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Imputed Righteousness

Finding Purpose / Russ Andrews
The Truth Network Radio
February 4, 2025 6:57 pm

Imputed Righteousness

Finding Purpose / Russ Andrews

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February 4, 2025 6:57 pm

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Welcome to the broadcast ministry of Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews, where we seek to glorify God by making Him known and guiding others towards their true purpose in life.

No one is here by chance. God put us here for a reason. And the most important thing we can do is discover His plan for us and commit ourselves to it. Keep listening as we learn from the Bible how to live wisely in God's world, which is the first step towards finding your purpose. . Tonight's message is entitled Man's Greatest Need Imputed Righteousness. We're going to be looking at some key theological truths in Romans chapters one through five.

But I first want to begin with a challenge. In Second Corinthians 13 five, Paul says, Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do not realize that Christ Jesus is in you.

Unless, of course, you fail the test. Have you ever asked yourself, Am I really a true Christian? This is the most important question you can ask yourself.

Why? It's because your eternal destiny hangs in the balance with your answer. So how can you tell if you are a genuine Christian? Well, I believe two of the most important evidences of genuine faith are these. First, if you are in Christ and Christ is in you, then you will hear the internal witness of the Holy Spirit, not with your physical ears, but with your spiritual ears. In Romans chapter 18, verses 15 and 16, Paul writes this. For you do not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you receive the spirit of sonship or the spirit of adoption.

And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. So how can you hear the voice of God? Well, you will hear his voice within you when you pray and you read his word. If the Holy Spirit indwells you. And this is something that's very difficult to explain.

It's kind of like trying to explain the wind, what it feels like to someone who's never been outdoors. You must experience hearing God as he speaks to you when you pick up your Bible and read it. And when you pray, then you will hear the internal witness of the spirit. Secondly, if you're in Christ, then your life will be radically changed.

This is known as the external witness. In 2 Corinthians 5, 15, Paul writes, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there's that little word again, but it's really a big word. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone.

The new has come. When you become a new creation, you will see changes in your life, both internally and externally. These changes reflect a transformed heart. First, you will discover a sense of peace in your life. And your desires will change. You will have this new desire to please God. You want to live for Christ and not yourself. And as your desires change, your outward behavior will change.

You will see this in your language, the way you treat others, in the things you look at, and in the places you go. One of the most transformed men I've witnessed over the past 20 years is a man by the name of Sam Barrow. I'm sure some of you know him.

He's an excellent builder here in Raleigh. I first met Sam back in 2012 when Sam entered my office one day because we had a group of about eight men that were coming together for a Bible study. I believe we were studying either the book of Romans or the Gospel of John. And several men in that study came to faith.

It was just amazing. Sam was one of them. Now, here we are, 12 years later, and Sam has become not only a strong believer, but he's also a board member of the Ministry of Finding Purpose. He now attends my Friday morning Bible study, where we continue digging into God's Word. This past Friday at the end, we went around the group and I asked everyone just to share something they're going through if they had a prayer request.

And so we went around the group and we got to Sam. Here's what he shared. First, he bowed his head and said, I've got so many things I'm dealing with that I don't really know where to begin. And so just to name one thing that he's dealing with, and I asked him if I could share this.

He's in the building business and he has a customer who owes him a great deal of money and refuses to pay it. And in spite of this, Sam has this incredible humility and amazing peace. And here's what he said. He said, something must be wrong with me because I'm not anxious. The old Sam would have been really worried. Sam has been an incredible witness to everyone in that study because of his transformation by the Lord and is so obvious.

And you can actually see his peace on his face, even though he's been dealing with his customer for the past year. Now, let me ask you this question. If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Think about that for a moment. Would there be enough evidence if you were put on the stand and you had to present evidence that you really were a Christian? You see, God wants each one of us to experience a new life in Christ. This is one of the reasons Paul wrote Romans, so that we will experience what it means to be a new creation, to actually experience a changed life, one that we can actually see it and others can see it. So tonight I want to hit the highlights of Romans chapters one through five.

Unfortunately, I only have time to hit the key points. Romans is a theological library. This word theological, it means the study of God and the study of the key doctrines of scripture, the key doctrines of the Christian faith. And so Paul uses some key words to help us understand what it means to be a true Christian, words like justification, redemption, propitiation, sanctification and glorification. And so when you understand the deep meaning of these words, then you will understand, first of all, how you become a Christian.

