Imputed Righteousness
Several weeks ago, as we were preparing for this sermon series, I got an email from Pastor Jonathan. He said that the goal for this sermon series was to preach the heart of the gospel, but to do so from passages of Scriptures that we hadn’t really covered yet as a church.
I instantly knew which passage I wanted to cover, it took me about 0.7 seconds to determine which passage I wanted to preach. However, I didn’t know, or couldn’t remember, if we had ever done the passage I wanted to do, so I ran to my laptop, pulled up the Cities website and looked it up. And to my joy, I discovered that we had not ever preached this text on a Sunday morning, which meant that I would get to preach from this text this morning. Legitimately, I was very excited.
The reason why I’m so excited is because this verse summarizes a doctrine that I hold very dear. And that is the doctrine of the imputation of righteousness. If you’re not familiar, the word “imputation” simply means “transfer.”
So, when we're talking about imputation, we're talking about something being transferred. And when we talk about the imputation of righteousness, we’re talking about righteousness being transferred from one person to the next—mainly from Jesus to us.
The reason why I get so excited to preach this doctrine is because I am convinced that this doctrine will set your heart ablaze for Jesus.
I am convinced that if you understand this doctrine, if you could wrap your minds around this truth, that it will cause your heart to erupt with joy and gratitude. I’m convinced of that.
It was the re-discovery of this doctrine in the 16th century that sparked the Reformation. When Martin Luther and others got their minds around this doctrine, it transformed them, it set their hearts ablaze, and it sparked the Protestant Reformation, which transformed Europe and changed the world.
And I am convinced that if you understand this doctrine, it will cause Reformation in your own heart as well. I’m not the only one convinced of this, here’s a quote from John Piper… he says, “I have watched this doctrine [i]gnite both storms of controversy and great awakenings. So with a passion for reformation and revival, I long to see this precious truth… [the] imputed righteousness of Christ… defended, known, and embraced.” I agree with Piper. I long to see Reformation and revival in the hearts of God people… which is why I passionately embrace and defend the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. Let’s pray and then we’ll dive in.
Father in heaven, you are so kind. You are merciful, and gracious, and slow to anger. You are rich in love. I praise you. Now I ask, God, that you would use the truths from your Word, this morning, to transform your people; Please mold us to be more like Jesus, I ask. And may this truth, this doctrine of imputation, may it set hearts ablaze this morning; would you be pleased to do that this morning I ask. Amen.
I would like to start this morning by recounting somethings I said in a previous sermon, and I intend to even use a sermon illustration that I previously used. Listen, there’s no laws against that, right? Haha! Here’s the thing, the illustration just fits so well, I feel like I had to bring it back, but I'll give a condensed version. Okay, back in February, I was preaching from Galatians 3. Many of you were probably there. And in Galatians 3 Paul says that Abraham believed God and was counted as righteous. And he’s quoting from Genesis 15. Paul is leveraging a moment in Genesis 15 to make his point.
If you don’t remember, in Genesis 15 God promises Abraham that he would have children. This seemed highly unlikely because of his wife’s age. But Abraham took God at his word. Abraham believed God, Abraham chose to believe that God would do what he said he would do.
And God responds by declaring Abraham righteous. God’s like, “Abraham, since you trusted me, I spoke and you believed me, so I will now count you as righteous.” That’s Genesis 15, and the apostle Paul is quoting from Genesis 15 in Galatians 3. There is this theme of righteousness. So, I covered that in a sermon back in February. Well, in that sermon I used an illustration where I talked about report cards.
All of us have a spiritual report card. In the ledgers of heaven, we all have a report card. We have grades, there are records for how we live in this life. The bad news is that all of us, if we were to hold up our spiritual report cards, they would all be straight Fs.
All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All of us fail to meet God’s righteous expectations. If you were to have a report card to reflect your spiritual record, it would be straight Fs.
Now, let’s imagine Jesus has a report card too. He came to planet earth. He lived a perfect life. His report card would be straight A's right. But then Jesus makes an offer. He says, “If you believe in me, if you would put your trust in me, here's what I'll do, I'll swap with you.” Jesus says: “I’ll take your report card and I’ll put my name over top and I'll take my report card and I'll put your name over top and I'll swap them.”
