Impute or Infuse

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 Avendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Avendroth. Steve, you�re going to have to talk because I have a lozenge of lifesavers, because their great flavor has been around for years and years.

Folks have found there�s nothing quite like lifesavers, a part of living. What�s the thing that if you, the lifesaver type, that if you bite it in the dark, it�s got the little flash in there?

What�s that? It�s one of the mints. Is it spearmint or is it peppermint or is it wintergreen? I think it�s

St. Elmo�s firemint. Yeah, okay.

St. Elmo�s fire. So just before we started this show, I showed Pastor Steve, speaking of food, my little

XO, E -X -O, and it is a banana bread protein bar, all -natural, gluten -free, no soy, grain -free, no dairy, 10 grams of protein, made with cricket flour.

Love it. Not going to eat it. So Steve said, �Don�t ask me to try it on the air.� Don�t even, don�t even, because I might just vomit.

And on the back, it�s interesting, Steve, it says, �Complete, sustainable, and delicious.� Yeah. So I�m all about sustainable because if mankind isn�t about sustainability, then what will we do?

We can�t trust the Lord to sustain His creation, right? We have to, what about stewardship,

Steve? Well, okay, sustainability. I get so tired about that. You know, I mean, if that kind of thinking would have been around a thousand years ago, we would still be living in huts.

Have you been watching the Vietnam miniseries with Ken Burns and Lynn? You know, what�s funny is

I started recording it, and I actually, I saw them on a Sunday show, and I just erased it. I didn�t even want to watch it because as soon as the co -creator, whatever her name was, she says, you know, �The

Vietnamese were victorious.� And I�m just like, okay, I just don�t, I�m sorry, I don�t want to watch. It�s been fascinating, the behind -the -scenes video and audio of Kennedy and then

Johnson and Nixon, etc. Yeah.

I can tell you this much. I was born in 1960, and I�m glad the war did not continue long enough that I would have to go.

Well, I mean, the way we�re going with Afghanistan, you know, my grandkids might be fighting over there.

Or North Korea. It�s never going to end. Well, North Korea, you know, it�s an interesting one because it�s an armistice.

There was never any peace declared. So, you know, it�s not really a resumption of war.

That�s kind of like, I guess, unlimited atonement. Redemption was just made possible.

It wasn�t actually accomplished. Peace was made possible. It wasn�t actually accomplished. And it wasn�t applied either.

I know. Now, I can�t remember, Steve, if we did this one in the past. We had the little

Don Kistler test. I thought it was going to be Don Henley. Justification by faith, the merits of Christ, or the merits of me.

I can�t remember if we did this quiz or not, or I just did this quiz on my own. But I saw this today, and it made me want to talk on No Compromise Radio today with you about sola fide and justification by faith alone.

And how some would underdo it and they would just go off the deep end by antinomian, lawless, moral laxity.

And some would overdo it for a lot of different reasons, but they would add some type of evangelical obedience or something to justification by faith alone.

Make it gnomism. We described that as something like Olympic diving where you want to come in just right.

You don�t want to go over or under. Yeah. So basically what happens if you belly flop, that�s antinomianism.

And if you back flop, that�s gnomism. Both are bad and painful. Extremely painful.

I looked at Twitter today and it said Richard Baxter followed me. And you know my gut was

I wanted to block him, block Richard Baxter. I mean, it might be a real guy, right?

You know, I forgot to do this last show, but you were talking about reformation and counseling and did they address it and stuff like that.

I would have to say that there is truth to the fact that being a pastor is more than preaching.

I think that�s true. And that�s what counseling people say.

That is the number one time that you could counsel everybody is preaching. Absolutely, yeah.

Counseling people would say that you need to do counseling outside the pulpit as you meet with people who are struggling or training them.

They�d say that, yeah? Right, yeah. And I would see truth in all three of those views or those three components.

What I don�t like is when counseling people of the reformed persuasion, I wanted to say ilk, but maybe that was derogatory.

It has that connotation. Use Richard Baxter�s book called The Reformed Pastor to basically say if you don�t go around and visit 98 .6

people per day in your congregation, you�re backsliding as a pastor. Yeah, I mean it�s kind of anachronistic, right?

I mean just think about it. I mean if we all lived – I mean like if you lived in Mark Devers� little commune there in D .C.

And I�m not – and trust me. You�ve been there. Yeah, and I�m not knocking it.

If Mark Devers ever listens to this show, I want him to know something. First of all, I think he�s a billion times smarter than I am.