How does a person become a believer? Secondly, you will understand how to live your life as a changed person, as a new creation. And finally, you will experience hope, a hope that is available to those who are in Christ. But it's not a hope so, it's an I know so kind of hope. Now, I want us to begin with the first theological truth that we find in Romans chapter one.

Here it is. When a man is saved, he receives imputed righteousness. And this is man's greatest need, imputed righteousness. In Romans one, verses 16 to seven, we learn from Paul that by the power of the gospel, a man receives God's righteousness by faith, by faith alone. This is what it means to receive imputed righteousness. God's righteousness is literally transformed from Jesus Christ to you and me.

The moment God sees faith born in our hearts, the moment that we truly believe the gospel. And so man's greatest need is imputed righteousness. Here's the second theological truth you need to understand. And we find this in Romans chapter two, verses 28 and 29.

When a man is saved, his life is changed forever. Romans two, verses 28 and 29 says, a man is not a Jew if he's one outwardly, nor a circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he's one inwardly. And circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the spirit, not by the written code.

You can substitute the word Christian for Jew. A man is a Christian if he's one inwardly and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the spirit, not by the written code. You see, salvation has nothing to do with our outward appearance. It has everything to do with our inner transformation because salvation is a matter of the heart. In first Samuel chapter 16, seven, God said to Samuel, the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. You see, God does not care about our religious outward appearance.

He does not care about our outward religious striving. What God wants to see in the heart of a person is real, genuine faith that leads to repentance, that leads to a broken and contrite heart. This is what God loved about King David. He had a broken and contrite heart.

A broken heart is essentially one that has been circumcised or cut by the Holy Spirit. I want you to listen to what the prophet Ezekiel says about this changed heart. And he said this more than 500 years ago and what he was doing, he was looking forward to the coming of Pentecost when for the first time the Holy Spirit would indwell the heart of a man.

And listen to what he says. Ezekiel chapter 36, verses 25 to 27, and it's the Lord speaking. He says, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I'll remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and I will move you.

Listen to this. I will move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You see, the Holy Spirit abides within a believer and he begins to change our desires.

And he also gives us the power to keep God's law, because what happens is instead of trying to obey the outward law of the Ten Commandments, the Holy Spirit takes the Ten Commandments and he writes them on our heart. So now we have this desire to live for God and not for ourselves. And listen, a changed heart is what leads to a changed life. So God must change your heart, and he only does that when you place your trust in Jesus Christ.

Have you done that? Have you placed your trust in Jesus? So here's the third theological truth. I'm going to impact a lot here.

Here it is. When a man is saved, it is only because of a high price that has been paid. A man is saved only because a high price has already been paid. In Romans 3, verses 21 through 25, we come to perhaps the five most important verses in the Bible.

Thus, we're going to dig into these a little deeper. So I want to read these beginning with verse 21. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law.

Think about that. A righteousness that comes apart from law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

There's no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. This is the gospel explained theologically. Studying these five verses is like looking intently at the top of Mount Everest.

It is the peak of the glory of salvation. It is the crowning wisdom of God for mankind. These five verses should be the lens through which you study the rest of the Bible. And if you don't understand the rest of the Bible, you must understand these five verses. So let me show you what we learn.

Here's the first thing we learn. Our righteousness must come from God because it can come from no one else. You see, it's impossible for us to be righteous in and of ourselves.

Why is this? Because we can't obey the law. We can't even obey one of the Ten Commandments.

We've broken all the Ten Commandments. Paul puts it like this in Romans 3 20. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous by observing the law. No one will be declared righteous by observing the law. Rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin. You see, the law was put in place to actually take us by the hand and lead us to Jesus.

It works like this. When you look in the mirror of scripture and you see the reflection of your heart, you should be convicted. And with that conviction, you realize you need someone to help you. The Bible says that we're all sinners. In Romans 3 11 and 12, Paul writes, There's no one righteous, not even one. There's no one who does good, not even one.

Now, this is the bad news. However, the good news is that God has provided another way. In John 14 6, Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Did you hear that? No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. In Acts 4 12, it says salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Listen, Jesus is the only way. But think about this. Praise God that he's actually given us a way.

