Theological term
Imputed Righteousness
165 sermons · All terms
The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10–20 closes Paul's letter with a summons to active, armored vigilance in the Christian life. Working through the command to stand, the reason rooted in the reality of spiritual warfare against unseen principalities and powers, and the specific pieces of armor Paul describes, this exposition insists that the believer's strength is entirely derivative — drawn from Christ who is already enthroned far above all powers (Ephesians 1:20–23). Each element of the armor — truth, imputed righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the sword of the Spirit — directs the Christian away from self-sufficiency and back to Christ, whose finished work at Calvary is the only ground on which any saint can stand or withstand in the evil day.
The Witness of the Kingdom
Matthew 5:13–16 identifies the disciples of Christ as the salt of the earth and the light of the world, pressing believers into active engagement with a fallen society rather than withdrawal from it. The Beatitudes (vv. 3–12) describe the distinctive character of those saved by grace alone through faith alone; vv. 13–16 describe how those same people function in a world of unbelief as seasoning and preserving agents who radiate the knowledge of Christ. The warning is pointed: salt that loses its savor is good for nothing, and light hidden under a basket defeats its own purpose. The ultimate goal of Christian witness is not social improvement or personal acclaim but the glorifying of the Father in heaven — a witness grounded in and empowered by the one Scripture calls the faithful witness, Jesus Christ himself.
The Temptation of the Son of God
Matthew 4:1–11 presents the temptation of the Son of God not primarily as a lesson in spiritual disciplines but as a decisive act of covenant representation. Jesus enters the wilderness as the second Adam and the true Israel, succeeding where both failed, and by his perfect obedience in the face of Satan's three assaults he wins the righteousness that his people cannot secure for themselves. The sword he wields in each temptation is the word of God drawn from Deuteronomy, demonstrating that Scripture rightly understood cuts down every distortion the devil brings. The hearer is called to see in this passage not a pattern for imitation but the champion of redemption securing a righteousness that is credited to every sinner who looks to Christ in faith.
Redemption Accomplished
The dying cry of Jesus in John 19:30 — 'It is finished' (Greek: tetelestai) — is not a cry of defeat but a perfect-tense declaration of completed redemptive work with abiding results. The sermon examines this sixth word from the cross under three headings: the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, the glory of the Son displayed in his obedience, the redemption of his people, and the defeat of Satan, and the comfort this finished work secures for the church. Five concrete benefits flow to believers from this single cry: the wrath of God is exhausted through propitiation, peace with God is established, the enemies of sin and death are defeated, death itself is swallowed up in victory, and a prepared place in heaven awaits all who trust in Christ alone.
The Believer's Race
Hebrews 12:1 calls believers to run with endurance the race set before them, laying aside every encumbering weight and the sin that so easily ensnares. This exposition works through the believer's duty to persevere, the obstacles that must be stripped away, and the manner in which the race is to be run — with steady, joyful endurance rather than fitful bursts of zeal. The first of three incentives for faithful running is examined: the great cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11 and beyond, whose consistent testimony is not mere spectatorship but sworn witness that God is faithful to those who press on to the end. Hearers are called to repent of sluggishness, believe the gospel, and run — not by jet or celestial railroad, but as Christian ran in Pilgrim's Progress, pressing forward through trial toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Conversion of Cornelius
Peter's sermon to Cornelius in Acts 10:34–48 presents the irreducible content of apostolic gospel preaching: the impartiality of God toward all nations, the person and work of Jesus Christ (his sinless life, atoning death, and bodily resurrection), his exaltation as ordained judge of the living and the dead, and the exclusive promise that remission of sins comes through his name alone to all who believe. The sermon argues that a crossless or tombless message is no gospel at all — moralism and self-improvement cannot substitute for blood atonement and imputed righteousness. Believers are called to live daily in the light of Calvary, and the unconverted are warned that rejecting the only Savior means one day facing him as judge.
The Followers of the Lamb
Revelation 14:1–13 presents ten characteristics of those who belong to Christ, set against the backdrop of the unholy trinity's assault on the church in Revelation 12–13. Working from a preterist hermeneutic, this exposition argues that the 144,000 on Mount Zion represent the fullness of the Jewish-Christian church — sealed, worshipping, spiritually chaste, redeemed by blood, truth-speaking, and blameless before God by imputed righteousness. The sermon insists that these characteristics are indicative, not imperative — describing what is true of every believer in union with Christ — and closes with a call to rest in the Word rather than feelings, trusting Christ alone as the ground of standing before God.
From Persecutor to Preacher, Part 2
Paul's early Christian career in Galatians 1:15–24 demonstrates that his apostolic commission and gospel were received directly from God, not derived from or validated by any human authority. His separation from the womb, effectual calling by grace, and the revelation of Christ in him establish divine sovereignty over his entire ministry — from persecutor to preacher. The sermon engages the 'new perspective on Paul,' arguing that the Reformation reading rightly identifies individual sin and grace as the heart of Paul's theology, not merely the corporate sociological question of Jew-Gentile relations. The hearer is pressed to trust in Christ alone, whose blood atones for great and invincible sins, and to see every human supplement to that atonement as an assault upon the cross itself.
