Double WHAT?

Okay kiddos, it’s that time of day where we take a brief time out of our busy schedules for a theological moment.  Ready?  Double imputation.    

Have you ever been in a quandary about the seeming contrariness of some Bible passages?  Take the ones we are considering today for our lesson.  Some passages speak of our being ‘dead in sin’ and how even the most righteous thing we could possibly do (yes, even praying on top of a mountain after having fasted for a month, for the orphans in Russia’s most dilapidated orphanage) are as filthy as menstrual rags.  Other passages tell us that, when the judgment day comes, we will be judged by our works (Matt. 25; Rev. 20).  So . . . if all of our works are sinful, who can stand?  Ah . . . enter double imputation!

Double imputation is fancy terminology for our sins being imputed to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness being imputed to us.  Adam disobeyed God in the garden.  Because he was the representative being of the whole human race, all fell with him in his sin.  Kind of like when our Commander in Chief declares war on another nation.  It is not just the president going to war, the whole nation is at war.  Adam’s sin was imputed to us.  We enter into a war against God by virtue of partaking in Adam’s bloodline.  

But there is a Second Adam.  The first blew it, the second restores a humanity back to God.  Jesus is the second Adam.  He took our sin upon Himself.  We hear about that a lot in church.  “He died for my sin” is a regular confession from our mouths.  But just as important is the fact that “He gave me His righteousness.”  As tightly as we were bound to Adam’s sin, we are more tightly bound to Christ’s righteousness; that is, those who live trusting this to be true.  

Romans 5:17 - “If, because of one man's trespass (Adam’s), death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” 

II Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

So do our works matter?  Yesirree they matter.  They matter because the works we stand on are the works of Christ’s righteousness imputed to us.  There is great worth in the good works we do.  Even though tainted with false motivations, they are covered by Christ’s righteousness which He paid for by His blood.  Eph 2:10 reads, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  

Our calling? To go glorify Christ by doing good to all, trusting in His righteousness on our behalf.