You Got an A+ [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Our purpose in preaching Galatians is to just beat it into your head continually, the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a sense, and which has got to get pounded into this, and we've got to preach the gospel to ourselves every day because the whole world and everybody else is telling us just the opposite.

That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Galatians, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina.

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Here is Alan Wright. It is important to understand what we mean by imputed. I don't mean to bring a bunch of technical theological words to you, but there are just some words that we use in theology because we don't have another word for it. And this is one of those cases, imputed. It's not the first place in Scripture where we see this idea of imputation. We get the same idea when we say that we're all born in sin because of Adam and Eve's sin. In other words, because the first humans were sinful, we who are also human are imputed with their sin. So that's what the Bible teaches. Even before you're born, as you were born into this world, it was already imputed to you as a human being.

You're born in the condition of sin. But then we see this idea of imputation again when Jesus is on the cross because it is there, Paul says elsewhere, that Jesus became our sin. So Adam's sin is imputed to us and then on the cross our sin is imputed to Christ. So this then is the third image of imputation that while our sin is imputed to Christ in the same way that Adam's sin was imputed to us, Christ's righteousness in this great exchange is imputed to us. It is granted to us.

It is reckoned as if in our account. And this is important theologically because what this is saying is that it is not your own righteousness. It is always Christ's righteousness, which goes far to say, understand what Paul means when he says, I've been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. It is why Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 1 30 that God made Christ to be our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Christ is our righteousness. I am reckoned as righteous because Christ is my righteousness. And Paul says that his goal in Philippians 3 9 is to be found in Christ not having a righteousness of my own based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends upon faith. In other words, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is reckoned unto you under your account as if you had lived a perfectly obedient life. And therefore in Jesus Christ is just as if I'd never sinned. And it's just as if I live a beautiful, meritorious life and done many good things that deserve to be blessed. This is the Christian life. It is technically, and this is important, to say that justification is a legal declaration from God that is separate and distinct from conversion, which is called regeneration, and our Christian growth, which is called sanctification.

It is to say that our justification, knowing that I'm justified, is the fuel, it is the substance and source of all of my sanctification, all of my Christian growth. When I served on a jury last year, the defendant was accused of possession of drug paraphernalia and he was accused of possession of cocaine with intent to sell. And we the jury found him guilty of possession of drug paraphernalia. And it seemed clear that it had to be that this was his drug paraphernalia. That was the lesser of the offenses. But there was not enough evidence to convict him that he possessed cocaine. He intended to sell it.

There just wasn't enough evidence of that. And so we declared him not guilty on that count. Now when we did that, not knowing anything else about that man, what we did was it meant that all likely he wasn't going to jail. It meant that he was going to have a more minor offense on his record, that he was going to walk out of there free. It meant many good things for his life.

I don't have any idea what he was going to do with that. He could have gone out and done drugs the next day or hopefully not. Hopefully he was having a not guilty verdict.

He would live that out in his life. I don't know. What we did announce was though you're not guilty. And in so doing of saying you're not guilty of possession of cocaine with intent to sell, we're saying you can't be tried for this anymore.

You are not guilty of this. But that not guilty announcement does not necessarily bring any inward change in him. When you accept Christ through faith, God gives you a not guilty and He gives you a granting or imputation of righteousness. But that righteousness is Christ's righteousness. It is not necessarily about any infusion of that righteousness into your life.

Why is this important? It's important because what Martin Luther came up against in the Reformation was a doctrine that was teaching that righteousness is something that God infuses into you so that you become more righteous inwardly and it starts showing up in your good works. And this is how you could know who is in a state of grace and who's not. Or it could mean some people are more justified than other people. And it would lead to all manner of confusion about the gospel. So to be clear, what we're saying is that justification is something distinct from conversion or when you're spiritually regenerated. And it's distinct from but leads into all of your Christian growth and sanctification. In other words, the more that you understand that you're justified, the more that you understand the power of the gospel, the more that you understand and believe with all of your heart what God has done for you in Christ Jesus, the more it changes every aspect of your life, the more that your life becomes increasingly conformed to that of Christ. This is the power of the gospel at work.

It's the power of faith that is receiving God's blessings and transformation in our life through the presence of the Holy Spirit rather than the power of fear and trying to conform to law and what we ought to do. And so it's all the difference in the world. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is an announcement of unbelievable implication because of the doctrine of justification. And I could spend literally hours just going on and on with joy about the implications of the astounding news of our justification.

