Imputation, Chapter Twelve

 

The great Apostle Paul said in Rom. 5:19,

 

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one Man shall many be made righteous."

 

Who is the man that was disobedient? Adam!Then who was the man that was obedient? Jesus!!!So we see that it was through Adam that all men were made sinners. That's what we have been taught and we have accepted it, however, what we have not been taught is that Jesus was the second Adam and through His obedience all men were made righteous!!!!

 

This being said, I want to ask you a question! How are you righteous today?? Is it because of your obedience that you have been made righteousness? NO!! The first Adam sold us out and the second Adam (Jesus) bought us back. Paul said in 1 Cor. 6:19-20,

 

"What? Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?    For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

 

The carnal mind has problems with this because it thinks that this is unfair! It is unfair that because of what Adam did all those who lived before the cross were made sinners. On the other hand, if this is true, then it is unfair that because of what Jesus did on the cross that all men have been made righteous! You might say, "Well, why did God allow all this to happen? Very simple! To prove to us how much He loves us!!Paul said in Rom. 5:6-8, (NIV)

 

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

 

It is very important for you to understand that Paul wrote this to his generation who were alive when Jesus came to this earth. This statement of his that we were still sinners does not apply to us today because we are not living under the curse of Adam today. We are living under the grace of God. The righteousness of Jesus

has been applied to all men since the cross and just as all men were considered sinners because of what Adam did, today all men are considered righteous because of what Jesus did. That's not to say that all men, as of today, have accepted His righteousness and believed on Him but there will come a time in the ages to come when every knee shall bow and confess that Jesus is Lord!

 

Paul also said in Rom. 6:15-16,

 

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace." 

 

The word that Paul used here as sin is a noun. (People, place or thing) A verb, on the other hand, is action or a word that describes action. Here Paul uses the word sin as a noun or a subject to which he is talking. Paul uses the word sin 48 times in the book of Romans and every time, except for one time, it is used as a noun.

 

How many of us when we think of sin, think of it as a verb? Doing something

wrong! Paul uses the word sin here as the topic of all sins (actions). Before Jesus died on the cross all the people were under the bondage or captivity of sin (noun), whether they personally sinned (verb) or not. Sin held all man kind under it's captivity because of what Adam did. It was as though all man kind was in prison and could not get out.

 

In this prison of sin it didn't matter how many good deeds that a person did or how good a person was, he couldn't get out. Adam's sin made all of man kind sinners in the sight of God. Paul said in Rom. 5:19,

 

"For as by one man's(Adam) disobedience many (all) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Jesus) shall many (all) be made righteous." 

 

These people were not sinners because they sinned. They sinned because they were sinners or because they were under the control of sin. Today we are righteous, not because we are obedient, but because Jesus was obedient! That takes the burden off of us and puts it onto him. 1Peter 1:24 says,

 

"Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness!"

 

The battle that we find ourselves engaged in today is in our carnal mind. There is a war raging in our minds. Do you want to know why it is that one person can receive the truth and another person cannot? The person that cannot receive the truth has a stronghold within their mind that has become rigid over the years because of having been taught something false. It blocks or resists them even considering whether they could possibly be wrong in their belief. Paul said in 2 Cor. 10:4-5,

 

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;    Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ!"

 

The mind of Christ is what is able to pull down those thoughts and wrong imaginations that are in our mind and any image that exalts itself against knowing God and can bring into captivity every rebellious thought and align it with the obedience of Christ. Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:16,

 

"For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."

 

Listen once again to what Paul said in Rom. 5:19,

 

"For as by one man's(Adam) disobedience many (all) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Jesus) shall many (all)be made righteous." 

 

It is not my obedience that makes me righteous but it is the obedience of Jesus that has made me righteousness. This takes all the burden off of us and we can rely on His obedience and not on our obedience.

 

Because we have been born of God the Holy Spirit and our spirit are of the same DNA and the same source. Paul also said in 1 Cor. 6:16,

 

"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." 

 

Let's go back to our first scripture where Paul said in Rom. 6:14,

 

"For sin (noun) shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace." 

 

Those of us who have been born after Jesus went to the cross are no longer under the dominion of sin (noun). Sin (noun) can no longer control us or dictate to us. When you tell people this, the carnal mind will become violently agitated and will argue by saying, "Well, if this is true then I can sin all I want to because I am under grace!" Paul answered this reasoning in Rom. 6:15, (NKJV)

 

"What then? Shall we sin (verb) because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!"

 

This is the only place in the book of Romans that Paul uses the verb form of the word 'sin'! For most of our life we have been taught about sin (noun) with it being used as a verb. Sin used as a noun is an inaction word but if we use it as a verb it becomes an action word. As a result of this, our mind set, as we read the book of Romans, is to look upon sin as an action word when all but one time it is used as a noun. The only time that Paul used this word sin as an action word was when he was relating to the carnal minds reasoning! Because we look at sin as a verb all the time we get the wrong image of what Paul is trying to explain to us.

 

As a result of haveing been taught sin as a verb, most of us have believed that what he is saying here is that from now on we are not to sin because if we do we will die. We have thought he was talking about our sinning and we have been taught that if we obey we will become righteous!

 

I want to show you something that Paul wrote to the church at Rome that appears to be a contradiction to what he wrote in Rom. 5:19.

 

"Know ye not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin (noun) unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" 

 

On the surface it appears that this statement of Paul's is a negation of what He said in Rom. 5:19. What is a negation. A negation is the absence or opposite of what is actual, positive or affirmative. Paul said in Rom. 5:19 that through the obedience of one man (Jesus) all will be made righteousness! Well, is he saying here in Rom. 6:16 that it is our obedience that will lead us into righteousness? This would be impossible if Jesus has already made us righteousness as Paul stated in Rom. 5:19!

