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SoundChurch Clarifies Statement on Double Imputation and Active Obedience
Thoughts?
Posted by Joel Taylor on March 27, 2012 in Videos | 2 Comments
Thoughts?
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My first thought is it is a shame ignorance isn’t painful. These clowns have certainly mastered the art of stuffing and burning straw men. Sproul doesn’t believe or teach that people under the Old Covenant merited justification by their own obedience but now people are justified by the imputed obedience of Christ.
I have a number of questions about their position. First, If Christ’s obedience, i.e., his righteousness under the law, is not the righteousness that is imputed to believers, what righteousness is it? Joel as you said, “righteousness is defined as conformity to law.” To what law has Jesus ever been conformed apart from the law under which he was born?
When he acted for us as the Last Adam, what about his death corresponds to Adam’s act of disobedience? The typical comparison is not Jesus died where Adam disobeyed, but Jesus obeyed where Adam disobeyed. The death sentence passed was not disobedience. His disobedience was in acting to God’s revelation of his law at that time. Jesus acted as the last Adam in representing his people by obeying the law under which he was born for them up to and including his death.
The righteousness of God is basically whatever he has sovereignly decided to do within the bounds of his holiness, e.g., Rom. 9:14-15. Is it that righteousness that is put to our account? I don’t think so.
Second, these guys deny that justification is works or merit based. What about verses like Gal. 3:12? Paul wrote, “But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” What about Rom 2:13? Paul wrote, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” The reason the law could not justify is not that justification is not merit based, but that no one obeyed the law until Jesus. Those who were declared righteous during the OT period were justified by the same obedience and righteousness of Christ we are.
Third, how does Jesus’ obedience of the Law for our justification encourage us to sin any more that his death to pardon all our sins, past present and future? If I stand righteous before God based solely on his righteousness and death having been imputed to me, how does that differ from his having obeyed the law for me?
Right on, right on, right on. Good for them, God bless them. But I think we can still do better. Where does it say in the Bible that it was Christ’s righteousness that was imputed to us? The bible seems to make it a point to always say it was God’s righteousness. Does that matter? Yes, its still true, technically more accurate, and puts another object between absolute truth and error of the sort they are talking about.
Secondly, where does the Bible say that Christ’s performance in His life on Earth was “necessary” for the atonement? All that was necessary was for Christ to be who he is. Christ was the sufficient sacrifice by virtue of who he is, and His obedience to the cross to secure our salvation.
Don’t get me wrong, this is an awesome step in the right direction, but I would still like to pose this challenge.