IMPUTED

When you think back over the past month, was there a time when you transgressed one of God's commandments? He does have laws you know. Many people believe that God's laws don't apply to them. No. I'm not talking about the general public; I'm talking about Christians who don't believe that God's laws apply to them. For some, the favorite quotation from the New Testament is Romans 6:14:

For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

So, I ask again; did you transgress one of God's commandments during the last month? How about in the last week? What about yesterday? What about this morning?

Perhaps I should rephrase the question; did you steal anything this week; a pencil or pen or some paper from the office? Did you look at a person other than your spouse and lust after that person? Did you get really angry at someone; angry enough to meet the qualifications of Matthew 5:22? Any of these would be a transgression of God's commandments. Do these commandments not apply to you?

Consider a word: 'Impute'.

Most of us are probably only familiar with this word because we have read it in scripture. Paul used it several times in the fourth chapter of Romans. Perhaps the most familiar sentence containing this word is Romans 4:22; "And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." The context shows Abraham believing God, and righteousness being 'imputed' to him as a result of that trust. This verse in Romans is actually a reference to Genesis 15:6.

And he believed in the LORD; and he
counted it to him for righteousness.

Here in Genesis we see that Abraham was counted righteous by God. Was it because Abraham did some great deed of righteousness? Was it because Abraham wasn't a liar? No. Abraham was a liar. Was it because Abraham was faithful to his wife? No. Abraham fathered a son by his wife's Egyptian slave girl. God didn't count Abraham righteous for any of these reasons. God counted Abraham righteous because Abraham trusted Him.

God is a bookkeeper. In the day of judgment, the books will be opened. God keeps books; He keeps accounts on each of us, and what God did in the case of Abraham was to make an adjustment to the books. God put "righteousness" on the page in His books where Abraham's name was. God juggled the books. He imputed righteousness to Abraham.

But, we read in another passage of Romans chapter four;

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Those are the words of verse eight, and they tell us that God can exercise the option to NOT impute sin to someone. What we are seeing here and in verse 22 is that either righteousness or sin can be placed on our sheet in God's books at God's will. In the case of verse eight, we see that even if a man sins, God can elect to not enter that sin into His books.

Question: Is God just whimsical about this sort of thing, or what?

Of course, that answer to that question is that God is not whimsical, and that He uses a specific criterion in 'imputing' both sin and righteousness in His books. The point that we need to see in connection with this process is that God doesn't blink when He makes his entries in the books. He doesn't break His own rules, and He doesn't eliminate them either. His commandments are still very much in place.

Notice that God can elect to not impute sin to someone. That necessarily means that the person in view here sinned; and that means that the person had to transgress God's commandments.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law:
for sin is the transgression of the law. (1st John 3:4)

The religious leaders of Jesus' day claimed that He was trying to do away with the Law. Jesus clearly stated that He did not come to eliminate the Law.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. (Matthew 5:17)

The Law is still in place, defining what God expects from His created beings, but God can exercise His option to NOT impute sin when His commandments are transgressed, and blessed is that man to whom God will not impute sin when transgressions occur. The point to remember is that God isn't whimsical about it, and He follows a long established criteria for doing so.

I trust that I am not the only one who, at one time or other has read scripture and been confused by the words. For a long time, I had trouble reconciling these two verses:

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat
loveth him also that is begotten of him. (1st John 5:1)

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;
for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God. (1st John 3:9)

I know that I fully believe that Yeshua of Nazareth is the Christ; therefore, according to scripture, I am born of God. And yet, I know myself. I know my nature. I know I transgress God's commandments. I do not doubt one bit that I am born of God; so how can 1st John 3:9 be true?

The answer is that God elects to NOT impute sin to my account when I transgress His commandments. His criteria is that I am born of Him, and this is where we return and again consider the concept of God 'imputing' or 'not imputing' sin.

We have seen from Romans 4:22 that God can impute righteousness based upon whatever criteria He elects to use. Similarly, we have learned from Romans 4:8 that God can choose to NOT impute sin to the transgressor. We also noted herein that 'impute' is an accounting term. As we examine this concept of 'imputation', it may serve us well to think of sins as 'debits' and righteousness as 'credits' on the ledger sheet.

Recognition of God's plan for our salvation is all important. He has established his plan, and only those who follow his plan will be saved. His plan has provided for anyone and everyone to be saved who will follow his plan. The plan was demonstrated by the Old Testament 'scapegoat' imagery. It allows God to impute any particular sin to the scapegoat's ledger sheet, but the condition that has to be met is that the sinner must believe in the scapegoat.

Jesus is the scapegoat. Anyone who desires to have their sins wiped from their ledger sheet, must simply believe that Jesus was provided by God to be the punished for sins. When I trust God on that matter; when I believe that Jesus was who He said He was; when I trust him to have taken the punishment for my sins; God imputes my sins to Jesus' ledger sheet. God counts my sins against Jesus' ledger sheet, and since Jesus paid for all sins, the matter is closed. I walk away scot free.

God didn't just let me off the hook for my sin. He just changed the recipient of the punishment. God didn't do away with the law. His law is eternal. Even Jesus didn't destroy the law, much less any of the apostles of the New Testament time period. God's law still applies to me, but when I transgress God's law, He imputes what should have been my sin to the ledger sheet of Jesus. He doesn't even see me as sinning. This is how our two verses of scripture are reconciled. Now, let's look at them a final time.

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat
loveth him also that is begotten of him. (1st John 5:1)

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;
for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God. (1st John 3:9)

I believe that Jesus is the Christ, therefore, I am born of God. I am born of God, therefore, I do not commit sin. When I transgress the law, God does not see me as sinning because the sin is imputed directly to the ledger sheet of Jesus who has already paid for my sin.