Imputed Righteousness

Pastor Martin sets the doctrine of justification within the supportive framework of three indispensable truths without which it cannot be rightly understood: the character and position of God as holy and just Creator and Judge, the character and position of man as accountable creature and guilty sinner, and God's overall ultimate purpose to conform His people to the image of His Son. He warns that whenever justification has been wrenched out of this larger context, it has suffered grievously even at the hands of its friends.

Pastor Martin establishes from Scripture that the word 'justify' is forensic and declarative - to pronounce, accept, and treat someone as righteous in relation to a standard of law - never to make personally righteous. He traces four lines of biblical evidence: passages where any other meaning is impossible, contexts where it is the opposite of 'condemn', equivalent expressions, and the formal usage in Romans and Galatians. Justification is therefore God's judicial verdict, not an inward transformation, and that distinction is essential to gospel comfort.

Pastor Martin opens the very essence of the justifying act, showing it is two distinct yet inseparable elements: God pardons all our sins and accepts our persons as righteous in His sight. He marshals texts on forgiveness from Acts 13, Romans 4, Exodus 34, Psalm 103, Psalm 130, Isaiah 43-44, and then turns to the master-and-two-servants illustration to demonstrate that pardon alone is not enough - positive righteousness is also required, conferred in Christ as 1 Corinthians 1:30 and Romans 5:1-2 declare.

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.

Pastor Martin expounds Psalm 1:5 -- 'Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.' He shows this conclusion flows from the fact that the wicked are like chaff. He examines the source of the psalmist's knowledge (divine revelation confirmed by conscience), the meaning of 'shall not stand' (not abide or endure, not merely appear), and the substance of the conclusion: the wicked will be crushed under divine judgment and excluded from the congregation of the righteous. He closes with the solemn prospect of judgment as a day of surprising discovery, fixed distinction, and final division.

In the concluding sermon on Psalm 1, Pastor Martin expounds verse 6: 'For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.' He defines the two 'ways' as trodden paths or habitual patterns of life, explains the righteous as those with both imputed and imparted practical righteousness, and demonstrates that 'knoweth' means God regards with special favor, purpose, and delight. By contrast, the way of the ungodly is described without any reference to God -- it simply shall perish. He concludes that a man's destiny and his way are inseparably joined, and the only escape is repentance and faith in Christ.