And secondly, I like the setup they have there. I kind of admire that. I just don�t think it�s anything that is easily replicatable if I could say that.

In other words, I don�t think you could just move that model everywhere because most of the people in the church live in a very close proximity to the church and I think that�s wonderful.

But it�s also because just of the nature of that church. Yeah, I think that part is true.

We don�t live in Kidderminster. No, we don�t. But I think the other part, Steve, is if Richard Baxter, third -class conditional, since Richard Baxter taught a wrong view of justification by faith and he had to add in evangelical obedience and he was originally thinking about the idea of justification.

He wrote a book about it and he was influenced I think much from his time as a chaplain in Oliver Cromwell�s New Model Army.

And he saw people that would say, �I�m a Christian but acted like little heathens.� Kind of like we see today, right?

You�re in the south. Hey, I�m a Baptist. Well, not just in the south. I mean we see it all over the place. It�s just maybe more common.

Right, and Baxter sees that. So what does he do? Instead of trying to tell people, if you are justified, sanctification will occur and he sadly did not do that.

He added in to justification. He added in sanctification. He became Romish.

He talked about evangelical obedience. So now you�ve got to run around to people�s houses and make sure they�re doing the right things.

I think the two are related. Making a list, checking it twice, running around to make sure everybody is not naughty but nice.

I told Steve that our mailman, there�s a mail lady that I know and there�s a mail man.

There�s a mail lady? That doesn�t sound right at all. That�s true. He doesn�t speak

English very well and so whenever you talk to him and say thank you or have a good day or whatever, and I�m usually there in the summer because that�s when

I�m on holiday. He says Merry Christmas. See, my guess is he speaks perfect English.

He just doesn�t want to engage with people. So he�s like these stupid Anglos. They look at me and they think

I don�t speak any English. So I say Merry Christmas and they laugh at me and just kind of� That way he doesn�t have to talk because he�s memorizing 1

Peter or something. Exactly. See? So there�s this little quiz that Kistler put together,

Don Kistler, and he used to have, was it Soledad Gloria Books? That is correct. Okay.

And it�s subsumed underneath Ligonier now, consumed by Ligonier.

I can�t remember all the details. They ate it. Lock, stock and barrel, yeah. And he has a quiz and it�s making me think about this razor�s edge of you can get in a lot of trouble pretty quickly when it comes to justification by faith alone if you�re not thinking right.

I just thought we would use this as a springboard. Okay. Spring away. Before we even look at one question, when you discuss justification by faith alone, you better make sure the only works that you consider are the works of Christ, right?

They are the works that are credited to you and your sin is credited to Christ.

So you are justified by the works� by works. Correct. But by the works of somebody who is perfect.

Okay. And you better not fall into, well, I�m justified by my sincerity.

I know my works didn�t really go all the way in terms of honoring God but God would credit my sincerity, et cetera.

No, the only works in the category of justification are Christ�s works.

Okay. All right. Number one. It says Mark A or B, whichever you think is correct.

The pressure. I don�t even have. Number one. A. God gives a man right standing with himself by mercifully accounting him innocent and virtuous.

B. I guess that would be an affirmation. No, that�s not.

We don�t even have a cough button nor a sneeze button. I wish I had a

Sassinian button. That block out all the Sassinians. B.

God gives a man right standing with himself by actually making him into an innocent and virtuous person.

Yeah, I have to go with A. So you think of the

Reformation and how justification by faith alone was recovered. And of course it�s a biblical principle,

Romans chapter 3 and 4 and other places. What�s happening though, Steve, that I didn�t know before I studied the

Reformation in the last year? You know, basically you�ve got the word �justify� in Latin and it means to make righteous in Latin.

And so they�re thinking, okay, justification is to make righteous. But they did not, they, Rome, did not have a bunch of councils and canons and statements on justification.

It was in response to the Reformers that Trent comes along and codifies and calcifies and …

Calcifies is good because it sets into your bones like arthritis, right? I know. And then they talked a lot about justification when you look at the

Council of Trent. And early on, they, the Roman Catholics, had justification, include sanctification or there was a blending between the two.

Isn�t that kind of built into our system where we say, you know what? We just need to live holy lives in order for God to let us into his heaven?

Yeah. I mean, I think that is built into us, right? That�s how we think. We do good things.

God rewards the good things and allows us into heaven. And most people think if I do more good than bad, and by the way,

I�ll choose what I think should be counted or looked at. I do more good than bad, then

God will look at the ledger and then certainly let me in. I mean, the world is filled with kind of Ringo Starr thinking.

