Imputation, Part 2

Isaiah 53: 6

Welcome to a new broadcast of Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Today Colin explores the scripture: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In exploring these words, Pastor Colin Smith brings to life the concept of imputation – the idea that Jesus took on our sins, and in exchange, we receive his righteousness. This bountiful exchange is at the core of the Gospel message, a testament to the divine grace that offers both forgiveness and hope.

Whether you find yourself wrestling with personal shortcomings or seeking to align your life with God’s purpose, the message today speaks directly to your concerns. We delve into Isaiah 53:6, which conveys the transformative work of Christ and points us towards a path of peace and renewed devotion.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, what really comes across here is the last part of that statement, that in him we become the righteousness of God. It’s hard to grasp that, isn’t it? It is one of the most marvelous statements in all of Scripture, isn’t it? That our sins have been laid on the Lord Jesus Christ so that his righteousness should actually become ours. It’s like a kind of double transfer, and it’s the amazing gift of God’s grace. And there’ll be someone listening to the program right now, and you have asked the question, how can God ever forgive me for what I have done? Now, for that matter, could I ever forgive myself? And the answer to that is in Jesus Christ. God has taken your sin and laid it on his own son. And that’s how forgiveness is possible for you, because of what God has done. And then there’ll be someone else who’s asking the question, how can I become the person that God’s called me to be? I’ve made a right mess of things. How can I become the person God’s called me to be? Well, this is the wonderful hope for you. In Jesus Christ, that is wonderfully made possible, because in him you may become the very righteousness of God. All that God has purposed for you will be accomplished in and through Jesus Christ in his saving and redeeming work in your life. So, we’re looking at what’s at the very heart of the Christian message today. It’s really good news, what God has done for us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s continue to look at this. Join us, if you can, in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6, with the second part of the message, imputation. Here’s Colin. Think about a room in which dirt and dust are spread everywhere. And you get out the vacuum cleaner, and you hoover this up so that what was spread in many places is now gathered into one place. And when you are done, you empty out the bag with all of this muck that you have gathered. That is what God has done with regards to our sins, our self-absorbed rebellion, our self-pitying resentment, our self-indulgent laziness, our self-righteous presumption. What has God done? He’s gathered it all up into one place. And then what has He done with it? He has laid it in its entirety on His own Son, Jesus. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. And that’s exactly what Isaiah is saying here. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And you see, that is why Isaiah says He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him. Martin Luther described very vividly how our merciful Father, seeing that we were oppressed and overwhelmed by the very curse of the law, what did He do? He sent His Son into the world and laid our sins upon Him. And he pictures God the Father giving direction to God the Son, which as we’re going to see next time, God the Son completely and willingly embraced. God the Father, as it were, says to God the Son, You be Peter, that denier. You be Paul, that blasphemer and that persecutor. You be David, that adulterer. You be the one who did eat the apple in the garden. You be the thief who did hang on the cross. You, in short, be the person who has committed the sins of all. And see then that you pay for them completely. Now here’s what this means for us, and it is remarkable. Our sins, brother, sister, our transgressions, our iniquities have been laid in their entirety on Jesus Christ. And since they’ve been laid on Him, they no longer lie on us. Which is why in the New Testament we read these wonderful words, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. An English pastor by the name of Bill Bygroves wrote a poem that reflects on these remarkable words of Isaiah, that God the Father laid our sins on Jesus. All my sin of every kind, and all the thoughts that stain my mind, and all the evil I designed was laid on Him. And all the ways my feet have strayed, and all the idols I have made, and all the times I have not prayed were laid on Him. And all those told and acted lies, and all the sins of compromise, and all that I legitimize was laid on Him. And all that sinks me in the mire, and all those times of base desire, and all that needs a cleansing fire was laid on Him. And all my misdirected powers, and all my many wasted hours, and all my dreams of ivory towers were laid on Him. And all the times I’ve grieved the Spirit, and all the nature I inherit, and all the punishment I merit were laid on Him. Laid on Him, God’s own dear Son. Laid on Him, the Holy One. When God blotted out the midday sun, my sins were laid on Him. Now we’ve looked together at what we’ve done. All of us like sheep we’ve gone astray, and each of us has done it in our own distinct way. And what has God done? He has laid on His own dear Son, Jesus, the iniquity of us all. And here’s the last thing today as we seek to apply the remarkable truth of this verse that takes us to the very heart of the Gospel. How should we use this? What difference is it going to make in your life this week? Here’s what we need to do. First, enjoy greater peace. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Now take that in today and use it so that you will enjoy greater peace. Isaiah is reminding us of the painful truth that each of us strays from God in his or her own way. We sometimes refer to this as our besetting sin. Here you are as a Christian believer. You love Christ. You really do. You want to follow Him. But there is an area of weakness in your life, and it stalks you. It haunts you. There have been times when you have felt that you were doing better in this regard, but then back it comes, and you find yourself defeated by it all over again. It’s your besetting sin. It’s your own way of straying from God. And it grieves you very deeply. Now, Isaiah wants you to know that Jesus died not only for your sins in general, but for your besetting sin in particular. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The sins that were gathered up and laid by God on Jesus Christ, his Son, included your own way of straying from God. God knows that you have this battle. And that is why he sent his Son into the world, not only for sin in general, but for your besetting sin in particular, so that your besetting sins would not in the end condemn you. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message, Imputation. And we can see why that is such good news for us. Don’t forget, if you ever miss one of our messages, you can always go online to openthebible.org.uk. There you can catch up with any of our previous messages, if you missed them, or if you just want to go back and listen again. Also on our website, you can find Open the Bible daily. This is a series of short two to three minute reflections, written by Pastor Colin Smith and read in the UK by Sue MacLeish. There’s a new one on the website every day, and you can also find it as a podcast. Go to your favorite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK, and look for Open the Bible Daily. It’s a purple banner, and if you subscribe, you’ll receive updates and be able to download a new podcast every day. Back to our message, Imputation, which is based on Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6. Here’s Colin. Peace comes from knowing and believing that your sins, including the ones that trouble you most, were truly laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, if you come to God and you say, please accept me because I’m doing my best to live the Christian life, well, you see what you’re doing? You’re actually trusting your best effort to live the Christian life, if you’re saying accept me for that reason. And of course, that will never work. You’ll never have peace because you know that even your best effort to live the Christian life could and should be better. Or if you come to God and say, you know, please accept me because I believe in Jesus, or because I have repented of my sins, or because I’m devoted to serving you, well, you’re not going to have a great deal of peace because you’ll know that your faith in Jesus should be stronger and your repentance towards Jesus should be deeper and your service towards Jesus should be fuller. But you see, if you say to God, please accept me because my sins were laid on Jesus, well, you will have peace because you are standing on solid ground. It was God himself who did this. He made the transfer. He has laid your sins on Jesus, and therefore they no longer lie on you. God has counted your sins against Jesus. He died for them on that cross. He bore them in his body on the tree, and having counted your sins against Jesus, God himself can never again count them against you. That is why in the New Testament we read these wonderful words, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. We have it through our Lord Jesus Christ. So that’s the first wonderful application of this truth. Enjoy greater peace, but with it, pursue deeper repentance. You see, the amazing truth that God has laid your sins on Jesus will be your greatest incentive to fighting more strongly against the sins that beset you. When you see that your sin, the one that bothers you, the one that’s your hardest battle, that that was actually laid on Jesus, well, then you will know that you cannot continue in it any longer. William Perkins was a preacher in England way back in the 16th century, and he grasped in a very profound way this truth that the greatest incentive that we can have to repentance is to see that our sins really were laid on Jesus when he died on the cross. And this is what he said. Every man must be settled without doubt that he was the man that crucified Christ. And he says this in helping us to know how we can be stronger and more successful in our battles against besetting sins. And here’s his argument. If you take seriously that your sins, your transgressions, your iniquities, your guilt, your besetting sins, that they really were laid on Jesus, if you see that Jesus suffered because of your pride, your lust, your greed, your self-indulgence, then your heart will be stirred to deeper repentance because, as a believer, you love the Lord Jesus Christ. Every man must be settled without doubt that he was the man that crucified Christ. Think about this. Who crucified Jesus? Well, you see, we look to the part played by Judas Iscariot, King Herod, Pontius Pilate, and me. And me. It was my sin that nailed him there until it was accomplished. God laid my sin on his own dear son, and Jesus said, charge it to me. Well, then, how can I continue in that sin any longer? If you can see that the sins that have prevailed over you were truly laid on Jesus, you will be strengthened in your battle against them. If you love Jesus, you will hate what hurt him, and hating what hurt him will deepen your repentance. There’s an old hymn that describes the effect of knowing that your sin was laid on Jesus. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. See, that’s the effect of this truth. It will lead you into greater peace, and it will lead you into deeper repentance. And then one more very wonderful thing that it will very obviously do is it will enable you to embrace greater hope. God imputed our sins to Jesus. Why? Well, in the big sweep of what Isaiah is telling us, God has this plan and purpose that he will fulfill for a great restoration in which every trace of sin, every effect of it will be removed, and in love, God is preparing you to be a part of it. And Jesus knew how many times you would fail in your battles before you were born, and so your sins were laid by the Father on his Son, and when God the Father did that for you, he guaranteed that your sins would not have the final victory over you. The future for all who are in Jesus Christ, friends, is absolutely glorious. He has purchased for us a complete restoration, and he did it by substitution and by imputation. God gathered up our sins, and he laid them on Jesus. Jesus stood in our place. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And what comes of all this for those who are in Christ is that we have peace with God, and by his grace, we will be fully, finally, and completely healed one day. There will be no trace of sin on you, in you, or near you. You will live in the beauty of holiness. You will serve God as you always wished you could, and you will rejoice in the presence of the Lord forever and forever. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message, Imputation, part of a wider series looking at Isaiah chapter 53 called The Gospel According to Isaiah. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, why not go online to openthebible.org.uk. There you’ll find any of our previous messages, and you can go back and listen to them at any time. Our address again, openthebible.org.uk. On the website, you’ll also find Open the Bible Daily, a series of short two- to three-minute reflections read in the UK by Sue McLeish. Sue was in the studio recently, and I asked what people were saying to her about Open the Bible Daily. Well, it’s early days, but several comments I’ve received are encouraging. One came from a young mother who’d recently given birth to her second child. She’d been worried that she wasn’t finding time for her normal Bible reading and study, but Open the Bible Daily had proved to be just the right length and content for her at this time. Oh, yes, and then I received an email a few weeks back from a much older person who’d started listening regularly to Open the Bible Daily and had already recommended it to several of her friends. Open the Bible Daily is available on our website, openthebible.org.uk, and also available as a podcast. Go to your favourite podcast site and search for Open the Bible UK, then Open the Bible Daily, which has a purple banner. Open the Bible is supported by our listeners, and we want to thank you for that. If you’re able this month to set up a new donation in the amount of £5 or more, we’d love to send you a free gift. It’s a book by J.I. Packer entitled Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. So, Colin, the book is about evangelism and God’s sovereignty, but why is this book so important? Oh, well, it has been very important in my life. I read it first many years ago, and the mark of a good book, in my view, is it’s one you keep going back to. And this is one that I do keep going back to because Packer speaks so clearly about this really important issue of evangelism and the sovereignty of God. And the issue is simply this, that the Bible quite clearly proclaims that God has done more than make salvation possible. God actually saves people. Salvation is of the Lord, and that’s the sovereignty of God. God saves, and believers know this by instinct, that though I have made a decision to follow Christ, God somehow laid hold of me and has wonderfully turned my life around. But, of course, the question that then arises is, well, if it’s God who saves, then why don’t we just leave him to do it? And, of course, that would cut out evangelism altogether. So how does our responsibility to share the gospel with people who don’t yet believe relate to the wonderful truth that God is in the business of saving people, evangelism and the sovereignty of God? Packer’s book helped me on seeing how these things don’t fight each other, they actually complement each other and they hold together very wonderfully. It’s beautifully written, it’s very clear, and I’m really excited that we’re able to share this with folks who listen to the program. If you find it a tenth as helpful as I’ve found it, you will be greatly blessed. Well, we’d love to send you a copy of this book if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 or more per month. You’ll be joining many other listeners who are supporting the work that we do, both online and on the radio. Full details of the offer on our website, openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I very much hope you’ll be able to join us again soon. Jesus could have stopped the process of his arrest, his trial and his crucifixion at any moment, but he chose not to do so. Find out why next time on Open the Bible.

Details

Sermon Series
Date
Primary Audience

Monthly Offer

Get 3 free copies of ‘Green Pastures, Still Waters’ by Colin Smith, as well as an Open the Bible UK bookmark and pen, when you set up a monthly gift of at least £5, or a one-off gift of at least £50.

Donate

Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

Linked resources

No chapter in the Bible shows more clearly why Jesus came into the world. No chapter explains more fully what Jesus accomplished. Isaiah 53 is an invitation to look at the Lord Jesus Christ. This chapter was written hundreds of years before the time of Jesus, but it describes in detail what happened in His

Colin Smith

Search

Search

Header Submit Search