 

If you contend that you must obey if you are to become righteous you have just violated and negated the integrity of the Gospel. The Gospel is what Paul said in Rom. 5:19, that through the obedience of one man (Jesus) all will be made righteousness! What is Paul talking about then? He is actually talking about doctrine here. He gave the doctrine in Rom. 5:19,

 

"For as by one man's(Adam) disobedience many (all) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Jesus) shall many (all)be made righteous." 

That whole discourse given by Paul in Rom. 5 is about the Gospel. In 5:12 he said,

 

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned!"

 

And in verse 17 he said,

 

"For if by the one man's offense (Adam) death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One man, Jesus Christ.)"

 

Those who receive the abundance of God's grace will reign in life!! Not in death but in this life! Are you reigning in this life, full of joy, peace and love or are you under condemnation because of some failure to obey the commands of Jesus?

 

And in verse 18-19 he says, (NKJV)

 

"Therefore, as through one man's (Adam) offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's (Jesus) righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's (Adam) disobedience many (all) were made sinners, so also by one Man's (Jesus) obedience many (all) will be made righteous. " 

Look carefully at these verses. It was through Adam that all men were condemned and it was through Jesus that all men were justified in God's sight.

This is, in a nut shell, the Gospel that Paul taught. Looking once again at Rom. 6:16,

"Know ye not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin (noun) unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 

Notice that he did not say believe but he said obey! This word 'obedience' in the Greek is 'hupakouo' which means to listen under, to subscribe to, to be attentive to. What are you attentive to today? Are you constantly hearing sermons on sin and are you constantly being reminded that you are just a sinner saved by grace? If this is what you are listening to, then you are listing to a Gospel that Paul did not teach.

 

What Paul is saying in Rom. 6:16 is that, what you have your heart set on is what is going to come out of your mouth. Is your heart convinced that you are living under Adam's sin and is it full of a sin consciousness and focused on sin and what the devil is making you do? If this is the case it will come out your mouth and you will create an atmosphere around you of sin consciousness.

 

Do you believe that you are just an old sinner saved by grace? If this is what you believe then your heart is focus upon sin and you have an image of a sinner with his head bowed low in shame because of what he has done. Your faith is based upon what you are able to do and as a result your confidence fluctuates from day to day. That's why you are always asking God to forgive you even though He has told you that He will not remember your sins. You have no confidence in His word because you have been taught that you must do something to be pleasing in God's sight and try as you may, you are always failing to do the things you should. This causes condemnation to rise within you and you get down upon yourself.

 

If you have an image of being a sinner saved by grace you will be up one day and down the next because you are relying on your ability to obey God and not on the ability of Jesus. This is where we must exercise the faith that God gave to us and trust in what He has done for us and stop trusting in what we can do.

 

Take your own temperature here. Are you always asking God to forgive you for something? Do you attend a church where they are always asking God to forgive them and even their unforgiven sins? Have you become a servant of sin consciousness? Do you still see yourself as a sinner saved by grace? The image that you have in your heart of yourself will manifest itself in your actions.

 

Are you afraid of some sin that you may have committed and you feel condemned? Are you afraid that you are no longer righteous because of this? Are you not going to church because you are in an impossible situation and you have condemned yourself and you feel guilty? If any of these things are true of you, then you are allowing yourself to be a servant of sin and the result is the death of your joy and your peace!

 

On the other hand, do you see yourself as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus because of what He did? Do you believe today that you are righteous because of your faith in what Jesus did and are you are not trying to be righteous because you know that you are righteous? If you have learned to put your faith in what God has done for you and have stopped relying on your efforts to be like Him, then you are living a life of obedience which does not depend upon your ability to be perfect but depends upon the ability of your big brother, Jesus! As a result, your life is filled with joy, peace and love and others can see the joy and peace in your life.

 

Paul goes on to say in Rom. 6:17-18,

"But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.    And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."

Having been set free from sin is past tense. You are now free from the bondage of sin that Adam brought about by his disobedience. Actually, because you were born after the cross you have never been under the bondage of sin. What Paul is saying here is that even though you are free from the bondage of sin you can become under it's spell once again if you allow your mind to be filled with the consciousness of self-reliance and self-righteousness. In other words to allow your mind to be filled with the false religion of works. There is nothing wrong with works. As a matter of fact Paul said in Eph. 2:10,

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

Our works are a good thing and we should be abounding in them but we cannot rely or put our faith in what we have done. It's what Jesus has done that we have been made righteous in the sight of God. Paul said in Titus 3:5-7,

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;    Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;    That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." 

If you buy into the theory that your righteous is dependent upon your ability to obey the commandments of the Lord, you will always be unsure of your standing with the Him because of your failures to obey to the letter of the word. With this mind set you place yourself in bondage because of your failures and you are always asking the Lord to forgive you. You're never quite sure where you stand with Him. This is not the Gospel that Paul was given to bring to us!!

Do you dare believe what the Apostle Paul is saying over and over again that Jesus paid the entire price for your salvation because of His love and His Father's love for you. It was because of His Father tremendous love for you that He has forgiven you even before the foundation of the world. If you understand this and base your faith in what Jesus has done for you, you will become slaves to righteousness and sin cannot touch you with it's bondage and condemnation ever again.

I know that you probably have never heard this before. All I am asking you to do is to be open minded and allow the Lord to reveal this great truth to you.