I was listening to Ringo Starr the other day and he said, you know, John Lennon�s in heaven. And I�m just like, hmm, interesting.

Ringo, the evangelist. Yeah, because, you know, by Ringo�s standards,

John Lennon was a good person. Therefore, John Lennon�s in heaven. You know, the Playboy founder

Hugh Hefner just died. And, you know, Playboy sent out a press release saying, rest in peace,

Hugh Hefner. And I�m like, rest in peace. Like, what kind of standard, you know?

I think it�s fair to talk about someone like Hugh Hefner and then what happens after you, you know, have a lot of success on earth and, you know, money and fame and this, that and the other.

And then what happens when you die, right? This is Ecclesiastes. This is, you know, biblical verity when you discuss that.

But someone said today on Twitter, please, Gospel Coalition, don�t do some Hugh Hefner type of article today, please.

Pretty please. Please don�t try to squeeze him into heaven, man. I know we�re talking about justification, but,

Steve, what�s happening like with T4G and stuff now? To me, it�s a completely different animal.

It�s not the Gospel Coalition. It�s not, you know, the money -based deal, although it would be interesting to know where all the money goes from the conferences.

But you�ve got Chandler charismatic, C .J. Mahaney charismatic,

Piper charismatic, Platt charismatic. So I can already tell you the emails are going to be going to Mike at No Compromise Radio for saying that Piper is charismatic.

So why would you say that he�s a charismatic? Well, I mean, you know, it�s fair for you to say that. Because he�s not a cessationist.

There you go. And people, for all the great things that he says, you know, he�s got this spiritual kind of hole that�s like a donut hole.

No. When I was first raising children, little Haley and Luke came along, and we would play them the

Donut Man song. And when I learned that the Donut Man was Roman Catholic, it pretty much ruined my day.

So sorry with all apologies to, you know, the John Piper fans. He is a charismatic.

I am going through all my books and trying to see which ones I want to keep and which ones I don�t want to keep.

And I have many, many, many Piper books. And the only ones I will keep, I will keep is

Exegesis on Romans 9. I think it�s called Justification of God, maybe a Baker book. I like that.

He was dealing with the text. And I will keep his Supremacy of God in Preaching.

Yeah, I like that one too. People are starving. And I will keep his Swans are Not Silent series, bio series, but that�s it.

Because it�s based on fact and not things he intuited. Uh -huh. Future Grace, Gonzo. Okay, sorry.

Asciring God, Gonzo. Together for the Gospel. Gonzo. We did go there once, true confession.

Uh -huh. And it was good. They�ve got Tabeti this year. Maybe he�ll talk about, I don�t know, social issues, do you think?

Can I tell you what I remember the most from our trip besides the fact that it was expensive and everything else? Newark. I got pretty upset because we were staying in a hotel and we had to schlep all our stuff over to the

Louisville Convention Center. And by Saturday, I think it was Friday or Saturday, whatever it was, the last day,

I just said, I am not taking my Bible because nobody, nobody did anything that was making me open up my

Bible. So I�m like, so finally it was John Piper, but I also knew that that day we were getting

Bibles. So I, you know, he did open up his Bible and so I felt compelled to open up my new

Bible and read it there. That�s excellent. Did you hear David Platt is going to be a pastor now as well as the

Southern Baptist? I saw a little two -minute promo for David Platt and the secret church thing.

Have you seen this? No. I hope it�s not like radical. It sounded higher life -ish, you know, and so I wasn�t really digging it.

Okay. I don�t know which campus he�ll be preaching at, but I heard it�s going to be, he�ll be the pastor at Clean Bible Church in Virginia, DC area.

So it will be a small multi -campus intimate setting with no more than say 800 at every campus.

God gives a man right standing with himself by mercifully accounting him innocent and virtuous.

So this is law language. This is crediting, accounting, imputing, not infusing.

What can you tell us to understand the difference, Steve, between imputation and infusing? Well, I�ll make it simple.

Imputation is biblical, right? We see accounting language, you know, for example, in 2

Corinthians 521 or in Romans 4 where Paul writes about Abraham. What we don�t see is this infusion idea.

That is not a biblical idea that you are actually like you get, I don�t even want to call it a transfusion, but you know, you get a shot of righteousness.

We don�t get that. We get the, you know, what the Presbyterians called, you know, wrapped in the robes of Christ�s righteousness.

