Philippians 3:9 Sermon on Imputed and Imparted Righteousness
1. PHILIPPIANS
CHAPTER 3
Verse 9
February 26, 2012
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
Announcements!
GOING DEEPER with GOD CONFERENCE
When: Sunday, March 25th and Monday, March 26th
Where: On Sunday, March 25th ALL ADULTS will meet in Fellowship Hall East.
This will take the place of our Sunday School class on March 25 th at 9 am.
Led by: Dr. Greg Frizzell
BREATH OF LIFE
What: A Sunday School Class for those with a chronic cough.
When: Sunday, April 15th @ 8 a.m.
Where: At FBCJ in ROOM E423
Thank You for Serving
What: A banquet to honor waiters & waitresses.
When: Monday, April 23rd from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Where: The South, 627 East Silas Brown, Jackson, MS 39201
MARK THE DATE. . .
FRIEND DAY
SUNDAY, APRIL 29th
Sunday School Lesson!
Today we are studying the righteousness of Christ which comes to us on the basis of
faith from: Philippians 3:9
Philippians 3:9b
“not having a righteousness of our own derived from the Law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith”
Philippians 3:9b
2. Imputed righteousness
Imparted righteousness
The word impute means “to pass to one’s account”.
It means that God places the righteousness of Christ upon our record when we
trust in Jesus for our salvation.
When a sinner believes in Christ, he or she is spiritually united with Christ, and that
union makes it possible for God to credit believers with the righteousness of Christ.
Jesus became the offering for our sin and guilt (both were imputed to Him).
His righteousness was then imputed to us by God’s grace through faith and a
paradoxical shift occurred in our lives: whereas we formerly were unable to live
righteously by the constraints of the Law, we now are conformed from within to
the intent of the Law, which is God’s will for us.
God, in His grace, not only imputed the righteousness of Christ on us
(justification) but He also gives us the power, through faith in the indwelling
Christ, to become righteous through His imparted righteousness in us.
(sanctification)
SALVATION
past – justification/spirit
imputed
present – sanctification/soul
imparted
future – glorification/body
Imputed righteousness is something that is done on us without our participation.
Imparted righteousness is something that is done in us with our participation.
Ephesians 3:16-21
16 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted
and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length
and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled
up to all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works within us,
21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and
ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:16-21
3. It is His love, this outpouring of His grace, that works the transformation of our
innermost being so that we delight in pleasing Him – indeed live to please Him!
Colossian 1:10
10 “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects,
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the the knowledge of God;”
Colossians 1:10
Spiritual victory is not achieved through strong willpower or self-effort.
We first must acknowledge that the guilt lies in our impure hearts – in our being
not in our doing.
Our focus must shift from our doing (our behavior) to our being (who we are).
Don’t miss the miracle of intimacy of God’s grace.
Humility is the door to God’s grace.
“God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6
I Peter 5:6
6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you
at the proper time”
Legalism is keeping rules with clenched fists.
Grace is receiving a gift with open hands.
Legalism provokes the need to perform.
Grace evokes a desire to conform.
Legalism compels us to do.
Grace allows us to be.
Under legalism our response is we have to.
Under grace our response is we want to.
Get Thin, Stay Thin
by Arthur W. Halliday, MD
and Judy Halliday, RN
This book addresses the silent hunger of the starving soul. (the Bread of Life)
4. This same righteousness of Christ is imparted in us on a constant basis enabling us to
display the fruit of the Spirit, as we trust Christ in our struggles & weaknesses.
Christ’s righteousness is not only declared (imputed) to be our righteousness in
Heaven (justification), but His righteousness is also imparted in us and transforms our
lives here on earth (sanctification).
God imparts (implants) righteousness in everyone to whom He has imputed it.
Implanting is a lively horticultural metaphor, as distinguished from a declarative,
judicial metaphor.
Implanting requires daily nurturing, not a simple bang of a gavel.
It is the fruit of our acceptance with God, not the ground of it.
Impute = rooted/grounded
Impart = bear fruit
Ephesians 3:17 “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you,
being rooted and grounded in love,”
“are to grow up (bear fruit) in all aspects into Him Who is the head, even Christ”
Ephesians 4:15
John 15:5
5 “I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears
much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Thomas Oden, John Wesley's Scriptural Christianity: A Plain Exposition of His Teaching
on Christian Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994)
Just as Jesus received our sin,
we also received His righteousness through an act of faith.
The imputation of righteousness does not change one inwardly, this being the work of
sanctification, not justification.
Christ’s righteousness is a transformative righteousness in that it effectively changes
those who have already been declared righteous by God.
God made Jesus to be something He was not—sin, so that He could make us
something we were not—righteous.
My sin took Jesus where He did not deserve to go—Death and Hell, so His
righteousness can take me where I do not deserve to go—eternal life and Heaven.
The term “imparted righteousness” is used to identify the righteous nature imparted by
God in us when He regenerates us.
5. We thereby become "partakers of the divine nature" 2 Peter 1:4
2 Peter 1:1-11
1 “To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness
of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
Lord;
3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and
godliness, through the true knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and
excellence.
4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by
them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world by lust.
5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral
excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self- control, perseverance, and in
your perseverance, godliness,
7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless
nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his
purification from his former sins (justification).
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling &
choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.” 2 Peter 1:1-11
Psalm 16:11
11 “In Your presence is fullness of joy;”
Brother Lawrence The Practice of the Presence of God
This "divine nature" is the nature implanted in us at regeneration, and which is always
in conflict with the old Adamic nature.
The divine nature is the "seed" of God placed in man which "cannot sin" (1 John 3:9).
I John 3:9
9 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Holiness is always present in those who are loyal guests of the great King, for "without
holiness no man shall see the Lord.”
Some people pacify themselves with the idea that they possess imputed
righteousness, while they are indifferent to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
6. They refuse to put on the garment of obedience, they reject the white linen
which is the righteous acts of the saints (Revelation 19:8).
They thus reveal their self-will, their enmity to God, and their non-submission to
his Son.
It was true of the Judaizers and it is true of some today.
Such men may talk what they will about justification by faith, and salvation by grace,
but they are rebels at heart, they have not on the wedding dress any more than the
self-righteous, whom they so eagerly condemn.
No one ever had the imputed righteousness of Christ without receiving at the same
time a measure of the righteousness wrought in us by the Holy Spirit.
Justification by faith is not contrary to the production of good works: God forbid. The
faith by which we are justified is the faith which produces holiness, and no one is
justified by faith which does not also sanctify him and deliver him from the love of sin.
“When you are saved, God does not fix you where you cannot sin, He just fixes you
where you cannot sin and enjoy it.” Adrian Rogers
Righteousness is two fold.
Firstly, it is imputed to us: this means something we are given free of charge
without effort.
This gives us the right to stand before God and speak to Him as if we were
sinless. We are able to “draw boldly before the throne of grace”. (Hebrews
4:16)
Secondly righteousness is imparted into us: this means something that Christ
works in us and with our cooperation.
This grants us the inner strength to live and conduct ourselves in a manner that
is pleasing to God.
We can come boldly to God as if we had done nothing wrong.
God makes us right with Him simply because we believe and accept as ours
the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins.
But this is only part of the story.
Righteousness goes further than that!
Imputed righteousness is the first investment of God into our life.
It is something given to us to get us going.
It’s like a permanent grant.
God entrusted the Gospel (imputed righteousness) in our lives and He is
pleased when He gets good returns on those investments!
Parable of the minas in Luke 19:11-24