Tom Ascol - Justification: The Heart of the Gospel

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Well, I want to introduce our next speaker About five years ago actually going on six years ago.
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I had this brilliant idea of holding a conference at my church In inviting some folks
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I'd come out of Roman Catholicism and I was going to a large Southern Baptist Church and For some reason there just seemed and this is right after we had a great ecumenical
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Billy Graham crusade Seemed to be a tremendous amount of confusion that was prevalent among the congregation so I decided to Look for some of the folks that had meant a lot in my spiritual growth as far as helping me understand the biblical perspective of grace and of God's Perfect work on my behalf and one of those gentlemen was was
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James White of course That I met then and took on a cruise about six years ago
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I guess it was five six years ago, and that's how this whole thing got started Well Wouldn't you know there?
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I was maybe at the Southern Baptist Church The majority of folks there were you know arvinists or chalmed
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Ian's One point Calvinist you might say or no point Calvin's But in meeting
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James White I I was challenged in so many things and We struck up a bit of a friendship
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And I took my Lickins by him and and really had to humble myself and understand that I just did not have a grasp on a lot of things
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But over the the period of time that I got to know Jim and then was introduced to the ministry at Alpha Omega ministries
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And as I became more reformed in my understanding of the scriptures all of a sudden to the rest of the congregation
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There at the large Southern Baptist Church that I was at I began to look like a one -eyed three -headed monster
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You know that and I'm sure many of you have been in that position in the past where all of a sudden as you start
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Really caring about what scripture says and all sudden you know people start looking at you is like you've lost your mind
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Well, you know I was frustrated. I thought that well gosh all
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Southern Baptists must just pee this way and I had a friend of mine that Was another you know three -headed monster like myself in the congregation?
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You know we're folks that we don't want one of them on a committee They're gonna go back to the Bible and that sort of thing tell you things that you have to do according to scripture
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Turned me on to a site called Baptist discussing Reformation and the head of that ministries right back there at the founders ministries table
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Sam Huey and He's also the head of the reformed reader great place for books if you're looking for a place where you can really get
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A discerning understanding of where to buy good reformed books. That's the place But also at on Sam's website there was a link to the founders ministries
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And all of a sudden I found out that there were a lot of other Three -headed one -eyed Southern Baptists out there that there were many of us that Believed in the doctrines of grace
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Understood that there was nothing that we could do for our own salvation that we rested totally upon the grace and the work of Christ And through that time as we started planning this conference
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I had been reading a number of things in a book that I do want to Point out to you this if you are a pastor or in pastoral ministry, and you're here
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This is a book that I must recommend was given to me about two and a half months ago I guess or somewhere around there
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And I've read through it several times and as being as being someone in full full -time ministry.
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This is very valuable It's called dear Timothy letters on pastoral ministry extremely valuable tool
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I Got an opportunity to meet a gentleman who not only do I think is a profound theologian?
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Who is the executive director of the founders ministry which is committed to historic
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Southern Baptist principles? Understanding that they were founded upon the doctrines of grace but a gentleman also who has an incredibly kind heart who
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Has been through a tough time the past few months He took a direct hit their church did with which of the hurricanes was it hurricane
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Charlie, right? It had a beeline for my house, but somehow turned over and hit his and hit their area and just devastated their community and they're still picking up the pieces there, but one thing that This gentleman said that just made such a great impact on to me is that as we were staring down another three hurricanes coming right?
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at us it said well, whatever gives God the most glory and He used those opportunities of the destruction of the community to go out and bring the gospel to folks that were in deep and dire need and So it's not just knowing the truth it's acting upon it
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Well, there was no one that I would rather have As especially as I listened to so many of his sermons to come and speak on this particular topic of imputation
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Than the executive director of the founders mysteries, would you please welcome Tom Askell Thank You Mike It's true.
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They were preparing for Hurricane Charlie, and we weren't and we got hit and they didn't and Mike and folks from his church came down and helped us and we're very grateful.
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We were Delighted to have that fellowship. They wished we hadn't had to have it in that way. I Agree with David King about this insipid ecumenism that is just distasteful and I think that this kind of conference presents the best kind of ecumenism
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We just heard from a Presbyterian who's accused of being a Baptist You're about to hear from a Baptist who's been accused of being a
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Presbyterian a deepwater Presbyterian and because of the reason that's the case is what
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Mike just said so many Baptists especially in the southern Baptist context Are what do you call them?
