Impute: Dispense Grace

Romans 4:6 "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

David was anointed of God. He had the Holy Spirit. Even so, David sinned greatly! Without elaborating on the details he lusted, he fornicated, he was treacherous and he murdered! However, David was tricked into judging himself by Nathan the priest. When he realized how greatly he had sinned, he felt guilt which the Holy Spirit brought onto him!  Psalm 51 is a song of his sorrow, repentance and quest for restoration. Because of God's grace he forgives even those who are already his from their sins! Note that David was already anointed, but he still sinned. Forgiveness are for past sins, and when a forgiven person sins, it is necessary to repent of those and bring all sins to God!

David failed to obey! Obedience is "works" because it's things YOU DO to PLEASE GOD. Sometimes righteous people still appease their own flesh (an idol). David had been content. When Bathsheba laid all her flesh out there for anyone to see, David sought to appease her idol (herself), and as such "another god" in addition to his god was added to his repertoire!

Satan most often uses sexual lust to enslave righteous people. Christians are not immune from this virus! Bathsheba wasn't really a goddess, but Satan made her appear to be! What do I mean by that? We desire what we fabricate in our minds. This construction of a new goddess is an altar made by man. When righteous people built their altars in the times of the patriarchs, they were always to be of rough stone. That was so that what man had made did not become the object of worship! However, our deceived minds create other gods and goddesses whenever our own idol needs pleasured.

Throughout scripture, from Eve to Keturah, to Bathsheba, to Delilah, to the pagan wives of the kings to the pagan wives of the Hebrew people, and to Salome in Herod's time; the lust for women have created other goddesses before God!  God makes the beauty of a woman; Satan uses immodesty and flirtation so that man will make her his goddess!

Proverbs 6:25 "Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes..."

Solomon wrote this? Why do you suppose he did that? Because, like his father, Solomon was weak in the flesh. He made many idols of women and flirted with their gods. These goddesses men make of women is how Satan entraps even the righteous. Women, to magnify their idol tempt others to worship them. Pagan worship is nearly always in a sexual manner.

Look what we're really worshiping:

A temptress who flutters her eyelashes and captures your eye appears to be a beautiful pure unicorn, but when lifted up and prone to inspire your desires, the view now becomes clear. It's now a merely the hole of an ass you see and all your dreams are destroyed by the aroma of what is actually a decadent garbage pit!

That's crude and excuse the use of this metaphor, but I'm trying to topple goddesses of every era with reality! Those goddesses are of the same substance that we are and outside of God their main function in life is the same as ours - to take what God provides and make fertilizer of it! My implication is that the goddesses which we create are of the mind! Eve, Bathsheba and even Salome have returned to the dust and what once men craved are now ashes. It's just not worth it, yet all men are tempted to do it. (I'm sure many women do the same for their hunks or gods!)

Bathsheba was David's goddess. He finally saw that and sought forgiveness. God restored David to favor, but it took guilt to bring David to repentance. David's works were disastrous. He and many people were hurt and at least two died: Bathsheba's husband and David's infant son. However, by God's grace David's iniquities were forgiven (verse 7).

God "imputed" righteousness to David. In effect David was not righteous, but his faith made him clean. God did the cleansing. God ascribed David's guilt to himself and paid for the iniquity with grace. What was that grace? David's sin was covered by the future propitiation of the blood of Jesus! David's sins were covered by Jesus who took them on his own back at his death. Jesus died for the sins of all men who had come before and after him.  David knew that. We know that he knew from what he wrote.

Since God imputed the sins of David, David was blessed (verse 8). David's empire expanded to the bounds promised to Abraham. He was the victor in war and he became a righteous king. Through him the promise God made to Abraham came about, not just in territory, but through him a Savior was born. Jesus is called "Son of David" because God imputed the sins of David, both knowing that it was to be David's Son who covered the sin! Can you imagine the humility of knowing how greatly you sinned, and that your own offspring would die in your place?

Never forget that we all are sinners such as David, and just as for David, God imputed all our sins through the death of his only Son! Even if you're not a Christian God has already imputed your sins. You merely only accept that he imputed for you!

Some people are self-righteous: "Your sin is greater than mine!" That may be, but that's not another's place to say that. Let God be the judge for while self-righteous people walk around in their false purity, it's their own self who seeks the glory! God uses sinful men to serve his purpose: Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon, Samson, all the apostles and the chief sinner; Paul!

I too am a chief sinner. That may be. God has imputed righteousness for me because of my faith. Just like David, my righteousness must be obtained, and that is through meekness. Like David, Christians must all repent, not just at the time of the new birth, but time and time again! The Law is a standard so that we know that we have not met God's expectations, not to damn us! He loves the pleasing aroma of repentance!

If I had my druthers (sic), I would I'd druther be a sinner who repents and have God impute my sin, than a law-abider and believe I have no sin to impute!

"Thank you Lord this day for imputing my sins of yesterday and beg of you to impute my sins today." (My prayer).