Hi! This is brother Scott with another Truth Time, Look in the Book!
Today is part 23 in my series, “Bible Key Words and Meanings A to Z.”
All references are from the King James Bible.
Perhaps take some notes as you listen.
We continue with the letter “I.”
The word today is: Impute.
Impute?
What does that even mean?
Let's find out by referencing a synonym of impute:
(Romans 4:9 KJV)
(9) Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
Instead of the word reckoned, Paul could have also written, "...for we say that faith was imputed unto Abraham for righteousness."
He could have also used the word accounted or ascribed in place of reckoned.
So, impute is interchangeable with account, reckon, ascribe, and all their derivatives.
When Adam rebelled in the garden, his sin was imputed to all mankind from that moment forward until today and beyond.
(Romans 5:12 KJV)
(12) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
The rest of Romans chapter 5 is a great study in sin for all mankind, and God's redemptive plan for all mankind.
In Genesis 11, the people built the Tower of Babel in an attempt to reach heaven. This displeased God greatly. At that time the people were all of one language. God wanted to separate them as a people, so he imputed different languages unto them, and they scattered.
(Genesis 11:7-8 KJV)
(7) Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
(8) So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
And noteworthy in Acts 2, God did the opposite. He imputed the speaking and understanding of all languages unto everyone so those from all nations could understand one another:
(Acts 2:4-12 KJV)
(4) And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
(5) And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
(6) Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
(7) And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
(8) And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
(9) Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
(10) Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
(11) Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
(12) And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
On to the book of Philemon verse 18 we read where Paul has written his letter about Onesimus the slave who had departed, and Paul writes to Philemon encouraging him to take Onesimus back and restore him to fellowship, or to at least his position as a servant without penalty.
And Paul writes:
(Philemon verse 18 KJV)
(18) If he (that is, Onesimus) hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that (or, impute that) on mine account;
That is a perfect depiction of imputing, accounting, reckoning, or ascribing something to someone else.
So, in time past, Jesus taught:
(Matthew 6:14-15 KJV)
(14) For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
(15) But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
But now, our apostle Paul, by revelation of Jesus Christ, teaches that our trespasses have already been forgiven:
(2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV)
(17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (sins no longer being imputed): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
(2 Corinthians 5:19 KJV)
(19) To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
(Colossians 2:13 KJV)
(13) And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you (no longer imputing) all trespasses;
(Ephesians 4:32 KJV)
(32) And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you (no longer imputing your sins unto you).
(Ephesians 1:7 KJV)
(7) In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (again, sins no longer being imputed), according to the riches of his grace;
As you can see, imputing is intertwined with forgiveness and reconciliation.
God reconciled himself to the world one time at the cross, thereby imputing forgiveness and reconciliation unto us.
It's not a process that is ongoing today.
It is finished.
God is not angry with the world today due to their sin.
If he were, then he did not reconcile himself to the world.
But 2 Corinthians 5:19 referenced earlier clearly teaches us that he did.
The only part of reconciliation that is ongoing today is mankind's reconciliation of themselves to God by believing and trusting that their sins were imputed unto Christ on the cross, he was buried with those sins, and triumphantly rose the third day without those sins, paving the way for our salvation.
(2 Corinthians 5:20 KJV)
(20) Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
You are reconciled to God at the very moment you trust in the gospel of your salvation, which is found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.
God imputes his righteousness to your account.
(Ephesians 1:12-13 KJV)
(12) That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
(13) In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Because God is no longer imputing sin, that means there is no sin left to be forgiven for anyone in the world in order to obtain salvation.
What's required is faith.
Throughout Paul's letters he implores us to be saved by faith, not by getting our sins forgiven.
Nowhere in his writings are we ever told that we need to come to God to get our sins forgiven.
They've already been forgiven.
We need to come to God by faith.
I have heard preachers teach that John 5:28-29 is doctrine for us today:
(John 5:28-29 KJV)
(28) Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
(29) And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
Well, that cannot be doctrine for us today because that was at a time when salvation was of the Jews.
That is Old Testament doctrine found on the other side of the cross.
On this side of the cross, we know that our judgment was placed on Christ.
God would not judge us for what Christ already paid for.
Both John 5:28-29 and 2 Corinthians 5:19 cannot be meant for the same group of people.
We know this by rightly dividing the word of truth.
(2 Timothy 2:15 KJV)
(15) Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
And what is the word of truth?