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Calvinians and the other word I've never heard before arminists or something Arminus sounds like somebody using designer suits or something
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But we call them whiskey Calvinist because they only hold on to the fifth and only a part of the fifth really you know
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I don't even do that Well as has already been said the doctrine of justification
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Was at the very heart of the Reformation J. I Packer says that this doctrine was the storm center of That great historical movement it was understood to be the very heart of the gospel of God's grace
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The Reformers as they discovered this in the world Recognized the importance of this teaching and they saw what was at stake in having it established in the church's confession
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Luther's oft quoted dictum that this is the article of faith by which the church stands or falls is
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True if you're wrong about this doctrine. It doesn't matter what you're right about Luther went on to call justification master and prince
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The Lord the ruler and the judge over all kinds of doctrines it Preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our conscience before God without this article the world is utter death and darkness
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We've our Ovens assessment of this doctrine as well. He said that where it is eclipsed religion is extinguished
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Abolished the church destroyed and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown 300 years after Calvin Charles Spurgeon went so far as to say any church which puts in the place of justification by faith in Christ Another method of salvation is a harlot church
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So if for no other reason out of respect for those fathers in the faith have gone before us
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We ought to do our best to think very clearly out very deeply concerning the
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Protestant doctrine of justification by grace alone Through faith alone in Christ alone again as we've already heard and I'm sure we're here again there is a growing number of Respected teachers in the church who are giving up on this doctrine or at least giving up on the way that it's been understood in our
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Protestant and reformed history Because the issue is so crucial and the challenges are so sincere by those who make them
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All who love the Word of God and all who are concerned to teach and see the
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Word of God taught Ought to be willing to reconsider what he has said to us About the way that sinners are justified if Luther and Calvin and Spurgeon are correct then to misunderstand the doctrine of Justification is to contribute to the adulteration of the church
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Justification answers the most fundamental religious question that can be asked How can a sinner ever become right with a holy
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God? How can we ever find? acceptance by such a being And the answer that Luther and the other reformers in the 16th century discovered from their study of the
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Word of God was this Sinners are made right with God only by trusting
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Jesus Christ alone God justifies sinners through faith alone
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He declares them righteous in his sight when they submit themselves to Christ as Lord through faith
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This is simply the meaning of the word Justify in the
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Bible it is to declare righteous as J. I Packer writes Justification is a judicial act of God pardoning sinners wicked and ungodly persons
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Accepting them as just and so putting permanently right their previously estranged relationship with himself
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This justifying sentence is God's gift of righteousness his bestowal of a status of acceptance for Jesus sake well the mechanism or the spiritual dynamic that enables the righteous
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God to make such a declaration is Imputation whereas justification is the declaration itself
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Imputation addresses the basis on which that declaration is made God pardons sinners.
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He accepts them. He puts them into a right relationship with himself by imputing righteousness to them or as the
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Westminster Confession of Faith puts it those whom God calls he freely justifies by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith or as the shorter catechism answer number 33 puts it
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Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our sin and accepted us as Righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone well if this understanding of the issue is correct and if justification is the heart of the gospel then imputation is the heart of justification and So we should be alarmed brothers and sisters when we hear statements from respected
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Christian teachers that are dismissive of Imputation Are those who would seek to completely revamp the doctrine of justification?
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Statements like this from Mark Seyfried It is fair to say that something of the
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Christ centered understanding of justification which Luther and Calvin grasped was lost
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Mission came to be defined in terms of the believer and not in terms of Christ It is worth observing that Paul never speaks of Christ's righteousness as imputed to believers as became standard in Protestantism If Paul is silent on imputed righteousness then generations of Protestant churches confessions
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Catechisms and theologians have seriously misrepresented him in their teaching on justification or Listen to what
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Robert Gundry who's even bolder says in his assessment It's no accident that in New Testament theologians recent and current treatments of justification
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You will be hard -pressed to find any discussion of an imputation of Christ's righteousness
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And he mentioned several men that he has in mind the notion of imputation
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Gundry says is passé neither because of Roman Catholic influences nor because of theological liberalism
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But because of the fidelity to the relevant biblical texts Thus he says
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New Testament theologians today are now disposed to talk about the righteousness of God in terms of his salvific activity in a covenantal framework
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Not in terms of an imputation of Christ's righteousness in a bookkeeping framework so he says any effort to put imputation at the heart of justification is a pity a pity
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He says the doctrine of imputation is not even biblical in fact
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He calls it deeply flawed to assume that it is Still less is this doctrine essential to the gospel
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Gundry goes on if sola scriptura outweighs all human traditions Including the
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Protestant tradition the doctrine that Christ's righteousness is imputed to believing sinners needs to be abandoned is the insistence on the imputation of Christ's righteousness in the declaration of justification truly a pity and Is it true that Paul never?
