Abraham Believed God" - Understanding Imputed Righteousness

2. SCRIPTURE READING Genesis 15:1-6 By Tom Roberts

3. “Abraham Believed God”“Imputed Righteousness” How Many Sermons Have You Heard On This? • A Biblical Subject • Has Definite Meaning • Meaning Relates To Salvation • Denominations Have Used It For Years • But They Re-Define and Misuse It • We Must Become Familiar and Know It

4. Imputed RighteousnessGenesis 15:6 Genesis 15:6 Used Three Times In NT • Romans 4:1-8, 20-24 • Gal. 3:1-6 • James 2:14-23 • Also 2 Cor. 5:18-19 • Used To Show Abraham’s Salvation • This is The Gospel Story - Gal. 3:8-9 • We Are Saved By Imputed Righteousness

5. “Imputation”What Does It Mean ? “To reckon, take into account, or metaphorically, to put down to a person’s account” (Vine’s Dictionary) • We understand “credit Card” accounting - “Put to your account” • God puts sin “to our account” - Rom. 5:13 • Adam’s (others’) Sin not “imputed” to me • Sin or Righteousness Not Transferred • Ezek. 18:4, 20

6. How Is Righteousness Imputed ? Remember The Definition: “To reckon, take into account, or metaphorically, to put down to a person’s account” (Vine’s Dictionary) • This works with our sins • It also works with forgiveness • Who is the man “to whom God will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:8) ? THE FORGIVEN ! • Righteousness Is Accounted To Him !

7. “Impute” Never Means “Transfer” Total Hereditary Depravity Re-Defines it: • Adam’s sins transferred to Mankind • Mankind’s sins transferred to Christ • Christ’s Personal Righteousness (His Perfect life) Transferred to Believer • Man’s sinfulness is hidden under a “robe” of Christ’s perfection • Christ Obeys Law For Man; Imputes Christ’s Obedience, Perfection

8. Calvinists Teach “Transfer” “The passage from II Corinthians quoted above, together with the verses from Isaiah indicate that it was God the Father who put our sins on Christ. How could that be? In the same way in which Adams’s sins were imputed to us, so God imputed our sins to Christ; that is, ….when God thought of our sins belonging to Christ, then in fact they actually did belong to Christ” Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p 574

9. Barnes’ Notes on Imputation Rom 4:3 - “And it. The word ‘it’ here evidently refers to the act of believing. It does not refer to the righteousness of another - of God, or of the Messiah; but the discussion is solely of the strong act of Abraham’s faith, which in some sense was counted to him for righteousness. In what sense this was, is explained directly after. All that is material to remark here is...

10. Barnes’ Notes on Imputation “…that the act of Abraham, the strong confidence of his mind in the promises of God, his unwavering assurance that what God had promised he would perform, was reckoned for righteousness. The same thing is more fully expressed in vv.. 18-22. When, therefore, it is said that the righteousness of Christ is accounted or imputed to us; when it is said that his merits are transferred…

11. Barnes’ Notes on Imputation “…and reckoned as ours; whatever may be the truth of the doctrine, it cannot be defended by this passage of scripture” (Barnes Notes, Romans, p. 101).

12. Again: Barnes Is Clear “I have examined all the passages, and as the result of my examination have come to the conclusion that there is not one in which the word is used in the sense of reckoning or imputing to a man what which does not strictly belong to him…No doctrine of transferring, or of setting over to a man what does not properly belong to him, be it sin or holiness, can be derived, therefore, from this word” (Ibid., p. 102)

13. What Calvinists Teach “Consistent Calvinists believe, that if a man is elected, God absolutely imputes to him Christ’s personal righteousness, I.e. the perfect obedience unto death which Christ performed upon earth. This is reckoned to him for obedience and righteousness, even while he is actually disobedient…it matters not how unrighteous a believer actually is in himself, because the robe of Christ’s personal righteousness….

14. What Calvinists Teach “…which, at his own peril, he must not attempt to patch up with any personal righteousness of his own, is more than sufficient to adorn him from head to foot and he must be sure to appear before God in no other” (John Fletcher, Check To Antinomianism, via. Dabney-Frost Debate, p. 197).

15. Calvinism As Applied By Denominational Creeds • Salvation By Faith Alone (No works) • Once Saved, Always Saved • Baptism Not Essential To Salvation • Christ’s Personal Perfection Is Put To My Account In Heaven • We Are Saved Totally By Grace and Will Continue Saved Even While We Sin (Rom. 6:1, 15)

16. Calvinism As Applied By Our Own Brethren • The Divorce Issue • “Blessed is the man..not impute sin” • Sin is not imputed in Christ • Therefore Adultery not imputed in Christ (Dabney-Frost Debate)

17. Calvinism As Applied By Our Own Brethren • Continual Cleansing • “Blessed is the man..not impute sin” • Active Sin is not imputed in Christ • Therefore Christians Continue Saved As They Sin

18. Calvinism As Applied By Our Own Brethren • Doctrinal Issues • “Blessed is the man..not impute sin” • Doctrinal sins are covered by grace • Therefore doctrinal sins are not imputed in Christ

19. Danger To Christians • False Definitions of Biblical Terms • Attitudes Have Consequences • Depreciate Obedience • Depreciate Doctrinal Subjects • More Tolerant of Error • Makes Sin Seem Impotent

20. Scriptural Imputation of Righteousness • Imputed Righteousness Is Righteousness By Forgiveness ! Rom 4 • When one is baptized into Christ, sins are forgiven and righteousness is put to your account (imputed). Acts 2:38 • Have you obeyed the gospel?