Imputation (Part 3)

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No Suits Allowed (Part 4)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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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
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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.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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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
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Mike Abendroth here. No Compromise Radio.
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I'd like that for a role reversal. I'm sorry, a role reversal. I am supposed to say, this is
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Mike Abendroth, welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. I think that's what I say, don't I? I can't remember.
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I'm sitting here, another rainy Massachusetts day. It rained yesterday, it rained today, it's gonna rain tomorrow, it's mid -June right now, it should be hot and nice and clear, should be out of my bicycle, but here
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I sit in the studios in front of this microphone doing
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No Compromise Radio. By the way, when I showed Phil Johnson the radio studio, which is nothing but a desk with a couple of microphones, he did say, oh, those are nice microphones.
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And I figured if grace to you, Phil, grace to you, Johnson, like those microphones, they must be pretty good.
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Maybe that will help me. Maybe Steve's microphone's better than mine and I'll have to use his microphone to help my theological prowess, proudness, prowess.
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You say tomato. I say tomato. In front of me, I have my notes for imputation.
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Imputation. What is imputation? Today's part three on the doctrine of imputation.
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Imputate. Imputate. I need a vacation.
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I'm about 40 shows in advance, maybe 35, something like that so then
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I can just get out of Dodge and just let the summer shows run. And we'll come back to Massachusetts and see if there's actually still a radio station,
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WVNE, and whatever that station is, we're on in Boston, Boston Praise Radio. You need to pull that up.
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Pull up Boston Praise Radio and look at people who are on the show. You'll see no compromised radios, which is insane.
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But last I checked, I'm not an apostle. So if that interests you, then
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I'm not an apostle. That is very good. Imputation number one, the imputation of Adam's sin to all his posterity.
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God said that Adam, as a federal representative, would determine pretty much everything in terms of the sin, an original sin.
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And so God, by imputation, by declaration, set Adam's sin to all of our account.
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And today, really the great news is these other two imputations. The other two imputations are wonderful.
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And you might say to yourself, I wasn't there in the garden, so why would I get credit for something I didn't do? Until you think about Jesus, and then you begin to say the very same words.
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But I wasn't at the cross, so why should I get credit for something Christ did?
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See? See, I gotcha. I don't want to get credit for Adam's sin.
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I didn't deserve it. I didn't earn it. I didn't merit it. Well, at the cross, you didn't earn it.
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You didn't deserve it. And you didn't merit it. Did you? You still dislike imputation?
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No, I think you love imputation. You love imputation even before you knew what it was called, even before I mispronounced it.
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You loved it. Imputation is the way God deals with things in His universe.
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Key word, His universe. And if it's God's universe, then we ought to let Him run the show, as it were, run the world.
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And we ought to let Him run it as we applaud Him, as we clap, as we exalt
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Him and worship Him, Christ Jesus, the Lord. And so I want you to love imputation.
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The first one, admittedly, is hard to stomach. But this one isn't so hard to stomach, and that is imputation number two.
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Not only did God impute Adam's sin to all those in Adam, that's everybody besides Christ, God imputed the sins of His people to the
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Redeemer, Jesus Christ. So the Father credits to Christ's account sins that do not belong to Him.
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He had Jesus die a substitutionary death.
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Jesus did not have our sins infused into Him. Jesus did not have our sins become part of His nature.
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He wasn't by nature a sinner, but God credited to the spiritual bank account,
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He credited to Jesus our sins. Our sins were set to the account of Christ Jesus.
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He became legally responsible for them and then underwent our just judgment.
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What would be just judgment for us, He took in our place. Our sins imputed to Christ.
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He being legally responsible. His nature did not change. We're talking legal standing.
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And that is the issue. Even back when we look at the, let's see, one thing kind of looks the same on the other, symmetrical.
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We have to think of Adam and his sin imputed to posterity as symmetrical here because we did not become sinners because of this.
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The sin was imputed to our account. Yes, we became sinners as a consequence of this legal imputation.
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But here Jesus is not made by nature sinful. No, He's the
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God -man. And this idea of God imputing sins to somebody else's account goes way back.
