DAVID DECLARES IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS Devotion 16 of 28 The Spirit carefully presents the means of appropriating the righteousness of God. Believing that justifies is delineated with precision. We are to believe on "HIM WHO JUSTIFIES THE UNGODLY!" Believing on God who created all things does NOT bring righteousness to men. Believing that there is one God does NOT qualify one for the "gift of righteousness." Believing that God is powerful and wise does NOT cause God to imputed righteousness to the individual. No person coming to God is allowed to deny or reject these things, but something more of God must be seen. The believing that saves is driven by an acute awareness of personal defilement and guilt – "the ungodly." Where there is no sense of sin, there will be no belief in Christ or quest for God's favor. This lack of awareness accounts for the general disinterest in the things of God, lukewarmness within the church, the penchant for brevity, and the propensity to Law and various forms of discipline. WHO ARE THE "UNGODLY?" What do you think of when you hear the word "ungodly?" Frequently, Scripture speaks of "ungodly men" (2 Sam 22:5; Psa 18:4; 2 Pet 3:7; Jude 4), and "the ungodly" (Psa 1:1; Rom 5:6; 1 Tim 1:9; 1 Pet 4:18). Such individuals are never commended, never acceptable, and always under the curse of God. MISREPRESENTATIONS I have been subjected to a remarkable amount of preaching and teaching that represented Christians as being at variance with God. The will of God is often presented as not really desired by the saints. Too often the statement of Divine requirements is followed with something like, "But that is not what we do," or "We tend to go the other way," or "Like the Israelites we want to do our own thing." This kind of preaching is altogether too common. It is not Scriptural, and does not properly depict those who are in Christ Jesus. – Tomorrow:
"But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin." (Romans 4:5-8, NKJV)
King Jehosaphat, for example, was rebuked for helping "the ungodly." "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD" (2 Chron 19:2). The blessed person "walks NOT in the counsel of the UNGODLY" (Psa 1:1). "The UNGODLY" are like "chaff" that is driven from the presence of the Lord (Psa 1:4). They will not be able to stand in the judgment (Psa 1:5), and their way will "perish" (Psa 1:6). Those who were destroyed in the flood are referred to as "the world of the UNGODLY" (2 Pet 2:5). The challenge is hurled out to us, "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the UNGODLY and the sinner appear?" (1 Pet 4:18).
Some may conclude from these texts that "the ungodly" are obviously base and reprehensible people. Others may see them as the morally depraved and indulgent – the dregs, so to speak, of society. Surely "the ungodly" are at the bottom of the moral ladder.
Etymologically, the word "ungodly" means "destitute of a reverential awe of God, condemning God, impious, irreverent, or wicked" (Strongs). That definition, however, contributes to the notion that "ungodly" refers to a sort of lower segment of humanity – that it is a term that compares men with other men. But that is not the case at all.
"The ungodly," in this case, is everyone "without Christ" (Eph 2:12). It is everyone whose origin can only be traced back to Adam. "The ungodly," are those mentioned previously in this Epistle. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23).
Fundamentally, "ungodly" means NOT LIKE GOD. It assesses men by comparing them with God Himself, not with one another. That condition – being unlike God – moves the sinner to think and act differently than God, which is the essence of impiety. Wherever this condition is found, the Gospel and salvation are required. Those who do not think and act like God are, by virtue of that circumstance, "ungodly."
This condition – being unlike God – is a most serious one. It required Divine intervention in order for God to even deal with it. Thus it is written, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time CHRIST DIED for the ungodly" (Rom 5:6). If Christ had not done this, God could not have corrected our condition.
We will find that at its root, salvation has to do with making us like God. This is accomplished by conforming us to the image of His Son, who is God's "express image" (Rom 8:30; Heb 1:3). Justification involves taking people who are unlike God, and making them like Him through a process called "from glory unto glory." That process is accomplished by the Holy Spirit Himself. As it is written, " . . . changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor 3:18).
Being justified, or "saved," is not a matter of simply living differently, or incorporating some new habits into our lives. It is not a change of routine, but a change of character. It is becoming like God, where our thoughts and ways are no longer at variance with Him (Isa 55:8-9). This is a transformation that results in a love of, and preference for, the truth. Everything becomes "new" for such a person, and "old things pass away" (2 Cor 5:17). In justification, there is a harmony between God and the justified one that is depicted as "peace" and "reconciliation" (Rom 5:1; Col 1:21).
You will find no such representations in Scripture. Retreating from God, preferring our own way, and being drawn to the world are consistently represented as "the flesh." These are NOT a depiction of the new creation, but of the "old man" which is to be "put off" (Eph 4:22-24). Those who are in Christ are consistently addressed as those who are reconciled to God and capable of denying ungodliness. Where the matter of living correctly is addressed, believers are told, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God . . . For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light . . . As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby," etc. (Col 3:12; Eph 5:8; 1 Pet 2:2). All of this assumes that those in Christ DO have the capacity to think like God and prefer what He says. They are, in fact, no longer classified as "ungodly."
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for delivering me from the state of being "ungodly."