Where the Gospel of Roman Catholicism Fails
00:00:00.000 | Well, there's a steady stream of questions that arrive from listeners seeking clarity
00:00:08.260 | on where Protestants differ from Roman Catholics.
00:00:12.180 | And there's much to talk about, of course.
00:00:14.920 | Today's question comes from a listener named Jordan.
00:00:16.440 | Pastor John, hello, and thank you for this podcast.
00:00:19.480 | I've recently discovered that a ministry I closely associated with in the past does not
00:00:24.080 | believe that Jesus' righteousness is imputed to us, but is imparted to us.
00:00:30.720 | Can you explain the difference between imputation and impartation, and how does the Bible explain
00:00:35.820 | these concepts about us in relationship to Christ?
00:00:40.040 | The Roman Catholic Church pronounced anathemous curses on the Reformers, like Luther, Calvin,
00:00:47.560 | Zwingli, and their Protestant heirs like me, because the Reformers understood that the
00:00:54.520 | way we are justified before God is through imputation, imputation of Christ's righteousness,
00:01:04.320 | his perfection, to us through faith alone.
00:01:09.160 | The language of imputation comes especially from Romans chapter 4, where Paul says, for
00:01:15.880 | example, in verses 4 and 5, "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a
00:01:22.040 | gift but as his due, and to the one who does not work but believes in the one who justifies
00:01:29.800 | the ungodly, his faith is counted or imputed as righteousness."
00:01:36.920 | Or verse 6, "David speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts or imputes righteousness
00:01:46.560 | apart from works."
00:01:49.280 | So the picture is that the work of Christ is the foundation or ground for our acceptance,
00:01:58.040 | our forgiveness, our justification before God, and the way it is the foundation is that
00:02:05.640 | it provides a historical moment in time when God imputes our sin to the sinless Jesus on
00:02:13.480 | the cross and establishes his perfection and his righteousness with a consummating act
00:02:21.440 | of obedience so that he could impute then to us through faith that righteousness when
00:02:27.780 | we believe.
00:02:29.020 | So we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no
00:02:38.440 | sin so that in him, in him, in union with him, we might become the righteousness of
00:02:46.560 | God."
00:02:47.680 | So that's the massive, unshakable, historical, once-for-all foundation and ground and basis
00:02:56.880 | for our justification, and the way we participate in that great exchange or substitution is
00:03:05.400 | through faith.
00:03:07.800 | So Paul says in Philippians 3:8, "For Christ's sake we have suffered the loss of all things,
00:03:13.480 | and count them as rubbish, in order that we might gain Christ and be found in him, be
00:03:20.520 | in union with him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from law, but that righteousness
00:03:32.780 | which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith."
00:03:41.280 | So faith is the instrument or the means through which God unites us to Christ.
00:03:48.200 | Paul's words are "be found in him," so that in him, in union with him, through faith,
00:03:56.360 | his righteousness is counted or imputed as being ours, though it's not ours in the
00:04:03.760 | sense that we performed it or that we have become intrinsically good or virtuous or righteous.
00:04:11.400 | So the imputation is the work of God through faith by which we are declared or counted
00:04:20.000 | or imputed righteous because of Christ's blood and righteousness.
00:04:26.760 | He bore our punishment and provided our righteousness, and we get in on that by imputation through
00:04:35.480 | faith.
00:04:37.000 | And this happens in the twinkling of an eye.
00:04:40.640 | When God creates saving faith in the fallen human heart, in that instant the believer
00:04:46.280 | is united to Christ, and all the benefits of Christ are counted as his.
00:04:52.960 | He has accepted us and loved us and forgiven us and counted us righteous so that we're
00:05:01.000 | legally adopted into his family, secured forever, as he says in Romans 8, 30, "Those whom he
00:05:08.600 | justified he glorified."
00:05:10.920 | It's as good as done.
00:05:12.480 | If you're justified in the twinkling of an eye, you are as good as glorified in the last day.
00:05:19.040 | God will see to it that you maintain the faith and enjoy the benefits of union with Christ forever.
00:05:26.560 | Now one of the reasons that the Roman Catholic Church rejected this understanding of the
00:05:30.840 | Bible, this understanding of justification by faith alone through imputation, is that
00:05:37.440 | it seemed to them to lead to lawlessness.
00:05:41.240 | If Christ's righteousness is imputed to us by faith alone, why should we pursue a daily
00:05:46.200 | practical righteous life, a holy life?
00:05:51.160 | And the way the Roman Catholic Church conceived of justification to prevent that lawlessness
00:05:56.720 | was to conceive of justification and sanctification, the becoming of practical holiness, justification
00:06:06.560 | and sanctification as virtually the same.
00:06:10.360 | So here's what the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Council of Trent, said, "Justification
00:06:16.760 | is not remission of sins merely but the sanctification."
00:06:22.640 | Let me say that again.
