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Psalm 145:14-16

June 29/2008

OUR FAITHFUL PROVIDER

Today’s message will deal mightily with the fact of God’s faithfulness to us. In fact his faithfulness is not only concerned with us who have been saved but it also extends to those who have yet to be saved and even to those who will ultimately not be saved. We of course have to come to grips with the fact that God is faithful to us because of his righteousness and character. Not because we have done anything to merit his faithfulness. For there is nothing that we can do to earn God’s grace and faithfulness – in fact scripture is very clear that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, all have fallen short of his glory and without God’s grace we would all be subject to God’s holy judgment upon our sin.

Because we will be examining God’s faithfulness, let’s look at some other portions of God’s word that help round out our brief exposure to this great attribute of God.

"Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast." (Psalm 119:90, ESV)

"For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”" (Psalm 89:2, ESV)

"O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?" (Psalm 89:8, ESV)

"but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness." (Psalm 89:33, ESV)

"Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds." (Psalm 36:5, ESV)

A brief reading of these few verses and we see a recurring theme; faithfulness and steadfast love. The meaning behind this statement is one that describes God ‘binding’ himself to his people. God is making the covenant as well as securing it with his people. Despite their rebellion and their disobedience. It’s not hard for us to look back in biblical history and say to ourselves, ‘they were so out of it! They actually seen the miraculous and still they acted in ignorance and unbelief.’ But before we become too judgmental, look at your own life. How many times have you turned your back on God and committed some treacherous act of sin? Essentially knowing that what you are doing is wrong but ignoring what your God says and doing it anyway. Are we not just like them?

Yet we see God binding himself to us, his fallen creatures, and securing the promise he made that he would save. And this is manifested in no clearer way than his action in sending his one and only son to die for us. Observe what Paul wrote;

"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. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:23-26, NIV)

David wrote after his agonizing confession about his adultery;

"For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me." (Psalm 51:3, NIV)

Again he wrote;

"Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin. " (Psalm 32:5, NIV)

David’s son, Solomon understood this principle;

"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." (Proverbs 28:13, NIV)

Likewise the apostle John, in reassuring his church, wrote this;

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9, NIV)

God will not forsake the confession of his children. This faithfulness to himself and his character is described for us in Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church. In chapter two Paul writes that God demonstrated his own love for in the fact that while we were still sinners and objects of his wrath – he made us alive together with Jesus. It is by grace we have been saved. By his grace because of his faithfulness to himself and his promise of a redemption from sin.

Let us not to quickly forget that God’s faithfulness is described as everlasting, established, unfailing, infinite, incomparable and is shown to us through his forgiveness of our sins by our confession to him and through our faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ.

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Imputation

" Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—" (Romans 5:12, ESV)

"If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten on the third day, he who offers it shall not be accepted; neither shall it be credited (imputed) to him. It is tainted, and he who eats of it shall bear his iniquity." (Leviticus 7:18, ESV)

"that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting (imputing) their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:19, ESV)

The issue of imputation is, at the heart, an action. To help us understand imputation we look to its definition. To impute something is to count or credit one thing to another. Imputation would have us attribute responsibility to something, to credit something to a person or a cause. Linguistically, imputation deals with facts - not with suppositions or assumptions. Biblically, imputation deals with the fact of sin (both originally and specifically) and its effect on the human race. It also deals with the righteousness of Jesus given to those who believe and place their faith in him.

The imputation of sin finds its origin in the fall of Adam. For some, Adam is the representative for the entire human race. Because of this representation, Adam’s sin is transferred to the rest of humanity because of the connection the representative has to the whole. For others, Adam is called the ‘seminal’ father of all. This means that Adam had within himself the ‘seed’ of humanity and thus because Adam sinned, all of humanity is deemed guilty because of the blood relationship to Adam. In either situation the human race has been ‘imputed’ with sin and its consequences (Rom. 5:12). We are declared sinners because of our human connection to Adam and because of our own immoral behaviors.

The imputation of righteousness finds its origin in the atonement made by Jesus. This encompasses his life, death and resurrection. In the propitiation of Jesus we found that he satisfied (or appeased) the righteous and holy justice of God on our behalf. With the placing of our faith in the propitiation of Jesus towards the judgment of God we are then ‘covered’ with the righteousness of Jesus. His righteousness covers our sin nature and covers over our sinful actions.

The biblical metaphor of clothing is a good example of this truth. The Bible refers to those without Christ in this world as people who are ‘naked and ashamed’ (Gen.3), ‘poor, blind, naked’ (Rev.3) as well as people who are covered in filthy rags. (Isa.64/Zech.3). The New Testament refers to believers as ones who have ‘put on’ Christ. (Rom 3 / 1 Cor. 15 / 2 Cor.5 / Eph. 4 / Col.3) They are covered by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and have been declared justified by God. The distinction is clear; we are not inherently just but are declared justified because of the covering sacrifice of Jesus. We are imputed with the righteousness of Christ even though the sinful nature still remains in us. The sinful nature no longer rules or reigns over us but it still remains with us. That is why we are called ‘just and sinner’. We are saints of God who still sin.

What are some wider implications of this imputation? The issue of imputation deals directly with our understanding of our justification as well as our day to day sanctification and a Biblical concept of grace. First, without imputation we are not justified before a most holy God. Imputation only occurs through faith alone in the atoning work of Jesus and not from a life of ‘good works’. We cannot earn imputation. Second, without imputation, there is no hope for defeating the sinful nature and its influences on our behavior, for without imputation there is no hope of knowing or pleasing God. Imputation helps us understand that our salvation comes with a deep cost. Christ’s once for all death on the cross and our daily surrender to Him as Lord. With this in clear focus, we look at our own sin differently. We view others sinful behavior differently. We should not accept the idea which states because we are under God’s grace we are free to live as we please and desire what we please and seek after what we please. We can no longer rationalize sinful patterns and attitudes. Rather we look upon our salvation with deep gratitude marked with an attitude which reflects a profound respect and willful submission to the word of God. As in the words of Paul, ‘…so you were bought with a price, so glorify God…’

Peace