We get that imputed to us. We get it accounted to us. We get the covering. What we don�t get is actual righteousness based on, you know, anything that we do.

If we�re responsible even with God�s help for our own righteousness, we�re dust.

You talked about the shot, Steve, and I think the way that the reformers would think of Rome back in the day of the

Reformation would be medicine or maybe as Dr.

McCoy would say, medicine. And it�s something, it�s almost like gas, right?

It�s petrol. It�s benzene. You fill up on Sunday with the sacraments and then you drive for a while and by Thursday, you�re running low and you�ve used it up and you need some more infused medicine.

Terrible. Yeah. So, go to the priest and do some confessing.

Well, when you talked about the just shall live by faith in Genesis chapter 15, and he believed,

Genesis 15 .6, he being Abraham. He believed Yahweh and he counted it to him as righteousness.

So, that�s the language. It didn�t say he infused into him some medicine, some righteousness.

No, but he counted. Then you go to Habakkuk chapter 2, the just shall live by faith, right?

You go to the New Testament, the just shall live by faith and as Pastor Steve rightly said in Romans chapter 4, what a great illustration.

How was Abraham saved? Well, he was saved by God counting righteousness to him.

Right. Exactly. And I did say Romans 4 in the first place, but Genesis 15, same thing. I mean, the same kind of language.

And again, it�s a counting language. It�s not talking about anything that Abraham did because if that were the case, he�d have reason to boast, it says.

And that just, the fact that it is not his own righteousness takes away all means of boasting.

It takes away any reason to boast. Steve, what happens when we talk about justification? It leads us to discuss

Luther�s Latin. I don�t have my Richard Mueller Latin here in front of me. But we are sinful and yet we are righteous.

Right? At the same time, we�re sinful and righteous. And what that means is God counts righteousness to our, you know, he credits that to our account.

So judicially, we�re seen as not guilty. Christ has paid that for us, but we are not perfect yet.

So we don�t have any infusion of holiness into us, so God doesn�t see us as practically stellarly holy, but we are seen in God�s courtroom at least as righteous.

I agree. Okay. All right. Well, this is fun so far. Number two, God gives a man right standing with himself by placing

Christ�s goodness and virtue to his small age. Credit. Or B, God gives a man right standing with himself by putting

Christ�s goodness and virtue into his heart. Well, it looks like we�re going to have to go with A again.

It�s the same thing. When you confuse justification and sanctification, we are not saying that faith is alone in sanctification.

Your faith won�t be alone because you will do good works in light of who you are, union with Christ.

As a necessary consequence of justification, you will be sanctified. But in and of itself, there�s nothing that�s transformative about you in the category of justification.

It�s a declaration. It�s legal. It�s forensic. I think that�s the word we�re looking for. This trips up a lot of Catholics that I interact with or liberal

Protestants because they think that works are actually efficacious.

And so if you say, no, James said, I�ll show you my faith by my works, it�s not a matter of I demonstrate my faithfulness by my works or through my works or I establish my righteousness by my works.

I have faith and my faith compels me, right, in Ephesians 2. God has created these things beforehand for me to walk in them, right, for me to do them.

But it�s not a matter of God expects me to do these things and if I don�t, then there�s no heaven for me.

If we had to get justified, Steve, by our good works, how many good works?

How good must the good works be? How sincere must our sincerity be as we do acts of devotion to God and to others?

Isn�t that crushing? It is. I mean, it reminds me of when I was in the Sheriff�s Academy years ago.

The standard for pull -ups to get a perfect score was 20 and man, I wanted to do 20.

I really wanted to do 20. I got up to 18. I�m sorry, don�t laugh. I got up to 18.

Well, you had to do them this way. Yeah. And then there was a guy in our class one day and I don�t remember why the

DI did this, but he sent this guy up there and he did 37 behind the neck and the

DI finally stopped him because he could just keep going. It was slow, but he could just keep doing it all day,

I thought. Later on, he would become the toughest cop alive two years in a row. And I just remember going, �I�m never going to be able to do 20 ,� right?

And that�s kind of the feeling we should have about perfection, about the law.

We should just look at it and go, �I could never do that.� And that�s right. Steve, I use this all the time.

If the standard for perfection is N, I mean, if the standard for perfection is what we can do is

N, perfection is N plus one. That�s right. That�s exactly right. Well, Mike Abenroth with Steve Cooley, No Compromise Radio.

Feel free to write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Why don�t you give us a review on iTunes?

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