Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
The blessedness David describes is God crediting righteousness to a person apart from works, which is justification by faith and not earned by human goodness. The righteousness so credited is Christ's own perfect obedience, counted as the believer's title to heaven, and to be thus justified is to be pardoned, freed from condemnation and received as righteous. This is possible because Christ as Substitute and Surety bore the sinner's guilt and curse and fully satisfied justice by His sacrifice, so that God remains just while declaring the guilty innocent. It is received by the repentant sinner who looks to Jesus and takes Him as personal Saviour, and God freely gives it to those who feel their need and hunger for it, without distinction, when they ask in faith. This gift never covers knowing transgression without repentance, but the repenting believer cooperates with divine power to overcome sin, and living faith transforms him into Christ's image in outward Christlikeness and obedience.
Righteousness Credited Without Works
The blessedness David describes is God crediting righteousness to a person without works. It is justification by faith, not earned by human works or goodness, and it belongs to the plan of salvation. The repentant sinner who believes receives pardon, peace, and this credited righteousness.
The righteousness so credited is Christ's own perfect, sinless righteousness and perfect obedience. It is imputed as the believer's title to heaven, distinct from imparted righteousness which makes fit for heaven. Inner righteousness is shown outwardly in growing Christlikeness, sympathy, self-control, humility, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness and goodness. Christ's perfect righteousness covers human defects, and work is accepted not for its amount but through His perfection and sufficiency for those who humbly rely on Him and sincerely seek to obey.
Pardon and justification are one and the same thing, and justification is the opposite of condemnation. To be justified is to have sins pardoned, deserved punishment remitted, and to be received into favor as righteous. This comes only through Christ's imputed righteousness, with the Father accepting the sinner through the atoning sacrifice of His Son.
This is possible because Christ as Substitute and Surety bore the sinner's guilt and curse, though blameless, and satisfied justice fully. He did this through His infinite sacrifice, stripes, death on the tree, and atoning sacrifice, suffering the penalty of transgression for the whole world because man could never have kept God's law unless Christ had died. Through that sacrifice God vindicates His justice while justifying the sinner, hiding His eyes from the believer's guilt as He hid His face from Christ bearing sin, as seen in the pardon of the dying thief. The guilty who deserve punishment go free through faith in His merits, and He imputes His own righteousness to present them to the Father as innocent.
For Christ's sake God counts believing sinners precious, not for anything in them, to be just and yet the justifier. He pronounces the guilty innocent while placing guilt on Jesus, places Christ's righteousness on the debtor's account with Pardoned and Eternal Life written against the name, receives the believer as His child by adoption, clothes him with Christ's righteousness, and brings him from rebellion to loyalty. So he stands faultless and uncondemned before God with favor and strong hope of eternal life, reprieved from the condemnation of death, not by inherent goodness but through repentance toward God and faith in the atoning merits of the Redeemer, though he may still err and need mercy and continued repentance and contrition. God does not see in them the vileness of the sinner but recognizes in them the likeness of His Son in whom they believe, and the more perfectly that character is revealed the greater His satisfaction and delight, with God Himself and heaven rejoicing over them with singing because Christ has not died for them in vain.
This imputed righteousness alone makes the worship of sinful beings acceptable to God, as symbolized by incense ascending with Israel's prayers pointing to the great Mediator through whom alone mercy and salvation are granted to the repentant, believing soul. It provides the righteousness without blemish and perfect obedience required of Adam in Eden before the fall and still required today, showing God's law is unchangeable. It bridges the gulf caused by transgression like the ladder Jacob saw reaching from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending and the light of God on every round, so that nothing is lost. It gives moral power to repent of transgression and sin and to become a loyal, obedient, loving people, without removing the test of obedience to the commandments as the test of love.
Through faith human nature can grasp the divine nature because Christ came in humanity and overcame. Clear and distinct ideas of imputed righteousness are needed, for it has been dwelt upon far too little. Neglect leaves people in hopeless darkness without moral power to resist temptation, needing clearer spiritual eyesight to hold to God like Moses enduring the seeing of the Invisible. It is the doctrine of the cross, the greatest and most precious truth, greater than what Moses descending with glorified face, the high priest coming from the holy of holies, or Isaiah seeing the Lord high and lifted up bore, coming not in word only but in God's power to everyone who believes. Those who bear it must meet Christ in private prayer, have lips touched with a live coal from the altar and be imbued with the Spirit to represent God's character and bring souls back to God.
Receiving and Living the Gift
The blessedness is received by the repentant sinner who looks to Jesus, believes in Him, and takes Him as a personal Saviour. Such believing brings pardon and peace and cleansing by His blood and eternal life, and to refuse this truth is to refuse Christ Himself, for salvation comes through the crucified Redeemer and not through any priest or pope. Those who enter by this way through the strait gate are then to go into the byways and highways to point souls to Jesus and show them how to believe and receive.