So, here you get a report card with straight A’s and Jesus gets the report card with straight F's. And now you stand before God with a report card of straight A's and you inherit all the benefits of having straight A's, and Jesus is before the father, he has a report card of straight Fs and he is punished. In the 1500s Martin Luther called this the “wonderful exchange.”
It is through this action of imputed righteousness that we are justified. When we talk about “Justification” or being “justified” that refers to the forgiveness of sins, or being declared not guilty, and having our record wiped clean. The way God justifies is by transferring his righteousness to us. In our natural state we are sinful, by nature and by choice. We have a record of sin. But God mercifully allows us to enter in the exchange, our record of unrighteousness is transferred to Jesus, and his record of righteousness is transferred to us. So now we have a record that is clean, pure, innocent.
By undergoing the wonderful exchange, by being imputed with the righteousness of Christ, I am justified. My spiritual report card is straight As. Now that’s a cool illustration, but I don’t want to give you a cool illustration, I want you to see this doctrine in Scripture. We’re going to look at some Old Testament passages and then we’ll make our way back to 2 Corinthians.
Rewind with me all the way back to Exodus 12. Leading up to this chapter, we've seen the first nine plagues in Egypt. Moses has made an appeal to Pharaoh to let God’s people go. Pharaoh refuses. God has sent nine plagues. And they’re about to experience the 10th plague. The 10th plague, as most of you know, this where the death angel is going to sweep through the land overnight and kill the first-born son of each family.
But in Exodus 12, God tells each Jewish family to kill a lamb, a spotless lamb, a lamb without defect. They are to slaughter the lamb and then to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorframe overtop and on the doorposts. And when the death angel swept through the land, he would not enter any home covered by the blood, and that family would be spared—death would Passover them—this is the Passover. But any home that was not covered by the blood of a spotless lamb would suffer the consequence. Here we see blood being shed to cover God’s people so that judgment would pass over them, so that they would not face the wrath of God.
This, of course, foreshadows what’s to come, many centuries down the road, when Jesus shows up on the scene and John the Baptist sees Jesus, and John the Baptist says to Jesus, “Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Jesus is the lamb of God. He is the lamb that God has provided. He is the lamb without defect, without spot or blemish, and his blood was shed to cover us and protect us from the wrath of God.
Okay, fast forward with me now to Leviticus 16. By this point, the Jews have been rescued from Egypt, a few years have passed, they’re in the desert. The tabernacle has been built. The sacrificial system is being established. And in this chapter, in Leviticus 16, this chapter gives us details about an event that will take place once a year, an event known as Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). This is the day where the High Priest would offer sacrifices for the sins of the people.
This involved two goats. The sins of Israel is dealt with in two ways, which foreshadows how God intends to deal with us.
The first goat would be killed, and its blood sprinkled on the altar in the Holy of Holies. Symbolically the guilt of the people of Israel was placed on that altar and the blood is being poured over the altar to cover their guilt.
Then there's a second goat. And this is the first time we see a real hint, strong hint toward the idea of imputation. Leviticus 16 tells us that Aaron, the high priest, was to place his hands, on the goat's head. And then he would confess the sins of the people, he would confess the sins of the nation of Israel. And as he’s confessing those sins, they would be transferred to the goat.
All of the sins of the nation of Israel are placed onto this goat. And then this goat would be exiled into the wilderness, out into the darkness, banished far away, never to be brought back again. We see the idea of imputation here. Okay, fast forward 700 years, to the book of Isaiah 53. Isaiah echoes the language from Leviticus. In Isaiah 53, the prophet Isaiah, he’s talking about Jesus, he calls him the Suffering Servant, he says that the Suffering Servant has “born our griefs and carried our sorrows.” And he says this, “he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.”
There was a chastisement that was on Jesus that led to our peace, specifically our peace with God. We were at odds with God, we did not have peace with God, we were hostile toward God. But Jesus made it possible for us to be at peace with God. To be on his ‘good side.’ To be invited into his royal family.
