Blessed

Blessed Rom 4:6-8, Psalms 32

Paul is using two Old testament figures to illustrate Justification by faith apart from works: Abraham the patriarch and David the king. Abraham is an example of justification by faith prior to the Mosaic law and David is one with the law. In both cases their faith is counted as righteousness apart from works. Paul in the previous text drew from Scripture (Gen 15:6) to expound his argument concerning Abraham, now again, he quotes Scripture from Psalms 32:1-2 to argue from the words of David.

The words Paul uses here are cast in a negative form, as contrasted with the

words about Abraham. Which are positive. Abraham was credited with

righteousness. While David speaks of sin not being credited to him. This negative wording is important for presenting the gospel today. It speaks to where most people actually are in their spiritual sensitives. The positive statement about justification tells us how we can get right with God, but most people today don’t feel like they need to get right with God. Most people don’t think of themselves as being in a wrong relationship with God. On the contrary, they assume that all is well between themselves and God. The righteousness of Christ received by faith doesn’t enter their thinking, because they assume that they are right with God. But the negative aspect of transgressions. It pictures these as a burden and contrasts them with the blessedness of the person who is freed through God’s forgiveness. This relates because almost everyone carries about the burdens of past sinful actions. (Boice)

Burden because of our Condition

In Romans 4:5, we are told that we are “ungodly” Here Paul elaborates on the pervasive nature of our ungodliness and unrighteousness (Rom 1:18, 3:9-18). Here there are three words to be considered to describe our ungodliness: lawless deeds, sins, and sin. So, Three times, in Hebrew parallelism, it refers to evil deeds, once as transgression (anomiai, lawlessness) and twice as sins (harmartiai, failures), for sin is both stepping over a known boundary and the falling short of a known standard. The terms translated "iniquities," "sins" and "sin" regard three characteristics of sin, namely, "rebellion," "missing the mark" and "turning deliberately aside. (Lenski)

(Stott) There are three things in sin to be considered:1. There is an offence against God, which is said to be forgiven.2. There is a filthiness in sin, which is said to be covered. 3. There is guilt in it, which is said not to be imputed. (Poole) Observe the three words to describe sin, and the three words to represent pardon, weigh them well, and note their meaning. (Spurgeon) In Palms 32 there four evils mentioned; 1.—Transgression, pesha. 2. Sin, chataah. 3.—Iniquity, avon. 4.—Guile, remiyah. The first signifies the passing over a boundary, doing what is prohibited. The second signifies the missing of a mark, not doing what was commanded; but it is often taken to express sinfulness, or sin in the nature, producing transgression in the life. The third signifies what is turned out of its proper course or situation; anything morally distorted or perverted. Iniquity, what is contrary to equity or justice. The fourth signifies fraud, deceit, guile, etc. (Clarke)

Blessedness because of Christ

Blessed" (makarios) means "a condition where you are deeply secure and content and happy in God." (Matt 5:11-12). So "blessed are you" does not mean "untroubled are you" or "healthy are you" or "admired are you" or "prosperous are you." It means "between you

and God all is well." You are deeply secure, profoundly content, happy in God – even if you are weeping over the pain of a struck body, a perplexed mind, or a heartbreaking relationship. (Piper) The word blessed is in the plural, oh, the blessedness! the double joys, the bundles of happiness, the mountains of delight! (Spurgeon) Blessedness is not in this case ascribed to the man who has been a diligent law keeper, for then it would never come to us, but rather to a lawbreaker, who by grace most rich and free has been forgiven. A full, instantaneous, irreversible pardon of transgression turns the poor sinner's hell into heaven and makes the heir of wrath a partaker in blessing. To remove these evils mentioned, three acts are mentioned: forgiving, covering, and not imputing for the one who is blessed

His sin is forgiven TRANSGRESSION, (evp) pesha, must be forgiven, (ywsn) nesui, borne away, i.e., by a vicarious sacrifice; for bearing sin, or bearing away sin, always implies this. (Clarke). The word rendered forgiven is in the original taken off or taken away, as a burden is lifted or a barrier removed. What a lift is here! It cost our Savior a sweat of blood to bear our load, yea, it cost him his life to bear it quite away. (Spurgeon) It is to send off or send away. Ps 103:12 The idea is that of separation, so it teaches that God is willing to separate the sinner’s transgression and guilt from the sinner. (Heb 9:28) A murderer was often punished by carrying the dead decaying body of his victim on their back till he himself was destroyed. God separated us from the dead body of our sin that we might know the joy of forgiveness (Boice)

His sin is covered SIN (hajx) chataah, must be covered, (ywob) kesui, hidden from the sight. It is odious and abominable and must be put out of sight. (Clarke) Covered by God, as the ark was covered by the mercy seat, as Noah was covered from the flood, as the Egyptians were covered by the depths of the sea. What a cover must that be which hides away forever from the sight of the all-seeing God all the filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit! (Spurgeon) It alludes to the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat by the priest on the day of atonement, so God sees the blood of the innocent victim who died in the place of the guilty and his judgement is turned aside and his love released on the sinner. (Boice)