But let me mention a few of these. First is faith. When you know that God has absolutely forgiven you and that it's been declared that it's as if you've never sinned and it has been declared that you have been reckoned as righteous, does it not change everything about how you come to God? If you come for prayer today and somebody is praying with you and you come knowing fully that you have been justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and there's no merit of your own that could ever add anything to the love and favor of God upon your life because God is already already predisposed with utmost favor towards you in the same way that he has favor towards his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you know that that's the way God sees you, that when you come before him and you come to the throne of grace, he doesn't see your sin, he doesn't see all your mistakes, he doesn't see your shortcomings, but instead what he sees through the reckoned righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is someone who is absolutely therefore meritorious in his sight, deserving of his good pleasure instead of deserving of his displeasure. If you see yourself through the blood of the Lord Jesus as fully justified, would you not come to the throne of grace boldly in your time of need?

This is the gospel. Come to the throne of grace boldly in your time of need. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the life of God. Be filled with all of his goodness. Be filled with every spiritual blessing in Christ and look forward to the day of his complete consummation, for behold you will live with him forevermore and nothing can ever snatch you out of his hand.

Live your life like that! Faith! Faith comes out of knowing it's just as if I never sinned. And freedom.

What glorious freedom comes. If you have in your thinking a bit of angst that you haven't done quite enough, you don't quite measure up. The word for that is shame. And what happens is that you can end up spending your energy and your life striving to try to please a God through your own righteousness when he is already pleased with you through the righteousness of Jesus. Someone has said, wouldn't it be sad to spend your whole life baking apple pies for God only to get to heaven and realize he didn't like apple pie? Wouldn't it be sad you spent your whole life thinking that it was sacrifice that pleases him only to find out that the word of God was true? It's mercy, not sacrifice. Grace at work in you. Grace at work in you.

So all forms of bondage are in one way or another related to this point. From the mildest sort of slavery to perfectionism to the deepest demonic holds in our life, it all comes back to, is it just as if I never sinned? Is it just as if I lived a meritorious life because of what Christ did for me? If so, you can be free. Be free. Live life short. Live it freely.

Boldly. It is also to say that peace comes into our hearts. All relationships suffer lack of peace because of angst over the disappointments and failures that we have towards one another. This is our struggle.

You know, you do something a little wrong and you got to get back in good graces by doing some things right and get out of the doghouse. And we all struggle with this in our relationships. So I always carry just a little bit of angst in our relationships, just a little bit of angst. And when that angst grows big, we form judgments and we judge one another and it reaps judgments in return and relationships get destroyed through this. In other words, peace comes where it is as if you'd never sinned.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Imagine for 99 days in a row, someone tells you, I love you. I'll never forsake you. Wouldn't you feel cherished? But what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said, I'm not sure you're good enough for me. If you don't measure up, I don't think I'll love you anymore.

Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't 1% of conditional love poison the other 99%? Well, just 1% of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear. What if I don't measure up?

When might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church, the apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians and that's the gospel.

Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. She walked over and she kissed him. A long kiss right on the lips. Stunned by this affection, he forgot about jumping and the rescuers pulled him off the bridge, which goes to prove if you believe even for a moment that you are loved, you want to live. If you believe even for a moment that you are really loved, you want to live, what would happen if you believe not just for a moment but every moment of your life?

If you believe with all of your heart that the love of God is from everlasting to everlasting, that He has so earned your salvation through the obedience, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you can be absolutely certain of that which we sang, that as love goes on, it never runs out on me. Would it not change everything? Would it not cast out your fear?

Would it not make you want to live? We become fully alive only when we know that we have been justified. And finally, I say that the power of justification, not just for our freedom, our boldness, for our confidence in life, for our peace in life, and for the abundant life that God offers us, but it is for the whole hope of our lives. It is for our hope. And hope is generated by the assurance of a gift from God. See, hope is not wishful thinking. We say, well, I hope things will turn out okay. That is not Christian hope. Christian hope is, I know things are going to turn out okay.

I don't know how they're going to turn out okay, but I know they are. And therefore, I feel differently about my life. Whether I'm on the ups or whether I'm on the downs, I know my Redeemer lives. I know I'm justified. I know it's just as if I never sinned. I know it's just as if I lived a meritorious life. And therefore, what's in front of me, I can say with full confidence, is blessing unspeakable.