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speaks of imputation But that rather this is simply an invention something read into Paul by post
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Reformation Protestants if so brothers and sisters than the implications are staggering
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Because if we've been wrong on imputation We have been wrong on the heart of the heart of the gospel
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Well rather than try to directly engage the modern critics of Imputation which by the way in their arguments are not modern at all
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They're ancient and in my estimation have been ably refuted by men like John Owen and Francis Turretin But rather than engage them on the points of their criticism
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I won't attempt a positive exposition of the doctrine of imputation looking at the relevant passages of Scripture what
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I want to do first of all is to try to show how imputation is a biblical word and concept as it relates to Justification and secondly,
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I want to consider the Apostle Paul's use of this concept in his own exposition of justification and then finally
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Consider why this matters why this is so important to sinners
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When we speak of imputed righteousness in relationship to justification What we mean is the righteousness of God that is in Jesus Christ That is not ours by nature
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Righteousness that is completely outside of us or as Luther called it alien righteousness first time
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I heard that term. I thought it was referring to the cuteness of ET Alien righteousness, but it's just that which is alien to us that which we don't have
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Inherently it is credited to us in such a way that God can regard real sinners as Fully righteous as we'll see this is an idea that is rooted in both
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Old and New Testaments Imputation is a biblical word and a biblical concept in the
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Old Testament The word primarily is a shab. It's often translated to count or to account or impute
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The basic idea of the word is the employment of the mind in thinking activity
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So as to make a judgment about something for example in Leviticus chapter 7 verse 18
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Instructions are given about the peace offering and if the meat that was offered in that sacrifice is not completely eaten by the third day
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Then the benefits of the spice no longer apply to the one offering them
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The text says if any of the flesh of the sacrifice is eaten at all on the third day
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It shall not be accepted nor shall it be Imputed to him.
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He will lose the Imputed benefits of the sacrifice if he doesn't follow it in detail in Genesis 31 verse 15
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Rachel and Leah Are reasoning with themselves about their father Laban's attitude toward them as daughters and yet they say are we not?
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Considered strangers by him or he has sold us and completely consumed our money in Laban's eyes they were considered they were imputed as being foreigners strangers or second
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Chronicles chapter 9 verse 20 All King Solomon's drinking vessels were gold and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold not one was silver for this was
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Accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon Psalm 106 has an interesting use of this word in describing the way
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God valued Phineas in his activity of taking a spear and killing an
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Israelite adulterer with his adulterous Midianite woman in the tent where they were committing their adultery
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And thus ending the plague that God had sent upon the Israelites in Psalm 106 verse 30 and 31 we read
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Concerning that activity that it was accounted to Phineas or righteousness to all generations forevermore the idea of imputation the idea of reckoning from this biblical word is something that carries with it the notion of Accounting it is an
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Accounting framework in its etymology. The same thing is true in the New Testament word logging
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But good to my this is often translated to count or to consider or to impute and the basic meaning is that of a word that comes from Commerce and the accounting world world to charge are to reckon for example in Acts chapter 19 verse 27
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Paul had been preaching in Ephesus and Demetrius spoke against that preaching by saying
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There is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute But also that the temple of the great goddess
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Artemis may be counted as nothing and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence she whom all
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Asia and the world worship or 2nd Timothy 416 as Paul recounts what happened to him when he
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Came to stand before Nero at my first defense No one stood with me, but all forsook me may it not be charged against them may it not be imputed to them well the
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Old Testament and New Testament family of words then that come across to us as impute or account or reckon they communicate the concept of Crediting something to someone's account or regarding a person as if that which is charged to his account is his inherently though it is not silver had intrinsic worth but in the wealth of Solomon's administration silver was
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Charged with having no value it was imputed as worthless
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To Demetrius the goddess Artemis was great But based upon the preaching of Paul.
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He was concerned that she would be regarded as nothing Those who did not stand with Paul at his defense were at least guilty of cowardice and maybe more
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But Paul did not want them to have their sin imputed to Sinful this is how the word impute was commonly used in the
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Bible, but beyond its common use The word and the concept of imputation is used in three specific salvific relationships in both
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Old and New Testaments the imputation of Adams sin to his posterity is
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Communicated by the use of this word Adams sin was imputed to his posterity
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The classic text for this is Romans chapter 5 Verses 12 through 19 and we're going to be coming back to this text on more than one occasion
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So I invite you to look there if you've got your Bibles with you Romans chapter 5
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The Apostle Paul writes in verse 12 therefore as Through one man sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned
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For until the law was in the world Until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law nevertheless
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Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam Who is a type of him who was to come?
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But the free gift is not like the offense for if by the one man's offense many died
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Much more the grace of God and the gift by grace of one man Jesus Christ Abounded to many and the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned for the judgment which came from one offense
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Resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses
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Resulted in justification for if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one
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Much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one
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Jesus Christ verse 18 Therefore as through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation
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Even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men Resulting in justification of life for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners
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So also by one man's obedience Many will be made righteous
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Eh Gifford in his commentary on this passage says the master thought of the whole passage is that Unity of the many in the one that unity of the many in the one
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Which he goes on to say is the very point of the comparison between Adam and Christ Now in these verses it is obvious.
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There is a clear Solidarity between Adam and the whole fallen human race the nature of that Solidarity is such that judgment and death have come to all men
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Because of what Adam did in verse 12 we read because all
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Sinned death came to all because all Sinned they all sinned in the sin of Adam five times from verses 15 through 19 the universal judgment of condemnation and death on all men is attributed to the one sin of the one man
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Adam all men in addition to bearing their own personal sin and guilt are therefore said to be judged guilty and liable to death on the basis of sin
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Adam sin or Adam is regarded as having sinned while standing as our representative or as the designation that is common in covenant theology as our
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Federal head and the judgment that results from his failure is a universal
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Condemnation and it is based on Adam's sin being imputed to us his covenant members one of the
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Reasons that this interpretation is so forceful And I would argue so necessary is because of the strict nature
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Attributive justice of God that is revealed throughout Old and New Testaments God would be unjust to condemn us and Bring death upon Everyone for the sin of one man if there was not real guilt on the part of everyone however
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It is found in relationship to that one man and the best way
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To see the relationship is the way that it has been understood in historic reformed thinking to see it as Adam Representing us as our head in the garden and when he sinned we all
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Sinned so we teach our children in Adam's fall we sinned all
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Not personally I wasn't there nor were you but federally legally representatively
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Adam Stood in our place so that when we come to verse 19
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We see that the manner by which we are made sinners by the one man's disobedience is best understood as Through the imputation of his sin to us for punishment to be just guilt must be real and real guilt is found in our relationship to our head
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Adam Who sinned in our place has nothing to do with diminishing the reality or the?
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heinousness of our personal sin but representatively
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We sinned in Adam now. This is also Confirmed in what Paul says in 1st
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Corinthians 15 22 for as an Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made
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Alive Adam sin is imputed to us because we were in him through a federal or legal relationship
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Well, that's the first salvific relationship that imputation bears the second is
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The imputation of the elect Sin to Christ the imputation of elect sinners sin to Christ All of the scripture statements in the
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Bible concerning our sins being placed upon Jesus points to this kind of Relationship for example in Isaiah chapter 53 the
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Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all verse 12 He bore the sins of many
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Hebrews 928 Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many first Peter 224 he himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree
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Paul Seems to bring together the relationship between our sins
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Going to Christ and Christ's righteousness coming to us Which is the third relationship in 2nd
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Corinthians 521 when he says he made him who knew no sin to be
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Sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him
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How well the question how needs to be carefully answered so that you do not impinge the righteousness the personal perfect righteousness of Jesus and when you answer it in such a way you are left with the conclusion that our
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Relationship there is one of imputation our sin was imputed to Christ in 2nd
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Corinthians chapter 5 when Paul makes that wonderful statement in verse 21. It's obvious from the context He's already thinking about imputation.
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He's mentioned non imputation in verse 19 when he says that God was reconciled Imputing their tresses to them in Christ He came to redeem the world and those whom he did redeem in the world
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No longer have their sins imputed to them Christ didn't personally become sin for us.
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He did so representatively Federally as our substitute as our covenant head
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This is illustrated in the Old Testament concept of the scapegoat You can read about this in Leviticus chapter 16
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And Aaron was instructed to place his hands on the head of the goat and recount the iniquities of the people and send the goat
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Away, there was a picture of what Jesus would do for his people in Bearing our sins taking our sins upon himself how personally no he did not personally sin
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Representatively he took our sins through what the Bible calls imputation now this idea of the imputation of our sin to Christ is perhaps the least controversial of these three relationships in salvation
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But the third one is undoubtedly the most controversial and it touches most directly on the nature of Justification and that is the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers.
