Getting God's Righteous. Romans 3:14-20
As we go down from verse 22
to verse 25 we are talking about basically the same thing. This is the heart of
Paul’s explanation of how a person is justified. In these verses we have
imputation, justification, redemption and propitiation. In
In verse 22 we have this phrase “even
{the} righteousness of God,” and we ought to translate that so we understand it—“God’s
righteousness,” or maybe even “God’s own righteousness.” Then
the next phrase “through faith in Jesus Christ.” This is a dia [dia]
preposition in the Greek which indicates the intermediate means of receiving
something—“through faith.” It is not because of faith but faith is the means by
which we appropriate what Christ did. Faith in itself is non-meritorious. What
that means is that in contrast to Calvinistic teaching (not all Calvinists), in
contrast to high Calvinists who teach that saving faith is a gift from God. But
faith is faith; the merit isn’t in the faith, it is in the object of the faith.
It is Christ who died, we are saved on the basis of what we believe; not the
kind of faith we have. There is nothing in Scripture that indicates that there
is a faith in Christ that doesn’t save because it is not the right kind of
faith, or any kind of faith is the right kind of faith. We are saved through
faith toward Jesus; He is the object of our faith. “…for all those who believe.”
This references the doctrine of imputation. How do we receive the righteousness
of God? How does that come to us?
Historically in Christianity there have
been two different ways of explaining this doctrine of imputation. The basic
words are interesting. The Greek word for imputation found twice in Romans 4:3
(accounted, reckoned), 4 (counted) is logizomai
[logizomai].
The word in terms of the basis definitions in the New International
Dictionary of New Testament Theology are to reckon, to think, or credit. The
word “reckoned” is a basic old English word for thinking or counting. Arndt and
Ginchrich: “It was primarily a mathematical and accounting
term.” This is a word that accountant would use as they are working through
their credit and debit sheet. Since the word “reckoned” used in Romans 4:3 comes
out of a quote from Genesis 15:6 we also have to look at the Hebrew word, which
is chasab and means to think, to make a plan,
to make a judgment, imagine, count, impute, calculate, value, regard, think,
plan. So we see it is a thought word. It has to do with what you think about
something, appraising the value of something.
When we look at the verb to credit
something, also in the OED, it means to publicly acknowledge someone
as a participant in the production of something, or to credit someone or
ascribe and achievement or quality to someone. That is important.
Two words to consider here: impute and
impart. With imparting something I have a glass and I am going to impart water
to a cup so that there is now water in the cup. Some concrete substance has
actually placed inside the cup. That is the Roman Catholic view of imputation. It
is not that you are credited with the righteousness of Christ but the Christian
is made righteous. In making someone morally righteous they are
morally changed. Imputation as Protestant have
understood it means to credit something, for God to forensically or judicially
declare a person to be justified. They it why in Roman Catholic theology they
never know if they are good enough to have eternal life because the
righteousness is imparted each time they participate in a sacrament. Eventually
you accumulate enough righteousness to become righteous. That is a very
different concept than what the Protestant view was of a forensic or judicial
declaration of righteousness. So it is the difference between assigning or ascribing a value to someone—and they don’t change
internally but are said to be something. There is no internal change, it is a judicial declaration by God.
We don’t trust in Jesus and have some sort
of internal change that moves us from being unacceptable to being acceptable to
God. What happens is we are covered by the death of Christ. We are credited
with His righteousness so that we are declared righteous not on the basis of who
we are or what we have done but because we are covered by the righteousness of
Christ.
This means for the definition of
imputation: It is the action of the justice of God whereby either condemnation
or blessing is assigned, credited or attributed to a human being. It is a legal
act, a legal declaration, not an actual transformation. There are two
categories of imputations: real imputations and judicial imputations.
L.S. Chafer: There
are three major imputations set forth in the Scriptures: (a) the imputation of
Adam's sin to the race, on which fact the doctrine of original sin is based;
(b) the imputation of the sin of man to Christ, on which fact the doctrine of
salvation is based; and (c) the imputation of the righteousness of God to those
who believe on Christ.
These three imputations all relate to what
takes place surrounding justification.
Imputation may
be real or judicial. That which is real is the reckoning or imputation or crediting
to one of that which is antecedently his…
That is a difficult verbiage for a lot of people to understand. What is
basically means is that there is an affinity or an attraction between what is
imputed and to whom it is imputed—like sin to the sin nature. That is what
makes it a real imputation.
…while
a judicial imputation is the reckoning to one of that which is not antecedently
his.
For example, when our sin is imputed to Jesus Christ on the cross,
because He is not a sinner, there is no affinity or correlation between those two things. He is pure, our sin is sin, and those don’t
go together. So that is called a judicial imputation.
