Study Paper No. 8
Eternal Imputation
The subject of this study is PRE-CREATIVE Imputation. In pre-creative eternity the Holy Trinity, Elohem, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, the Three Equal, Self-Existing Divine Beings, pure spirits, in Whom the One Divine Essence dwells equally, did DECRETIVELY impute unto Jesus Christ, in His Sacred Humanity, the sins of all God’s little children. They did receive from Him, the merits of His imputed righteousness. The theology of eternal imputation deals only with elect men and women, and not with the elect angels who were confirmed in Christ as their Federal Head, but were not redeemed by Him.
The Blessings of Eternal Divine Love
In union with the theology of eternal, imputation, is eternal justification and eternal, vital union with Jesus Christ and Eternal Love. The Eternal Love of God is only in Christ Jesus and therefore those who are in Christ are the only objects of eternal, divine love.
John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 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 lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Jer. 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Rom. 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
No person outside of Christ, in a decretive manner from pre-creative eternity, or in a temporal manner, is the object of God’s love. The same is true of justification. These blessings stand alone in Christ and His securements as our Mediator and Surety.
The Foundation of Eternal, Vital Union
Eternal, Vital Union is manifested and stands because the Father gave unto His only begotten Son, His created little children.
John 17:1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
The Imputation of Sin to Christ in Pre-Creative Eternity
The very fact that Christ did stand, in pre-creative eternity, as the Lamb of God already slain, shows that Christ did receive the wages of sin or death, before all creation, in a decretive manner. He received these wages of sin for His people on the Cross in an experimental or temporal manner.
When the Holy Trinity did impute the sins of God’s people unto Christ in pre-creative eternity, they did this in a judicial manner. Christ did decretively receive by imputation the sins of His brothers and sisters before all creation. It therefore follows that the very existence of His brothers and sisters in time was already fixed and sure. In many other actions of God’s love and grace the existence of the elect in their natural state is seen as sure and certain. One of these is when the Father gave unto the Son all of the elect, before the foundation of the world. In this manner, the elect are seen as sure and certain in their natural state in this present, evil world.
The Certain Existence of the Elect and their Sins
However, the sins of God’s elect and the elect are two different things. While the elect stood as sure and certain before all creation, their sins did also stand by imputation unto Christ as the slain Lamb from the foundation of the world. Under God, the wages of sin is death. It must follow that sin did bring forth death upon our Lord Jesus Christ, decretively, before the foundation of the world, or He would not have stood as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
No Uncertainty about Christ’s Death
Did Christ die for anyone who might not exist? I do not believe so. The very fact that election and reprobation were set and firm before all creation shows the sure and certain existence of both the elect and the reprobates in this present evil world. The decretive slaying of Christ before creation shows that the imputed sins of God’s people were also sure and certain before all creation. If this is not true then we must distinguish between Christ dying for the elect, and then someone else dying for their sins. Who then would die for the sins of the elect if Christ did not do so? Do we hold that the elect must suffer and die for their own sins, or did Christ die not only for the elect, but their sins as well? In what way did Christ die for the sins of His people if not in a judicial manner?
Once we establish from the Scriptures that Christ did die in a judicial manner for the sins of His people, then we establish the theology of eternal imputation. Did Christ die for the sins of His people or only for His people?
Christ Died for the Sins of His People
Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
Galatians 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
Hebrews 5:3 And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
Hebrews 7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
Hebrews 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Hebrews 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
1 John 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Christ did die for His people and He did lay down His life for His Sheep. He did so for their sins as well.
The Theology of Imputation
Because the Scriptures teach us that Christ did die for the sins of His people, and that the wages of sin is death, and that Christ did stand as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the consequence of these three points is; the sins of Christ’s people were placed upon Christ by imputation, decretively, before all creation, and, they did decretively slay Him before all creation.
Christ Did Offer for His Own Sins by Imputation
Please note this very carefully, Paul teaches us that Christ did, as the High Priests of olden times before Him did, offer a sacrifice for HIS OWN SINS AS WELL AS FOR THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE. How did the spotless Lamb of God have HIS OWN SINS? ONLY BY IMPUTATION AND THIS IMPUTATION OF THE SINS OF HIS PEOPLE, HE RECEIVED BEFORE ALL CREATION ONLY IN A DECRETIVE MANNER.
Hebrews 5:3 And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.Hebrews 7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
Hebrews 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Hebrews 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Christ Blessings Imputed unto His Brother and Sisters
Because Christ did receive the sins of His people before all creation, decretively, by imputation, it also follows that His people receive the merits of Christ’s active and passive obedience, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness unto them, their justification by His blood, and their reconciliation back unto their Father WHEN He died on the Cross. They received these blessings decretively before all creation. Christ’s brothers and sisters receive these blessing experimentally in this present evil world. These experienced blessings give unto God’s little children the knowledge of their salvation by the remission of their sins.
Luke 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
Please note by Paul’s statements:
2 Cor. 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The Exactness between Eternity and Timely Existence and Events
All that Christ worked out and earned in time for His sheep, and they receive from His merits, the Holy Trinity did decretively establish before all creation. The reason that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, in time, is because God did decree to do so before all creation. Even so, God made Christ to be sin for us in time because He did so decretively before all creation. With the imputation of the sins of God’s people unto Christ, He stood as the Lamb Slain from the foundation of the world.
Not only did Christ receive our sins by imputation in a decretive manner before all creation, but we, the elect of God, received Christ’s merits imputed unto us in the same manner, by the same Covenant Engagements, before all creation. These points taken together establish, in my opinion, the theology of an eternal, imputation between Christ and His sheep according to the stipulations and agreements entered into between the Father and the Son before all creation as set forth in the Covenant of Peace and Redemption.
Numbers 25:12 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:
Ezekiel 34:25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
Ezekiel 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
Heb. 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Col. 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Eph. 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Suggested studies, God in Christ, taken from Edward Drapes, The Invisible Worship of God, (particular Baptist Minister of the Glasshouse Church in London) about 1647, God in Christ, by a Debtor to Mercy; and Christ Slain from the Foundation of the World, an Enlarged Study, by a Debtor to Mercy.
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Originally Posted by debtor2
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