(Ephesians 1:13 KJV) (as referenced earlier in this lesson):
(13) In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
So, this study only scratches the surface of the word impute and what it means for our salvation today. My prayer is that it encourages you, dear listener, to study the word impute further on your own.
OK, that will do it for now.
Like the noble Bereans did with Paul’s messages, I urge you to search the scriptures to see if what I am teaching is true. You can find that in
Acts 17:10-11.
Also, prove all things. 1 Thessalonians 5:21.
And finally, please do not place confidence in what I say. Psalm 118:8-9.
This is brother Scott with another Truth Time, Look in the Book!
Steve Atwood Imputation
Here it revivals to Romans chapter four.
Romans chapter four.
And also we have a YouTube channel where the messages are archived as well.
And it's simply Steve Atwood is the name of the channel.
So you can go there and find messages also.
All right, in Romans chapter 4,
I want to talk to you about a subject today that sometimes is controversial among people.
And it's one that sometimes we don't really mention as often as others.
You know, a few weeks back we did a study on righteousness, justification,
or basically justification, glorification, sanctification, all those kinds of things.
And today I want to talk to you about imputation.
Imputation is a doctrine that I said we don't hear very mention very often.
And when it is sometimes people have different ideas of what it is.
And so I just want to do a kind of a word study today and look at the doctrine of imputation.
Because it's a very important doctrine.
It has to do with how we became what we are in Christ,
not what we are in the flesh, but in Christ.
And in Romans chapter 4, Paul is turning from chapter 3 where he says there in verse 10,
there is none righteous, no not one.
And he goes through that whole list of things about the sinfulness of men.
And he gets out of chapter 4 and he said, what shall we say then?
What shall we say then? And what shall we say then in regard to what he's just written before?
Such as the verse 22, even the righteous of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
to all and upon all of them that believe, further is no difference.
So he says, what shall we say then that Abraham, our Father, has pertaining to the flesh as found?
For if Abraham were justified by works, he has waived a glory but not before God.
Now we know over in the book of James, James says that Abraham was justified by his works.
And I've done several messages on that particular subject and the book of James.
And we'll look there in a moment.
In verse 3 he says, for what sent the scriptures?
Or what sent the scripture?
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
You know, one of the things that fascinates me about studying the Bible,
and particularly dispensationally, is how often the Old Testament scriptures are referred to,
which tells me that God's intent from the very beginning in giving the Word of God
was not only to give it through inspiration, but he also preserved it.
Because otherwise how would Paul say what sent the scriptures?
Some people want to give the idea that much of the scripture was lost and so forth,
and yet Paul over a hundred times quotes the Old Testament, and that's important.
So he says here in Romans chapter 4, verse 3, what sent the scripture?
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now if a hymn that works it is the reward not reckoned of grace but of death.
Now in verse 3, that last part that says it was counted unto him for righteousness.
So when we look at this doctrine of imputation, there are three words that basically have the same meaning or the same effect,
but they're different words used.
And really by looking at that we see what imputation really is.
In verse 5 he says, but unto him, but to him, that work if not but believeeth on him,
that just to find the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also described it the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
Say, and blest are they, whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Looking at verse 9, come if this blessedness upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also,
for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
Then you get over to chapter, later in the chapter there, in verse 21 and being fully persuaded that he had promised,
that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
for also to whom it should be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
So we see that imputation is on the basis of faith.
That's what he's saying there.
It was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed.
And then there's that if, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered for our fences and was raised again for our justification.
So we've got three words here, the imputed, counted, and reckoned.
The word imputation means to reckon over into one's account.
And so that's important when we look at this because we see the same basic idea and three different words applied to that particular doctrine.
As a matter of fact, over in Philemon, we won't turn there.
But in Philemon, verse 18, after Paul has written his letter to Philemon, about O'Necessments the slave who had departed,
and he writes to Philemon, encouraging him to take him back, restore him to fellowship,
or to at least his position as a servant without penalty.
And Paul says in verse 18, if the Oeth anything, charge that to my account.
Well, that is a perfect picture of imputation, of reckoning, of counting something to something else.
In other words, the idea is that those three words are what we see in the Scripture,
whether those three words are interchangeable. For example, in James 2, 23,
he says, the Scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him, for righteousness.
But if you go back to Genesis chapter 15, verse 6, he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him, for righteousness.
And then we read in Romans chapter 4, verse 9, it was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
So imputed, reckoned, counted, and these are all significant, and that they are interchangeable.
