Federal Headship

Opening the third major division of the series, 'The Salvation We Receive and Proclaim,' Pastor Martin demonstrates that the work of salvation is the central activity of God in Scripture and identifies its primary object: man. He treats man as created in the image of God (Genesis 1-2), man as fallen in Adam (Genesis 3; Romans 5; 1 Corinthians 15), and man as ruined in sin under four realities — guilt, pollution, bondage, and impotence. He closes with two searching questions: have you ever felt the weight of these facts, and do you maintain the remembrance of them in the presence of a vigorous faith in the Redeemer?

Pastor Martin moves from the Gospels into the period of explanation and application, demonstrating that the apostolic epistles continue to assert Christ's true humanity as essential to the gospel. He surveys Romans 1, Romans 9, 1 Corinthians 15, Galatians 4, 1 Timothy 2, and Hebrews 2 to show that Paul and the writer to the Hebrews never blush to call Jesus a man. He then applies the doctrine, showing that Christ's humanity authenticates him as the promised Messiah and equips him as an efficient mediator who could establish legal union with sinners, obey the law in their stead, and suffer the curse for their sins.

Having excluded both works done by us and grace wrought in us, Pastor Martin now sets forth the positive ground of justification: the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ alone. He develops three lines of biblical truth - that the ground is in the person of Christ alone, in His perfect obedience alone, and in His full satisfaction alone - drawing on Romans 5:19, Philippians 3, 2 Corinthians 5:20-21, and Hebrews 10:5-10. He briefly explains the active and passive obedience of Christ as one indivisible obedience.

Pastor Martin opens up the biblical concept of imputation - the charging or reckoning of one's account to another - as the very fabric of the doctrine of sin and salvation. He traces the word's general usage in Leviticus, 2 Samuel, Psalm 32, Romans 4, and Philemon, then sets out the three great imputations: Adam's sin imputed to the race, the sins of God's people imputed to Christ, and the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers. The basis of all three is federal headship and covenant union.