Sinclair Ferguson taught this morning on The Nature of Saving Faith. His text was Rom. 3:19 - 5:11. "Faith," he said, "is my whole soul's entrustment of Christ as my sole source for salvation." He spoke of several aspects of salvation, including propitiation, forgiveness, justification, and imputed righteousness. Faith is our means at arriving at a resting place where all of these are appropriated.
Dr. Ferguson brought out a special point. Saving faith is in Christ, clothed in the gospel. Salvation is not something given apart from Christ. We receive Christ, and salvation is included. We receive who He is, and the rest is included. Faith is "believing into" Christ, receiving Christ. The rest of the aspects of salvation are found in Christ.
The other main point regarding saving faith was that it is actively involved in pursuing Christ. God doesn't believe for you. And saving faith is not inactive. It is obedient.
The final message was from Dr. Sproul on Imputation. He used Gen. 15:1-6 and Rom. 4:1-8 for his text. Imputation, in the sense of these passages, refers to a legal assignment, a legal declaration. "Abraham believed God, and He imputed it to him as righteousness."
There are three aspects of imputation. 1) Adam's sin was imputed to all. 2) My sin was imputed to Christ. 3) His righteousness was imputed to me. The Bible uses a few terms to illustrate this concept. One is "covering", as in Gen. 3:21. One is the concept of the scapegoat, where Israel's sin was imputed to the goat and then removed from the people. One is being clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Without imputation, we don't have a gospel. Imputation is required for anyone to be declared righteous.
Well, the conference is over and we're heading out. I enjoyed it. I'm guessing that you didn't get quite as much out of it as I did. Next year, maybe you ought to come out yourself. I thought it was worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment