Since God imputed the sin of mankind to Christ, there is no reason that He would impute it to us any longer! Let us now examine three major imputations recognized by students of the Bible:
1) Adam’s sin was imputed to all of mankind.
2) The sin of mankind was imputed to Christ as He died on the cross.
3) The righteousness of God is imputed to those who believe the gospel.
Some of us may struggle with the overwhelming significance of these imputations, but let’s remember that we are paying less attention to viewing things from a mere human outlook and more attention to understanding God’s revelation to us. These doctrines are revealed to give us insight to things that rise above human understanding. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts … ” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
In the beginning, God imputed Adam’s sin to his posterity. As a result of that imputation, we still live in mortal bodies in a fallen world. Thankfully, God did not end with that imputation. Clearly God went on to impute Adam’s sin to Christ, the One represented by the first animal sacrifice in the Garden of Eden, which provided the covering for Adam and Eve to wear. The men who lived before the death of Christ anticipated the Divine Atonement accomplished by Christ; the men who live after Christ accept it as a historical fact. In either case, consequences for sin do remain such as the curse put upon the race, but a temporary consequence is much different from the ultimate effect. The effect, described as death—was suffered by Christ. God imputed the whole sin debt of mankind to Christ, and He bore the sin of the world in His Body and died vicariously for the race. Therefore, God is propitiated and has declared that the sin debt has been settled. It has, in fact, been paid in full (Colossians 2:13-15; Romans 5:6-11).
As stated in the first Scripture reading, Romans 5:12-19, the Apostle Paul established that the men who lived from Adam to Moses did not suffer death because of their own sins but because of Adam’s sin. Their personal sin was merely the fruit of the sinful nature inherited from Adam. They entered life as sinners. God promised redemption to them. Whether or not they chose to believe, their sin and accompanying guilt was obviously imputed to the coming Christ. We know certain men from this period are men of faith who experienced salvation. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others are all recorded in the (unofficial) believer’s hall of fame (Hebrews 11:1-40). Undoubtedly the offer of salvation was available to all but only some received God’s provision of grace, which was accepted by faith.
The rest of mankind undoubtedly follows the same pattern as the segment of humanity who lived before Moses. We are born sinners and are heading towards death from the moment we were conceived. Faith in God’s redemption is the key to salvation. A lack of faith will lead to condemnation in spite of Christ’s sacrifice.
As we move forward in the timeline to present day, we see that God is not presently imputing sin against us (2 Corinthians 5:19). The fact that mankind still exists; the reason Christ came and died; the crowning achievement of God’s power and love hinges on the doctrine of imputation! God imputed Adam’s sin to all of us making us equally guilty. God then went on to impute the sum of mankind’s sin to Christ, equally freeing us from the law of sin and death. God removed the sin of the world via the death of Christ and made a way for all of us to be eternally reconciled to Him. To make all this feasible, God made the decision (before the creation of the world) not impute sin against us as clearly taught by the Apostle Paul, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world [all mankind] to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us [believers] the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin [Christ] to be sin for us [all mankind], so that in him we [who believe] might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
In this passage, we can see that God made Christ to be sin and suffer death in place of mankind because He desired reconciliation. He is no longer “counting people’s sins against them”. Mankind is redeemed from the consequence of sin and death. The full redemption price was paid by the death of Christ. Therefore, sin is not an obstacle to salvation; failure to believe the gospel is the problem. There is no impediment to God’s mercy and grace other than the individual decision to reject the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World.
Next Section: God’s Discipline
Table of Contents: The Last Adam
Text for this post has been borrowed from my Kindle eBook The Last Adam (Book 1 of the Grace and Knowledge Series), by Brother Woody Brohm. Copyright 2012.
I’ve included the full text of the book on this blog and you are free to read the book in this format if you please. Just follow the Next Section Link or view the Table of Contents to skip to wherever you prefer.
All Scripture quoted from:
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.