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This is what Robert Gundry says. It's simply unbiblical it's
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Flawed he said to insist upon this in the gospel Well, how do we respond?
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How do we understand the relationship of? Righteousness to sinners the communication of righteousness from Christ to Believing sinners we understand what the
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Bible says about divine righteousness Being provided for sinners and this is taught in both
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Old and New Testaments In fact, the idea that divine righteousness is provided for sinners is
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Embedded in one of the most precious names of God in the Old Testament And I I can't get away from Robert Murray Machines poem about this
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Calling him Jehovah Sid Canoe the Lord our
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Righteousness not the Lord the Righteous One. That's true the Lord our Righteousness or as Isaiah 61 verse 10
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Describes this righteousness Coming to us and covering us the prophet says
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I will greatly rejoice in the Lord My soul shall be joyful in my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation
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He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with jewels
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This is a picture of divinely provided Righteousness Covering God's people.
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It's in the Old Testament It's fully revealed to us in the New Testament in Romans chapter 1
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When Paul announces the theme of the gospel, he's going to exposit in this letter in verse 17
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He says I'm not ashamed of the gospel for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the
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Just or the righteous shall live by faith this idea of righteousness from God Just filled the vision of the
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Apostle Paul as he launches into his exposition of the 21 setting the contrast to what we were and what we need to what
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God has provided but now the righteousness of God Part from the law is revealed verse 22 the righteousness of God through faith 2nd
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Corinthians 521 again that we might become the Righteousness of God the
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Bible teaches that there is a righteousness from God a divine Righteousness that is provided for sinners and it further teaches to the consternation of some modern critics that this divine righteousness is found only in Jesus Christ There are many verses each this some of the ones we've just cited teach this the righteousness of God verse
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Romans 322 says through faith in Jesus Christ 2nd
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Corinthians 521 that we might become the righteousness of God in Him in Christ or as Paul this personal testimony
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Philippians chapter 3 verses 8 and 9 I Indeed also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus Christ my
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Lord for whom I have suffered the loss Of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness
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Which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness, which is from God by faith the contrast between Paul's own righteousness
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Which came from his efforts to keep the law and that which is Given to him through faith in Jesus Christ, which he goes on to describe which is from God through faith
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Teaches us that Paul did not conceive of divine
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Righteousness being provided for him outside of Jesus Christ It was in Christ that this righteousness was given
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First Corinthians 1 verse 30, but of him you're in Christ Jesus who became for us or was made for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and Redemption Christ became
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Righteousness for us was made Righteousness for us again back in Romans chapter 5 that classic passage in verses 12 through 19.
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Let me just Skim over it with you again verse 14 tells us that Adam is a type and so what said of Adam and what happened to Adam was illustrative was
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Typological of what would happen in salvation coming to us through Jesus Christ and in verse 15
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The grace of God much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man
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Jesus Christ Abounded to many verse 16 the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification in verse 17 the gift of Righteousness will reign in life through one man
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Jesus Christ verse 18 through one man's righteous act The free gift came to all men resulting in Justification of life verse 19 by one man's obedience many will be made righteous
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There's a parallel here between Adam and Christ what? Adam did what happened to him affected all of his posterity all those whom he represented
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What Jesus did what happened to him affects all those who he?
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represents in coming into the world as a Substitute for sinners and just as Adam's sin was imputed to all his posterity
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So Christ's righteousness is imputed to all who believe If you notice the idea that Paul elaborates in this or keeps referring to in this passage in Romans 5 of the gift the gift
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He says that abounded to many it resulted in justification He said this gift resulted in justification in verse 16 and then
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In verse 17 the gift is identified it's called the gift of Righteousness and then looking back to verse 15.
