Is Our Sin Ours—Or Is It Imputed?
I am a little confused about “imputed” sin. Our sin was imputed to Jesus, but was our sin literally ours, or was it imputed to us?!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Regarding imputed sin: our human sin is not really “imputed” because it is actually our inheritance. As I understand it, everyone since Adam (except for the Lord Jesus) was born dead in sin, literally. The “thing” that occurred in Adam and Eve when they ate the fruit—the spiritual death that occurred when they knew they were naked and ashamed, when they blamed each other and not themselves—that spiritual death became the legacy of Adam to the human race. We are literally born spiritually dead in sin.
Paul tells us that in Adam we all die (1 Cor. 15:22), and he explains in Romans 3 that this spiritual death keeps each one of us from being able to seek God, do good, or please Him. We are literally born spiritually dead and are under judgment until we believe (John 3:17, 18). We are by NATURE children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).
This spiritual death is the natural condition of all humans (except for Jesus) who are ever born. It is not actually an IMPUTED sin in that sense because it is literally considered to be OUR sin. When we are born again, we are literally made spiritually alive.
When we are made spiritually alive, that miracle is palpable and discernible. I’ve never spoken to anyone who was born again who didn’t know absolutely that they literally became new people. They changed profoundly. People receive LIFE, and they have new potential, new preferences, and new power.
The indwelling Holy Spirit is an added grace from God when we are born again; yet the prophecy in Ezekiel 36:25–27—which Nicodemus should have understood when he was speaking with Jesus in John 3—explains the details of what happens when we receive new life from the Lord:
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”—Ezekiel 36:25–27
When we place our belief and trust in the Lord Jesus’ finished work, He actually gives us a new heart and a new spirit. Our immaterial selves which are born dead in sin are made alive with the eternal life Jesus’ resurrection brought to us. Then, even above that spiritual life which He gives us, He places His Spirit in us as well! His Spirit makes it possible for us to be able to please Him, as we read even further throughout the epistles.
When Jesus went to the cross, He did not take a dead-in-sin human spirit to the cross. He was always spiritually alive. But 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that the Father, who was “in Him” on the cross reconciling the world to Himself, “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf”:
He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.—2 Corinthians 5:21
God “credited” Jesus with OUR sin—He accounted human sin to be on Jesus. Thus God poured out His wrath on human sin ON JESUS. Jesus was never a sinner or dead in sin, but He was “credited” (or debited) with our sin for the purpose of being our substitute as God poured out judgment and wrath on our sin in the person of His Son.
Then, we who believe are credited with God’s own imputed righteousness. In other words, we do not personally become sin-free or unable to sin, but when we receive the life of God, He literally credits us with HIS OWN righteousness. In this way God sees us as His own, with His own eternal life in us—and He adopts us and makes us joint heirs with the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:14–17).
So our natural sin-nature is that we are spiritually dead, our legacy from Adam. We are not just counted dead in sin, but we literally ARE dead in sin. When we believe and are credited with God’s righteousness, we do not literally become personally righteous. We DO become spiritually alive, but we still have a law of sin in our members (Romans 7), but because we have been credited with God’s righteousness on the basis of our faith in Jesus’ shed blood and His resurrection, we are counted righteous. Our flesh will become sin-free when the Lord Jesus returns and gives us glorified bodies!
In this way we can see that Jesus was never actually a sinner, nor was He dead in sin. He was always ALILVE—yet God imputed our sin onto Him. He “became” sin on our behalf, “so that we might BECOME the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus, the eternally sinless, Living One, became sin for us—He was accounted as SIN. Interestingly, the text doesn’t say He became “a sinner”, but He “became sin”. He was accounted to be the very thing God hated, the very thing God judged and punished. The purpose of this accounting of Jesus as SIN was so that He could justly take God’s punishment and thus break our curse by being our Substitute. So, when we believe and receive new life in our previously dead spirits, we receive much more than simply forgiveness: we receive CREDIT in our “bank”, so to speak: we become “the righteousness of God” in Christ! We are hidden n Christ, and God credits us with His own perfect righteousness.
Here is an article that may help with “seeing” this concept through the aid of some illustrations that depict man’s state from Adam and Eve to the new birth we receive through Jesus’ blood:
How Can I Tell If My Friends Are Sincere?