His Sin is not counted against him INIQUITY, (Nwe) avon, what is perverse or distorted, must not be imputed, (bsxyal) lo yachshobh, must not be reckoned to his account. whose sins God does not think, does not regard them, so as to bring them into judgment, reckoning them as if they were not; ou me logizetai does not count or calculate them; does not require for them the debt of punishment Leighton. Just as justification was a term borrowed from the law courts, so also imputation was a term borrowed from the accountant’s office. The issue of justification, the issue of imputation is at the heart of the Christian faith. imputation is as we trust in Christ, God, by His favor, credits Christ’s righteousness to us. That’s what imputation means. As we trust in Christ, God credits to our account the righteousness of Christ and conversely credits our sin to Christ’s account. God imputes righteousness. He assigns that to your account. It’s moved from one column to another. From one ledger sheet to another. God does not reckon our sin. He does not take our sin into account. The passage here focuses us on non-imputation. God does not impute our sins to us. He does not charge them to our account. David is rejoicing that his sin was not imputed, not reckoned to his account. But if we don’t have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ our tendency is to say, "Well, I’m trying to be a good person." "I’m trying to keep the Ten Commandments, and I’m trying to be a charitable person, and I’m trying to do deeds of mercy." Notice that David says the blessed man is the man whom the Lord does not consider his works. The blessed man is the man that God accepts not on the basis of what he is, but on the basis of something else. In other words, far from standing before God and saying, "Lord, I’m trying be a good person." David says, "The man who is really blessed is the man whom God doesn’t consider that about." He considers something else about him. That he has trusted, he has placed his faith, he has believed on God and his promise as revealed in Jesus Christ. And as such is considered to be a righteous man (Duncan). Non imputation is of the very essence of pardon: the believer sins, but his sin is not reckoned, not accounted to him. (Spurgeon) Man finds himself in only two possible conditions. God either reckons sins to my account or righteousness. God doesn’t justify the ungodly (sinners) by ignoring their sins, but by forgiving them in view of the death of Christ. (Dunagan) And three times he tells us what God has done with them. Our transgressions are forgiven, our sins are covered and our sin the Lord will never count against us (7-8) Instead of putting our sins into our account against us, God pardons and covers us by putting our sins on Christ. (Stott) Note the three words so often used to denote our disobedience: transgression, sin, and iniquity, are the three headed dog at the gates of hell, but our glorious Lord has silenced his barkings for ever against his own believing ones. The trinity of sin is overcome by the Trinity of heaven (Spurgeon) The Jews tell us, that "on the day of atonement Satan comes to accuse Israel, and he particularizes their sins, and the holy blessed God he particularizes their good works, and takes a pair of balances, and puts their sins against their good works, and weighs the one against the other; and when the two scales of the balances are alike, Satan goes to bring in other sins to overweigh; what does the holy blessed God do? he takes the sins out of the scale, and hides them, "under his purple garment"; and when Satan comes and finds no iniquity there, Jer 50:20; and when Satan sees this, he says before him, Lord of the world Ps 85:2. (Gill) Imputed- Not charging upon account. As sin is a defection from the law, so it is forgiven; as it is offensive to God's holiness, so it is covered; as it is a debt involving man in a debt of punishment, so it is not imputed; they all note the certainty, and extent, and perfection of pardon (Charnock) .He who has once seen sin in its horrible deformity, will appreciate the happiness of seeing it no more forever. Christ's atonement is the propitiation, the covering, the making an end of sin; where this is seen and trusted in, the soul knows itself to be now accepted in he Beloved, and therefore enjoys a conscious blessedness which is the antepast of heaven. It is clear from the text that a man may know that he is pardoned: where would be the blessedness of an unknown forgiveness? Clearly it is a matter of knowledge, for it is the ground of comfort.(Spurgeon) . "Taking away iniquity, transgressions, and sin." privilege. Blessed, happy, thrice happy they who have obtained pardon of their sins, and justification by Jesus Christ. (Manton).The man whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is hidden, God having cast it as a millstone into the depths of the sea; whose iniquity and perversion is not reckoned to his account; and whose guile, the deceitful and desperately wicked heart, is annihilated, being emptied of sin, and filled with righteousness, is necessarily a happy man. (Clarke) The whole scope and design of the psalm is to show the blessedness of the man who is forgiven, and whose sins are not charged on him, but who is freed from the punishment due to his sins. Being thus pardoned, he is treated as a righteous man.. He regards him as one who is forgiven and admitted to his favor, and who is to be treated henceforward as though he had not sinned. That is, he partakes of the benefits of Christ ‘s atonement, so as not henceforward to be treated as a sinner, but as a friend of God. (Barnes) Christ is God's answer. It is all owing to Christ. You can't love Christ too much. You can't think about him too much or thank him too much or depend upon him too much. All our justification, all our righteousness, is in Christ. God's crediting (or reckoning or imputing) his righteousness to us is not a tallying up of our good works minus our sins and then concluding that we have enough good works to be acquitted. No. Righteousness is credited to our account "apart from works." Works will follow from justification but works do not obtain justification. God's righteousness is credited to us; our sins are not credited to us. Both are essential. We have to get God's righteousness, and we have to get rid of our unrighteousness Ps 32:1-2 doesn't say that God "credits righteousness" to us. It says that God does not credit sin to us. It is saying, "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not credit – will not reckon, will not lay to his account, will not impute to him. "Blessed": a condition where you are deeply secure and content and happy in God. Blessed are you when God credits his righteousness to you. Blessed are you when God does not credit your sin to you. Blessed are you when Christ takes your sins and you take his righteousness. blessed." God wants you to see that his work and his Word are aiming at your happiness. The gospel is good news. He's not aiming at your ease or your comfort or your prosperity in this world. He is aiming at your present and everlasting joy. The reason Paul labors to unfold the truth of justification by faith is so that your joy will be so well grounded in God that it is unshakable. Does it not fill you with joy and peace that your righteousness is not your own, but God's? And your sins are not on you, but on the cross of Christ! And your duty is not to merit or deserve Christ, but to depend on Christ. (Piper) Some think that the reason they ought to be accepted by God is because they are a nice person. they haven't murdered anybody, they haven't done anything really terrible, at least in your own eyes. Sure God should accept me. I’ve tried to be good. The apostle says here, for anyone who is trusting in himself that way, is not trusting in Christ. They are not the blessed man. The blessed man is the man who is long past thinking that he can commend Himself to God because of what he’s done. The blessed man is the man whom God looks over the things that he has done, and looks to something deeper and greater, what Christ has done. as you’ve been going on in the Christian life, have begun to think in terms of Gods favor towards you, that Gods acceptance towards you is based somehow upon you being good enough that particular day. Don’t you need to be reminded that if your acceptance is based upon anything in you ever, you’ll never know the freedom which God has granted by the Spirit. Because you know, if you think about it long enough, that there’s nothing in us that we have not corrupted by sin. And that the way to peace of mind and assurance of salvation is the recognition that our acceptance of God is not based upon an innate righteousness, but on an alien righteousness that has been credited to our account, imputed to us by divine grace. (Duncan)