Now, in the Bible, as we read about Abraham, there are basically three major imputations that I want to mention this morning.
And we may get through all of them, we may not. But the first one has to do with the imputation of Adam's sin to all mankind.
And that has to do with the fact that in the beginning, the very beginning in the garden,
God Almighty gave some simple rules, if you will, instructions. And we know that Adam and Eve, they disobeyed, they rebelled.
And so God told them that by the sweat of their brow, they were going to have to earn their keep, and he said that the woman's seed should bruise the head of the serpent,
which came about by Jesus Christ, dying on Calvary. Then there's the, you go on through. And what I want us to see, and what I'm going over here,
is how that man has failed on every turn. And what happened there in the garden? Well, let's just look at Romans chapter 5 real quick,
because it gives us an overview of what I want to cover. In verse 12, the Bible says,
wherefore is by one man sinned entered into the world. That would be Adam. And death, by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all has sinned.
So the fact is, is that we are born sinners. When a baby comes out of the womb, that baby has never committed a sin.
And it may appear in the next few weeks that that baby is very familiar with sin, because they'll lie to you. They'll cry like there's something wrong, and all they need to be just picked up.
The fact is, they have a sin nature, but they've never committed a sin. Well, you see, the fact is, is that as the Bible says here, by one man sinned entered into the world.
And so we suffer on the basis of what Adam and Eve committed. People say, well, that's not fair. Well, it may not seem to be fair, but throughout the word of God,
we see where God Almighty has made a provision for man to have righteous imputed, just like their sand was imputed.
But they reject that, because man, throughout time, is believed that he's able to somehow get himself to God if they believe in God at all.
And so there's this idea that mankind somehow could make himself righteous enough to be accepted of God, but that is absolutely not the case.
You go over to Genesis chapter 6, and when we find Noah, the Bible said he was perfect in his generations. And so Noah found grace, the Bible says, in the eyes of the Lord.
So what does God do? He saved Noah and his family, and destroyed the earth, destroyed the world. And that's hard for us to comprehend, but that's what the Bible says.
And so when God Almighty, when they come out of the ark, I'm just going to turn back at Genesis chapter 9. You might want to turn to you, but it's just a couple of verses here.
When they come out of the ark, God gives them specific instructions about several things.
But one of the primary things that he tells Noah is, Genesis 9 verse 1, God bless Noah, and his sons and descendants of them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.
Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth. And so the idea was, God would spread these people out, so that Noah, rather.
And you can read about those descendants in chapter 10, and you get over to chapter 11, in verse 1, the Bible says, the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
They're not fascinating. Wouldn't it be good if that were still true? I've never been able to speak any other language. I don't do real well with English.
But I've always wanted to be able to speak a foreign language, but I just never have learned one. But God's desire was not for them to remain together, but that's exactly what they were trying to do at the Tower of Babel.
In verse 4, they said, go to let us build a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Well, God Almighty told the descendants of Abraham to scatter to replenish the earth, and only he could replenish it would be to go into the other parts of the earth.
And the Lord came down in verse 5 to see the city and the tower, which children of men build it. And the Lord said, behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
They're going to build a tower to heaven. Go to, let us go down, and there can found their language that they may not understand one another speech.
And by the way, I believe Acts chapter 2 is reversal of what God did in Genesis chapter 11, because when they begin to preach, what did the people hear? They were people from all nations.
And they heard them in their own language. So it came a time when God was going to restore the ability of people to hear, or to speak in other languages, through the power of the Holy Spirit, which was going to be needful for them to carry out the Great Commission, going to all the world, to gospel to every creature.
And you know, we read those verses sometimes, we never think about the fact that these men are Hebrews, they're Jews. They don't speak the languages of the other nations, but they have the gift that they're able to do so.
And so God Almighty here in Genesis chapter 11, he fixes where they have to scatter. Then immediately we get over to Genesis chapter 12, and in verse 1 it says, the Lord had sent him to Abram, get the out of our country, and from our kindred and from the Father's house, and the land that I will show thee, and I will make of their great nation, and I will bless thee, and I will name great.
And that should be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curses thee, and in these shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So there is the promise, basically, of a coming kingdom that God was going to restore upon the earth, through the nation Israel, and God's purpose for Israel was going to be that they would be God's priesthood,
they would go out into the world, evangelize the world, and that the world would turn back to God through Israel and be saved.