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It goes back far. And let me give you an example, Leviticus 16. And when he made an end, has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar and shall present a live goat.
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And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins.
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And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.
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The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area. And he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
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Leviticus 16, 20 to 22. The goat didn't do those sins. When that man didn't love the
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Lord God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength or that woman didn't love her neighbors herself or any of the other
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Mosaic law. These sins that were committed by humans were credited to the goat's account.
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So here's what we have. We have the ground of our justification that is Christ's making satisfaction to his father by having our sins credited to his account.
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And the cause of all this was not our faith, was not altar call. The cause of it was the triune
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God. And so 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21 really is a key as we're talking today on No Compromise Radio about imputation.
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First Adam's sin imputed to our account. Now our sins imputed to Christ's account.
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Now I like the imputation. For our sake he made him, 2
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Corinthians 5, 21, to be sin who knew no sin. For our sake he did that.
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Now the third imputation is in the rest of the verse, but here the sins of the people. Elect, the elect people, their sins and their sins alone were set to the account of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus did not sin. Jesus, if he did sin, would have to pay for his own sins and there'd be no imputation.
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He is not guilty of sins. Jesus tried to have the Jews prove him guilty of sin in John chapter eight.
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They could not. The writer of Hebrews, he is without sin.
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The writer of Peter says he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth.
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So we have Jesus bearing our sins even though he doesn't sin.
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It's as if he were sinning those sins and sinned those sins, but he did not because this is a legal reckoning.
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This is an accounting term. This is placing to Jesus's account. That is imputation.
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He's not defiled by imputation. That's wrong. Imputation doesn't defile.
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Jesus is not impure at all. It doesn't make him guilty at all.
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Excuse me, it doesn't make him a polluted at all. We're not talking about transfusion. We're not talking about infusion.
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We're not talking about Roman Catholic doctrines that if we think symmetrically should be applied to Jesus here at the cross by them.
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And we'll get more into that later. In Galatians chapter three, what do we have?
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We have a great case of imputation, our sins to the account of Jesus.
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And then the father punishing Jesus as if Jesus in fact did all those sins, as if he was the one committing those sins, even though he didn't because he legally took credit for them.
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For all, Galatians three, who rely on works of the law are under a curse. So if you want to get to heaven by being good and you're under a curse, for it is written, curse would be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.
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Do them completely. Do them perfectly. Today's average Joe and average
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Jane thinks that they can get to heaven by being good. And here Paul says to the church of Galatians, hey,
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Galatia, you want to get to heaven? Then you stand under the curse if you try to get to said heaven by being good.
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We can't stand before God and say, I've never been a sinner in the past. I've never sinned in the past.
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I don't have Adam's guilt accredited in my account. In the future, I'm never going to sin. And I never did sin, never will sin.
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No, you fall short of God's righteous, holy demands. And God wants us to understand that.
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It's by faith. It is through faith. Now it is evident, verse 11 of Galatians three, that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith,
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Habakkuk. That's what happens. That's why the writer of the song is correct, not the labor of my hands could fulfill thy laws demands.
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Could my zeal, no respite, no? Could my tears forever flow? These for sin could not atone.
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Thou must save and thou alone. By our sins imputed to the account of Christ Jesus.
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Verse 13 of Galatians three, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
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That is the second wonderful, great imputation of Christianity.
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Our sins imputed to the law, to the person of Christ Jesus. And he bears the punishment of God for us breaking the law.
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And Paul says in verse 14, it's not just for him. Galatians 2 .20 was talking about how
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Jesus died for him personally. But now there are other people involved too. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the
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Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. And we know
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God accepted this great sacrifice of Christ paying for others' sins because God raised him from the dead.
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So Jesus dies for sins once for all, the just Jesus for the unjust us.
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He himself bore our sins. First Peter chapter three, and then first Peter chapter two. All our sins, past, present, future, laid upon Christ, God the
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Father divinely judging him. That is imputation number two.
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And then finally imputation number three is often neglected these days. And people ask the question, why didn't
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Jesus just come down on Good Friday, live for half a day, get crucified, and then be raised from the dead on the third day?
