In our study of the doctrine of witnessing per Jesus mandate, Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; we are looking at the various doctrines that explain how God saves mankind by faith alone in Christ alone so we are able to respond to those who ask. 1Pet 3:15;
In our study at the moment we are studying the doctrine of imputations because it is through imputation that God condemns everyone at birth so that He can save them when they believe in Jesus Christ at second birth. 1Cor 15:22;
We have noted that in God's plan there are two judicial imputations and 5 real imputations. The judicial imputations include personal sins to Christ on the Cross and the imputation of God's perfect righteousness to the believer at the point of salvation.
The real imputations include human soul life and Adam's original sin to the biologically formed old sin nature at physical birth, eternal life to the human spirit, blessings in time to perfect righteousness, and blessings in eternity to the resurrection body
Judicial imputations occur when there is no antecedence or affinity between what is being imputed and the target of the imputation and real imputations occur when there is antecedence and affinity between them.
Understanding how God saves us enables us to be secure in our position and in addition it enables us to explain to others what they must do to be saved when we are asked as Paul and Silas were in Philippi. Acts 16:30-31;
Last time we were studying the judicial imputation of God's perfect righteousness to everyone who believes as the basis for our relationship with God.
We ran out of time last time when we were noting the passage in Romans 4 regarding Abraham as the representative model or exemplar of those who receive the imputation of God's righteousness by faith
We left off in verse 17.Rom 4:17-22;
Matt 6:33; describes the grace pipeline that God establishes between His justice and His imputed righteousness for every believer in Jesus Christ. The words "Seeking God first" simply mean to believe in Jesus Christ and "His righteousness" refers to God's imputed righteousness that the believer receives as the result of believing.
Rom 9:30; "That the Gentiles who did not strive for divine righteousness have attained divine righteousness, that is the righteousness from the source of faith in Jesus Christ."
v31 but Israel striving to keep the law did not attain righteousness.
v32 because they did not strive by faith but (as if it were possible) by works
This perfect righteousness is the basis of the a fortiori. If the justice of God accomplishes the greater at salvation, (the imputation of perfect righteousness), it follows, a fortiori (with stronger reason), that He will not withhold the less (the imputation of logistical grace support that makes it possible to develop capacity for escrow blessings).
In "a fortiori" greater refers to degree of effort. The object is the special blessings that glorify Christ.
If God can impute His perfect righteousness to us at salvation, which takes greater effort than blessing us after salvation because there is no antecedence or affinity, then He can certainly bless us when we have capacity because there is antecedence and affinity so it takes far less effort.
We see from this that a judicial imputation is more difficult than a real imputation. The judicial imputation of perfect righteousness establishes the basis for logistical grace blessing and the potential for escrow or capacity blessings that are linked with the perception of doctrine.
The imputation of perfect righteousness at salvation becomes both motivation and momentum in the Christian way of life. Possessing God's righteousness is the basis of the desire or motivation to persist in the perception of doctrine, and that becomes momentum for continuing the metabolization of doctrine. Phil 2:13; NET
When we understand the unconditional imputation of God's perfect righteousness at salvation we have the correct motivation of faith, hope and love instead of the incorrect motivation of fear worry and anxiety that religion produces.
The correct motivation results in maturity capacity adjustment to the justice of God from maximum doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness because you understand God's system, you know how to use it and you choose to use it.
This is when God advances the believer from basic logistical grace blessing to greater grace escrow blessing to the glory of God. James 4:6a, James 4:7-10; 1Pet 5:5-7;
In both James 4:10; and 1Pet 5:6 the word "humble" is in the passive voice that means that the believer receives the action of the verb. A better translation is "allow yourself to be humbled" rather than "humble yourself" because God's Word is working in believers to bring them to humility.
This is why the post salvation mandate to believers is to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ so He will be glorified by our application of His Word to our experiences in life. 2Pet 3:18;
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The next imputation is a real imputation of eternal life to the regenerated human spirit.
1John 5:11-12; "In fact this is the deposition, God has given to us eternal life; in fact, this life is resident in His Son.
v12 He who has the Son has life (eternal life), He who does not have the Son does not have life."
John 3:16, 36, John 6:47; John 20:31 all point out that eternal life is a result of believing in Jesus Christ.
Remember a real imputation requires that the imputation and the target or home for the imputation be compatible so there is antecedence and affinity.
Eternal life is imputed at salvation. The target is the human spirit that God the Holy Spirit manufactures at the point of salvation. The theological term for this is "regeneration" it is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in creating a home for the imputation of eternal life.
The human spirit is the permanent home for eternal life. No one can remove eternal life from the human spirit once it is imputed. Rom 11:29; in the same way that the human soul is the permanent residence for human life, so the human spirit is the permanent residence for eternal life.
At physical birth, human life is imputed to the soul, at regeneration, eternal life is imputed to the human spirit.
This imputation at salvation plus the imputation of escrow blessings at maturity prepares the way for God to be glorified when He imputes eternal rewards and blessings at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
The 3 real imputations and 2 judicial imputations that we have studied to this point explain how God sets us up with spiritual death and condemnation in human life at physical birth that enables God to impute eternal salvation and irrevocable position in union with Christ when we express faith alone in Christ alone by believing that Jesus is the Son of God for in a single moment of time.
These first five imputations are the imputations that are relevant to the doctrine of witnessing but for the sake of completeness we will continue our study and include the post salvation imputations that explain God's blessing to believers after salvation.