January 6 PM

Blessed is the man, to whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity. Psalm 32:2.

When the Spirit bears witness to the believing heart, thou art this blessed man, O! what a heavenly transport of love, peace, and joy abounds! Every believer in Christ is this blessed man, though all do not enjoy the sense of this blessedness. The law may charge sin upon the conscience, Satan may bring many accusations, and the trembling sinner may reckon many iniquities against himself, and be ready to rate himself a cursed man, when the Lord imputes not a single iniquity to him, and pronounces him blessed. Sight often opposes truth; sense prevails against faith. Hence, the soul is in fear and distress. What can one do in such seasons? Believe against sense, hope against hope. Oppose God’s declarations to nature’s feeling. Mind, it is not said, blessed is the man who hath no iniquity, but unto whom the Lord imputeth none. Well, but if I see, and know, and feel, that I have iniquity, surely the Lord will impute it to me, and charge it to my account. What! after God hath charged sin to thy surety’s account, reckoned with him for it, and received full satisfaction at his hands, will he charge it again to thee? No! God is just. He knows he imputed to, and laid upon his Son, the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:6.) God made Christ to be sin for us, that we might be righteous in him. (2 Cor. 5:21.) In him, O, blessed state! we stand righteous in Christ, are blessed in Christ. No iniquity is imputed to us; but the Lord imputeth righteousness without our works, (Rom. 4:6.) This is the blessedness of faith. Every believer in Jesus is thus blessed. If the Lord impute no iniquity to him, who shall? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? O, believer! glory in thy blessedness, and give the Lord the glory of it! Nor sin, nor death, nor hell, shall rob thee of it in time, nor eternity. But if the Lord imputes no iniquity to thee, he hath also created a new spirit within thee, a spirit without guile, that is, upright with the Lord Jesus, that trusts in him, and cleaves to him only. Look at St. Paul: see the uprightness of his soul. He was like a chaste virgin to Christ. Imitate him. Propose what you would to him, but Christ; whether the pomps of the world, the pleasures of sin, the glory of self- righteousness, says he, away with it all; I renounce it all as dross and dung. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. (Phil. 3:8.)

Tho’ sin infects our ruin’d race,

And seals us under wrath;

Yet God imputes, thro’ his rich grace,

Christ’s righteousness and death.

Thus are we bless’d, alone thro’ faith

Of Jesus crucify’d:

No sin will God impute, he saith,

To those for whom Christ died.