Lazarus1719 wrote:
Once when I was in Kansas City I visited the IHOP house of prayer. Going through their book store I cam upon this little gem:Foundations of Wesleyan-Arminian Theology by Mildred Bangs Wynkoop.
It's a small, 128 page book, which goes through the history of Christian theology (back to Augustine and Pelagius) up to the day of Wesley.
I personally agree with Methodism's doctrine of Actual Righteous, over against the Calvinistic doctrine of Imputed Righteousness.
[b]Mildred Wynkoop [/b]said, "the idea of a transfer of righteousness from Christ to man (or imputed righteousness) is the exact antithesis of the biblical concept of holiness"!
[b]John Wesley said:[/b] Imputed righteousness is "a blow to the root, the root of all holiness, all true religion...Hereby Christ is stabbed in the house of his friends, of those who make the largest professions of loving Him; the whole design of His death, namely, to destroy the work of the devil, being overthrown at a stroke. For wherever this doctrine is cordially received, it makes no place for holiness."
But of coarse, as Wynkoop said, even Wesleys Calvinistic friends called him a Romanist, a Pelagian, and a preacher of salvation by works.
But I affirm the doctrine of Actual, Literal Righteousness through Christ instead of the doctrine of Imputed or Positional Righteousness through Christ. It is the doctrine of positional righteousness which gives birth to the antinomian monster of, "Once Saved, Always Saved". But that is the dark era in which we live, when such doctrines have become to be considered as "sound" and "orthodox".
[b]Lu 10:28 [/b]- And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: [b]this do[/b], and thou shalt live.
[b]Ro 2:13 [/b]- (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the [b]doers[/b] of the law shall be justified.
[b]1Jo 2:29[/b] - If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that [b]doeth righteousness [/b]is born of him.
[b]1Jo 3:7[/b] - Little children, [i]let no man deceive you[/i]: he that [b]doeth righteousness [/b]is righteous, even as he is righteous.
[b]1Jo 3:10[/b] -In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever [b]doeth not righteousness [/b]is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
Jesse, I found this complete discussion of imputation, and all it's applications, including impartation, although it is not mentioned as such:
[color=993300] Imputation
Text: A broad concept finding its theological center in the atonement. The Latin imputare literally means "to reckon," "to charge to one's account," and is an adequate rendering of the Greek term logizomai. This forensic notion of imputation has its partial roots in the commercial and legal language of the Greco-Roman world; one who has something imputed to him is accountable under the law. It is in this sense that Paul asks Philemon to have Onesimus's debts transferred to Paul (Philem. 18: "If he has wronged you... charge that to my account"). Imputation also has its distinctively Hebraic roots (cf. hasab, "to count for, to reckon"), being used, for example, in reference to the sacrificial system (cf. Lev. 7:18: "neither shall it be credited to him"; Lev. 17:4). It is also important to note that the OT uses the term to include even those judgments that have no direct, objective basis (e.g., Gen. 31:15: "Are we not regarded by him as foreigners?" II Chr. 9:20).
In the NT, Christians are said to receive the "alien righteousness" of God as a "free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:15). Just as God reckoned Abraham as righteous on the basis of Abraham's belief alone (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3), so others are similarly blessed as the Lord does not impute their iniquity to them (Ps. 32:1-2; Rom. 4:7-8). This divine judicial act is based, not on human merit, but on God's love (Rom. 5:6ff.).
In arguing for a forensic, communal grace rooted solely in the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we receive our reconciliation, Paul contrasts the work of Christ with the sin of Adam, by which sin, guilt, and death came into the world (Rom. 5:12-14). Just as it is in Christ that we are redeemed, so it is in Adam that we are judged sinners (Rom. 5:15-21; cf. I Cor. 15:21-22). The exact meaning of this comparison has caused heated debate through much of church history. Can it be said that humankind is judged according to an "alien guilt"? Is not such a notion irrational, harsh, arbitrary, and even fatalistic, not in keeping with the larger biblical witness that people act freely and are responsible for their own sins (cf. Ezek. 18:1-20)?
Pelagius in the fifth century substituted for the notion of imputation the less severe concept of imitation. He argued that as free and responsible agents who are born with the capacity not to sin, all people nevertheless sin concretely following Adam's example. Pelagius was opposed by Augustine, and his view concerning human possibility has since been repeatedly rejected by the orthodox church (although it has proven a recurring notion, e.g., in Protestant liberalism).
