What is Imputation?

Introduction

Over the past few weeks we have been defining some of the theological words that we find in our text. We just finished out chapter 3 and are starting Romans 4 today. But Paul has argued that both Jews and Gentiles are sinners before God, will stand to be judged and must be justified by faith alone.

When you read Paul’s writtings, he often anticipates counterarguments from his assumed audience. Many of the Jews would have come up with all kinds of arguments against what Paul was saying. How often do we do the same when we are confronted? Rather than listening our first response is defensiveness.

But these Jews would have argued that Abraham wasn’t justified by faith. The book of 1 Macabees a Jewish historical book between the OT and the NT states “Was not Abraham found faithful in testing, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” These Jews thought Abraham was righteous specifically because of the incident where God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac in Gen 22. But this story is chapters later than the passage Paul quotes showing that Abraham received his righteousness by faith.

As we talked about in our message on propitiation, we need God’s righteousness if we are ever going to be saved. This morning we are going to look at another word in our text.

This word is used 11 different times in chapter 4 . In Greek the word is logidzomai but in English it is translated as counted, reckoned, imputed in our KJV, but they are all the same word (show them all the occurrences). This morning we are going to define the word imputation. Just like we did with justification, redemption and propitiation because this word is central to what Paul is saying.

The Meaning of Imputation

Imputation is an accounting term that basically means: to attribute or account an asset in someone’s financial account. It means to determine as if by a mathematical process. It is looking at all of the facts and coming to a conclusion. In this context, it means to account a righteousness onto Abraham’s account that wasn’t his.

You see contrary to what the Jews though Abraham was not righteous because he was a good guy. He wasn’t righteous merely because he obeyed God. Abraham was righteous because he believed God. He had faith in God. Romans 4:3 “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” So here is the picture:

When we talk about money in your bank account there are two ways that money can get in there:

Money you worked for

Money you were given

Technically, there is a third method: money you stole but that is an illegitimate way to make money.

I won’t ask how many of you are struggling with debt, but debt can be a severe wait that pulls you down. When it comes to the righteousness required to go to heaven we have a bank balance of debt and nothing in our actual account. We have pointed out in previous messages that God declares even our righteousness, the good things we do as filthy rags Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” and in Romans 3:10 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:” So Abraham and us alike have one big problem: we don’t have any righteousness to get us to heaven. We have a debt we can’t pay.

Abraham wasn’t as perfect as the Jews must have thought he was. Consider:

didn’t trust God for the birth of his son so He had sex with Hagar

He lied about Sara being his sister twice

Romans 4:3 “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” goes on to say that Abraham’s faith in God was counted unto him for righteousness. That word counted is our word impute. The idea is that because Abraham trusted in God, he believed God would do what he said he would do, God put righteousness on Abraham’s account. Using our accounting terms, God deposited righteousness into Abraham’s account. This is the idea of imputation.

If you have any hope of getting to heaven, you must get righteousness some how; but you don’t have any. God says that only by placing your faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ can you receive that righteousness and go to heaven. It isn’t getting baptised. Getting baptised is something you do. Verses 4-5 make it clear that this is not how things work.

Romans 4:4–5 “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

If you work for it, God owes it to you- the reward is the wage. Working is the result of you own ability and if you work hard enough you get paid, but believing, faith, relies on the work of another. Salvation is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” this is what is meant by grace. If you have to work for it then God owes it to you and it isn’t a gift. But if it is a gift, then you don’t have to work for it.

If it is a gift, you don’t have to do any work to receive it- to him that worketh not- Righteousness is imputed to us as a gift in response to our faith. You do not have to work for a gift; so this excludes faith plus works. You are not saved by having faith and being baptised. You are not saved by having faith and by going to church. You are not saved by having faith and by doing good. This gift is given to the person who does not work for it to be saved. This doesn’t mean that a Christian after he gets saved doesn’t do good things, but they do not earn their salvation by works.

Many American’s think the same way that the Jews did. As an example, think about your answer to this question.

Assuming you believe in heaven and hell what do you think are the general requirements for admission? Who gets in and who doesn’t?

I’ve tried my best to be a good Christian

I believe in God and try to do his will

I was baptised when I was 12 years old

I go to such and such church regularly

All of these answers fall short because they all have one thing in common: they are all about what you do. If you are depending on your baptism, church attendance, merely believing in the existence of God or being a good person to get you to heaven, then you aren’t going there. If we have any hope of getting to heaven, it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we will escape hell.

It is offered to sinful people- justifieth the ungodly- The whole point of imputation is putting something on your account that you did not have before. Abraham needed to have righteousness imputed to him because he was a sinner. You and I need it because we are sinners.

it is received by faith- his faith is counted for righteousness- just like Abraham our faith saves us and faith alone.