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Why did Jesus come live a full life? Well, he came to live a full life because that life of righteousness, that perfect life of never sinning, that life of always honoring
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God and loving him with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, that life where he always honored his mother and father, that life where he always obeyed
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Mosaic law, that full perfect life, that full life of perfect righteousness can then be imputed to, credited to, reckoned to, counted to our account.
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How about that? The third imputation is the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to all his people, to all his elect people.
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If you're a believer, you. Back to 2 Corinthians 5 .21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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There, now we have it. Now we get a little inkling into Matthew when Jesus is baptized by John the
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Baptist. John the Baptist didn't want to baptize Jesus, somehow implying that he was a sinner and he needed to repent.
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But Jesus said, yes, you baptize me, John, not because I'm a sinner, but because I'm going to identify with sinners.
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And this is to fulfill all righteousness. And so here we have the great
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Savior who gives us his perfect righteousness. Now, if he's not a man, if Jesus isn't a man, he has no human righteousness to give us.
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That is to say, he as a human never earned righteousness. And so it's not human righteousness. And if he's not
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God, then he can only give one set, as it were, of human righteousness to someone else.
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He could save one person. He could have human righteousness, a perfect life imputed to one other person who would need it.
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But if he has divine righteousness, and since he is the God -man, God -man, he's not a man who became
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God, a man who got deified. He is the God -man. He is God who added to human nature.
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And now what do we have? We have divine righteousness that is infinite. Anything that's divine is infinite.
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And now we have an infinite amount of righteousness that Jesus can bestow to all those who will look upon him with faith.
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For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.
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Listen to this wonderful poem. God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned or been a sinner, as if I had been perfectly obedient, as Christ was obedient for me.
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So when people say, what's justification? Justification, people say, well, that's just as if I'd never sinned.
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Well, that's partly true, but that's not the whole picture. That just gets you back to ground zero. You need to be just,
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God needs to see you just as if you've always perfectly obeyed the law too. And that's what it was. Because of Christ's great work, confirmed by the resurrection,
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Romans 4 .25. God looks at you as if you've never sinned. Why? Because Jesus gets your sins by imputation.
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And he looks at you as if you've always obeyed because you get Christ's righteousness by counting, reckoning, imputation, set to your account.
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Jesus lives a perfect life. He has perfect righteousness. And that is imputed to you the moment you believe.
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The moment God grants you faith. How do we escape the sin of Adam? We don't.
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But Christ was not tainted with the sin of Adam because the Holy Spirit, in an extraordinary, supernatural way, superintended his birth when he was in his mother,
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Mary. And so when she's found with child, God protects sinful
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Mary's sin from getting into the
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DNA fabric of the man, Christ Jesus. And so we have a great
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God. Now listen to this. No Compromise Radio. We're talking about three imputations. Remember what they are? Adam's sin imputed to all his posterity.
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Christ receiving our sins by imputation. And we receiving
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Christ's righteousness by imputation. Now, because we get Christ's righteousness, let me ask you this question.
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Are there more degrees of justification? Are all believers the same when it comes to justification?
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Here's the good news. Whether you're a prostitute or whether you're the Virgin Mary, who wasn't a virgin for much longer after she had
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Jesus, after ceremonial uncleanness, she would obey God and have relations with Joseph.
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Mary, the virgin, or I'll call her mother of Jesus.
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She's not the mother of God. That's wrong terminology. Mary Magdalene, a prostitute.
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John 4, the woman at the well, are Jesus's mother. They're both declared just as righteous because they both receive
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Christ's perfect righteousness. There are no degrees of grace. There's no degrees of Christ's righteousness given through imputation.
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Aren't you glad for that? Aren't you glad? I am very glad. Justification doesn't apply to Billy Graham more than it does you.
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Doesn't apply to John Calvin more than it does you. Doesn't apply to Elizabeth Elliot more than it does to you.