From Persecutor to Preacher
Paul's autobiography in Galatians 1:11–24 is not self-promotion but a defense of the divine origin of his gospel and apostolic authority. Working through Paul's former conduct as a practitioner, persecutor, and professor of Judaism, the sermon argues that no man so deeply invested in Judaism would have invented or received the gospel of free and sovereign grace from merely human sources — it came by direct revelation of Jesus Christ on the Damascus road. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is thus a monument to sovereign, particular grace: God saved His chief enemy and commissioned him to preach the very gospel he had tried to destroy. The sermon calls the unconverted to see in Paul's transformation the sufficiency and willingness of Christ to save the most wretched sinners, and summons believers to tenacious defense of justification by faith alone.
The Pharisee and the Publican
Luke 18:9–14 presents two men who go to the temple to pray — one a celebrated Pharisee, the other a despised tax collector — and the parable exposes the fatal error of self-righteousness and the only ground on which a sinner may stand before a holy God. The Pharisee's prayer is a catalogue of self-achieved merit; the publican's cry — 'God, be propitious to me, the sinner' — is the only prayer that avails, because it casts the soul entirely on divine mercy rather than human performance. Justification is declared a forensic act of God alone, grounded in the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith, not in fasting, tithing, or any work of the law. The sermon closes with the charge that the same gospel that humbles the self-righteous must produce in the justified a charity toward others and a watchfulness against out-Phariseeing the Pharisee.
A Word to the Wives
Colossians 3:18 commands wives to submit to their own husbands as is fitting in the Lord — a command that cuts against the grain of contemporary culture and even the instincts of redeemed sinners. This sermon establishes that submission is not demeaning but reflects the eternal pattern of the Son's willing submission to the Father within the equal-in-essence Trinity, and that gospel redemption does not abolish role distinctions in the family but enables their proper functioning. The domestic application works through the lawful target, the universal scope, and the Christological motivation of the command, pressing wives to understand that submitting to their own husbands is primarily a religious duty rendered unto the Lord. The sermon closes by grounding the entire exhortation in the gospel: a wife's standing before God rests not on threads of her own submissive obedience but on the imputed righteousness of Christ, whose active and passive obedience constitute the only robe in which sinners stand justified.
Salvation in James' Theology
James 1:18 — 'of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth' — is the doctrinal anchor that prevents James 2:24 from being read as a rival scheme of salvation to Paul's. This sermon argues that James teaches the same sovereign, monergistic regeneration and the same grace-alone, faith-alone soteriology as Paul, and that the 'justification by works' of James 2 concerns the outward demonstration of an already-accomplished divine act, not the ground of that act. The practical thrust is that those who claim justification by God's free grace must align their conduct with that claim — bridling the tongue, caring for widows and orphans, and being doers of the word — because true biblical faith inevitably produces works.
The Description of the Heresy
Colossians 2:16–23 exposes a syncretistic heresy threatening the church at Colossae — a blend of Jewish legalism, pagan mysticism, and bodily asceticism — and Paul's response is to anchor the believer's complete standing in Christ alone. The sermon works through three facets of this false teaching: the imposition of dietary laws and calendar observances as religious requirements, the pursuit of angelic visions and experiential 'higher planes' above Scripture, and the self-imposed bodily regulations that, despite their appearance of wisdom, fuel rather than subdue the flesh. The governing principle throughout is that Christ plus anything — legalism, mysticism, or asceticism — is heresy; Christ plus nothing is the gospel.
The Riches of Christ
2 Corinthians 8:9 situates a mundane financial appeal within a profound Christological argument: because Christ voluntarily exchanged the riches of his pre-incarnate glory for the poverty of humiliation and crucifixion, his people have been made spiritually rich beyond measure. The sermon traces three movements — the pre-incarnate riches of Christ, the depths of his humiliation, and the spiritual blessings he secures for his people — drawing on parallel passages in Philippians 2, Ephesians 1, and 1 Corinthians 1 and 30. The application presses believers to reckon daily with their possession of imputed righteousness, sanctification, and redemption as the only sufficient motive for generous, gospel-driven obedience.
A Cross-Centered Mother's Day
John 19:26–27 records the third of Christ's seven sayings from the cross — his provision for his mother Mary by entrusting her to the apostle John. This saying is examined under three headings: as a moral example of honoring one's mother rooted in the fifth commandment, as an illustration of Christ's active obedience rendered on behalf of his people who fail that commandment, and as a display of sovereign control by the one who lays down his own life according to the Father's decree. The sermon rejects the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary as co-mediatrix and calls every hearer — regardless of age — to concrete, costly care for their parents, grounded first in faith in the crucified and risen Christ whose perfect obedience alone avails before God.