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It's the gift that came by the grace of the one man Christ Jesus What's Paul saying he's saying that what
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Jesus did did in a gift that affected our justification and that gift is
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Righteousness so in verse 18 by Jesus's obedience many will be made
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Righteous made Righteousness in the very same way that we were made sinners by the disobedience of Adam the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ in other words is the foundation from which
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Righteousness is imputed to all who believe So in light of this
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I find it absolutely Horrifying and indeed theologically impossible from where I stand to concede the arguments of those who want to jettison imputation altogether or even those who want to remove it from its pride of place in the historic
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Protestant or understanding of Justification both the word and the concept are clearly employed in the biblical explanation of salvation by grace
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Well as has already been considered in the scriptures that we've looked at the most prolific biblical exponent of imputation of Christ's righteousness and justification is the
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Apostle Paul and Consequently, he's the one who's taking most of the hits in the modern criticism today
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What I would like to do is to briefly trace out some of the contours of Paul's argument for justification
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By faith as they're found in the first five chapters of Romans Showing the centrality of imputation in his thinking we're obviously not going to do all of this
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We're gonna get a message completely on justification later today But I just want to look at some of the contours because Paul employs imputation in his exposition of justification verse 16 of chapter 1 of Romans Paul Teaches us or tells us that he is going to speak on the gospel
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He's not ashamed of this gospel. Why because it reveals to us the provision of God's righteousness in justification as he says in verse 17 and this
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Teaching of God's provision of right is something that is not being made up by Paul It's something rooted in the
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Old Testament. And so he gives us an exposition of Old Testament Revelation concerning how the righteous live by faith his explanation of his understanding of this great revelation is found in three large categories over these first five chapters first he gives us the reason that we need justification and Then he gives us the way that God has provided justification.
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And finally he works out implications of Justification we'll look at least at the first two of these and then just try to conclude with some of the more pervasive
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Implications that are found throughout Old and New Testaments of this wonderful teaching. Why do we need just?
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You read chapter 1 verse 18 through chapter 3 verse 20 where Paul spells out for us the doctrine of sin, which by the way
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John Owen says foundational to any right understanding of justification by faith is a right understanding of man and sin and I I think perhaps were we to trace where the starting point of the deviations are today where We're having so much controversy over this doctrine
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We get back to it. It would be at the point of understanding depravity and Inability as a result of our fallenness well,
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Paul had no hesitations in affirming our complete depravity and Inability basically what he teaches in this section is that we need to be justified because sin has robbed us of the righteousness that God requires of Us and this is true
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He says both of those who do not have the written revelation of God Gentiles as well as those who do have the written revelation of God the
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Jews from 118 through 216 He spells out the guilt and foolishness of sin
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After announcing in verse 18 that God's wrath is revealed against all present unrighteousness in the world
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He begins to focus first of all on the reality of this even for Gentiles So that all men in verse 20 are left in the world without Excuse even those who have never heard the name of Jesus who have never seen a
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Bible are without excuse why verse 20 because creation testifies to the reality and the character of God but those who are in sin suppress the truth in Unrighteousness as he says in verse 19, they do not honor
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God as God nor do they give thanks to him in verse 21 They exchange the glory of God for images of creatures in verse 23 and they exchange the truth of God for a lie
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They worship the Creator or the creature rather than the Creator in verse 25
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And for all of these reasons God judges them Guilty and unrighteous and he comes and displays his wrath against their
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Unrighteousness three times in verse 24 verse 26 and verse 28.
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He gives them up to their own wickedness and foolishness
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Sinclair Ferguson has a very brilliant insight. I think on this point when he says what he calls there's a subliminal motif here in the relationship between the judgment of God against their sin and the nature of Their sin so that even in the execution of his wrath and judgment
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God is teaching us something about the strict retributive nature of his justice
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It's the lex talionis the strict administration of law and so we
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See people who are intent on worshiping objects rather than God God giving them up To be ruled and ruined by the very objects of their desires
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It's a fascinating insight and it's worth meditating on particularly in our own day when
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We see God manifesting his wrath against us in precisely the same way Periodically, I'm asked
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Pastor do you think God will judge America if we don't or if we do?
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My response is he is already judging America It is not the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone
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It's this judgment we see in Romans 1 Where those who rebel against him keep pushing against the fences of his law?
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And they say we will not be ruled by this and they push and they push and God says, okay
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And he moves the fences back and they think look how free we are and they celebrate their freedom in all of their licentiousness and they keep put
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God says okay, and he moves the down our streets and they flaunt their open immorality thinking
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Free in reality. They are dragging their ball and chains behind them They are under the wrath of God and they don't know it
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And God is meeting out even now his judgment against sin people in such situations are in need of being rescued by an intervention that's both almighty and gracious At least when fire and brimstone was falling people knew
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They were under judgment But people today are under judgment Thinking they're free and the only way
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Sinners can be rescued from such a desperate condition is by a work of almighty grace
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Sovereign grace, which is exactly what the gospel does for us
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We see then that those who do not have the law are under judgment. They are not righteous.