00:06:25.680 | Justification is sanctification and renewal of the inward man through the voluntary reception
00:06:33.840 | of grace.
00:06:34.840 | In other words, justification is not the imputation of Christ's righteousness, but the impartation—and
00:06:43.640 | here's why this is such a big deal and why those two words matter hugely—the Roman
00:06:48.840 | Catholic Church would say that justification is the impartation of goodness or righteousness
00:06:56.040 | or holiness.
00:06:57.360 | It is a gift, but it is a real human virtue, a real obedience, a real transformation, a
00:07:04.560 | real sanctification.
00:07:07.200 | Justification is not a legal transaction; it is a moral transformation.
00:07:14.720 | And in view of what we've seen, I agree with the Reformers that this is not what the
00:07:19.320 | New Testament teaches that justification is.
00:07:22.800 | Romans 5:19, "As by one man's disobedience the many were appointed sinners, counted sinners,
00:07:33.600 | sin imputed to them."
00:07:36.240 | So by one man's obedience, Christ's, the many will be appointed righteous.
00:07:45.240 | Now, besides being contrary to the Bible, there are two other problems with treating
00:07:51.840 | justification and sanctification as the same, or treating justification as the impartation
00:08:00.600 | of righteousness instead of treating it as the imputation of righteousness.
00:08:06.800 | And one is, one of the problems is that if you do that, it destroys the New Testament
00:08:14.920 | way of life, the New Testament way of pursuing sanctification, the gospel way of pursuing,
00:08:21.000 | the confident, hope-filled way of pursuing sanctification.
00:08:26.360 | In the New Testament, by grace, through faith, in an instant, our sins are forgiven.
00:08:34.000 | We're accepted by God, we're counted righteous, we are secure in an instant.
00:08:39.720 | And on the basis of that new standing with God, secure forever, now, on the basis of
00:08:48.440 | that, with that footing, with that ground under our feet, we fight sin and pursue holiness
00:08:56.000 | as those who are already accepted, already secured, already perfected.
00:09:02.440 | Listen to two texts.
00:09:04.360 | Here's 1 Corinthians 5, 7.
00:09:06.400 | "Cleanse out the old leaven," picturing sin as leaven in a lump of dough.
00:09:11.680 | "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened."
00:09:20.120 | That whole dynamic of Christian living is destroyed.
00:09:23.640 | If justification is the becoming of having all the sin taken out of us already, we are
00:09:33.280 | supposed to get the leaven of sin out of us, so it must be there in a practical sense,
00:09:39.720 | because we are unleavened.
00:09:41.120 | That is, we are counted as having no leaven.
00:09:43.400 | Or let me say it even differently and better, maybe from Hebrews 10, 14.
00:09:49.280 | "For by a single offering," namely Christ's, "he has perfected for all time those who are
00:09:58.240 | being sanctified."
00:10:00.440 | Amazing!
00:10:02.400 | In other words, you are now being sanctified, that is, practically being made holy or perfect,
00:10:13.040 | and that is an evidence that by a single offering you're already perfect.
00:10:20.040 | Study 1 Corinthians 5, 7 and Hebrews 10, 14.
00:10:24.720 | So that whole way of life, fighting sin and pursuing holiness on the basis of an already
00:10:31.080 | being accepted, loved, holy, righteous, secure—that whole way of living is undermined by replacing
00:10:40.600 | imputation with impartation.
00:10:43.980 | So this is no small thing.
00:10:45.320 | This is a very, very, very big deal.
00:10:49.880 | The Reformers didn't risk their lives for nothing.
00:10:52.480 | And the last thing I would say that makes it a big deal is that the glory of Christ
00:10:59.040 | is diminished when impartation replaces imputation, because that view does not honor Christ as
00:11:11.120 | having achieved a justifying righteousness that provides for the complete acquittal and
00:11:19.320 | vindication of all God's people in the instant they believe.
00:11:26.040 | And that is a glorious truth to be sacrificed or lost.
00:11:30.920 | Amen.
00:11:31.920 | These conversations are not debates over mere semantics.
00:11:35.840 | These are matters weighty and significant and relevant to everyone.
00:11:38.520 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:11:39.520 | And thank you for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast and making it a part of your
00:11:43.080 | day.
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00:12:00.520 | Well, it seems that we see signs and wonders and miracles all over our Bibles.
00:12:10.600 | But for many of us, we see an absence of signs, wonders, and miracles in our own lives and
00:12:16.080 | in the world around us.
00:12:18.160 | Why?
00:12:19.400 | Where did all the wonders go?
00:12:22.040 | That's the question on the table when we return on Monday.
00:12:24.440 | I'm really looking forward to that one.
00:12:25.640 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:12:26.640 | We'll see you next week.
00:12:27.640 | Have a great weekend.
00:12:27.640 | week. Have a great weekend.
00:12:30.560 | [BLANK_AUDIO]