Friday, January 29, 2016
1. How the Justice of God and the righteousness of God work together. 2. The doctrine of Justification. 3. The doctrine of Imputation.
His justice needs to be satisfied before His love can be perfectly expressed.
Imputation means to reckon, to attribute, to ascribe, to charge to one's account.
ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death [that is spiritual death] came - through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned‑‑ And the aorist tense says that all sinned when Adam sinned.
1CO 15:21-22, says For since by a man [Adam] came [spiritual] death, by a man [the humanity of TLJC] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
The decision that Adam made would have been our decision, we would not have done it any differently.
One man’s decision places all of us under spiritual death, but our own decision of faith in Christ provides us an eternal relationship with
God and we have something better than Adam lost.
ROM 5:13 for until the Law [that is until the Mosaic Law, the 10 commandments, etc.] sin [the sin nature] was in the world; but sin [or the sin nature and all the sins that the sin nature produced] is not imputed when there is no law.
God did not and could not hold us accountable or impute or accuse us for our sins because He had not given man commandments to follow at that time.
The Law was given to reveal to us our total depravity and the fact that we could never meet or follow God's commands.
1PE 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
The sins that were in the world from Adam were unjudged by the justice of God, and put them on the cross so that the justice of God could judge our personal sins and we would get out of eternal condemnation.
While personal sin existed in the human race from Adam to Moses it was never the basis for condemnation, it was Adam's sin that set up the basis for our condemnation.
Adam’s sin was imputed to us at birth with resultant spiritual death while our sins were imputed to Christ resulting in His spiritual death.
ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death [that is spiritual deathseparation from God still] reigned from Adam until Moses, [Or from the creation of man until Moses, when the Law or the commandments of God was given].
ROM 5:14 even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
We did not sin like the first Adam, we were born sinners, he was not, he was created with perfect righteousness and he lost it --- and only in that sense was he is type of Him who was to come, TLJC, who kept Himself without sin!
Adam sinned even though he had a sinless nature, even though God gave him no commandments, but mankind sinned because he was born in sin.
1. Since Adam’s sin was imputed to the human race, the human race receives condemnation from the justice of God, namely spiritual death.
JOH 3:5-6; "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [word] and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
2. In spite of the absence of the divine norm, the Mosaic law which defines personal sin, personal sin was not the issue in spiritual death, the issue in our spiritual death was the imputation of Adam's sins not ours.
3. Such condemnation from the justice of God was based on imputed and inherent, but not personal sin.
4. Personal sin is a factor in every person in the human race, but personal sin was not the basis for our condemnation.
5. Adam’s sin is the basis for condemnation for Adam is the federal head of the human race.
6. Adam’s sin was negative volition, direct disobedience to the command of God, regarding the prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
7. While many members of the human race do not have the duplicate, the exact sin that Adam had, we do have a similarity to Adam's sin and the justice of God recognises that everyone does not express sin in the same way.
JAM 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
8. All are just as guilty and under the penalty of sin (spiritual death) because of the imputed sin of Adam and because of the old sin nature.
9. Personal sin is the result of spiritual death rather than the means of spiritual death in the human race.
ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of
Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
The reason for this typology is the fact that Adam was created perfect from the hand of God, whereas Christ was born perfect by the grace of God.
Prin 1. Only two men in human history, Adam and Christ, are federal heads. Adam is the federal head of mankind and Christ is the federal head from the new birth.
2. The first Adam was created perfect and sinned, bringing condemnation to the human race.
3. The last Adam was perfect and was judged for our sins on the cross, bringing salvation to the human race.
4. Neither the first Adam nor the last Adam started with an old sin nature. Both were minus anything related to sin; both had free will.
5. The choice of the first Adam was negative, putting the human race under sin; the choice of the last Adam was positive, putting the human race in the category of salvation.
6. We have type and antitype. Adam is the author of spiritual death; the last Adam is the author of eternal life—1 Co 15:22, 45.
1CO 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
1CO 15:45 So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life‑giving spirit.
ROM 5:15 But the free gift [that is salvation] is not like the transgression [that is the transgression of Adam]. For if by the transgression of the one [Adam] the many died [hoi polloi = altogether, the entire, or simply all referring to every member of the human race]
ROM 5:15 much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many - the human race with emphasis on the unlimited atonement.
