Penal Substitution

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.