You know what you can say, Christian? Therefore, if you know you're justified, you can say no matter how hard it is the moment you walk through, the best is yet to come. And that's what hope does.

It changes everything. I saw a picture of hope. I don't think I'll ever forget the expression on my wife's faith face a week ago Sunday morning. It had been a long, beautiful, hard, wonderful spring from January to mid-May.

As full as any I ever remember in our married life and especially busy with teenagers being homeschooled and so many different activities and so many different things that are going on. And her not only teaching at home, but teaching in church. And the season had been filled with a lot of need for caring for her mom.

And it'd just been a long season. And so finally the time had come that there's going to be some time off, time to go to the beach and unwind. And so a week ago Sunday morning I went over to, as I try to do, to kiss my wife before I left the house. I try to kiss my wife before I leave the house because years ago I heard Zig Ziglar quote some study that said that men that kiss their wives before they leave the house live longer.

So I try to try to do that. And so I'm up early on Sunday and before I go downstairs to start going over the sermon and praying and my early morning Sunday routine, I go over and kiss her on the cheek and she's all snuggled up in the bed. And I lean down to kiss her and I realize that she's awake.

Her eyes pop open and this big, broad, cute, little, kid-like at Christmas time sort of smile creeps in across her face like this. And I'm like, what? And she's like, you know what? And I'm like, yeah, we're going to the beach later today aren't we? And she's like, yeah. And she's just lying there like this.

The picture of her face, you know what that is? That's hope. Now let me tell you about that Sunday. I was going to be up early. I was going to be continuing to work on that sermon, get ready, come preach a couple times, lead a new members class, Ann was going to be doing her stuff at church and then be in the new members class and she was going to go spend a few hours caring for her mom, pack up the whole house. I had put it off and I had to pay the bills before we left town.

So I had to sit there for about two hours and pay bills and then get the house packed, get the car packed, drive down there, unpack the whole thing sometime around midnight. And you know what? We're just like, yeah, but you know what? You know what?

What happens when you know that you're justified is that your you know what changes from you know you're in trouble to you know what? You're blessed and the best is yet to come. And what I'm saying therefore is that on that Sunday morning when she had that smile of hope on her face, it didn't make her say I don't want to get out of bed today. I'm just depressed.

I'm gonna lie here in this bed all day. No, it enabled her and me to get up and put in one of the fullest most energetic hard working days of the year because of hope. What Paul is saying is not if you just understand you're justified then you can just go on and sin as you want to. What he's saying is that what happens is hope erupts in your life and you begin to live the Christian life empowered by the gospel, empowered simply through faith in Christ Jesus. In other words what I'm saying beloved is that God has said in Jesus Christ, how about this, how about this, for the class of life how about we just go ahead I'm gonna give you an A. You get an automatic A. You think you could do that?

You think you could go to class if I give you an A? Well yeah I think so God. All right well enjoy your life and while you're at it live like an A student and that is the gospel. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastoralan.org. Imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you I love you I'll never forsake you when you feel cherished but what would happen if on the 100th day that same person said I'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up I don't think I'll love you anymore. Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent? Well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear.

What if I don't measure up when might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church the apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians and that's the gospel. Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

Call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastoralan.org. Alan how would our life really be different if we if we understood the finished work at Calvary is for us even at the beginning of our walk with Christ. It's not about how good we walk or how straight and narrow we walk but we're walking close to him that's what matters right? You know more and more I see this Daniel it's really God is trying to impart to us an identity that has been transformed in Christ. We have been set free. We have been purified of our sin. We are in his eyes declared to be the righteousness of Christ and so it kind of blessed me the other day I was talking to to Bennett our son at Baylor and he was he was talking about a class that he was making a B in at the time and somebody had said to him said well you know I mean it's a really really hard class and you know B's pretty good and Bennett said he said they didn't understand I'm I see myself as an A student you know so he was like why am I trying hard because of an identity? That's very different from somebody saying oh you better make an A or else you know you're not going to be able to feel good about yourself. It is so much like the Lord is saying that here's what's happened in Christ and I think the more that you take on that identity the more than you begin to live out of that identity. So if I've been made holy because of what God has done to set me apart the more I see myself that way I think the more I'll live a holy life and it has ramifications for every part of our lives. Let's see ourselves as the ones that God already said you got an A okay then we'll go live like it. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.