Imputation; The Key to Good News - Romans 5-6

If you have never read, studied or meditated on the doctrine of imputation you are missing one of the riches and most treasured truths of the Gospel. Google "imputation" and you will have to scroll deep into the list to find a meaning as applied to faith. But, that is the focus of what we have here in Romans 5:12-21. I don't promote or push our on-line sermons from Faith Harbor much but our sermon archive from last Sunday's message on this passage will give you some insight for the value and beauty of imputation (not sure when it will be posted to the web, however). This passage is the most difficult to read in the English, much less the Greek. We tend to read these sections of Paul's writings and agree with Peter that Paul writes things hard to understand (2 Peter 3:15, 16). We tend to look at these subjects in the Bible as "too hard" and therefore move on to the milk of the Word, rather than chew on the meat. However, imputation is key to the Christian belief. Imputation means that Adam's sin was given to us as a work of his disobedience. He (Adam) represented us and passed on his failure to all men and therefore all men are slaves to sin and suffer death due to his failure. Not fair you say? You are correct. It isn't. That is the point of the passage. Because, the second Adam (Christ) has imputed His righteousness to us for the "work" He did in His life and death on the cross. That isn't fair, either. Paul is showing that one man caused death (via imputation) and the other caused life (via imputation). If you don't like the one (Adam's sin imputed to you) you have to also discredit the other (Christ's righteousness imputed to you). We don't want to discredit the later so we must embrace the former. Imputation is the key to the Good News.