Roger Duke
Feb 272 min read
Roger Duke
Feb 272 min read
February 8 - I Believe in Imputed Righteousness
Roger Duke
“Blessed in the man against whom the LORD counts no [does not impute] iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit”
Psalm 32: 2
This entry is taken from Daily Readings - John Bunyan a 366 day devotional edited by (and posted with permission from) Roger D. Duke, Scholar-in-Residence at Stage & Story, and published by Christian Heritage Press.
Each month focuses on a different book or writing by Bunyan. For February: My Confession of Faith (or A Confession of My Faith and a Reason of My Practice, or, With Who, and Who Not, I can Hold Church-fellowship, or the Communion of Saints)
I believe we are sinful Creatures in ourselves, that no good thing done by us, can procure from God the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But that the imputation is an act of grace—a free gift without our deserving it. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. He called us, and saved us, with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 3: 24; & 5: 17, 2 Timothy 1: 9).
I believe also that the power of imputed righteousness resides only in God by Christ:
Sin being the transgression of the Law;
The soul that hath sinned, being his creature, and the righteousness also his, and his only.
Even as David also described the blessedness of the man, to whom God imputed righteousness without works saying, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Hence therefore it is said again that men shall abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness and sing of his righteousness. For . . . [God] saith to Moses, “I will have mercy, on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion, on whom I will have compassion.” So then, it is not in him who wills, nor in him that runs, but in God that shows mercy (Romans 4: .6 & 7; Psalm 145: 7, Romans 9: 15 & 16).
John Bunyan was a preacher, theologian and author, whose best-known work, The Pilgrim's Progress, has challenged and influenced readers for almost 350 years.
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