>You can also read chapter one here.
If I was to recommend that Christians read only one book besides the Bible then it would be Justification & Regeneration by Charles Leiter (forward by Paul Washer). It is a book that has been life changing for myself and many others who have had the blessing of reading it. Brother Leiter explains essential doctrinal truths in such plain and easy to understand language. I not only recommend every Christian reads it, but get your Pastor to read it too. You can buy it HERE from Granted Ministries and read chapter two below:
(printed with permission)
Can A Man Be Right Before God?
It is here that we encounter the greatest single obstacle to human salvation imaginable: How can an absolutely just and righteous Judge ever justify (declare righteous) an absolutely guilty and condemned criminal? How can any human being escape the damnation of hell? We are told by God Himself that “He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.”(Proverbs 17:15) Suppose a father comes home to find his family murdered. After an agonizing chase, he is able to apprehend the murderer. When the criminal finally appears before the judge, he is found to be unquestionably guilty of the crime. But when the time of sentencing comes, the judge makes the following declaration: “This man has committed a horrible crime, but I am a very loving judge and choose to declare him not guilty. In fact, I declare him to be righteous in the sight of the law!” Such a judge would rightly be considered as great a criminal as the offender! He has “justified the wicked” and is “an abomination to the Lord.”
But if this is true even of human justice, how much more is it true of God’s justice? How can the defiled and guilty sons of Adam ever hope to stand before God, the righteous Judge of the universe? How can God ever “justify the ungodly” without becoming an abomination to Himself ? “He who says to the wicked, ‘You are righteous,’ peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him.”(Proverbs 24:24) How can God say to sinners like us, “You are righteous,” without violating His own character? How can God ever save us from Himself and His own righteousness and justice?
This dilemma has created untold misery for every guilt-sensitive soul. It was a terrible problem for the patriarch Job. “How can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to dispute with Him, he could not answer Him once in a thousand times.”(Job 9:2-3) “What is man, that he should be pure, or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in His sight; how much less one who is detestable and corrupt, man, who drinks iniquity like water!”(Job 15:14-16) “How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman? If even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in His sight, how much less man, that maggot, and the son of man, that worm!”(Job 25:4-6)
No one feels the force of this dilemma more than the repentant sinner. He knows that he deserves to go to hell. In the realm of human government, criminals have often actually turned themselves over to the authorities for justice to be done, rather than live with their unbearable sense of guilt any longer! Repentant sinners know that they deserve to be punished, and that it would not be right for them not to be. They know that God cannot just “sweep their sins under the rug” and forget about them. Hence, the cry of their hearts is, “How can a just God ever smile upon me? How can this burden of guilt be removed? How can God pronounce a blessing upon me? How can a man like me be in the right before God!”
Imputation
There is only one answer to this dilemma. Someone has to pay for the sinner’s sins. Justice must be satisfied. Either it will be satisfied by the sinner’s own suffering forever in hell, or it must be satisfied by someone else on the sinner’s behalf.
Wonder of wonders! That “Someone” has come! The Lord Jesus Christ “bore our sins in His body on the cross.” (1 Peter 2:24) “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried. He was pierced through for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”(Isaiah 53:4-5)
How does this great transaction take place? To understand it, we have to consider the little word “impute.” It is variously translated “reckon,” “count,” “consider,” and “impute.” We can get a feel for what it means by looking at a passage in Paul’s letter to Philemon regarding the return of his slave, Onesimus: “If then you regard me a partner, accept him as you would me. But if he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.”(Philemon 17-18) Here Paul instructs Philemon to “charge to his account” [lit. “impute”] any debt that Onesimus might owe Philemon. This was not really Paul’s debt, but Paul willingly took it as his debt, and it was charged to his account! Now, this very same word and its associates are used with regard to sin. For example, the Bible says that “sin is not imputed (“charged to our account”) when there is no law.”(Romans 5:13) Again, in Romans 4, Paul says, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits (“imputes”) righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account (“impute”).’ ”(Romans 4:5-8) Glorious transaction! Our sins are not imputed to us, because they have been imputed to Christ, and accepting them as if they were His own debt, He has paid them in full!
We see the very same reality in the Old Testament concept of “bearing sin.” On the great Day of Atonement, two goats were sacrificed—one shed its blood to atone for sins,(Leviticus 16:16) and the other (live) goat bore these sins away to a solitary place (Leviticus 16:22): “Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell, and make it a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.”(Leviticus 16:9-10) Here God uses two goats to teach us one truth concerning the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the one hand, He dies for our sins, and on the other hand—as a result of that death—He effectually carries our sins away from the presence of God.
Notice the glorious reality of imputation presented here! “Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” (Leviticus 16:21-22) The question for each of us to ask ourselves is this:
“Have I ever laid the hand of faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ and given my sins to Him to carry into a solitary land?”
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away,
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.
My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.
Isaac Watts
A substitute has died in our place! “All of us like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”(Isaiah 53:6) That is how a just God can justify lifelong criminals in His heavenly courtroom. He opens our ledger and sees that our debt has been imputed to His beloved Son. Moreover, He sees that the debt has actually been paid in full by Him. Hallelujah! God, in His great love, (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10) has made a way to save us from Himself and His own justice! He has done so by giving His only begotten Son to die in our place.
The Heart of the Gospel
These realities are at the very heart of the gospel. They are expounded by the apostle Paul in Romans 3:21-26, a somewhat complex passage that is made clear once we understand the meaning of imputation discussed above:
“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all; those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Here Paul declares that Christ died to pay our sin debt so that God could “justify” sinners and at the same time remain “just” Himself. Throughout the Old Testament, sins were merely “passed over,” the payment of their guilt being rolled forward year after year until the Lamb should come whose death could truly take them away.(Hebrews 9:15) All during this time, it appeared that God was being unrighteous, since He justified men (like Abraham and David) without justice being truly satisfied. Therefore it was necessary that Christ should die “publicly,” openly demonstrating God’s righteousness for all to see, by making full satisfaction for sin on the cross. In this sense, Christ died, not only to justify men, but to justify God! His death on the cross vindicated and demonstrated the absolute justice of God in justifying His people. As a “propitiation” (i.e., a wrath-removing sacrifice) for our sins, Christ turns away God’s judicial wrath from us. We are “justified as a gift” (Justification is absolutely free to us.), “through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Justification is very costly to God.). We are justified by receiving the “gift of righteousness,”(Romans 5:17) “even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.”(Romans 3:22)
Are you still carrying the burden of sin and guilt? Are you still under the wrath of God? “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”(John 1:29) There is a “fountain for sin and impurity.”(Zechariah 13:1) “The blood of Jesus, God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.”(1 John 1:7) No matter how great your sins may be, they are nothing compared to the infinite worth of Christ’s blood!(1 Peter 1:18-19; Acts 20:28) “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”(Romans 5:20) Come to Him! He invites and commands you to come; you need not fear that you are being presumptuous by coming: “And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”(Revelation 22:17) Come to Him! Take the water of life! Cast your sins upon Him and trust Him as your sin-bearer. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.”(Matthew 11:28 2 Acts 16:31)