by Lloyd T. Anderson Pastor, Bethany Baptist Church West Covina, California the subject is not imputed right eousness but rather practical right eousness, that is, right living. When I was bom again I became a mem ber of the body of Christ. Think of that for a moment. My hand is a member of my body; therefore, it is obedient to me. It is as strong as I can possibly make, and if I want to lift something it will do it for me. Why? Because it obeys the orders that my mind sends to it.” As a member of the body of Jesus Christ, His life flows through me, and when He desires something, I do it. Now of course we have to ad mit there are times when disobedi ence enters in. We fail the Lord. We must admit that. But when we are convicted of that fact, as we are, then we confess our sin and are restored to fellowship and go on in obedience. Responding to the will of the Lord becomes the habit of the Christian life because of the new life in Christ. A vital contrast, then, between the child of the Devil and a child of God is that the child of God has both imputed righteousness and practical righteousness. The child of the Devil on the other hand has no such right eousness, seeking to make himself right with God on the basis of his works which, of course, is an impos sible goal. Another contrast between the two is the subject of love. In John 3:10, John says: “Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God; neither he that loveth not his brother.” The lack of love on the part of one and presence of love on the part of the other makes the contrast, for verse I I says : “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” This word for love is not a senti-
Studies in I John V ine , “W e have seen from vari ous passages in I John that the believer is one who practices right eousness or who habitually d 'oes righteous things. This does not mean that his righteous acts are merely occasional. By reason of the new life within, it is his nature to do what pleases God.” The unbeliever, on the other hand, is under the domination of his fallen nature and does not practice right eousness but practices sin. He cannot practice righteousness until he is bom of God. There is in Scripture a vast dif ference between what is sometimes called imputed righteousness a n d practical or imparted righteousness. Now imputed righteousness is right eousness that has been put to our account through faith in Christ’s fin ished work. We are not saved by do ing righteous deeds, but the practic ing of righteousness comes as a re sult of having been saved. The fact of the need of imputed righteousness is very clearly brought out by Paul’s discussion of Israel in Romans 10. He said he was greatly concerned about them. He wanted them to be saved. They were a re ligious people, and from the stand point of men of the world they did many good things. Paul lists some of those things, such as a zeal for God. But this very zeal for God was standing in their way of being saved through the imputed righteousness that God wanted to give them. They were ignorant of God’s righteous ness and went about to establish their own righteousness and refused to submit themselves to the right eousness of God. Christ, you see, is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Epp, “Now in John’s first epistle
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