God freely gives this gift to those who have no strength of their own and can do nothing of themselves, who hunger and thirst for righteousness and feel their great need. His grace works on the heart and draws, and as soon as the first step toward His mercy is made He advances with pardon and grace, takes away sin and imputes His righteousness without works. There is no caste with Him, but one Father to whom all may come without distinction of color, nationality, weakness, wealth or poverty. It is asked for in prayer offered in faith, with assurance by the Spirit that He accepts, and guilt is to be laid at Calvary with trust in Jesus, who strengthens weak faith and holds firmly to those who come. That blessing is kept by faith and not by feeling, for feeling and faith are wholly distinct.
The blessedness rests only on the perfection of Jesus as surety, and only the faith that lays hold upon His imputed righteousness is genuine saving faith. Christ is the only source of virtue and of spiritual power and life, whom each must know for himself by faith in Jesus whom God sent, and this pardon rests on God's mercy and on Christ's sacrifice satisfying justice. By it God Himself by His own arm brings salvation and brings back His lost sheep even when no eye pities and no human hand is stretched out to save. To neglect such a soul or to speak and act to dishearten and discourage him opposes that work, and God will require it at the hand of those who do so and repay their injustice and un-Christlikeness.
Imputed righteousness never saves while knowingly transgressing without repentance and does not cover transgression without repentance. People cannot keep the law by their own strength, and Christ does not save anyone against the choice or compel obedience, but imputes His righteousness to those who choose to follow Him, repent and believe, so that they stand uncondemned before God. The repenting sinner must cooperate with divine power and strive to subdue sin, making sincere efforts in Christ and through Christ to overcome sin and keep the holy law, and those efforts are wholly acceptable. There must be a change from transgression to obedience, to cease to transgress which is to cease to sin, wrought as a crucifixion and painful death of self creating hatred for all sin, as Christ's righteousness goes before and leads into conformity to God's will, because sin and holiness cannot be united.
Living faith also transforms into Christ's image, with inner righteousness shown outwardly in growing Christlikeness, sympathy and self-control. Where genuine faith exists Christian virtues shine forth in humility to glorify God day by day, in love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness and goodness. Those who have this hope purify themselves and put away impurity and dishonesty, teach their children the way of the Lord, and show His light while kept from evil in the world. Christ's righteousness must be credited to the one traveling heavenward, covering human defects so that work is accepted through His perfection, with His grace supplying strength for success in conflict with the enemy and His intercession in heaven. This experience is practical godliness and the preparation essential for the coming of the Son of man.
The blessedness David describes is God crediting righteousness to a person apart from works, which is justification by faith and not earned by human goodness. The righteousness so credited is Christ's own perfect obedience, counted as the believer's title to heaven, and to be thus justified is to be pardoned, freed from condemnation and received as righteous. This is possible because Christ as Substitute and Surety bore the sinner's guilt and curse and fully satisfied justice by His sacrifice, so that God remains just while declaring the guilty innocent. It is received by the repentant sinner who looks to Jesus and takes Him as personal Saviour, and God freely gives it to those who feel their need and hunger for it, without distinction, when they ask in faith. This gift never covers knowing transgression without repentance, but the repenting believer cooperates with divine power to overcome sin, and living faith transforms him into Christ's image in outward Christlikeness and obedience.
Righteousness Credited Without Works
The blessedness David describes is God crediting righteousness to a person without works. It is justification by faith, not earned by human works or goodness, and it belongs to the plan of salvation. The repentant sinner who believes receives pardon, peace, and this credited righteousness.
The righteousness so credited is Christ's own perfect, sinless righteousness and perfect obedience. It is imputed as the believer's title to heaven, distinct from imparted righteousness which makes fit for heaven. Inner righteousness is shown outwardly in growing Christlikeness, sympathy, self-control, humility, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness and goodness. Christ's perfect righteousness covers human defects, and work is accepted not for its amount but through His perfection and sufficiency for those who humbly rely on Him and sincerely seek to obey.
Pardon and justification are one and the same thing, and justification is the opposite of condemnation. To be justified is to have sins pardoned, deserved punishment remitted, and to be received into favor as righteous. This comes only through Christ's imputed righteousness, with the Father accepting the sinner through the atoning sacrifice of His Son.
This is possible because Christ as Substitute and Surety bore the sinner's guilt and curse, though blameless, and satisfied justice fully. He did this through His infinite sacrifice, stripes, death on the tree, and atoning sacrifice, suffering the penalty of transgression for the whole world because man could never have kept God's law unless Christ had died. Through that sacrifice God vindicates His justice while justifying the sinner, hiding His eyes from the believer's guilt as He hid His face from Christ bearing sin, as seen in the pardon of the dying thief. The guilty who deserve punishment go free through faith in His merits, and He imputes His own righteousness to present them to the Father as innocent.