I have been having “Bible Studies” with some SDA neighbors and know it’s their intention to convert me (or in their own words do their duty to me as a friend by sharing the Sabbath teaching and the three angels messages with me—but we’ve not gotten that far yet). I keep trying to go back to an exegetical approach and suggest going through books of the Bible, but they seem just keen to share their doctrines rather than do this.
I have been so helped by listening to your podcast series on Galatians (I’m up to chapter 5) and am looking forward to listening to your Hebrews and Romans series after I finish Galatians. God’s Word is just coming alive with so much more clarity than ever before!
Now, my question for you is (really, there are a few, actually). When does Titus 3:10 become relevant in this kind of situation?
“Reject a factious man after a first and second warning,”
I really feel for these people and their three precious little boys.
How can I tell if they are actually deceived but open to truth and changing, or if they are intentional in their work and won’t change no matter how much evidence I show them? Do I just have to see how it plays out in the end, or are there some ways I can test their motives now before I get in too deep with them?
I feel nervous that they will cut me off once they share their doctrines with me and I reject it. By the way, they are very conservative traditional Adventists. Many thanks in advance for any suggestions you can give!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: You ask a very good question. There’s no definitive answer to your question, but there are “markers” that you can observe. First, I would not engage in Bible study with them if they are in control of the study. If they are directing it and choosing the “curriculum” and setting the “rules” for how to study, I wouldn’t engage. You need to be able to study with them on “neutral” territory: you should be able to study the Bible ALONE contextually.
Adventists claim that they believe the Bible and that it is their only source of truth. By their own claims, they should not object to studying the Bible by itself. When we were Adventists and initiated Bible studies with our neighbors, we were willing to read through books of the New Testament with them using no other commentaries. We believed that our beliefs were supported by Scripture, so we knew we couldn’t ask our Christian neighbors to study by a plan concocted by us.
It sounds as if your friends have an agenda for their studies with you and are not content simply to read through the Bible. From my perspective, this is a red flag, and it’s a warning that you have to assert your own boundaries for what you are willing to study. I would tell them that I simply want to read the Bible with them in context, that if they are going to structure your time together to teach you their beliefs, you are not willing to study with them.
The fact is that they are misusing Scripture to do this kind of study, and they are functioning as false teachers. If they are not willing to submit themselves to the plain reading of the Word in context, then they are not actually open to knowing what the Bible may say. There may be a level of fear inside of them that suspects contextual Bible reading with you will “confuse” them or lead them astray.
All of this reveals that the Bible itself is not their true foundation of belief. They won’t admit that it’s not, but it’s not if they are unwilling to submit themselves to reading it in context.
Jesus said not to give one’s pearls to pigs because the pigs would trample the pearls into the mud and then turn and rend you. His point is that if we persist in offering truth to people who refuse to deal with it, it hardens them in their resistance and increases their sin/unbelief.
Now, I can’t say for sure that your friends are in this category. But I would not continue to study with them if they are in control of the study. I would tell them that you are eager to read the Bible with them, but you need to agree to use the Bible ALONE with no outside commentaries or curricula. In other words, you are not interested in doing topical studies but you want to simply read the Bible in its own context using its own words.
If they are not willing to do that, I would not continue to study with them. To do so is a form of submitting yourself to their false teaching, quietly affirming to them that they are on the “right track”. They may not be willing to simply read in context with you. They may even agree initially but then try to take control back and teach you their perspective. Do not allow them to do that with you. It is manipulative, and they have been taught that it’s OK to “trick” and manage Bible study to get an unbeliever to believe their way. The essence of Adventism is deception, and they aren’t even aware that what they are doing is evil because they have been taught that their job is to appeal to the unbelievers and seduce them so they’ll accept their Adventist distinctive beliefs. They subtly entangle you with guilt and obligation so you will do it their way.
You need to be very direct and refuse to study their beliefs or to study their way. You can tell them that you will only continue doing these studies if they will agree simply to read through books of the New Testament together using no outside sources. Say that you will agree to those same terms with them. If they are not willing, you will not be “hurting” them to discontinue the studies. They know what they are trying to do, and they are attempting to bring you onto their “home turf advantage” and force you to study their way with their material directing your study.
If they see that you are unwilling to continue, they may feel “smug” and comfort themselves by saying you weren’t “open”. Yet God has said His word is alive, and it will not return to Him empty. It will do what He has sent it out to do. If they have honest hearts, they will want to study the Bible, and if you stop, they may even miss the time with you. But I would make the literal contextual reading of God’s word the standard by which to measure your time with them. †
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