Imputation (Part 1)

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

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

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it is a sunny, hot day here in Massachusetts. I think we�ll play this right around the end of October, no, maybe August.

Right now, it�s June 20th, and it is burning hot, 98 degrees outside, balmy day here in New England. Well, welcome to the show. If you don�t know the show, we�re basically, after biblical truth, set up in a pungent 24-and-a-half-minute, staccato, provocative, controversial, apoplectic manner.

How�s that for No Compromise style? We�re going to Greece, No Compromise Radio ministry, 11 days, April 2013. Go over to Turkey as well to see Ephesus. If you�d like to go to Corinth and Athens with us, go ahead and email me, info at nocompromiseradio .com, and I�ll send you what we have.

Now, we don�t have the exact, exact dates yet because of the cruise schedule, but those will be coming shortly. So, if you�d like to go with us, we�re leaving out of Boston. Get yourself up to Boston, and you can go with us to Greece.

If you got the money, honey, I got the time. So today on No Compromise Radio, what are we going to do today? We are going to talk about one of my all-time, all-time favorite subjects. Now, certainly my favorite subject is God, and so that�s a broad topic, all-entailing, all-encompassing.

What I would like to talk about today is the gospel, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, specifically found in the book of Romans. Good news, the wonderful news of salvation by federal headship. That�s what I�m after.

I want to try to rock your world with this. We had some sermons on No Compromise Radio, Monday slot, that I had preached maybe a year ago about imputation, and I want to do the same now, except it�s not necessarily sermon style because it isn�t sermon style.

It�s just No Compromise studio style. By the way, I�m just here in the studio alone today. Pastor Steve is on vacation, I believe, and so it�s just me, myself, and I, and you. So thanks for tuning in.

Maybe you should probably write the station. Why don�t you write WVNE 760 and say, �You�re glad for No Compromise Radio or if you don�t like the show, why don�t you write and just say, �I don�t like that guy.

I listen every day. I buy all the products that he endorses, like Pete�s Coffee, but I wish somebody else was on, somebody nicer, David Jeremiah or somebody like that. I�d rather have somebody kinder, a kinder, gentler person, but actually I feel pretty kind today.

I feel pretty gentle. I don�t feel like I�m going to go off on some kind of elephant room tirade or blow my top regarding Rome. So anyway, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ as seen in the book of Romans, Romans chapter 5, 12 to 21 is the key passage, and I think what this passage will end up doing for you and through you by the Spirit�s power, it will help you appreciate your salvation more.

It�ll help you appreciate the fall, it�ll help you appreciate how God does things, how he sees the world, and what Jesus Christ did. And the comparison of Romans chapter 5 is simple. In both cases, the one deed of the one man affected a lot of people.

One deed of one man affects a lot, and so thankfully we have hope in Christ� triumph over Adam�s sin, to quote James Montgomery Boyce. Thomas Schreiner said, �Two Adams have exerted their influence on human history, but the impact of the latter is greater than that of the former.

So Adam has affected the world, and Christ Jesus is a greater Adam. He is the last Adam. And so today we�re going to deal with imputation, and imputation definitely means, or it means, to set something to someone�s account.

It is accounting language, it is language of an accountant, that�s just what I got done saying. I was trying to think of a synonym for accountant. Bookkeeper language, see there you go, and it means to set someone to one�s account, to reckon it to them, to count it to their possession, to charge, to credit, to attribute.

Paul told Philemon that if Onesimus had incurred any debts, they were to be put to Paul�s account, Philemon 17 and 18. It says in verse 18 of Philemon, �If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

That is imputation, to calculate, to reckon, to credit something to someone�s account, and it was a commercial term used in the New Testament and other times, and it is very, very important because as justification is the heart of the gospel, Thomas Askel said, �Imputation is the heart of justification.

So why is imputation important? Well, because it is at the essence of justification, and we know justification is that hinge of the standing or falling church. MacArthur said, �Justification by imputation is the high point of the gospel.

So that means you�ve got to understand imputation if you want to understand the gospel. You must understand reckoning, divine reckoning, logizimai is the Greek word, if you�d like to understand the grace found in Christ Jesus.

Now certainly when you�re a new Christian and you know that Jesus loves you because the Bible tells you so, I�m very glad for that, and children can understand what salvation is and very immature people can grasp it.

New Christians have grasped it, but as time goes on, we begin to understand things in a more nuanced fashion, in a deeper fashion, in a manner that will help you understand the facets of the diamond of salvation.

Maybe that�s the best way to put it. So imputation, why is it important? Well, it�s additionally important because God deals with men by imputation, by representation. And so remember, �The curse of Canaan fell on all his posterity.

He said, �Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall be to his brothers. Genesis chapter 9. And so something is set to their account. Canaan�s sin affected other people. God deals with men based on this principle.

