GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
BEREA KENTUCKY




Having Righteousness Imputed

By Jim Murriner

Romans 4:6-8
(6)"Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works."
(7)"Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."
(8)"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not inpute sin."
It truly is a blessing beyond our ability to explain, to have God impute righteousness unto you, apart from any works on your part; and yet only those who have been so blessed, are on their way to heaven.
Some very good moral people, who mean well, would have us to believe that we must do good works or else we cannot go to heaven. This sounds very logical. It makes since that good people go to heaven, while bad people burn in hell, but God's word assures us that there are no good people.
Romans 3:10-12
(10)"As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:"
(11)"There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."
(12)"They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Since there is none that doeth good, and there is none righteous, it truly is a great blessing to be one unto whom God imputed righteousness without works!"
If you are a child of God today, you are one because God imputed righteousness unto you, and not because of any personal righteousness which you have, because apart from the grace of God you have no personal righteousness. Yet if you are one whom in spite of what these verses of scripture have told us, would present our works to God, as righteous works, look with me to James 2:10
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
If you attempt to present your works to God, in order that God might save you, then you must never break any one of God's laws, and you must be one who has never broken one of God's laws.
If God had not chosen to impute righteousness unto us, then we would have been in a most serious situation. Because you and I have not always walked perfectly, there remains the issue of how our sins can be covered. There remains the issue of how we may have forgiveness of past and present sins.
Perhaps you feel that you live perfectly today, or that you live above sin. If so what has been the payment for you sin? You surely don't think that you can simply ask God to excuse those sins, and get by do you?
Nahum 1:3 reminds us that God will not at all let you or I get by with sin.
"The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet."
If you think that you are getting by with sin today, you are wrong.
Gal. 6:7 reminds us also of this.
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
God will not be mocked, He will indeed demand punishment for each sin. No sin will slip by Him. He will demand punishment for each one.
Oh! How wonderful that God would forgive sin at all.!
Romans 4:7 speaks of the blessing of having your sins forgiven.
"Saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."
What right does God have to forgive sin? We might think that simply because He is God He can forgive sin if He wants to. He can, but He cannot forgive sin without that sin being paid for, and still remain just and righteous. 
We realize that this is even a greater blessing when we understand that in order for us to have our sin forgiven, they must have been paid for.
The big question then today is, how do you hope to have your sins paid for? Will you try to pay for them yourself, even though God will not accept your works?
Isaiah 64:6 reminds us that God will not accept our works, or our own righteousness.
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filth rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and; and all our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away."
Since God considers our works, or our righteousness to be as filthy rags, He then considers them to be something to be burned, and not something that He would reward us for.
This brings us to the question of "How then can God forgive sin?
God can only forgive sin, if that sin has been paid for by another. There must be a payment made by one who is sufficient to pay. Your sin must be paid for by one who has no personal sin to be dealt with.
Hebrews 7:22-27 gives us the marvelous news that there is indeed one who has paid for my sin, who is qualified to make a sufficient payment.
(22) "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament."
(23)"And they truly were many priests, because they were not sufficient to continue by reason of death:"
(24"But this man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangable priesthood."
(25)"Wherefore He is able to also save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them."
(26)"For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, seperate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens."
(27)"Who needeth not daily as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people's: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself."
Yes Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God, the very God in the flesh, had no sins of His own, so He truly could take the punishment for our sins. He truly could become our substitute or pay for my sins. God could then justly forgive my sins. Truly it then is a blessing to have your sins, or your iniquities forgiven.
Our text Romans 4:7 also reminds us that it is a blessing to have our sins covered. You and I cannot simply hide our sins from others and have them covered. Notice what
Proverbs 28:13 tells us about trying to cover our sins.
"He that covereth His sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."
IPeter 4:8 reminds us that charity or love covers sins.
"And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover a multitude of sins."
The charity or love that covers your sins and my sins today is found in
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Your sins can only be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, which He shed upon the cross.
Romans 4:8 speaks of the person to whom God will not charge or impute sin.
"Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."
God cannot charge sin to those for whom Jesus Christ has died. Just as He cannot remain righteous and forgive sin apart from someone paying for that sin, neither can He remain righteous and charge my sins to me after Christ has already paid for them.
We all deserve to have our sins charged to us. We all deserve to burn in hell eternally for our sins. It truly is a blessing for the Lord to not impute or charge us with our sins.
If God will not impute your sins to you it is not because you have been good, but because He, of His own good pleasure, and only because He wants to, has seen fit to extend His grace to you.
My desire today is that the all Sovereign God of the Bible would see fit to give you faith to trust that when Christ died upon the cross, that He did so in order to pay for your sins.



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