Part 2 Imputed Righteousness
In the book of Revelation when God was speaking to the 7 churches, He never once said, 'I see you and I see the perfect righteousness of Christ' OR 'when I look upon you I see the imputed righteousness of Jesus.' Rather, He said, "I know thy works." He wanted those folks to be zealous (enthusiastic) to repent (show remorse or deep regret) for their sin. God in His mercy was extending more patience though church goers were still found sinning ..."I have somewhat against you." He warned each and every one of those churches! Therefore, those in the Church shouldn't comfort themselves in their obstinance, bullheadedness, or stubbornness to repent from their comfortable sin, or comfort themselves in their sin by appealing to imputed righteousness, they should simply repent! But many are trying to replace repentance into holiness with the imputed righteousness of Christ. Jesus speaking, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." The Scribes and the Pharisees were under the law of Moses, Christians are under the law of Christ and that law of Christ is even more strict than that of the 10 commandments.
Example:
Old law: You shall not commit adultery
New Testament law: Whosoever even looks upon a women to lust after her has committed adultery already in his heart. How much harder is the second one? Jesus was saying (in context) unless we become pure in heart and obedient in heart we cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Obedience still plays an important roll in our Christian journey. You don't get saved and then continue life as you once lived especially when God has given you Holy Spirit power at your disposal to walk in newness of life. Again, I'm addressing rebellious, habitual, disobedience, not occasionally falling into sin in a moment of weakness. A Christian man may see a woman pass by where he momentarily lusts after her, maybe even imagining them in bed in his mind in great detail, but then realizes his bad thought, repents, and avoids any more visuals by redirecting his mind somewhere else. Remember my blog on forgiveness. WHAT WE THINK IS WHAT THE BODY WILL DO. That is a lot different from that same Christian man having that same thought and then purposely pursuing and acting upon his thought with the intention of fulfilling his lust with that woman. Then either before or after he fulfills his sin, excuses his behavior as an acceptable "mistake" (rather than sin) because, well ..."God knows I'm a man and have my needs. Besides, He made me this way, right? So it's not my fault. I am excused because Jesus died for my sins." So in purposeful disobedience he continues this behavior each and every time he is enticed without ever asking the Lord for help, without ever making an effort to walk in righteousness, without ever repenting, without ever being sorry, but instead uses "imputed righteousness" as a free ticket to deliberately and willfully continue living the sin he loves.
If we repent and believe we are justified by Gods grace and mercy through the atonement of Jesus. We are imputed righteous THROUGH Christ but we do not receive the imputed righteousness OF Christ. That distinction is properly understood when we have a biblical understanding of what imputed righteousness actually is. When a person is imputed righteousness, it simply means their sins are forgiven, they are now thought of as righteous, they are esteemed as righteousness, counted as righteous, reckoned as righteous, considered as righteous...and treated as if they were always righteous, treated as if they were never unrighteous, regarded as righteous and treated as if they were always law abiding citizens. Understand?
This is very important, the word "imputed" does not mean transferred! It's an error to think so because in Romans 2:26 it says when an uncircumcised man is imputed as circumcised that would mean that someone else's circumcision transferred to them, but the obvious meaning of this passage is, even though they are uncircumcised they are treated, regarded, and thought of as if they were circumcised. And in the same way when we are imputed righteous it doesn't mean someone else's righteousness is transferred to us, but even though we have lived un-righteously, we are regarded, treated, and thought of as if we had always been righteous. Again, we do not receive the imputed righteousness OF Christ but rather THROUGH Christ. Biblical imputed righteousness THROUGH Christ is nothing more than forgiveness when your sins are not held against you, " But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputed righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin (Romans 4:5-8)
Biblical imputed righteousness according to the inspired psalmist, David, and the inspired apostle, John, is when iniquities are forgiven and our sins are covered! Plain and simple. You see, the righteousness of God is the unmerited forgiveness that we receive from Him through the atonement. This of course only occurs when we have a living and obedient faith! When we actually TURN FROM OUR SINS and forsake our wickedness. God only forgives our sins when we repent of our sins. We should be recognizing our sin and repenting/turning from our sin. God only pardons our wickedness when we acknowledge and TURN AWAY from our wickedness. So in closing, no man is imputed righteous, or no man is forgiven WHILE THEY CONTINUE TO PRACTICE UNRIGHEOUSNESS AND WHILE THEY CONTINUE TO INTENTIONALLY LIVE IN SIN. So to say we are imputed by the righteousness of Christ while we are not sorrowful for our sins and continue in them, is to greatly misunderstand what the Bible teaches regarding imputed righteousness and reveals how as Christians, in reality without change, are naked and exposed before God and in danger of His final judgement. He warned, "I have somewhat against you." It's time to do some inventory Church!
Until He Comes.
-Pat-
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