He could have just destroyed us. Now, listen, to help us understand how to go through the door, how to go down this path, how to go through this new way that God has provided. Paul uses three very important theological words to show us the way of the gospel. I want to read verses 24 and 25 again.

Listen carefully. Paul says, We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement or the word used there is propitiation through faith in his blood. So there are three words that we're going to look at here. Justification, redemption and propitiation. First, let's consider justification. What does it mean?

Well, here's what it means. By faith in Christ. In other words, when we put our trust in his death on the cross as payment for our sins. In that moment, we are justified. That is, by faith, we're declared righteous by God in the courtroom of heaven. This is what justification means. It is a declaration that changes our legal status in heaven.

And here's the good news. It stands forever. Once God has declared you righteous, he can never undeclare you righteous.

He can no longer take it back. And when you're declared righteous, you actually stand innocent before God. He sees you as perfect, holy and righteous because he's looking at you through the cross. And when he looks at you through the cross and declares you righteous, you will never face condemnation or judgment.

The sting of death is removed. The Bible states that God, here's the situation that the Bible teaches. The Bible says that God is just, therefore he cannot issue a blanket pardon. Romans six twenty three says the wages of sin is death. In other words, we all deserve the death penalty because we're all sinners.

We're all guilty as charge. But the Bible also says that God is merciful and that he actually delights in showing us mercy. There's nothing that delights God more than to see a repentant person come to him to believe and to come to him for forgiveness.

So here's the question. How does God grant us mercy and at the same time uphold his justice? Well, in the cross, we see the answer because at the cross, we see justice and mercy actually come together. In the Old Testament, we need to learn this principle.

It's called the principle of substitution. In the Old Testament, we learn that God is willing to accept a substitute that is perfect in our place. In the Old Testament, the high priest would take a lamb on the Day of Atonement, shed his blood and take that blood into the Holy of Holies. And he would pour it out on the mercy seat. He did this on the Day of Atonement. And the mercy seat is where God resided.

It was his presence. And the high priest is the only one who could go behind the veil and he can only do it one time a year. And he had to purify himself before he entered. And so when God saw this, his justice was satisfied and he was willing to forgive the Israelites. That's a picture of the cross.

You see, in the same way. The perfect Lamb of God, two thousand years ago, went to the cross as our substitute and he paid the price for us. His name is Jesus. And that price he paid will apply to you, but only by faith.

And he is the only way. You see, by pouring out his wrath on his son, Jesus, God's justice was satisfied. Thus, God is able to forgive those who place their trust in this substitute.

Have you done that? Paul goes on to explain two more very important words, first redemption and then propitiation. So what does redemption mean? Well, redemption refers to what Jesus did on the cross. It's the price that is paid to set a slave free. We were all born enslaved to sin.

Did you know that? We are well born with a sinful nature. You don't have to teach a baby how to sin.

They come out of the womb sinning. And by shedding his blood on the cross, Jesus paid the price for the debt we could not pay. Remember, we deserve the death penalty. So Jesus died in our place. That's how he redeemed us.

He paid the price. And by this one act, salvation was made available to the world. First Peter 1 18 and 19 says, For you know that it was not with perishable things such as gold and silver that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb with that blemish or defect.

So that's redemption. Now let's look at propitiation. Propitiation is a complicated word that you'll find translated in different ways. Some some translated expiation, some translated propitiation, and some like the NIV translated as the sacrifice of atonement.

And I think that's a very good expression of what propitiation refers to. What Paul is doing is he's revealing to us that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, that when he died, two very important things happened. First, by dying on the cross and paying the price for us, our guilt was removed. So that's what his death does for us.

But it also does something for God, something very important. You see, at the cross, God's wrath was appeased. Literally, his wrath was turned away from us and it was poured out on his son at the cross. So Jesus is the one who rescues us from God's wrath. First Thessalonians 1 10 says, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

I want you to think about this. What does salvation really mean? In other words, what is a man really saved from? He's saved from God. He's saved from God's wrath. He's also saved from the coming judgment when God's wrath will be poured out on unrepentant sinners. This is why the gospel is such good news, because we are rescued from God's wrath. So let me ask you a question. How can anyone turn the gospel down?

And yet most people do. Now, here's the fourth theological word we need to look at, the fourth theological truth, and we find this in chapter five. When a man is saved, he has peace with God.

Did you hear that? He has peace with God. Now, listen, if you ask most church members, are we all children of God? Are we born this way?

Most of them will say yes. In fact, in many churches, the minister will say something like this. Let's all stand up as God's children and recite the Apostles' Creed. So everyone goes home believing that just because they said the Apostles' Creed and the minister referred to them as God's children, they actually believe they're God's children. But here's what the Bible says. None of us are born children of God. In fact, we are born God's enemies and we actually live under his wrath.

How do I know this? Well, listen to Romans 5 10. Paul writes, For if when we were God's enemies, when were we God's enemies?

Before we were born again, from the moment we were born to the moment, hopefully, that we were born again. In Ephesians 2 3, Paul says, All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest of the world of unbelievers, we were by nature objects of wrath. So that's our predicament. We're born under God's wrath. We're born God's enemy.

So what's the solution? How can we have this peace with God? In other words, how can a peace treaty be signed between us and God? Well, listen, like any war, one side must eventually give up and raise a white flag and surrender. And this is what we all need to do. We need to stop fighting against God and simply surrender our lives to Jesus Christ. That's all God wants to see. Remember the hymn, I surrender all.

It goes like this. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior. I surrender all. That's what you do when you come to the cross with a repentant heart and ask Jesus for his forgiveness and place your trust in him. You surrender life to him. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever surrendered your life totally to Jesus?

I mean everything. You're all in. If not, why don't you do it now? Before you go to bed at night, get down your knees and just say something like this. Lord, I want to surrender the rest of my life to you. Help me from this day forward, Lord, to live for you and you alone.

I'm in. Surrendering to Jesus is the only way to have peace with God. And once you have peace with God, you will begin to experience the peace of God. In my Thursday morning Bible study, there's a man attending by the name of Will Bost.

He gave me permission to share what I'm getting ready to share. Over the course of a couple of weeks back this past spring, we were studying the Gospel of John. And one morning we were in John chapter three. In fact, we've been looking at John chapter three for a couple of weeks. And this is the chapter where Jesus tells Nicodemus, who was a very religious man, Nicodemus, if you want to understand the kingdom of God, moreover, if you want to enter the kingdom of God, you must be born again. So this particular morning we had about 15 minutes left in the Bible study and we'd been talking about words like sin and repentance, what they mean and words like, phrases like being born again. And so I decided to go around the group and just ask a few men what they were getting out of this.

How did it make them feel? Well, the second man that I turned to was Will. Now, Will is a very intelligent, I mean, very intelligent. He has a master's degree and a PhD degree, but he's also very quiet. He's always thinking.

He always comes to a Bible and he's leaning forward in his chair and I can just tell he's taking in everything that we're talking about. So I asked him, I said, Will, what do you think about all this? And you know what he said to me, to the group? He said, I never heard any of this growing up in the church that I was a member of. And then I asked him, so you never heard anything about sin or repentance or you must be born again?

He said, no, I never heard any of this. So then I asked him, well, how does that make you feel? And I will never forget what he said. He looked in a thought for a minute and then he looked up and he said, I feel relieved.

I will never forget that word. He said he felt relief. Do you know what he meant? He was relieved that he didn't have to do all the things he was doing in his church to try to be a Christian, to try to be a moral person. Listen, he'd been an acolyte. He had helped serve communion. He had been through confirmation. But he said that none of this ever made him feel good. He would always leave church still carrying guilt.

Didn't feel good about himself. But now he's been studying the Bible and Will has heard the truth and he has believed the truth and he's placed his trust in Jesus. In other words, he surrendered his life to Jesus.

And guess what? The truth has set him free from all that, from all that religious driving. In John 8, 31 and 32, Jesus says, if you hold to my teaching, you're really my disciples. Then you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Let me ask you one final question. Have you been set free from religious, religious striving? If not, hold on to Jesus's teaching. What that means is read the Bible and believe it. And when you believe it, this truth will set you free. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews. This broadcast is made possible because of the prayers and financial gifts of listeners like you. If you want to learn more about our ministry or support us as we reach others with God-centered Bible teaching, please visit us at findingpurpose.net . .
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-02-04 23:00:46 / 2025-02-04 23:11:04 / 10

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