Imputed Righteousness. AKA The Gospel

Imputation is a powerful thing. It is Christianity. We must get it right. It is a beautiful and rapturous truth of truths. In opposition to it, to break it is to lose the Cross and the blood of Jesus. I’m desperate to help my friends esteem it. Simply put it’s the very righteousness that Jesus earned by the whole of his earthly works, by faith alone, given freely to his children.

Master Romans three to four and you master imputation in a major way. It is in no way unclear there with Paul!

It is by our understanding of it that we can have hope. Without it, a “relationship” with Jesus makes no sense and the Cross becomes mere sentiment.

Consider from another angle if you will how it informs the voluminous Bible statements we read from every author like the following: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” 1 John 3:2. Do we “know” this? If Jesus showed up before you finished reading (and sharing) this, would you be excited? Would you be ready? Unashamed? Are you sure that you are in fact the “blessed” one in Romans 4:7-8 whose sins will not be held against you? To speak like this, like John does here, we must be! But John’s goal is clear. He said in 1 John 1:4, “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.” 1 John 1:4. Define imputation. Understand it. Worship God in it. Only then can you speak like the Bible’s authors.

Imputation is the hinge for the door of God’s grace. And it’s not hard. It just means that “Jesus saves.”

Here’s the good news. If you are Jesus’ then Jesus is yours! You can rest in his grace now if you have repented of your sin and turned only to him. He is God. God the Son. He rose from the dead and mediates today from a throne above all. He, by the imputation of his own free and perfect righteousness, removes your sin, not by your own righteousness, but because he wants to. It’s by his righteousness imputed (given, reckoned, credited) to you that you can call God Father.

When we understand it, we see that it’s not presumption. It’s the New Testament!