WHAT GOD DOES AT OUR CONVERSION TO CHRIST
Preached at Emmanuel, Workington on Sunday, 22nd January 2006
I take as my text Romans 4:24:
“It (righteousness) shall be imputed to us who believe in God.”
The aim of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Last week we returned to our study of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul’s concern was that the church at Rome preach the same Gospel that he preached. Paul perceived the danger that some alter the Gospel be altered, so that eventually different Gospels be preached in different places.
It is of vital importance today that we preach and believe the same Gospel that Paul preached. If we modify and corrupt the Gospel, we will end up with ‘another Gospel’, an invention of man and not the way of salvation. When that happens, according to Galatians 1:8 the preacher of ‘another Gospel’ will be cursed of God.
At conversion, God logs / accounts Christ’s righteousness to the believer.
Last Sunday evening we tackled Romans 4. In Romans 3 vs 21-26 Paul preached the Gospel, explaining the work of Christ. Then he applies it. He shows how the salvation, purchased by Christ, is applied to us when we believe. So he is talking about the conversion experience.
It is probably true to say that when we are converted to Christ we have little understanding of what is happening to us. We see what we do; we don’t realize what God is doing! It is easy, when we give our testimony, to lapse into boasting. The 1st thing Paul says is that the Gospel excludes boasting in self, Romans 3:27. Why is that? Because God’s salvation is not a reward for services rendered. We are justified by faith, not by works, that our salvation may be by grace and not by debt.
Paul explains that at our conversion to Christ, what happens is that when we believe, God logs it to us for righteousness, just as when Abraham believed God logged it to him for righteousness. Romans 4:3, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God & it was logged / accounted to him for righteousness’.”
In Romans 4 Paul uses the Greek word “logged” repeatedly, 11 times in all! To log is to mark, to record, to count. Good English style avoids repeating the same word, so translators use different terms. The NKJ version uses accounted & imputed. The AV uses reckoned & imputed. Some modern verses use the word credited.
Do follow in your Bibles as I read Romans 4:3-10 using the word logged. “What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God & it was logged to him for righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not logged as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is logged for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God logs righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven & whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not log sin.’ Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was logged to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it logged? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.”
Friends, it is a great day when a sinner is converted to Christ. That day, as Romans 4:24 puts it, we believe in God Who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. On that day, whether we are aware of it or not, God logs or accounts our faith for righteousness; ie: when we believe, God imputes or credits righteousness to us.
The grounds for God justifying the believer.
It is vital to understand that God logs righteousness to us when we believe, not because we believe. If we think God is rewarding us for believing, then we turn faith into a work and salvation is no longer by grace but by our work of faith! Look at Romans 4:4,5: “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted / logged as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” And Romans 4:16: “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace.”
If it is right that God justifies us sinners when we believe, not because we believe, on what grounds does God do it? Undoubtedly, if God gave us what we deserved He would cast us out of His presence as sinners! So how is God able, instead, to bless us as though we had not sinned, as though we had done only right?
The answer lies in the Gospel. God sent His only begotten Son into the world to rescue fallen man. Isaiah 53:6 puts it beautifully: “All we like sheep have gone astray but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” What happened is that God transferred our sin to His Son Who then paid the capital penalty for our sin. God logged our sin to Christ; God accounted or imputed our sin to the Lord Jesus; God credited Him with our sin!
That is single imputation. But Paul / Romans 4 goes further. On the cross, Christ made His soul an offering for our sin and God raised Him from the dead and received Him to glory because death had no power over Him because in Him was no sin. He was righteous altogether! Since He represented His people, when God raised Him from the dead, God accepted us in Him & with Him! When we believe God logs to us the merits of Christ’s sinless and righteous life. Just as God transferred our sin to His Son, Who died for us, so God transfers His righteousness to us when we believe! God justifies us not because we believe, but because the merits of Christ are logged to us!
That is called double imputation: our sin logged to Jesus Christ Who died for us; His righteousness logged to us when we believe! That is the great thing that happens to us when we are converted. Our conversion is a much bigger event than ever we realized at the time because God gives us a new status as RIGHTEOUS!
Justification likened to a Christian wedding
Justification gives us a rock solid basis for Christian living which does not depend on how we cope from day to day. The Christian life is not based on feelings, that go up & down, but on the objective work of God in Christ.
There is a parallel between conversion to Christ & a Christian wedding. At the wedding, the man and woman are given a new status as husband and wife. They enter as bachelor and spinster and leave as husband and wife. After the vows, the minister declares that God has joined them and logs them as husband & wife. Afterwards, they work out their new relationship from day to day.
So also, at conversion the sinner is given a new status in the sight of God as a saint! The sinner is logged or accounted as righteous! After conversion, the sinner has to get on with the business of becoming saintly or godly! He / she has to be made righteous which is an on-going process, day by day and is never complete in this life.
As the couple live together they experience the joys & sorrows of married life. Inevitably, things do not always go well. They fall out and get to the point where they cannot stand the sight of each other! Does that mean, they are not married? Do they fall in & out of marriage? Of course not! If marriage depended on how well the couple was getting on, they would be in & out of marriage from day to day and the relationship would be profoundly unstable, but that does not happen.
In a similar way, our relationship with God is stable because it is based on justification by faith, and not on sanctification. To be justified is to be counted righteous. Sanctification is the process of being made righteous. At our conversion, we are not made righteous but counted righteous – for God justifies us in His sight and counts our faith for righteousness.
If our relationship with God depended from day to day on progress in being made righteous, on daily sanctification, then our relationship with God would be up & down, on & off, hot & cold from day to day. Now I’m in God’s favour for doing right; next I’m out of God’s favour for doing wrong! On that basis, we would never know where we stood with God! And we would never have assurance of salvation!
Justification saves us from living on our feelings and gives us assurance.
The great thing about God’s salvation is that it depends not on our works but on God’s works! Our salvation depends on the promises of God. The Lord our God has promised that when we truly believe in Him and in His Son, then He logs our faith for righteousness and from that day we are the sons of God, righteous in His sight!
Justification by faith saves us from mysticism, from depending on religious feelings. It saves us from living on our feelings. The great poet, William Cowper, whose hymns we sing, suffered bouts of depression during which he felt that he was damned! Whatever his state of mind, ever since he believed he was justified in the sight of God! That is why Paul says, “There is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.”
God relates to us on the basis of justification, not sanctification, that He might have a stable relationship with us & that we might have great confidence in His presence. Our confidence and our assurance are not based on our works but on God’s works in Christ Jesus.
May I take the liberty of asking you, Do you have an assurance of salvation? If you truly believe, you may have great confidence in the objective promise of God. Justification by faith sets us free from living on our nerves; on our feelings and subjectivity; on our efforts, on our good works. Justification roots our Christian experience on the objective certainly of the promises of God. As Paul puts it, Romans 4:24, “It (righteousness) shall be imputed to us who believe in Him Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, Who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
