Philemon 1:15-19
SUBJECT: SALVATION/ IMPUTATION
THEME: When we trust Jesus Christ as Savior, God gives
Jesus credit for our sins. Yes, our sins are imputed to the Son of God who paid for them all at Calvary.
Imputation or impute is probably a term you
did not use this past week. In antiquity it referred to keeping commercial accounts involving both debits and credits.... Basically, it means charging, ascribing or
reckoning something to a person’s account. The thought is assigning, calculating
or accounting a responsibility…a credit…a guilt…a debt...or a value to another person. According
to the Holman’s Illustrated Bible
Dictionary, it is defined as, “Setting to someone’s account or reckoning something to another
person” (Dockery, D. S., 2003). So, imputing is the act of adding something
good or bad to the account of another person.
Because the term is not as familiar today, let’s consider another
definition and application of the term in a legal context. Vocabulary.com says,
Imputation is the attributing of actions to a source: often, imputation involves actions that are criminal. Imputation takes words or actions and ties them to a person or a cause. An imputation is when you say, “He did it!” Imputations are therefore similar to accusations. Often, this word relates to imputations of dirty deeds, especially illegal deeds. “My brother stole the car” is an imputation. “The butler killed the maid” is an imputation. Imputations place blame, usually for something very wrong indeed. This word is often used in legal situations, when imputations are part of testimony. (https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/imputation)
As a legal action imputation generally involves the placing
of blame or responsibility to someone. This does not eliminate the fact that good
can also be ascribed or credited, but the legal usage tends to be negative in
its connotations. Let me share a positive example of imputation from my own
life to illustrate a favorable usage of the term. As a kid I loved penny candy…far
too much, and I have the cavities to prove it! My granddad, affectionately referred
to as “Buss” because his middle name was Buster, would take us kids to the
local convenience store. Though he would chide me, my siblings and cousins for
eating too many sweets, he could not resist making his grands happy. So, we
would pile into his car, and off we would go to the old country general store in
Borden, South Carolina near where I grew up. Now Grand Daddy Buss would not
take us to the store purely for our candy cravings, but we knew that he would
buy it along with his stuff. So, penny candy and bubble gum were on my list. It
was one of the many joys of the long summer days during summer vacation to go to the "Store" with Buss. Now here is
the kicker in this story…if we kids didn’t have the money to buy our own penny candy,
then Granddad would buy it for us! If Granddad didn’t have the cash at the moment,
he would simply put all the items on his credit account at the little general store.
Then a short time later he would pay off the entirety of his account. For us grand kids
there was no cost to us, but we still received the penny candy we craved. Granddad
paid the price for us and the store’s manager would simply add the cost of our
candy to Granddad’s credit account. Since Granddad had a credit account, we were
able to secure the items we wanted from the general store.
In light of the definitions of imputation we have discussed,
we can say the general store manager imputed or charged the cost of the grocery
items to Granddad’s personal credit account. Or we could say the manager added
the cost of the groceries to Granddad’s account. The cost was accounted to
Granddad. This is imputation in a positive light.
There are a number of wonderful instances where the term or
synonyms for impute are used in the Bible. Some words in the Scriptures that mean
impute are, “COUNTED” (Rom. 4:3, 5); “RECKONED” (Rom. 4:4, 9,10); and obviously
“IMPUTED” (Rom. 4:11, 22, 23, 24, 5:13). Again, these are accounting and legal
terms with negative and positive connotations. These references point to charging,
ascribing or reckoning something to a person’s spiritual account. God accounted righteousness to Abraham because of his faith (Gen. 15:6). The idea
is God ascribed to Abraham what he had no means of securing for himself (Rom. 4:3–5).
Furthermore, this is not the notion that God accepted Abraham’s faith instead
of righteousness as an achievement deserving God’s full judicial justification.
No, the idea is that God declared Abraham as righteous purely because he
trusted in God as opposed to believing in himself or trusting in acts of service
or a religious ritual to earn God’s acceptance. (Dockery, D. S., 2003).
Another brilliant example of the imputation concept occurs
in the little letter of Philemon in verse 18. In this passage, Paul accepts
responsibility for any wrong or debt caused by the runaway slave, Onesimus. Notice
what the great apostle says,
Philemon 1:15-19, For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; 16, Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord? 17, If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. 18, If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; 19, I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.
Notice Paul’s words, “put that on mine account.” This is
the same concept! In fact, when we grand kids would place our penny candy on the
counter during check out for Granddad to purchase it, he would use the same
terms. “Put those on my account,” he would say to the store manager! Again,
this is one of the most excellent illustrations of imputation in the entire Bible.
Paul says to Philemon that if his slave Onesimus owes anything…whatever the
amount…to charge it to Paul’s account. Don’t miss what the great apostle is
saying; any debt Onesimus might have incurred would now be Paul’s responsibility
and Paul promised to pay it in full. Similarly, our sins were attributed,
ascribed, reckoned to Christ, and He paid our debt fully!
In 1990,
God placed my sins…every one of them without a single exception…past present
and future sins…on Jesus Christ! All I did was placed my faith in Him after hearing
the Gospel. From a heart of godly sorrow, I cried out to God for forgiveness
for my wickedness and sins. God imputed my sins to Jesus. The same Lord Jesus who went
to Calvary and there paid for all sin and offers forgiveness to anyone who will
accept His perfect payment. He is literally alive again having completely
defeated death, sin, hell, and the grave. In his sacrifice for our sins and
resurrection, He soundly defeated Satan and broke the power of sin for those
who trust Him. Beloved, because we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel,
God ascribes to each believer perfect “righteousness,” the very righteousness
of God. We become fully acceptable to God when we accept what He did for our
salvation. This is our new standing before a holy God. Jesus takes credit for
our awful sins, and we receive credit for His perfect "right-ness" before a holy
God. Is there anyone else willing to say to the Lord Jesus, I believe you…I
accept your payment for my sins…please put my sins on your account?