This is just a fixed theological principle in the world. As God is immutable and as gravity can be relied on, so too does God deal with men and women by imputation. Exodus 20 verse 5, �You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

So we have the principle of imputation. The sins of the fathers are going to affect the children. How about Achan? His whole family dies when he sinned. And Joshua, Joshua 7, �And all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters and his oxen and his donkeys and his sheep and his tent and all that he had, and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.

What Achan did, Achan�s whole family died for this crime of Achan. Israel suffered for David�s sin. Leprosy is visited upon Gehazi�s seed because of what he did. And certainly Luke 11, �The blood of all the prophets was exacted on the members of Christ� generation.

God deals with people by imputation, by representation. And certainly in our government today in America, we get that. We have a federal government. The federal representation, our senators, what they do affects us.

Their actions become our actions. So this is not a new concept, although it�s one that is pushed to the side because of its huge ramifications. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry, info at nocompromise .com.

The Biblical Pattern of Imputation in Adam and Human History

So Paul in Romans chapter 5 is talking about this very issue, imputation and solidarity, federal representation. If you�d like to know how important imputation is, you just can read Romans chapter 4. Forty times in the Bible imputation is used, and ten times in Romans alone.

�Counted� is the ESV, for what does Scripture say, �Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

Well imputation is important because that's how God deals with people. It's important because it's everywhere in the Bible. It's also important today that I want to talk about it because it's attacked by people.

Imputation, if it really is this important, no wonder it gets attacked, even by people like N .T. Wright. N .T. Wright in his commentary on Romans mocks imputation. He slams imputation. He makes a caricature out of it and he talks about it as some kind of substance or gas in his Romans commentary, page 522.

Well, I'm just doing a side note here, no compromise style. See, I thought it was going to be nice and then now it turns into this. N .T. Wright is dangerous and I quite frankly am pretty, I guess, have I ever said peeved on No Compromise Radio?

I'm very discouraged to say the least by evangelicals who push N .T. Wright. N .T. Wright is a smart man. He's an intelligent man. I don't know if he's a Christian man or not. He affirms many of the Christian tenets, including a literal resurrection.

But the problem with N .T. Wright is this. He's so smart that he can weave a maze with his words and you can't get out of them and keep your conservative Christianity. Now, if you think through it, you can.

If you have somebody help you walk through his arguments and his rabbit trails and his deductions and then you can see they're faulty. But if you I mean, honestly, when if I read an N .T. Wright quote because he's quoted and he's found in Tyndale commentary and you'll see him around evangelical mainline and people want him in the mainstream.

When you hear him, when I read him, brother, I don't say to the people that I'm shepherding. I can't talk today. I don't say this is N .T. Wright because they're going to say, oh, that's interesting. Maybe I should get an N .T. Wright book.

I want to warn people against N .T. Wright. And it's fashionable to talk about how great he is and how cool he is. And it's, you know, some some area area diet, area diet. See, you can take the kid out of Nebraska, but you can't take Nebraska out of the kid area diet.

He's very smart. I give him that. And many of the things he says is true. But his view of justification is faulty. It is faulty. New perspective on Paul is an old heresy. So don't buy it. Federal vision people, they attack imputation too.

Why is imputation important? Well, let me give you another reason why imputation is important, because it determines if you believe like a Roman Catholic or like someone who affirms Pauline writing. Protestant or Catholic, I could put it that way.

Righteousness imputed is the reason why you are acceptable in God's eyes. It is an alien righteousness. That is, it's not of your own. It's Christ. It's forensically given to you. That is, it's not given to you by infusion, but by imputation.

And you are acceptable in God's eyes based on his action. For Rome, the declaration of justice follows the making inwardly just of the regenerate sinner. To quote one commentary that goes on to say, For the Reformation, the declaration of justice follows the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the regenerated sinner.

So declaration of justice follows the making inwardly just, or declaration of justice follows the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Catholics hold the righteousness comes to be present in humans and that the continuing status of acceptance is based on this.

Humans have a responsibility to cooperate with God in maintaining and strengthening the presence of this grace in their lives. Certain sins called mortal sins can result in its loss. And certainly the Protestant view, the biblical view, the Reformation view, Paul's view in Romans 5 that we'll see soon, hopefully, you cannot do anything to earn your salvation, and therefore you can't do anything to lose your salvation.

People say, well, can you lose your salvation? Can Christ lose a Christian? Can God look at someone cloaked in the righteousness of Christ and then abandon them? So we have two different ways of looking at this.

If you believe in imputation, you're going to be a Protestant. If you believe in infusing of righteousness, then you're going to be a Roman Catholic. So hence, this is important. And then lastly, it's important because theology leads to methodology, which leads to what?

Doxology. So you just draw two lines in between those words, theology, methodology, doxology. And so the way you understand God determines the way you praise him. I love R .C. Sproul when he said, you know, in light of evangelical being a broad term, that feminist, feministic evangelicals, gay evangelicals, fundamentalist evangelicals, mainline evangelicals, the word evangelical is a good word if you think about it biblically, but it's been hijacked, it seems.