Verse 15 now brings us to the a fortiori of capacity for blessing, hence the a fortiori for blessing in time.
ROM 5:15 But the free gift [salvation] is not like the transgression [the transgression of Adam].
We now begin to set up a contrast emphasising here the difference between the first and the last Adams, between the type and the antitype; in other words, between Adam and Christ.
In other words, a contrast is being set up between the first and the last Adam. “But not as that transgression [the original sin of Adam], so also is that gracious gift [the work of Christ on the cross].”
1. As noted in the previous verse Christ as the antitype to Adam’s type, is impeccable, perfect in His humanity, not a sinner.
2. Christ did not have a sin nature, because He did not have the imputation of Adam’s sin, did not have any personal sin, in contrast to the first Adam.
3. Like the first Adam, TLJC did not have an earthly father to pass down the genes of the old sin nature.
4. The typology of the two Adam’s, then, can only be carried to a certain point. It cannot be carried into their persons because as persons they were quite different.
5. Adam is the federal head of the human race through physical birth, while Christ is the federal head of the human race through spiritual birth.
6. Here the analogy ends and the contrast begins. The first Adam brought condemnation on the entire human race, while the last Adam brings salvation to the human race.
7. Because the of first Adam the justice of God condemns man, but because of the last Adam the justice of God is free to provide blessing for man—beginning at salvation through imputed righteousness and justification.
8. While the human race is born in Adam the human race is born again in Christ.
1. That blessing from the justice of God, i.e. the imputation of divine righteousness and resultant justification, is potential for blessing in time that means great reward in eternity.
2. The point of reference for the human race is the integrity of God—righteousness and justice.
3. Righteousness demands righteousness and justice demands justice. When God works on our behalf it is because these things have been fulfilled.
4. Justice executes what righteousness demands.
5. Our point of contact is always the justice of God. We are never going to be given anything from God which compromises His character, but we are going to be given wonderful things which glorify His person.
6. Everything depends upon our potential, and our potential depends upon the doctrinal content of our soul.
7. From justice to righteousness is the highway through which all of these blessings come to us.
8. All blessing from God originates with divine justice and terminates with the divine righteousness that was imputed.
9. If God provided the greater in justification it follows a fortiori that He will provide the less in temporal blessing from the justice of God.
A fortiori is a system of logic which comes from Latin phrase meaning "with stronger reason."
As Webster's dictionary says, the Ninth College Edition, it means with greater reason or more convincing force.
The New Twentieth Century Webster's dictionary, the Second Edition says that a fortiori means all the more, said of a conclusion that follows with even greater logical necessity that another is already accepted in the argument.
ROM 5:15 For if by the transgression of the one [Adam] the many died [the human race] much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many -
10. The provision of temporal blessing glorifies God, and for any born again believer to have any of the blessings of life in the devil’s world it is glorifying to God.
11. "Much more" = God provides more in grace than man had in innocence before the fall. God provides more in the imputation of divine righteousness than He did in the garden where no righteousness had been imputed.
12. If God did the most for us when we were spiritually dead in Adam He can only do much more than the most for us now that we possess divine righteousness and resultant justification.
ROM 5:15 “But not as that transgression [Adam’s original sin], so also is that gracious gift [the work of Christ]. For if by the transgression of [that] one [Adam] the many [human race] died [spiritual death],
much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, by the one man, Jesus Christ, who has provided superabundance for the many [who believe].”
1. The believer in Christ through salvation adjustment to the justice of God has been placed in a greater position than that which was lost by Adam in the garden.
2. God provides more in grace adjustment to the justice of God than man ever possessed originally in the garden.
3. The gift of grace, Jesus Christ, provides the a fortiori link.
4. The justice of God did the most in judging our sins when Christ was carrying them on the cross.
5. If the justice of God did the greater at the cross it follows a fortiori that the justice of God can do the less—temporal and eternal blessing for the mature believer.
6. The sin of the first Adam results in the condemnation of the human race but now the grace gift of God provides more for the many than was lost originally.
7. The believer is not restored to the status of Adam before the fall, he is restored to something far greater than Adam ever had.
8. This constitutes a double a fortiori. If God can do the greater at salvation He can do the less after salvation. If God can do less after salvation He can do greater than less again and again and again for all of eternity.