The Proof for Imputation by Faith

Paul is dealing with a very skeptical group of people. This was not how the Jews thought about Abraham; so Paul sets out to prove what he is saying. He does so in three different ways:

Examples vs 1

Paul is going to argue that salvation by faith has always been the way of salvation. We will look at that in more detail in vs 9-25; but he begins by bringing our two examples to prove his point.Paul previously claimed in 3:21 that the law and the prophets all attested to the fact that we receive righteousness without works. Now he proves it.

Abraham

David

Logical Argument vs 2

How many of you ever took or studied logic in high school or college? In logic, we have different types of arguments that can be made and certain fallacies to avoid. One type of argument in logic is what is called reductio ad absurtum: an argument that seeks to show that the opposite conclusion is absurd or crazy. This is what Paul is doing in vs 2.

Paul argues that if Abraham were saved by his works, then he could glory or boast before God. Could you imagine a man standing before God and saying “Look at me. You see all the good things I did. I really am something special.” Even the thought is absurd. No one can boast in the face of God about their merits.

Scripture vs 3, 6-8

The third support he gives for his argument is quotations from scripture because they are authoritative. In logic, this is an appeal to authority. But he quotes to bible passages Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” and Psalm 32:1–2 “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no guile.”

The Results of Imputation

Romans 4:7–8 “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.”

I want to focus in conclusion on this final passage that Paul quotes because their is an application to all of our lives. All the world wants to be happy. I don’t know anyone who sits there thinking I just love being sad. Depression, sadness, discouragement drag us down. They make us lose hope. We all desire to be truly happy in life and most of the world seeks to fill that whole in their heart with things that make them temporarily happy. This final tells us what the result of having God’s righteousness imputed on our account: blessed. The person who is saved is truly blessed, but what does it mean to be blessed?

Blessed is a state of happiness because of the experience of God’s favor or grace in my life.

How does knowing that my sins are forgiven, and covered and that God will not impute my sin lead to happiness, blessedness?

1. Think about this example: Have you every done something wrong to someone else, maybe you weren’t thinking, you didn’t even intend to hurt them, but you did? You tried to apologize and make things right, but they aren’t having any of it. What do you feel at that moment? guilt, grief, maybe anger but I can tell you one thing you aren’t happy.

As long as my relationship with someone is hurt and I know it is my fault, I am going to feel bad about it. Whether a person realizes it or not, there is a grief when we are not right with God. We are seeking for fulfillment in things that can’t satisfy rather than finding happiness in the one relationship that can satisfy. Jeremiah 31:14 “And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, And my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.”

2. Think about another example. How happy is the person who knows they have done wrong and they are just waiting for the shoe to drop: they are waiting for judgment to come? That person experiences fear, sadness, anxiety. What do they know of this happiness? nothing.

So as long as I know I am a sinner and know that judgment is coming, I can’t live in this blessedness either. Example of David’s sin with Bathsheba.

Conclusion

But Christians have the privilege to experience this joy in their lives because God doesn’t impute their sins. As often as we fail, we know our sins are forgiven. They aren’t on our account now because they were placed on Jesus while he hung on the cross. So why are there so many sad, miserable Christians out there?

1. I think the answer is we have lost sight of what we have in Christ.

2. I think the answer is often more than not, we have stopped trying to be close to God and

3. I think the answer is often we have betrayed that relationship by allowing sin in our lives.

4. Sometimes it is because we allow the cares of this world to choke it out. But this joy and happiness is our birthright as believers.

I am going to ask two question this morning:

As Paul has shown that salvation is not by anything you do maybe God has convicted you that you have been relying on something else for your salvation? Maybe its the fact that you were baptised when you were a child? I find this is common in our area. Baptism is good, but it does not save. You can be saved and not be baptised. But if when I asked who gets in and who doesn’t, baptism came to mind; can I lovingly say your faith is in the wrong thing. If you say this morning, I have been trusting the wrong things to save me would you raise your hand. Thank you, In a moment, the piano will play I want to plead with you to come up front while the piano plays and let one of our counselors show you how to be saved from scripture.

For the believer, you have so much that God has done for you. Maybe your faith is a miserable faith. God has not called you to this. You can have joy, you can find true satisfaction in Jesus. I personally have struggled often with depression, but I want you to know that this does not have to be the way you live. Even in my life, there are huge moments of happiness and fulfillment as I walk with God. This morning if you would say, Jason, I have not been living in the blessedness of my salvation would you raise your hand? For us as well, the invitation is a time to respond. Come spend some time in prayer thanking God for the forgiveness you have, that your sins are not put on your account, that God doesn’t look at your sin and scorn you. Respond in love, in gratitude, delight in this truth this morning.