Does God Give Righteousness To Enable A Person To
Save Himself, Or Does God Account A Person
Righteous Because Of Christ?
KJV Romans 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works
One of the great controversies in Christianity is whether a person is saved by his own efforts or whether God counts him as righteous freely. Put another way, the question is, does God save a sinner without him earning it, or must the sinner do some things "in order" to be finally saved? It is the old question of whether righteousness is "imparted" or "imputed."
Most of us readily understand the word "impart." It means that someone gives you something. Paul used it in his letter to the Romans.
Romans 1:11 "For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established. . . ."
In other words Paul wanted to give the Roman Christians a spiritual gift by which they would be stronger Christians.
The word "impute" is a little less known. It means to apply to one's account. Let me give an illustration to show the difference between the two words. Let's say that you have charged some items at the local hardware store. When you go in to pay your bill the cashier says that you do not owe anything. You reply that there must be some mistake because you know you charged certain items. After looking at the records the cashier comes back to you and says, "Someone came in earlier and paid your bill." "They gave us the amount of money you owed and we applied it to your account." The cashier could have just as well have said, "They gave us the amount of money you owed and we imputed it to your account."
In the illustration above, the amount of money paid on the account was reckoned to be equal to the amount owed on the account and so the debt was paid and the man who had originally owed the debt did not have to put out one penny to pay his debt. Someone else had done the deed for him.
That is the word "impute."
The word impart is completely different. Thinking about our illustration above, let's say that you have charged some things at the local hardware store. You go to work on a certain day and you think to yourself, "After I am paid today I am going to go in and pay my bill at the hardware store." Quitting time comes and the boss comes around with your check. He gives or "imparts" your check to you. You leave your job and head straight to the bank to cash your check. You put your money in your pocket and head down the street for the hardware store fully intending to pay your bill. But on the way something happens. Your stomach growls and you are reminded that you haven't eaten yet so you stop in the local diner and order your dinner. After you have eaten you continue your trip to the hardware store. On the way down the street you remember that you need to pick up some medicine at the drug store so you stop in and pay for that. Along the way you also pass the bank where your mortgage is owed. You remember that it is due so you go in to pay. By the time you get to the hardware store you are ready to pay up and go home. The cashier tells you the amount you owe and you begin to count out the money but to your dismay you realize you do not have enough money left in order to pay what you owe. You owe a debt you cannot pay and though you had your check given (imparted) to you, you have already spent too much and you cannot pay your debt.
You and I owe God a great debt. God says "Be ye holy; for I am holy." The standard is that we be as holy a man or woman as God!
Paul the Apostle said, "For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law."
He is saying that anyone who hopes that keeping the ritual of circumcision, the sigh of the Jewish religion, will save him, is also a debtor to keep every other ritual and precept of the Jewish law. If being saved is by keeping the Law then every part of the Law without exception must be kept for someone to be saved.
The Apostle James said, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
In other words if the Jewish Law is not kept absolutely perfectly from the womb to the tomb then the whole Law is broken and a man's debt to pay what he owes God (perfect obedience) still stands against him.
The sad truth is that most religious Americans believe that God "imparts" righteousness to those who are saved. In other words, God gives humanity enough grace so that men are righteous enough (that is "good" enough") on their own, to go to heaven.
Is that true? If that is true then what is the purpose of the death of Christ? Why is the word "impart" never used in connection with salvation verses in the Bible?
The answer is plain. God does not "impart" grace so that we can be good enough to enter into heaven. No. He "Imputes" righteousness to our account so that our sin debt before God is completely paid, and we are justified before Him.
Who paid our sin debt?
2 Corinthians 5:21 says , "For he (God) hath made him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
When Jesus Christ died on the cross He made a way for every man's sin debt to be paid in full before God. In His death Christ so dealt with all of our sins so that God's justice being satisfied, He was not free to offer salvation to every man. The payment of our sins is an arrangement between Christ, God's Son, and God Himself.
The way that applies to us is twofold. First, we must realize that the debt we owe God is massive and that we cannot pay. We are not holy or righteous in our best moments and any effort on our part to keep God's Law or "be a good person" in order to go to heaven is totally doomed to failure.
And secondly, we must realize that, seeing our terrible condition, a merciful God has provided the way of salvation through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. We must turn from every effort of our own to save ourselves, and totally trust in Christ alone for salvation. This is called repentance and faith. It is repentance from sin and dead efforts to save one's self and faith in the finished work of Christ. Paul the Apostle put it this way:
Romans 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
My friend, are you hoping to make it to heaven by your good works? Till the day you stand before the judgment bar of God you will be in debt. God's just nature demands more than you can pay. In the end you will hear Him say, "Depart from me I never knew you."
But if you have been made willing by the Holy Spirit to forsake your own good works and your own empty resolutions, and your own self righteousness, and you have come to know deeply that you cannot save yourself, then there is great hope for you.
That hope is in Christ alone and what he did. Does that mean that there will be no good works in the life of a Christian? Can a man who has "imputed" righteousness live a life of sin and still claim to be saved? No! Again listen to the Apostle Paul.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
Those who trust the grace of God in Christ alone are made righteous before God. Their debt is paid and the righteousness of Christ is placed on their account. They are fully paid up before God and have an infinite amount of righteousness left over (after all, it is the righteousness of Christ Himself that is applied to their account).
And that new relationship with God, because of what Christ accomplished on the cross, results in a life of good works which God has planned before hand for all believer who are being saved by grace alone! You can never work enough good works in order to be saved, but a genuinely saved person will delight in good works and a God honoring life once you have been saved.
That Is the New Testament truth. Anything else falls far short of biblical salvation.
So what will it be? Will you continue in a futile effort to save yourself or will you submit to the righteousness that comes from God alone?