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We can't be loved anymore by God the Father because we have
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Christ's perfect righteousness. Read John chapter 17, verses 23 to 26, and you will find out because of Christ's work that God loves you as much as He loves
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His Son because He looks at you as if you have completely obeyed like the
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Son. Can you imagine you have such a great Savior who perfectly obeyed? Adam in the garden, disobeying, and then later
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Jesus, His whole life, including in the garden of Gethsemane, obeying.
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I'm glad to have the last Adam. Jesus isn't the second Adam. There might be more. What if there's a third or fourth?
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Jesus is the last Adam. Where Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. The other great thing about Christ's righteousness credited to your account is this.
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Because Christ's righteousness is credited and is declared and is imputed, you can't lose your salvation.
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A, you didn't save yourself, and B, how can you undo what God did? How can you be
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Judas today and a Peter tomorrow? How can you be apostate today and justified tomorrow and justified the next day, back and forth?
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No, you have a permanent thing, and it's called justification, never to be lost, credited to your account once and for all.
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Doesn't that make you want to say, thank you, Lord? If you could unsave yourself, if you could jump out of the
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Father's hand, you would, you would, because you would by sin, and you still sin.
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Yet God the Father is great, and God the Father's salvation is great, and what He does, you can't undo.
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You say, well, I believed, I could unbelieve. Well, salvation is not the, faith is not the cause of your salvation anyway, it's the consequence, it's the result.
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I love this doctrine of imputation, and it shows me that God is super wise and therefore worthy of praise.
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Because how can God take a sinful person, He cannot even look upon those who commit iniquity back at 113, and then love them.
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How's that going to happen? How is He going to have communion with them?
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How is He going to justify us? How can the judge figure out how to make the person not guilty when they are guilty?
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How can the creditor figure out a way to have a person no longer have a debt, but still really have a debt?
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How can that happen? And the answer in God's wonder and love and grace is in the person and work of Christ Jesus.
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Planned by the Godhead, yes, and we see a great magnification of the
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Godhead as Colossians 1 would talk about, as Hebrews 1 would talk about, in the person of Christ Jesus.
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We receive because of Christ's work, holiness and eternal life. Listen to what
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John Brine said, we ought to adore the wisdom, purity, sovereignty and grace of God. This is not John de
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Brine, this is John Brine, the old Puritan, which are here and discovered. What a display of divine wisdom is there in these things.
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They are the wisdom of God in a mystery. His hidden wisdom, that mystery which was hid in God, no created mind, how capacious so ever could possibly have resolved how our guilt might be expiated, fully atoned for, and our persons constituted righteous.
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The law magnified and every divine perfection shined forth in its brightest luster in our certain and complete salvation upon a due consideration of the constitution of Christ's person, end quote.
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So now when I read Isaiah 53, everything makes sense. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.
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By his servant shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
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Can you imagine? Let me read that part again. Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
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There you have imputation two and three. That's what you have there, Isaiah chapter 53, verse 11.
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And then I read Romans chapter four. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Luther calls this language with wonderful understatement.
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You know, Luther wasn't a big understatement guy. It was always overstated. But with understatement,
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Luther calls this a fortunate exchange. Isn't that amazing?
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A fortunate exchange. So we believe in imputation at No Compromise Radio because the
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Bible clearly teaches it. That even though we weren't there and didn't deserve it, we got credit for Adam's sin.
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You got credit for Adam's sin. You weren't there. You didn't deserve it. You didn't earn it. You didn't merit it. But secondly, we believe that even though at Calvary, we weren't there, we didn't deserve what
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Jesus did for us. We didn't merit salvation. We didn't earn it. We didn't do anything except sin.
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Jesus Christ took credit for our sins and gave us credit for his righteousness. And God said,
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I love that exchange, son. You please me well, and I raise you from the dead.
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So everyone would know it worked. If Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, well, there's no Christianity, but we wouldn't know if this fortunate exchange, substitutionary atonement, worked.
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We wouldn't know if we were justified by Christ's perfect life and his perfect death, raised by the
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Son, raised by the Spirit, raised by the Father. We would not know, but we do know. And so we have a great
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Savior, Christ Jesus. When's the last time you said, Father, thank you for imputation.
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Son, given me his righteousness, and I praise you for that. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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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.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.