How then is the imputation of Adam's sin to humankind to be understood? Some have argued that God's justice demands that imputation be considered not as forensic, but as real, all humankind having in fact sinned with Adam. Guilt thus is a proper guilt and in no sense alien. Such "realists" have difficulty in explaining how we might be actually present with Adam, however.
An alternate solution, one argued by the Westminister Confession, for example, is to understand Adam as our representative. God, in creating the human community, covenanted with all humanity through its head, Adam. The decision of the public figure Adam to sine is thus our decision as well, and his guilt, ours too. Such an explanation is often labeled federalism, after a federalist notion of government.
Although the exact nature of divine imputation remains a mystery, a biblically based understanding of the concept would want to maintain the following: (1) as formulated by Paul, the notion of imputation is included as part of a doxology to God for his grace in Christ. Imputation has to do ultimately with salvation, with our "alien righteousness," with being reckoned as if we were righteous. (2) Not only is Christ the theme of Paul's discussion, he is the starting-point as well. Only in the context of God's yes to us on the cross (and in the law) do we understand the full horror of his no to humankind (Rom. 5:13). In Adam, God judged the entire human race guilty, but only in Jesus is this fact fully understood (cf. Jesus' cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," Mark 15:34; cf. Isa. 53:4-6; II Cor. 5:21).
(3) The doctrine of the imputation of sin has never had as its purpose the denial of personal freedom and guilt. Rather, it has been intended to emphasize universal complicity on the part of humanity. The notion of imputation provides sin neither an excuse nor an explication, only a judgment. We stand in need of God's grace (cf. Rom. 6:23).
(4) The stress on the corporate and original nature of human sin, on the human solidarity of guilt, is but one pole of a full biblical understanding. Sin's social dimension needs the continual, yet paradoxical, balancing of sin's individual and personal dimensions (I John 1:9-10). As fallen men and women, we live out a life of sin (i.e., of independence from God) and actualize our sins. Given God's judgment on humankind, his alienation from us, we can only worship creature and not Creator. And yet, it is we who choose no longer to submit and to follow instead our independent passions.
(5) The analogy between Adam and Christ is not simple or total. While the imputation of righteousness is arbitrary, a free and undeserved act of grace whose reality remains forensic, the imputation of guilt is appropriate, its consequence affirming the judgment. Paul himself emphasizes the danger of taking the analogy too far, distinguishing the "free gift" from the "trespass" (Rom. 5:15). (6) The divine imputation of sin and guilt, being a forensic act of God, needs have no objective basis in the life of the person (cf. II Cor. 5:21: "For our sake he made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God"). Nevertheless, the consistent biblical witness, validated by all who have followed after Adam, is that it does (cf. Rom. 3:23: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"). God is not capricious, but righteous and loving (Ezek. 18:25-32). Humankind has not merely been declared guilty; it has acted out its guilt. R. K. JOHNSTON
Bibliography. G. C. Berkouwer, Sin; A. A. Hodge, The Atonement; H. W. Heidland, TDNT, IV, 284-92; J. Murray, The Imputation of Adam's Sin.
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[b]To simplify, when I consider my own salvation, I think of it in this order:
I have sinned.
Jesus died for my sins, and gave me His Righteousness in place of my sins by my faith in Him, and by God's grace.
All things are permitted me under God's grace, for I have the perfect Righteousness of Jesus within me.
However, no matter how much grace covers my mistakes, God expects me to show my love for Him by obedience, to the best of my ability.
God knows I cannot ever become perfect by my own effort, which is why He gave me His grace through Jesus.
However, God's grace is not permission to sin, but the bridge between my attempts to follow the law, and the perfection I cannot reach.
If I persist in sin, I will grieve the Holy Spirit, and if I do it long enough, I will grieve Him away completely.
At that point, my conscience is seared, and God's grace is withdrawn from me.
Consequently, I know I am covered against my imperfections by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But I must continue to strive to obey, seeking God's forgiveness for every sin through Jesus Christ.
Consequently, when the Rapture comes, Jesus will not find sinlessness on the earth. What He will find is faith in Him to save us from ourselves, for even as I repent for one sin, I am probably committing another without knowing it, and as soon as the Holy Spirit convicts me of that sin, I must repent, and try not to sin again.
It is our faith that saves us, but we cannot rest on that single Yes to Jesus. We must show Him our love the only way that we can, in praise, worship, and a continuous attempt at obedience.
Blessings,
[/b]