So R .C. Sproul said, well, maybe we should be called instead of evangelicals because it's such a, what's that word that I'm looking for? That means it could just waver here or there. It's such an undefined term, a fluid term.

See, even though I'm not on the top of my game today, I still can pull one out of the hat. It's a rabbit out of my hat. Look, a rhino. R .C. Sproul said, I know what word I'm using. I'm calling myself an imputationalist.

That's pretty good. You could be an internationalist or you could be an imputationalist. So let's go to Romans chapter 5 and think through this first imputation. There are three in Scripture. Let's start off with the first one.

Adam's Sin Imputed to All Humanity

The imputation of Adam's sin, credited to his account, placed in his account, reckoned, attributed to, remember those words for imputation, to impute Adam's sin to all his posterity. The old New England primer, letter A, helping us try to understand things.

In Adam's fall, we sinned all. How was that? How was that sin? Was it by imputation? How was that possible? We weren't there. We didn't do it. How could we get credit for it? Adam's sin wasn't his alone because it was placed in every person's account, including yours.

Can't you see the unbeliever bristle? Romans chapter 5 verse 12 says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. Adam is your federal representative because it pleased God by his free will to have one man stand on behalf of all of humanity and whatever he did would be credited to the account of all humanity.

God imputes to us, reckons to our account, Adam's sin put on the debit side, as it were. And so Paul is trying to explain in Romans chapter 5 how justification and its method is illustrating, is illustrated rather, excuse me, by comparing the saving work of Christ with the condemning work of Adam.

And he's trying to prove his point that one man's actions can be responsible to affect many others. Now, if you think about Paul and writing to certainly Gentiles, but Jews as well, Jews would hearken back to a particular father, wouldn't they?

And they would say, well, we have father, who would they call their father? Remember, they didn't call God father very often in the Old Testament. But when you would talk to a Jew and you can think of the kid's song, father had many sons, many sons had father, I'm one of them.

And so were you. That would be a song that the Jews would sing, father Abraham. But here Paul goes back to Adam, driving his eyes off of Abraham like he's in because of Abraham's doing, or he's in because of he's a member of the covenant.

He's in because he's circumcised. He goes back to Adam, and Adam is the common father of both the Jews and the Gentiles. One deed affects, of one man, affects a lot of people. Listen to the American Atheist Journal.

Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution. Because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus's earthly life was supposedly made necessary.

Destroy Adam and Eve and original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God. If Jesus was not the Redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing.

American Atheist, September 1978, page 30, American Atheist Journal. Now see they understand the issue. Now probably not this show, but the next one we're going to have to talk about the attacks in our own circles against Adam.

There's a link between the first Adam and the last Adam. There's a link between Adam and Jesus. There's something that's symmetrical that you're going to see in the shows to come between Adam's work and Christ's work.

And you're going to see although we weren't there in the garden and we didn't earn what Adam earned or deserved what Adam deserved, Adam was given as our federal representative. And what Adam did we would get credited for.

We would get credit for. You say, well I wasn't there. That's no fair. I didn't earn it. I didn't deserve it. I didn't merit it. I didn't personally sin in the garden and you're telling me that I get credit for that.

Yeah, I'm telling you that because that's the way God works. He works with federal representatives just like we do here in America with senators, congressmen and women, etc. This is just the way of the world.

And I want to make sure you understand very, very plainly that it was an act of a man who plunged the world into sin and God gave credit for that sin to all in Adam. But thankfully, and just think now symmetrically, we were not at Calvary.

We did not deserve salvation. We did not earn salvation. We did not merit salvation. And yet the act of a man, Jesus, the last Adam, gets credited to our account. Now see, now you're talking. Now you're talking.

That makes me not hate Adam's federal representation because A, God designed it. It's his wisdom. Who am I to answer back to God in light of my sins? How can I complain about anything? This is what God says.

And Christianity stands or falls on the Adam, last Adam relationship. And the American Atheist Journal gets that. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Through one man, Adam, we have sin, condemnation, death. Through another man, the last Adam, we're going to get life, righteousness, justification. There is a link between the two. Adam was a figure of him who was to come, verse 14 of chapter 5.

There is solidarity in the human family. Just as the race was condemned on the ground of the imputation of Adam's one sin, so believers are justified on the ground of the imputation of Christ's righteousness.

Thomas and Steele. Now, today on No Compromise Radio, we've just tipped our dip in tow. We've just dipped our toe into the cool, refreshing water of federal representation. You have a federal representative, Adam.

And if you'll turn from your sins and believe on what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ, that's not the end of the story. You will have Christ Jesus who earned salvation for you as your representative.

And to quote 1 John chapter 2, verse 2, you'll have him as the advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous. So my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You can pick us up at nocompromiseradio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.