A DOUBLE JOY
FAITH IS ACCOUNTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Preached at Emmanuel, Workington on Sunday evening, 15th January 2006
FAITH IS ACCOUNTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Preached at Emmanuel, Workington on Sunday evening, 15th January 2006
After Paul’s great statement of the Gospel, Romans 3:21-26, he presses home the implications of the Gospel. It is the work of the Spirit to press home to our hearts the implications of God’s truth. First Paul excludes all boasting.
Then Paul shows us how salvation purchased by Christ’s death and resurrection is applied to us. Abraham illustrates the point: Romans 4:3, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
The purchase of salvation by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is distinct from the application of salvation by the Holy Spirit. Jesus justified us by His blood. But only when we believe do we enter into the experience of justification, as did Abraham when he believed God and ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ So when he believed, God counted his faith for righteousness.
The meaning of “accounted” or “logged.”
Look at the word “counted” or “accounted.” It translates a Greek word still used in modern English. If I keep a record of every time the telephone goes, I keep a LOG of telephone calls. Every time it rings, I log it, note it, record it, mark it, count it. When Abraham believed God, God logged it to him for righteousness.
Let’s do some counting of our own. How many times is this word “logged” or “accounted" repeated in Romans 4? Be patient - this counting is worth doing.
Rom.44, reads, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted/logged as grace but as debt.” The AV has “not reckoned of grace.” It is the same word. If we were justified by works, God would be obliged to receive us as a reward for services rendered. God would be in our debt! If that were true, which it is not, justification would be a reward for works and not an act of the free grace of God.
Next Romans 4:5-6 “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:” Ah, here we have a different verb, to impute instead of to account. No! In Greek it is the same word, root LOG. Good English style likes to vary language, so translators read ‘impute’ instead of ‘account’, but it is the same word. The same goes for the 5th example, Romans 4:8, “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute or account or log sin."
The next repetitions of the word are in Romans 4:9-10 “We say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righeousness. How then was it accounted/logged?” The AV asks, “How was it reckoned?” The 8th instance is at the end of 611: “that righteousness might be imputed to them also.”
So in English the word is translated ‘counted’ or ‘accounted’; ‘imputed’; ‘reckoned’; some modern version read “credited”.
The 9th repetition of the word comes when Paul speaks of the power of faith enabling Abraham to father Isaac. He was “fully convinced that what God had promised He was able to perform and therefore”, Romans 4:22, “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
We reach double figures with Romans 4:23-24. “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.”
So Paul uses this word to LOG, to count, to reckon, to impute, to credit, 11 times in Rom.4. It must be an important word. Paul obviously wants to get this word into my thick head so that I never ever forget it!
What is Paul getting at? He is making a distinction of massive importance.
There is a difference between been counted righteous and being made righteous. In Romans 4, he insists that when we believe we are counted righteous, credited with righteousness, not made righteous.
The difference between being counted righteous and made righteous.
What does it mean to be made righteous? From the day we are converted until the end of life, God gradually makes us righteous. It is the slow process of sanctification. It does not happen overnight. It is a step by step process of learning to do the will of God, of being conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. It happens gradually and, in this life, it is never complete. We are never fully righteous in this life. If we are good disciples of Christ and lay His word to heart, we will make some progress in being made righteous; but we still sin far too much every day. We will not be made fully righteous until eternity, when we see Christ’s face.
God does not treat us according to our sanctification but according to our justification!
If God treated us according to the degree of righteousness we have attained, we would be up and down every day; we would be in and out of God’s favour constantly. Today I am in favour for doing right; tomorrow out of favour for doing wrong! Each day we would be uncertain as to where we stood with God. We would have little confidence or boldness in coming before God. We would have no settled joy, contentment, assurance or blessedness.
Justification – ‘just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned’ or ‘just-as-if-I’d-always-done-right’?
Mercifully God does not treat us on the basis of sanctification but justification.
Justification – ‘just-
Mercifully God does not treat us on the basis of sanctification but justification.
I am constantly told that preachers have explained justification as ‘just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned.’ Some things are not wrong but neither are they quite right! Add 5 and 6. If you answer, ‘More than 10’, you are not wrong but your answer is inadequate. Sure 5+6 is more than 10 but the answer is 11.
So justification is much more than ‘just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned.’ If I had never sinned, I would have a blank sheet, a clean record. At the cross Jesus did not merely wipe away my sin to give me a clean record. He did far more! He justified me! So God now treats me as if I had lived a completely righteous life, as if I had loved God with all my heart, mind and soul and my neighbour as myself without a single deviation or exception!
Justification is far more positive than ‘just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned.’ When God justifies me He treats me ‘just-as-if-I’d-always-done right!’
Justification based on double imputation.
In recent years, this point has become highly important. In 2004, I heard a friend preach and I felt uncomfortable and spend the next day driving him round Cumbria and questioning him in the car. In the end, he admitted that he denied double imputation; he said that we are justified by faith and not because Christ’s righteousness is credited to us.
He accepted that the Bible teaches that our sin is transferred, counted, imputed, credited, logged to Christ. Isaiah 536, “All we like sheep have gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” But he could not accept that Christ’s righteousness is imputed or credited to us.
He taught that God treats us as righteous, God justifies us, not because Christ’s merits are transferred to us but because we believed. So justification is God’s way of rewarding our faith. That makes faith a work.
Rom.4 denies that faith is a work. Faith is in God Who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. As 425 puts it, “He was delivered up (to death) for our offenses and was raised because of our justification.” That is a double imputation, our sin transferred to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Who died in our place in order that, being raised again from the dead, His righteousness, His merits, might be credited to us.
This great salvation is applied to us when we believe, not because we believe. It is applied to us when we believe in Jesus Christ because He died and rose from the dead for us. Our justification is grounded in the work of Christ, not in anything we might do. As 416 puts it, “It is of faith that it might be according to grace.”
Justification based on double imputation.
In recent years, this point has become highly important. In 2004, I heard a friend preach and I felt uncomfortable and spend the next day driving him round Cumbria and questioning him in the car. In the end, he admitted that he denied double imputation; he said that we are justified by faith and not because Christ’s righteousness is credited to us.
He accepted that the Bible teaches that our sin is transferred, counted, imputed, credited, logged to Christ. Isaiah 536, “All we like sheep have gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” But he could not accept that Christ’s righteousness is imputed or credited to us.
He taught that God treats us as righteous, God justifies us, not because Christ’s merits are transferred to us but because we believed. So justification is God’s way of rewarding our faith. That makes faith a work.
Rom.4 denies that faith is a work. Faith is in God Who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. As 425 puts it, “He was delivered up (to death) for our offenses and was raised because of our justification.” That is a double imputation, our sin transferred to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Who died in our place in order that, being raised again from the dead, His righteousness, His merits, might be credited to us.
This great salvation is applied to us when we believe, not because we believe. It is applied to us when we believe in Jesus Christ because He died and rose from the dead for us. Our justification is grounded in the work of Christ, not in anything we might do. As 416 puts it, “It is of faith that it might be according to grace.”
Do I deserve to be treated as a righteous man, to be justified? Not at all!
Does God treat me as a righteous man? All the time! If not, I would be consumed in His presence for our God is a consuming fire!
How can God justly treat me as righteous? Because Christ died for my sin and rose from the dead for my justification.
It is good to be justified? It gives me confidence and boldness in God’s presence; it gives me assurance of salvation; it gives me unspeakable joy in the Lord!
Am I blessed of God? Far, far more than I realize! Thanks be to God! Amen!