Later in Isaiah 53:11, it says this, “out of anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied. But by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous.” Jesus, the righteous one, through his anguish he will make it possible for many to be accounted righteous. Then, in Isaiah 53:12, in the second half of verse 12, it says that this Suffering Servant, Jesus, will be “numbered with the transgressors.” He’s going to be treated as if he’s one of them, one of the sinners.
Jesus, the righteous one, being treated as if he is unrighteous, so that we, who are unrighteous, might be treated as if we are righteous. He was counted as a transgressor, so that we could be counted righteous.
All right, fast forward 200 years to the prophet Zachariah, turn to chapter 3. The prophet Zachariah has a vision of Joshua, the high priest, standing in the presence of God. He is standing in the presence of God wearing filthy rags. The language to describe these garments is the same language often used to describe excrement. So, the high priest is wearing excrement-stained garments, polar opposite of what he’s supposed to be wearing. He was supposed to be wearing a very specific outfit, comprised of clean linens and particular garments, but here's wearing this filthy outfit.
God could have condemned him right there, but God doesn’t. God shows mercy. And in the vision God directs the angels to remove the soiled garments and then to give him “pure vestments.” By examining this vision, you see that these pure robes where in God’s presence, they belonged to God, but God swaps with Joshua in this vision. There’s an exchange that takes place. Joshua gets rid of this filthy robes and exchanges them for pure garments.
The prophet Isaiah actually prophesized of this exchange, in Isaiah 61, he says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
Garments of salvation. Robes of righteousness.
Okay, fast forward now to the New Testament. We go to Romans 3:21, in essence, Paul says that there is a “righteousness” that is now made available “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” Then, in Romans chapter 4, he outlines how someone might receive this righteousness, and he does this in a familiar way. In Romans 4, Paul is making the same case that he made in Galatians 3. Remember, in Galatians 3 Paul was quoting from Genesis 15, well, he’s doing the same thing in Romans 4.
Here in the first few verses of Romans 4, Paul is explaining how someone is counted righteous, which is the same point he makes in Galatians 3. Paul makes it clear that Abraham was counted righteous by his belief, Abraham trusted God, and that was enough, God declared Abraham righteous. Abraham was COUNTED righteous.
And then Paul takes it step further, he says that’s not just for Abraham, but for us too. In Romans 4:23-24, the apostle Paul says, “the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him.”
Paul making it clear, this is for us too. If we believe in God, the same way Abraham believed, then we will be counted righteous, just as Abraham was counted righteous.
Okay, jump to Philippians 3. The apostle Paul says, “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
Paul makes it clear, he has not acquired a “righteousness of his own.” He’s not righteous by obeying the law or fulfilling the law, no, he says that his righteousness comes through faith in Christ. He alludes to this “righteousness” which is “from God.” This righteousness is not native to him. It's from outside of him. We call this an alien righteousness. It’s from outside of Paul, from God, dependent upon his faith. God brings this righteousness to Paul. Paul receives it by faith. Paul is fully justified, the report card is clean.
And that brings us, finally, to our primary text this morning: 2 Corinthians 5.
I’ll give you a little background of this letter. In the chapters and verses leading up to this chapter, the apostle Paul is, in essence, defending his apostleship. As we examine this letter, 2 Corinthians, we discover that some of the Corinthians had questioned Paul and dismissed him as a leader. Some, apparently, had even asked Paul for letters of recommendations from other Christian leaders.
Absurd, right?
This is ridiculous to me because their church wouldn’t even exist if Paul hadn't started it. Most of them wouldn’t be Christians if not for Paul’s ministry. The fact that their church exists proves his apostleship.
In the opening chapters of this letter, he’s helping them to see that they are easily impressed by wealth and eloquence, and that this is actually a betrayal of Jesus. They’ve totally distorted their values, what they seemingly think is important actually is not important. Paul then makes clear to them that there are more important things to be concerns about than the things they’ve been concerned about, mainly the mission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Look at 2 Cor. 5:19, he says that “in Christ God [is] reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…”
Paul’s like, you guys are squabbling about ridiculous things, questioning me, and being easily impressive by wealth and good public speakers. Paul’s like, come on friends, don’t ya know, there’s people headed for hell, there are people far from God, they need to be reconciled, let’s focus on the task at hand.
