When God accepts a sinner, He is, in fact, only accepting Christ. He looks into the sinner's eyes, and He sees His own dear Son's image there, and He takes him in. - Charles Spurgeon
Who am I to argue with the late, great Charles Spurgeon, but I think this whole "imputed righteousness" idea is likely bull hockey.
It's another one of those ideas you hear floated in so many sermons - "When God looks at you, He doesn't see your sins, He sees His Son's righteousness" - but I have never really examined it in Scripture.
I plan to investigate it, but at the moment I am guessing it's just one of those things that sounds good, so pastors repeat it.
It's got at least 3 things going for it:
- It's visual - Jesus standing between you and God.
- It's easy to understand - which is helpful when it comes to theological concepts.
- And it seems to glorify Christ.
Still, I'm going to need to see the receipts from the Bible on this one.
Because here's the problem: it seems to imply that this is all there is to salvation. Jesus did all the sacrificing and suffering and now He just covers you with His own righteousness.
But if we get to enjoy all the benefits of righteousness imputed to us - without actually developing our own righteousness - that's demotivating.
Sanctification isn't just some legal fiction. It's supposed to be our lived experience.
In Colossians 1:22, Paul says that Christ "has now reconciled you in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before God".
Is Paul talking of some sort of imaginary righteousness that is won by Christ's death?
Or did Christ die to make us truly righteous through and through?
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