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They need to be justified It's also true for those who do have written revelation in chapter 2 verse 12 of Romans for as many as have sinned without the law
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Will also be will also perish without the law as we have sinned in the law will be judged by the law
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It's not enough simply to have God's revelation to say well we are biblicists We know what the Bible is and what it says.
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You must not only hear the law. You must do the law This is Paul's point repeatedly through his letter to the churches of Galatia in Galatians chapter 4 verse 21
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Tell me he writes you who desire to be under the law. Do you not hear? You think you can be good enough for God.
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Do you understand what he requires? Do you think that you can keep his commandments? Do you know what the commandments require?
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Galatians 3 10 for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written
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Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them
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You're going to try to somehow be Acceptable to God even in your faith, then your faith has to be spotless
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Because you must do everything that is required in the law if you're going to be justified by that law
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So the need of those who have access to God's special revelation is no less than the need of those who have never had
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Access as he says in verse 9 of chapter 3. We are no better than they both Jews and Greeks are under sin
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Consequently everyone is in need of a righteousness which no one can produce
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We're all desperate. We are all condemned. We are all without hope without help in the world
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There is none righteous Paul says quoting the Old Testament. No not one
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And what's the conclusion? Of this desperate condition as Paul puts it in chapter 3 verse 20
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These things are true. The law declares this that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God Martin Lloyd -jones says that this verse gives him his definition of a
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Christian Christian is a man. He said his mouth has been shut See what
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God requires you see what you are You're hopeless. You're helpless. You're desperate Your mouth is stopped there's no arguments against God or no
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Well, I'm better than I used to be or I intend to be better tomorrow I'm not as bad as him your mouth is stopped.
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The foundations are destroyed for your life that you tried to build them on and You are forced to look up for mercy for grace
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For that which God alone gives the righteousness which he requires
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God created man To bear his image so that man would live righteously and share in his glory but Paul says in Romans 3 23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God sin has ruined us
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It has robbed us of any hope of ever working up righteousness that is from God Sin is not only wicked
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It is tragic It's tragic We weren't made we weren't created for sin
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We were created for glory To participate in the glory of God not as compassionate as competitors but as ambassadors and Yet sin has
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Separated us from that destiny and has put us in a condition of helplessness and despair
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So that we are under the wrath of God. We are without hope in the world.
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We have lost our righteousness We have no power To regain it on our own.
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It's against this backdrop that Paul announces a message That is the most glorious news
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Any desperate sinner who recognizes his situation Could ever hear the message of hope verse 21 of chapter 3 but now
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The righteousness of God has been manifested apart From the law.
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What is this? You're unrighteous. God requires righteousness. You're hopeless.
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Your mouth is shut. You have no argument in God's courtroom But now a
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Righteousness has been revealed What kind of righteousness is this? He goes on and describes it in verse 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ For all who believe and he goes on to say all who believe without distinction
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This is not some ethnic issue. Not some cultural possession. This is for all
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People everywhere who believe and this is where Paul begins to explain the way of Justification and he does so setting forth first of all
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Objectively how it is provided it is in Jesus Christ verses 25 and 26 of Romans chapter 3
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Maybe the most important passage in all the Bible when he sets forth the redemptive death of Jesus death is the payment for all our
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Unrighteousnesses the propitiatory sacrifice of the cross was necessary there
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Christ drank to the bitter dregs the cup of God's wrath that was poured out on us as His people who had sinned against him and he redeemed us as Paul puts it in Galatians 3 13
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Through that act from the curse of the law having become a curse for us
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The law says the soul that sins must surely die. So Christ coming to redeem us from the curse of the law
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Fulfills that judgment and in experiences that death But the law also reveals not only does
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God require punishment of sin for lawbreakers He also requires a perfect righteousness
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This was his requirement for man before the when he told
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Adam do this and It has not changed in his requirement for man after the fall
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Therefore the justification is found in Jesus Christ is accomplished not only by a sacrificial death, but also by his representative life
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Which is what Paul argues for as we've already seen in chapter 5 of Romans by the obedient life of Christ Righteousness is accomplished for sinners by a sacrificial death
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Righteousness is satisfied through the payment of the penalty of our sin by his obedient life positive righteousness is accomplished so that in Justification we not only have our slate wiped clean
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We also have deposited to us credited to us all of the obedience that God requires to his law in verse 18 of Romans 5 therefore as through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulted in condemnation
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Even so through one man's righteous act The free gift came to all men resulted in justification of life verse 19 by one man's obedience
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Many will be made righteous Just as the act of disobedience brought judgment to all men
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So the act of keeping the law brings Justification to all who are in Christ and this justification comes through Christ's perfect righteousness being imputed to us both aspects of this work of imputation in justification are brought together in Romans chapter 4 both the
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Crediting of what Christ did on the cross to us and the crediting of what he accomplished throughout all of his life
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To us in chapter 4 Paul writes to the one who believes righteousness is imputed
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That's verses 3 3 5 he uses Abraham as our illustration in this text
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It was his faith not Abraham's works that gained him access to the imputed righteousness that came from God Thus the righteousness that was imputed to him was outside of him that was received by him
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Through faith just as the wages of the worker to whom he's contrast were outside of the worker and Received as a result of his works to the one who believes
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Sin is not imputed and then Paul calls upon David to illustrate the point in verses 7 and 8 quoting from Psalm 32
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Notice, this is interesting. This is an illustration of The Crediting of righteousness.