Paul makes it clear that God is in the business of reconciling people, and Paul explains how God does this, by “not counting trespasses against them.” God made a way for your trespasses not to count against your record. God made a way for your trespasses not to show up on your report card. Paul then continues his appeal; look at verse 20:
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us…”
God is making his appeal to the world through us, believers, we are the ones he has entrusted.
There are people in this world whose trespasses, currently are counting against them… it’s our job to go preach the good news; to spread the new that there’s a way for our trespasses not to count against us.
In Romans 10:3, the apostle Paul tells us that there’s people ignorant of the “the righteousness of God” so it’s our responsibility to tell them.
God is making his appeal to people in your family through you. God is making his appeal to these Twin Cities through us. God is making his appeal to sinners through us, those who have been counted righteous.
And then Paul reminds them of the heart of the gospel, look at verse 21:
“For our sake he [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin [Jesus] so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus became sin.
God hates sin. Jesus became the very thing that God hates. Now, Jesus’ nature didn’t change, he was still truly God and truly man, but in some sense, Jesus became sin. He was counted as if he was sin. Jesus was treated as if he was sin itself.
Jesus became sin for us, Jesus, the man who knew no sin, the man who had never been acquainted with sin, he became sin. He was counted among the transgressors, so that we might become the “righteousness of God.”
The “becoming” language is interesting, it’s a similar sentiment that the apostle Paul expressed in Galatians 3 when he said Jesus “become a curse for us.”
And there’s also some parallel language here… in the same way that Jesus “became” something, we also “became” something. Jesus became sin! We became the righteousness of God.
The apostle Peter says it this way, 1 Pt. 3:18: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” Christ died to bring us to God!
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Two final notes and then one pastoral exhortation for you.
First, it’s important to mention that the imputation of righteousness, it’s not progressive. You don’t become more righteous over time. Once you believe, the moment you trust in Christ, you are declared righteous! The 19th century theologians AW Pink put it this way:
“The justification of the Christian is complete the moment he truly believes in Christ, and hence there are no degrees… The Apostle Paul was as truly a justified man, [declared righteous] at the hour of his conversion as he was at the close of his life. The feeblest babe in Christ is just as completely justified as is the most mature saint.”
The moment you believed in Jesus, you were fully justified, you were declared righteous, your sin was imputed to Christ, his righteousness was imputed to you!
Second, this doctrine is essential and you cannot hear it enough times. It’s not too often to even hear it daily. Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century Baptist preacher, was challenged on this. Apparently people were saying he talked about this doctrine too often, so he brought it up in a sermon and said this:
“I think, dear friends, some of you will be saying, ‘There is that same old doctrine again that we are so continually hearing.’ I make no excuse. The doctrine of justification by faith through the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ is very much to my ministry as what bread and salt are to the table. As often as I come to the table these things are needed. I regard this doctrine the same, one that must be preached continually, to mixed up with all our sermons. Indeed, it is impossible to bring it forward too often. My soul has been counted righteous. This soul-saving doctrine is the foundation of foundations—the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Final thought. I don’t know how many of you deal with this, but I often get down on myself. I feel guilty. When I sin or disappoint someone. Even if I make a mistake that isn’t sinful, I still feel this, I get down on myself. I have a tendency to really beat myself up, to feel unworthy or dirty before the Lord.
In that moment, that’s the moment to remind ourselves of this truth. In just a moment, during communion, we’re going to sing “Before the Throne of God Above.” Here’s a few of the lyrics.
When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look, and see Him there,
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God the just is satisfied,
To look on Him and pardon me,
To look on Him and pardon me.
God was satisfied to look on Jesus, to view him as if he was sin, and to allow his sacrifice to be enough.
Cities Church, the sinless savior died, now your sinful soul is counted free. You are free from the punishment of your sin that you so richly deserved. He took on your sin, and now you are counted free.
Jesus knew no sin, but became sin, so that we might become righteous.
And Jesus settled this at the cross. There ain’t nothin’ you can do about it, you cannot undo it. It’s done. For you. By Jesus.
You have been justified. Jesus became sin for you, so that you might become the righteousness of God. Church, that is a reason to celebrate! And that’s why we come to the table each and every week, to celebrate what Christ has done.