Had the
trespass mentioned in 2 Corinthians
The
principle of imputation is thus seen to be one in which certain realities are
reckoned from one thing to another thing. The story is complete as represented in
the three major imputations. Man’s need is indicated in the imputation from
Adam to his posterity—his sin to all human beings. Man’s salvation is secured
in the imputation of man’s demerit (our debt)… our indebtedness is nailed to
the cross … and man’s eternal standing and felicity are established through the
imputation of the righteousness of God to man when he is placed in Christ by
the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
It is
conceded that there are slight differences to be noted in certain particulars
when these three major imputations are compared. These are largely developed by
the truth that two are judicial imputations and one is real.
That is tough stuff to try and think your way through and sadly seminary
students (at
Pastor Thieme developed this a little further
and added a couple of things that were significant. He had four real
imputations. Remember that a real imputation means that there is an affinity
between what is imputed and the target. So the first is Adam’s original sin to
the sin nature of each human being at birth. Pastor Thieme
added eternal life to the human spirit, and that is appropriate. Eternal life
is imputed to the human spirit—1 John
In terms of judicial imputations, which is what
we are really focusing on in justification, the first judicial imputation is
where our personal sins are assigned or ascribed or credited to Jesus Christ on
the cross. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He doesn’t then become a
sinner but He is judicially assigned our sin so that He is separated from the
Father on the cross. He is separated from the Father during those three hours
because He is judicially guilty. He is not actually guilty because He doesn’t
become a sinner. But He is judicially guilty because He is being assigned the
guilt and the penalty for our sins.
Then when we are saved Christ’s perfect righteousness is then ascribed
or credited to us. We are no more moral than we were before we were saved or
better than we were before we were saved. We still have the same qualitatively
evil sin nature that we had before we were saved. The sin nature that we have
is simply the capacity to evil, the same capacity to evil that Satan has. The
only difference is he can actuate his sinful desires in ways we can’t even
dream of because he has so much more power and ability than we do.
1.
A judicial concept means to attribute something
to a person as a judicial or meritorious reason of blessing or condemnation,
reward or punishment. It is what is attributed or imputed to us that is the basis for our blessing or, in the case of Adam’s original
sin condemnation and judgment.
2.
To impute sin, e.g. Adam’s original sin, means
to credit or assign the guilt of sin to all of Adam’s descendants. Because he
is both our federal head as well as the seminal head. Federal headship simply
means he is our designated legal representative. Adam’s decision was our
decision. Whether we think that we would have made that decision or not is not
the point. He is our legally designated representative. Because he sinned that
guilt is assigned to all of his descendants. It is not only assigned to all of his
descendants legally but the corruption itself is passed on genetically from
father to child from generation to generation. Seminal means that there is a physical
connection to Adam and a legal connection. So the sin nature is passed on
genetically and when we are born God immediately imputes to that sin nature the
guilt of Adam’s original sin.
3.
Imputation is very different from impartation. We
don’t become righteous. There is character transformation that takes place
after salvation as a result of spiritual growth but that is not imputation and
justification.
Philemon 18 NASB “But if he has
wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge
that to my account.” This is one example of where Paul uses the word logizomai in a non-theological context,
and he is talking about Onesimus the slave who has
run away from Philemon. There is a debt, and Paul is saying to Philemon the
owner, if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that, or
reckon that to my account. Paul hasn’t done anything against Philemon, so that
debt would be assigned to him even though there is nothing on his part that
deserves that. That would be an example of a real, as opposed to a judicial,
imputation.
Romans 5:12ff also utilizes a lot of these
concepts related to imputation. NASB “Therefore, just as through one
man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to
all men, because all sinned— ” That is the imputation of Adam’s sin. [13] “for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not
imputed when there is no law.”
2 Corinthians
Psalm 32:2a NASB “How blessed is
the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity…”
Romans 4:8 NASB
“BLESSED
IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT [impute] TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.” This has to
do with the fact that we are not judged and condemned for our sin. We are
condemned because of Adam’s sin. We are born corrupt. The basis of our judgment
isn’t personal sins, the basis of our judgment is Adam’s
sin.
This concept of imputation as the basis for justification is illustrated
by Genesis 15:6 concerning Abraham. It is a parenthetical statement that refers
back to a previous time than the events in Genesis 15, and it should be
translated “At a former time he had already believed in the Lord and he [the
Lord] had reckoned [imputed] it to him as righteousness.” That is the basis for
Abraham’s justification. Abraham believed God, that He
was able to provide a savior, and God imputed to him His righteousness.
The best illustration we get from this in the Old Testament is from
Zechariah 3:1ff. This is a heavenly scene. Zechariah is the one who is speaking
and he is speaking about God. [1] “Then he [God] showed
me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD [2nd
person of the Trinity], and Satan standing at his right
hand to accuse him.
Romans