For Christ's sake God counts believing sinners precious, not for anything in them, to be just and yet the justifier. He pronounces the guilty innocent while placing guilt on Jesus, places Christ's righteousness on the debtor's account with Pardoned and Eternal Life written against the name, receives the believer as His child by adoption, clothes him with Christ's righteousness, and brings him from rebellion to loyalty. So he stands faultless and uncondemned before God with favor and strong hope of eternal life, reprieved from the condemnation of death, not by inherent goodness but through repentance toward God and faith in the atoning merits of the Redeemer, though he may still err and need mercy and continued repentance and contrition. God does not see in them the vileness of the sinner but recognizes in them the likeness of His Son in whom they believe, and the more perfectly that character is revealed the greater His satisfaction and delight, with God Himself and heaven rejoicing over them with singing because Christ has not died for them in vain.
This imputed righteousness alone makes the worship of sinful beings acceptable to God, as symbolized by incense ascending with Israel's prayers pointing to the great Mediator through whom alone mercy and salvation are granted to the repentant, believing soul. It provides the righteousness without blemish and perfect obedience required of Adam in Eden before the fall and still required today, showing God's law is unchangeable. It bridges the gulf caused by transgression like the ladder Jacob saw reaching from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending and the light of God on every round, so that nothing is lost. It gives moral power to repent of transgression and sin and to become a loyal, obedient, loving people, without removing the test of obedience to the commandments as the test of love.
Through faith human nature can grasp the divine nature because Christ came in humanity and overcame. Clear and distinct ideas of imputed righteousness are needed, for it has been dwelt upon far too little. Neglect leaves people in hopeless darkness without moral power to resist temptation, needing clearer spiritual eyesight to hold to God like Moses enduring the seeing of the Invisible. It is the doctrine of the cross, the greatest and most precious truth, greater than what Moses descending with glorified face, the high priest coming from the holy of holies, or Isaiah seeing the Lord high and lifted up bore, coming not in word only but in God's power to everyone who believes. Those who bear it must meet Christ in private prayer, have lips touched with a live coal from the altar and be imbued with the Spirit to represent God's character and bring souls back to God.
Receiving and Living the Gift
The blessedness is received by the repentant sinner who looks to Jesus, believes in Him, and takes Him as a personal Saviour. Such believing brings pardon and peace and cleansing by His blood and eternal life, and to refuse this truth is to refuse Christ Himself, for salvation comes through the crucified Redeemer and not through any priest or pope. Those who enter by this way through the strait gate are then to go into the byways and highways to point souls to Jesus and show them how to believe and receive.
God freely gives this gift to those who have no strength of their own and can do nothing of themselves, who hunger and thirst for righteousness and feel their great need. His grace works on the heart and draws, and as soon as the first step toward His mercy is made He advances with pardon and grace, takes away sin and imputes His righteousness without works. There is no caste with Him, but one Father to whom all may come without distinction of color, nationality, weakness, wealth or poverty. It is asked for in prayer offered in faith, with assurance by the Spirit that He accepts, and guilt is to be laid at Calvary with trust in Jesus, who strengthens weak faith and holds firmly to those who come. That blessing is kept by faith and not by feeling, for feeling and faith are wholly distinct.
The blessedness rests only on the perfection of Jesus as surety, and only the faith that lays hold upon His imputed righteousness is genuine saving faith. Christ is the only source of virtue and of spiritual power and life, whom each must know for himself by faith in Jesus whom God sent, and this pardon rests on God's mercy and on Christ's sacrifice satisfying justice. By it God Himself by His own arm brings salvation and brings back His lost sheep even when no eye pities and no human hand is stretched out to save. To neglect such a soul or to speak and act to dishearten and discourage him opposes that work, and God will require it at the hand of those who do so and repay their injustice and un-Christlikeness.
Imputed righteousness never saves while knowingly transgressing without repentance and does not cover transgression without repentance. People cannot keep the law by their own strength, and Christ does not save anyone against the choice or compel obedience, but imputes His righteousness to those who choose to follow Him, repent and believe, so that they stand uncondemned before God. The repenting sinner must cooperate with divine power and strive to subdue sin, making sincere efforts in Christ and through Christ to overcome sin and keep the holy law, and those efforts are wholly acceptable. There must be a change from transgression to obedience, to cease to transgress which is to cease to sin, wrought as a crucifixion and painful death of self creating hatred for all sin, as Christ's righteousness goes before and leads into conformity to God's will, because sin and holiness cannot be united.
Living faith also transforms into Christ's image, with inner righteousness shown outwardly in growing Christlikeness, sympathy and self-control. Where genuine faith exists Christian virtues shine forth in humility to glorify God day by day, in love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness and goodness. Those who have this hope purify themselves and put away impurity and dishonesty, teach their children the way of the Lord, and show His light while kept from evil in the world. Christ's righteousness must be credited to the one traveling heavenward, covering human defects so that work is accepted through His perfection, with His grace supplying strength for success in conflict with the enemy and His intercession in heaven. This experience is practical godliness and the preparation essential for the coming of the Son of man.