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Do you see that look at that text in Romans 4? Justice David verse 6 also describes the blessedness of the one to whom
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God imputes righteousness apart from the law He's going to illustrate Positive righteousness being imputed through what he quotes from Psalm 32
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Which says blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven whose sins are covered blessed is the man to whom the
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Lord Shall not impute sin Now what's in Paul's mind here?
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Is he simply equating? positive imputation of righteousness With the forgiveness of sins so that they are some synonymous and you can just use them interchangeably
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I don't think so because of the way he goes right back after quoting David to the example of Abraham and verses 9 through 13
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To explain the blessedness of which David wrote in Psalm 32. This is incredible In Paul's mind here.
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What we see is that you cannot have forgiveness of sins without the positive Imputation of righteousness and wherever the positive imputation of righteousness exists.
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You have the blessedness of forgiveness. Surely John Piper is right when he Speaks of it like this
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Paul assumes here assumes that there is no justification No positive declaration and imputation of righteousness where there's no forgiveness.
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Forgiveness is a constitutive element of justification Paul assumes that if a saving blessing is pronounced over a person he must be counted as righteous
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That's why he had no problem explaining David's blessing with Abraham's justification so objectively
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Justification is accomplished through the person and work of Jesus Christ Imputed the sinners subjectively it is received through faith.
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It's free absolutely Free it is not the reward of our faith as if our believing merited it nor does
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God look at our faith and say Okay, that's that's showing some real intent there
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I'm just going to credit you with everything that's necessary based upon your good intent in believing no faith receives righteousness
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BB Warfield has a great quote on this and I'll just Encourage you to look at that where he shows that there's a passivity that is inherent in faith
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And it fits exactly with what Paul says in verse 27 of Romans 3 God's way of making sinners righteous removes all ground from our boasting boasting is excluded how
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Not by the law of works. He says in that verse which we might have expected him to say because that's true
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That's not the point Boasting is excluded by the law of faith
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There's no way When you believe that you can say well because I believe look at my faith
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God has done this for me No faith receives or as he puts it in chapter 4 verse 16
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Therefore it is a faith that it might be according to grace. Well, why is this so important for sinners?
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And why does this make any difference? Why should we quibble as some call it over imputation? Because it holds out the only real hope that real sinners have a finding real acceptance with the real
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God Often there's a tendency to think less of God than we should to domesticate him to assume that he lowers a standard and that by Hoping that he will somehow let us slide in through our good intentions that we will be okay
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There's a misunderstanding of the retributive justice of God and his strict and holy righteousness another temptation
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We often make is to think of God in smaller terms Not only to think of him in smaller terms or to think of ourselves in larger terms our capacities and abilities
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Being greater than what they are that we're really not that bad I heard John Gerstner tell a story one time of being in the
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Yale archives studying Edwards literature and Perry Miller and several other scholars were there and they began to drink as the day wore on and and the more they drank the more drunk they became and they started reading
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Edwards out loud and Gerstner was the only believer among them and So as they would read these things
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I said listen to this boy all these preachers today think everybody's saved Edwards thinks nobody's saved and if Edwards were here there wouldn't be anybody that have any hope of salvation
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Listen to this everybody's a sinner and so they would all laugh and at one pregnant pause in the laughter Gerstner who had a kind of gravelly voice in his latter days said
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What if he's right? And there was silence and they packed up their books and they left and one of his friends came back to him down the hallway
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So, you know Jack back there when you said that said you made me feel about that big Gerstner said that's too big
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When we understand what we are in sin We need that which only
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God can provide we have no hope our mouths are stopped The real
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God requires perfect obedience we need a Justification a righteousness that comes to the ungodly and Paul says that's exactly what