WE have been considering the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and we noticed some of the characteristics and experiences of the man so blessed. We saw that God chose him from among men with the infallible result that he was made to approach to Christ. In this approach he was freed from guile and from all trust in human supports and was given faith to flee unto, believe in, and to rest upon Christ as the Father freely offers him in the Gospel. Now, according to the Word, the experiences and the blessings found with this man are found in the Covenant of grace and nowhere else, and as we place the man along with the blessing of justification within the covenant we shall find from his position there one great argument why God will not impute sin to him.
“Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin,” because this is a condition of the covenant of grace. In procuring and securing the safety of believers the Holy Trinity acts in a way both loving and just. Within the framework of the covenant, the election of believers has its completion in the realisation of the words, “Behold me and the children thou hast given me,” and “Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.” In order to prepare them for this high calling they are given to partake of the Divine nature through which they become sons of God. A true, proper and everlasting sonship is election in full fruit, and in the following beautiful scriptures we have the procuring and the effective securing of all things necessary for this blessing, and for their entry upon and enjoyment of the presence of Christ in glory. “According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.”
When it bestows sonship upon believers, God’s covenant love bestows the highest and the best upon them, but sonship can only be through adoption, and adoption must have legal securities behind it. We cannot at one and the same time be children of God and be under his wrath as judge. As children of God we cannot be free from wrath one day and then lie under it the next. As the terms of the covenant make us “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ,” and this the furthermost blessing of election is secured only because sin in its root and fruit has been effectively and finally dealt with by Christ our covenant head. As surely as Heaven decreed that His resurrection should follow upon his finished work, so surely does Heaven decree a state of absolute justification following on faith in Christ. But wonderful benefit though justification is, it is not an end in itself. The loving intention of God in justifying is to provide an entry into a state of permanent adoption. Justification is a legal necessity before true and proper sonship is possible.
It is from within the covenant of grace and with a view to the covenant’s highest blessing—sonship—that God declares over and over again with tender assurance that he will not mark iniquity to those placed within the orbit of the covenant. He will remember their sins no more; he will cast them into the depth of the sea; he will blot them out as a cloud; they shall be sought for and not be found. He will cast them behind his back; he will come over them as over mountains; and he will rest in his love with singing over the person accepted in his beloved. It was a gift of children the Father made to His Son; it was to legalise, secure and confirm their adoption that Christ came and died. The practical implementation of the conditions of adoption lies in the effectual calling, preservation and sanctification wrought by the Holy Spirit. If it were possible to mark iniquity in a legal sense against the believer in Christ, it would be equally possible to cancel all obligations between the Persons of the Godhead within the covenant of grace.
Graciously the Holy Trinity planned and decreed the destiny of this people, and unitedly moved forward in love to secure an everlasting sonship for all believers. As children they must grow in many ways. As children they must be chastened and disciplined, but even when the heaviest chastisement has fallen for the worst sin they still are children of the covenant, and within the covenant there is neither judicial guilt nor judicial wrath. As enactments of the covenant between the Father and the Son, both guilt and wrath were there once, but that was at Calvary, and Calvary has passed into the book of God’s remembrance of His Church. With respect to “the children which thou hast given me,” guilt and wrath have gone forever. There may be clouds on the earthward side of the Sun of righteousness which has risen upon the Church of Christ, but the Heavenward aspect is eternally cloudless. The sun of the resurrection morn has risen with unclouded justification upon the whole family which are named of Christ in Heaven and earth, and blessed be our precious Saviour that is a sun that will never set.
The Lord will not impute iniquity since the standing of the justified person is a gracious one.
For into such a standing questions of mere human merit or demerit do not enter. “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom we have access into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Now we know from other parts of this epistle that this gracious standing is opposed to salvation by works, but we find even more than that in this standing. This state is so completely new, so exclusively of God that questions of mere human merit or demerit enter in nowhere. It is true that within this blessed state all references to demerit, guilt and wrath, are not excluded, but they are nowhere included as threats or occasions of fear. No, far otherwise; references to guilt and wrath are there, but only as reminders that these have already been dealt with by our Lord. “Behold my hands and my feet, behold at one and the same time evidence of your guilt and evidence of your eternal discharge from all guilt.” Behold the handwriting of ordinances which was against you; see in this grace, it is nailed to the cross. Yes, nailed by the hand that was nailed along with it to that same cross. Nowhere else and in no other way could the writing against you be so effectively cancelled. There on the cross, and within this grace wherein we stand, the curse is completely ineffective, obsolete, exhausted, dumb, dead. “God in Christ, the God of all grace, has set up this state, and he himself has entered in upon it. Taking with him all the resources of his entire saviourhood he has taken up residence, and his dwelling there is delightfulsome to him. “Here is my rest, here still I’ll stay, for I do like it well.” He has brought into this “grace wherein we stand” all the preciousness of his blood, all the merit of his righteousness with both partaking of the dignity of his Divine Person. He has filled to overflowing this vast estate with himself, God our Saviour.
For the believer brought by faith into this estate there is never to be a going out. No, never; for as surely as disobedience sent Adam outside Eden, this state of grace secures all within it eternally. There are no degrees of security within this grace wherein we stand. Here one cannot breathe except one breathes the forgiving grace of God. No other atmosphere is possible. Grace excludes all but itself. Every thought, word and deed is either prompted or given by grace, or if otherwise, the Lord resident here forgives all. He has set up this state and maintains it just that these conditions and none other should obtain here. Mercy is his delight, and this state provides him with the opportunity of so delighting himself.
“God our saviour”—what a precious title. “A just God and a saviour”; “The God of all grace”; and the new state he by himself has founded, and now fills with himself. A curseless land forever more. The curse was ours, but he has wrested blessings from the heart of it, and nought but blessing remain. It is a curseless land since nothing but blessings can grow here. The presence of the once crucified Lord ensures this. “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends; yea, drink abundantly, O Beloved.” Guilt, wrath, Hell are words never found in this garden except to excite love, gratitude and a more ready obedience. No, it is far otherwise. Everything combines to ease our minds, to unburden our consciences, remove our doubts and to increase our sense of security. The God of all grace within the state he has founded will never weary in his most tender efforts to allay our fears and to remove our ignorance. One of his reasons for founding and maintaining this state of grace was in order that he should remove for evermore the danger to us of having our sins imputed to us. That this is his loving intention is clear from the many and constant assurances he so liberally lays to conscience and heart of “both small and great.” It is the God of all grace speaking from within the state “wherein you stand” that says, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee or rebuke thee, for the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee, for I know the thoughts that I think towards thee, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
The tranquility, the serenity, the peace of Heaven is the peace of this state. We cannot as yet enjoy it as saints in Heaven do, but that is just because we have not arrived there. The nature of the peace, the foundation of it, the companionship of him who provides and maintains it are the same here as in glory. I do not say that “this grace wherein we stand” is like the suburbs of heaven. I say that this state of grace is actually of the very suburbs of glory. There is no intermediate place between. No more can sin be imputed here in this state than it can be imputed in the same state in Heaven. “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin,” for he who has attained to that state has a well founded reason to rejoice in hope of the glory of God.—Penuel.
(To be continued.)