But we know that didn't happen, because mankind is a sinner. And so God dealt with the nation Israel throughout the Old Testament. That's what the Old Testament is all about.
It's not written to you and I, it's not written about us, we're not mentioned there, we're not prophesied there.
And there are many instances in the Old Testament where we see Man's Rebellion against God, but one of my favorites is in 1 Samuel, turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 15.
I preached on this year's ago several times, and I love this passage, because to me, if there's any passage in the Old Testament, that exemplifies the very nature of man, this is it, because God gave Israel prophets.
And according to book, according to Acts 7, they stoned the prophets, they turned against the prophets, they would not hear them.
They wanted a king to rule over them, the other nations had kings, so Israel wanted a king. So God gave them kings to rule over them.
And the kings were mentioned throughout the Bible, and there were numerous kings.
1 Samuel, chapter 15, talks about the anointing of a king by the name of Saul.
And let's just read there in chapter 15, verse 1.
Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to it, Northe, to be king over his people, over Israel.
Now therefore, harken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord of host.
I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid weight for him in the way when he came up from Egypt.
And now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not.
Now these are the instructions from God Almighty.
All that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
And I've heard people use these passages and talk about, in fact, your God, I don't want God in my life.
Well, God is just in all that he does.
And he was just in commanding that Amalek, the enemy of God, the enemy of Israel, be destroyed.
And there was a reason that it was for not only the men, but the women and the children, because they were evil people.
And saw gathered the people together, above a way, if you think that's bad, just wait to the judgment.
I mean, people think about how terrible that was.
Well, there's going to come a day folks when God Almighty is going to rain fire down the finest earth.
And there's not going to be a respecter of persons.
So he says, there, what he's to do, and so notice verse four.
And saw gathered the people together and numbered them in Tileum, 200,000 foot men, and 10,000 men of Judah.
And saw came to a city of Amalek and laid weight in the valley.
And saw said unto the kinites, go, depart, get you down from Malachites, let's not destroy you with them.
For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.
So the kinites, the kinites, departed from among the Malachites.
And saw smote the Amalachites from Havela until thou commest assured that is over against Egypt.
And he took Agag the king of the Amalachites alive and ordered destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
But saw said unto the people, but saw, and the people spared Agag and the people of Israel.
And the people of Israel, the king of the Amalachites, the king of the Amalachites alive, and ordered destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
And the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and of the lambs, and all that was good, and would not orderly destroy them, but everything that was violent refuge that they destroyed utterly.
I don't know if you see it or not, but I believe in those verses.
We see an absolute perfect picture of man's attitude, and not only man in general, but religious men, and Christianity, so-called Christian to the day, toward God.
They have the word of God. But what do most people do today? They alter it to fit what they want to do.
They justify what they want by changing or altering or ignoring certain parts of the word of God.
For example, we are specifically given the instruction by the apostle Paul to study, to show ourselves approved in the God a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
How many people in this world actually follow that? So you look up a translation, you get another translation, the NIV, or whatever, and it takes rightly dividing out of there, and I know some of them say correctly handling the word of God.
All right, we'll give you that. So what if it does say correctly handling the word of God?
Wouldn't that include obeying what God says about the apostle Paul that he is the apostle of the Gentiles?
Wouldn't that include understanding that we're living in the dispensation of the grace of God, Ephesians 3.1?
But what did the people do? They say, well, that dispensation list of stuff is just nonsense. We believe in following the footsteps of Jesus.
And so let me ask you, people that do that today, are they just like Saul was and saying, we'll do what God told us to do, but we're going to do it our way.
We'll do it our way. Now let's look.
Saul, verse 9, and Saul in the people spared a gag and the best of the sheet and the oxen and the fat lamb, all that was good, it would not have destroyed them, but everything that was violent refuge that they destroyed utterly.
Now if you just take that verse and plucked it out of context, you would say, well, that was reasonable. That would be a reasonable thing to do.
Why go down there and kill all the good sheep? Why go down there and kill all these animals that we could use for ourselves?
But here's verse 10, then came the word of the Lord and the Samuel saying, it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and it's not performed by commandments,
and it grieved Samuel, and it crawled into the Lord all night.
Samuel was not happy that he was going to have to go give Saul this message. It grieved him.
And when Samuel rose up early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set him up a place and is going about and passed on and going down to Gilgal.
And Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
Isn't that what people think today in every religion you know of? They're doing what God says.
So if they're venice out there meeting yesterday, they're following the commandment of the Lord.
