of the year and it gives us one chapter a day reading all throughout the year to get us through the New Testament with the exception of today.

Today if you look at your reading list you'll notice there's a change. Today we actually have two chapters that we put in there and that was actually a mistake that I made in putting the program together because I wanted to end the readings on Christmas day and in doing so it didn't work out to where it was a perfect one chapter a day for all year and we of course we only do Monday through Friday so it was only five days a week all year long and so there was one place that I had to put two readings and today is the day.

Philippians 3 and 4 in the Daily Reading Plan

So today if you're reading along with us you're going to read Philippians chapter 3 and 4. So today we're going to end our in Philippians but we're not going to focus on both chapters because of time we're going to focus only on one passage and if you have your Bibles I want you to turn to Philippians chapter 3 and we're going to look at verses 8 and 9 Philippians chapter 3 verses 8 and 9.

Paul on Knowing Christ and Righteousness by Faith

The Apostle Paul is speaking or writing he says, Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

One of the most common things that people understand about the cross is that Jesus died for our sins and you'll hear people say that you say well why did Jesus die on the cross. Well Jesus died for our sins.

Jesus died to provide us forgiveness. A lot of people don't understand what that means but they at least have been around the vernacular enough to have heard well Jesus died for my sins and that is true Jesus died for sinners.

The Penalty for Sin and Christ's Perfect Obedience

But there is another aspect to the work of Jesus that is often misunderstood and often not understood even by those who call themselves Christians and that is this when Jesus died on the cross he did suffer the penalty for sin.

But there's also another side to what Jesus has done for us because not only has Jesus received in himself the punishment due our sin but he has also demonstrated himself as righteous by keeping the law.

And the Bible here tells us that our righteousness comes from him. This is very important because what we're talking about is we're talking about the concept of double imputation. Now remember what imputation means.

Imputation means to charge something to the account of another person. So when it comes to sin if you imagine a ledger book my ledger was full of sin. Jesus's ledger book when it came to sin was completely empty.

The Bible says he was tempted like us in every way and yet without sin. The Bible says there was no deceit found in his mouth. He was not a sinner. Recently there was a newsman that came on and made the accusation.

Well Jesus was admittedly not perfect. And the the world of the church many people responded by saying what are you talking about. You're saying Jesus is not perfect. That's absolute blasphemy to say that Jesus is not perfect.

He's absolutely perfect. He had no sin at all. The Bible clearly says that in several passages when they brought him before the Sanhedrin when they brought him before Pontius Pilate when they brought him before Herod it was absolutely demonstrated that he was without sin.

He was. All of their accusations were false. They brought. They accused him of breaking the law of God which he did not. And so Jesus. Oh and by the way there's another thing that brings that up. There is a very famous pastor who just a few years ago but became famous because he said Jesus broke the law for love.

No he did not. Jesus never broke the law of God. Jesus was perfect. That's important theologically. It's absolutely necessary necessary. Had Jesus sinned he would have earned the wages of sin. And the wages of sin is death.

Jesus did not do that. So Jesus's ledger completely and utterly blank. When it comes to sin my ledger full. I am a sinner from birth and I have sinned my whole life. I am imperfect. I am a sinner and my sin is of course my sin.

Ledger is of course full. When Jesus dies on the cross the Bible says my sin is imputed to him. So it's as if someone took my ledger and took everything of my sin out and they put it into his ledger. And that way when he died on the cross he took the punishment that I deserved.

He paid the debt that I deserve to pay my ledger. Now free from sin I am free from condemnation. I no longer have any sin. All of my sins past present future everything that I ever have done or will do to offend God was placed upon the cross of Jesus Christ and he bore the weight of my sin.

Double Imputation and the Gift of Christ's Righteousness

That is the first type of imputation. But remember I said there's a double imputation. The second type of imputation that also occurs is Jesus has a ledger of righteousness and is perfectly full. His righteousness is perfect.

Not only was he without sin in the negative he was positively righteous. Now we go to my ledger and in my ledger under righteousness you know what it says. Nada. Nothing. My righteousness the Bible says is like filthy rags.

It's not true and genuine righteousness. The very best I can do the very most wholesome things that I can do are not true and genuine righteousness. And so not only when Jesus went to the cross was my sin imputed to him but his righteousness was imputed to me.

That's what Paul is talking about here. And that's why he says I count everything is loss. Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake. I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as in the Greek word here scuba on.

It says rubbish in the ESV another a nicer word might be garbage. But really the word is dung the idea of refuse. I count all my goodness as filthy rags. Everything that I have done everything that I have suffered loss all of it is scuba on in order that I might gain Christ.

Why. Because of verse 9 and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. You see my righteousness is not my own. It doesn't come from what I do. My righteousness is not based on my accomplishments.

And he says not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. But that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God. You see our righteousness is given to us as a gift. We are declared righteous because of the work of Jesus.

That's what justification is. Justification is a declaration of righteousness. God declares us righteous not because of our righteousness but because we believe in Jesus. It depends on faith. That's what Paul says.

And because we believe on Jesus the righteousness of God the righteousness of Christ who is perfectly righteous is imputed to us. And that is the doctrine of double imputation. Very important doctrine one that is often not understood and by some even denied.

Those who want to try to find in themselves some righteousness to hold on to. But we need not look to ourselves for righteousness. We need to understand that our righteousness comes in Christ alone. And let me tell you something.

There's great comfort in that. Wonderful comfort in that. Because if we start to think that our righteousness is something we accomplish then on in those times when we are not doing well and those times when we maybe are not as doing as well as we could in our in our in our walk we might feel well now who my righteousness is is no longer there.

You see when we think like that what we're saying is our righteousness comes from us. Our righteousness comes from our ability to keep the law. Our righteousness comes from our ability to be faithful.

No our righteousness comes through faith in Christ. And our righteousness is a declaration of God which does not ebb and flow. It does not go up or down with my daily ability to maintain righteousness.

No my righteousness comes from Christ. My ledger was full of sin. Christ paid the price for my sin. My ledger was empty of righteousness. And Christ has given me his righteousness. And therefore now I stand not having a righteousness of my own which comes from the law but a righteousness which comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

I hope that this has been helpful for you today I hope it's been an encouragement to you. And I want to thank you again for watching our daily program. If you'll take the time to like comment subscribe and share this video it would be a real blessing.

And we would appreciate you for it again. Thank you for watching coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist.