Double Imputation

A lot of people assume that the only thing keeping us from heaven is our sin. But we actually have two problems.

1. We have sin....and have no way of getting rid of it.

2. We do not have righteousness....and we have no way of getting it.

So, if we have nothing in us that will earn us favor with God and we have nothing in us that can make right what we’ve made wrong, on what grounds can God call us righteous when we are not?

Under the old covenant (in the Old Testament), a spotless lamb, bull, or goat was sacrificed as a sin offering. Then the high priest would lay his hands on a goat, symbolizing the transfer of sin from the nation of Israel to the goat, and send it out into the wilderness (this was the scapegoat).

That was a shadow of what Jesus would do for us as He dies on the cross. The bible says He willingly took upon Himself the weight of our sin, shame, guilt, and condemnation (Isaiah 53:3-7).

So, now in the sight of God, He looks at Christ and He sees a mass of sinfulness, because on the cross our sin was transferred to Jesus.

Now, if that’s all that happened (that single transfer), we would never be fully justified. We would be innocent in the sight of God, but that is not what gets us into the Kingdom of God. All that would do is keep us out of hell…..for the moment….three minutes later, when we sin again, we would be just as guilty….and Jesus would have died in vain.

         -Jesus didn’t take our sin and die on the cross just to get us back to the Garden of Eden.

         -It’s not just innocence that gets us into the Kingdom of God; it’s righteousness.

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:20)

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.” (Is. 64:6)

That’s why there has to be another transaction. As sinners we cannot "obtain" righteousness. Even the Pharisees who, in their eyes, followed the law perfectly still fell short, never attaining righteousness. But Jesus' righteousness far exceeded theirs. That's what made Him the perfect sacrifice for our sin to be transferred upon. 

So, if our sin was transferred to Christ, what happens to Christ’s righteousness? This is the second transfer:

Jesus gets our sin and God’s wrath…and we get His righteousness and God’s grace.

“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

So, now in the sight of God, He looks at us, and He sees the righteousness of Christ. This is why Jesus' death on the cross doesn't only change our nature, but it changes our position before God.

This is how Jesus saved us from sin....and to the Kingdom of God. If we don't understand this, even after we're saved we will be tempted to try and earn what Christ has freely given to us. We cannot earn righteousness or a right standing with God. That has to be imputed to us.

“Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which He thinks of our sin as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us and declares us to be righteous in His sight.” 

-Wayne Grudem

God's Wrath Is A Good Thing

If we don’t understand that God’s ultimate purpose is to glorify Himself, we won’t fully understand His holiness, if we don’t understand His holiness, we won’t understand sin, if we don’t understand sin, we won’t understand God’s wrath (it won’t make sense to us), if we don’t understand God’s wrath, we can’t really understand why Jesus died on the cross, which means we won’t fully understand God’s grace, and we’ll totally miss the most beautiful picture of Love there is.

You see how missing even one of these affects the rest? That’s where we get all these silly ideas like: “God is just mean and cruel,” “I’m not as bad as Hitler, so I’m a good person,” and “All God had to do was just forgive us…Jesus didn’t have to die on the cross.”

Most people want to avoid the subject of the wrath of God, but if we skip that part, we will only have part of the recipe, and without that key ingredient, we’ll never experience the full flavor of the character and nature of God. It’s kind of like making a chocolate cake. Sugar, eggs, and chocolate are all good on their own, but, like God’s wrath, no one wants to just eat the flour. But if you toss out the flour, you’ll never be able to make chocolate cake.

I. Wrath of God:

Romans 1:18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in righteousness.”

Romans 2:5-8: “Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”

Romans 12:19: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath [of God], for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.”

Ephesians 2:3: “We were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

Ephesians 5:6: “The wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.”

Colossians 3:5: “Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry … it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come.”

Revelation 6:16: “They will say to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us … from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of … wrath has come; and who is able to stand?’”

Because God is holy, He cannot simply overlook sin. If He did, He would cease to be just and, therefore, cease to be good. It’s because God is good that He has to bring sin to justice. God would be unjust to simply forgive us and say, “I love you so much that I’m just going to forgive you.” In doing so He’d be belittling His own holiness.

Once we understand holiness and the glory of God and that our sin is an enemy against that, then we will get a good picture of why God’s wrath is so severe.

II. The Cup:

Habakkuk 2:16: “The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!”

All throughout the bible, the cup is synonymous with shame and the wrath of God towards man’s rebellion against Him.

So, in Luke 22:42 Jesus says, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”

So, in the end, when we understand our sin and how God’s wrath is His answer to that, then we will say, “I deserve that cup.” But here’s the beautiful thing. When it’s time for that cup to be poured on me, it’s going to be empty. Do you know why it’s empty? Because it was already poured out. It was poured out on Jesus on the cross.

Hebrews 12:3-4, “Consider Him (Jesus) who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”  

…..but Jesus did.

God is so jealous for His glory that He will preserve it at ALL costs, and the cross is the ultimate picture of that. So, in a way we are beneficiaries of God being for God. But at the same time that God is displaying His wrath toward our sin and rebellion, He is also displaying His Love toward us.

Think about it. He could have just wiped us all out, right? He could have said, “That’s it. It’s over,” and He’d have been right to do so. He didn’t have to do all that it says in Philippians 2 that He did:

-Emptied Himself      

-Came to earth as a man         

-Not just as a man but a servant

-Humbled Himself & was obedient to the point of death on a cross.

III. God’s Grace:

“God so loved the world that He sent His only Son.” (John 3:16)

“For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame.” (Hebrews 12:2)

“While we were still sinners Christ died for us,” etc. (Romans 5:8)

The cross is a perfect picture of God’s wrath and God’s love working together to bring Him glory.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 “God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Think of it this way:

Justice = getting what you deserve

Mercy = not getting what you deserve

Grace = getting what you do not deserve

In the end, we will ALL be affected by God’s wrath: you will either be the object of His righteous wrath when you die (hell), or you will be a monument of God’s grace through the wrath-absorbing sacrifice of His Son on the cross.