Only problem is, it's not the commandment of the Lord to us, and on and on, it goes for religion.
And Samuel said, verse 13, and I love these verse 14, and Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
And Samuel said, what mean if in this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the Lord of the ox which I hear?
And Saul, now notice what he does. I mean, typical man, what did Adam do when the Lord confronted him about eating of the tree?
He said, this woman, you gave me, took of the tree. And I just followed her.
What did Samuel do? Our Saul did. Samuel said, what mean if in this bleeding of the sheep in the mind of the ears?
And Saul said, verse 15, they have brought them, they have brought them from the malachites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice on the Lord thy God and the rest.
We better let's throw it. The people did it. Samuel, then Samuel said unto Saul, stay, and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me this night.
And he said unto him, stay on, or stay on. And Samuel said, when thou was little in thy own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord adorned the king over Israel.
As the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, go, and early destroy the centers, the malachites, and fight against them until they be concerned.
Wherefore, then, didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the sprawl and dishevel in the sight of the Lord?
And Saul said to Samuel, ye, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.
And have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought a gag the king of Amalak, and have utterly destroyed the malachites.
But the people took of the sheep of this bowl, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice the Lord thy God and Gilgah.
Listen, Samuel, we did this for God. We didn't destroy those sheep. We took them so we could sacrifice them to God.
I don't know if you see as much as religion in today. I said it is in these verses as other, but I tell you what, this is a perfect picture of how people justify what they do in the name of God.
And they're telling us that we have obeyed the voice of the Lord.
He said the people took of this bowl. And then, verse 22, Samuel said,
that the Lord as great delight in burn offerings of sacrifice, as in obeying the voice of the Lord, the whole to obey is better than sacrifice.
And to harken than the fad of realms. For rebaying is as the sin of which craft, and stubbornness is as a nicotine idolatry.
Because Ahus rejected the word of the Lord, he also rejected thee from being king.
And Saul said in the Samuel, I've sinned. For I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
He's still blaming them in me. Now, therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn it again with me, that I may worship the Lord.
And Samuel said in the Saul, I will not return with thee. For thou has rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected thee from being king over Israel.
And if Saul turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of the mile and rent it. And Samuel said unto him, the Lord has rented the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and has given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou.
What a picture. And that really typifies Israel throughout the Old Testament. They rebelled against God time after time after time. They went into idolatry.
And through all of that, God still sent his son to earth some 2000 years ago, and when Jesus Christ came upon planet earth, they did exactly what they had been doing. For thousands of years, they rejected the very one who could give them life, and lead them through into the kingdom of heaven upon earth.
But they rejected him and put him to death. And so when we get over the piles of pistols, he said, what all I have to do with imputation?
The point is, folks, is that man became sinners when they, when Adam sinned, the curse of that sin was placed upon man and is remained.
And so what we find in rightly dividing the word of truth, and in accurately studying the word of truth, is we find that God Almighty, the very time when he could have with all justice poured his wrath out upon this world.
You think about Acts chapter 7. Stephen stands up in preaches to the nation of, what do they do? They stoned into death. He's giving them the words of God, and they stoned him. And he's standing there holding the coat of those who stoned him.
Saul, later Paul, and then in Acts chapter 9, God Almighty saves this man, Paul, or Saul at that time. And he tells him, you're going to bear my name before the people and kings and the Gentiles. And so he does.
And so what have people done today in this dispensation of grace? They discount it. They will tell you that Paul wrote, much of it was his own opinion. And I've read you the document there that I have where all these scholars say don't pay attention to Paul.
And yet it's only through the apostle Paul that we see this position of our standing. We've got all might go back to Romans five.
In Romans chapter 5, verse 1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace.
Wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only Saul, but with glory and tribulations also. No one at tribulation work with patience and patience experience and experience hope.
And hope makes it not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength in due time.
Why were we without strength? Because we were sinners in the flesh. We were out of Adam. When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
That due time is very important. It was not by happenstance. God had a plan and he executed that plan. And the result of that was that today we are living in the dispensation of the grace of God. And his righteousness is imputed to us.
We are counted righteous. We are reckoned to be righteous. We are imputed righteous. We were in Adam. As the Bible says here, he says, when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely far righteous man will one die. Yet for venture far good man, somebody even dared to die. But God committed his love toward us. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if when we were in enemies we were reconciled with God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled we should be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement.
And here is the verse we read a moment ago. Wherefore is by one man sinned entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.
So the fact is that the clear teaching in the book of Romans in Romans 5 is that our sins are not really the problem. Why? Because the Bible says Christ died for our sins.
But our sin nature is the problem. And so when God Almighty saved us, notice what He says, by one man sinned in the world and death by sinned and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.
Far until the law sin was not in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death rained from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the sin was viewed as a transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
But not as the offense, so also is what the free gift. For through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which by one man Jesus Christ has abounded unto many.
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift of judgment, so is the gift for the judgment. Now notice was by one to condemnation. But the free gift is of many offenses under justification.
For if by one man's disobedience death rained by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and notice and of the gift of righteousness shall rain in life by one Jesus Christ.
What did Paul say about that righteousness? He said Abraham's faith was counted for righteousness and he said David said it was imputed righteousness and then he says that it was imputed to him.
Again he says concerning Abraham in the end of chapter 4 it was imputed unto him to those that and it's imputed to us if we believe on him.
So when you get down to verse 18 notice Romans 5, 18 therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
You see we'll say well that's not fair yes it is because notice even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Now that's where so many people miss the boat because they believe that it's their righteousness that gains them entry into heaven, that gains them favor with God.
But you know what the Bible says about our righteousness? It says that all our righteousness are as filthy rags.
I think about a person perhaps and I just no scripture back this up it's just thoughts I've had driving down the highway but I think about people many times in religion that they are dedicated to that religion.
They're dedicated to their church. I mean they're faithful to go they're faithful to attend and I could imagine an individual standing before the Lord and the Lord says what is it that you have to offer?
That would merit you entrance into heaven and that person would say well Lord I attended church every Sunday and not only did I attend but I gave my money every month I gave a tenth and I gave a tenth before taxes.
That was always the deal you know and I was the chairman of the deacons I taught a Sunday school class.
He did all these things and the Lord says well just look down and it's man's land before the Lord all of these works and he looks down at all those things which he think should be silver and gold.
And there's a pile of filthy rags and he never mentions trusted in the blood of Jesus Christ. He never mentions the fact that he was totally dependent upon what Christ did at Calvary to get him there to heaven.
And so it is in verse 19 for by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of not you it's not your obedience so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
More over the law entered that the offense might have bound but where sin abounded grace did much more bound.
That as sin has rained under death even so might grace even so might grace rain through righteousness until eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
You see folks it's only by what God has done for us through his son Jesus Christ that we will ever enter into eternity with him.
It is not by our works of righteousness God the sin of the human race was imputed to Christ on that cross.
So Corinthians 521 says God made him to be sin for us and you know sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
You may not feel righteous you might not look righteous you may not even act righteous but I got some good news for you this morning if you've ever trusted Jesus Christ as your savior God Almighty sees you as righteous.
Because he has imputed the righteousness of his son to you and the very moments you are saved you were by one spirit baptized in the body of Christ made one with Christ excepted in the blood redeemed by his blood and blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Now why would anybody want to take all that upon himself you know why flesh he wants to people want to glory in their own flesh and all the glory and goes to the man who went to that cross and bore our sins at Calvary and God Almighty imputed all of our sins to him on that cross and made those that are saved righteous.
The basis of acceptance today is the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed us through what belief.
So if you've never believed the gospel if you've never trusted in what Jesus Christ did at Calvary you can do that this very moment.
You can receive the free gift of salvation and when you do God Almighty will place you in the body of Christ and you'll be sealed into their redemption.
And if you are saved what greater news could you give anybody then what we've just talked about these last ten minutes here.
The fact that God Almighty has imputed his righteousness to us and it's by faith alone. Abraham believed God, God imputed to him for righteousness.
You believe God received the free gift of salvation you'll have that imputed righteousness.
It's a wonderful thing. You're counted righteous, you're reckoned to be righteous and you have imputed righteousness all because of who we are in Christ.
I thank you for being here today. I hope that the message has been a blessing to you and hope to see you next time.
Our Father we thank you today for your word. We thank you for the instruction of it and for the glorious truth of all that we have through your grace that was bestowed upon us when we trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior.
We thank you for your word. We thank you for the ministry of your apostle, the apostle Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles who wrote down the words.
We can know what you're doing today in this present time and that is saving people not on the basis of works, not on the basis of performance, but on the basis of what they believe.
And we thank you for that and trust that today for it's in your name we pray. Amen.
Thank you for that. We're dismissed.
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