SPROUL: Well, the obtaining of eternal life is simple, we put our trust in Christ and in Christ alone for our salvation. And everyone who puts their trust in Christ and Christ alone, as the Bible promises, as Jesus promises, has life eternal. There's no other way to get it except by faith and by faith alone.
It's not by our works. We can't merit it. We can't earn it.
We can't deserve it. We put our trust in Christ, who alone is worthy of the gift of eternal life. You remember back in the Book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve were created they were put on probation.
If they obeyed God, then they could have the tree of life. If they disobey, they lose it. And what happens, they disobeyed and so they lose it.
And then we come to the New Testament, and Jesus appears as the new Adam. And where the first Adam was disobedient and plunges the world into ruin and into death, the new Adam is perfectly obedient and by His perfect obedience, He wins for his people the reward of obedience, which is eternal life. Now therefore, I don't get eternal life as a reward for my works, but I get a reward of eternal life because the righteousness of Jesus is transferred to my account, where we use the theological term "imputed to me," just as my sin was transferred to Him on the cross, and He paid for that, so His righteousness is transferred to my account, and the only way I get that is by putting my trust in Him, by believing in Him.
WEBB: Is that the concept of double imputation? SPROUL: Yes. WEBB: Okay.
So and that's spelled out in one verse in 2 Corinthians 5:21, where the Apostle Paul is saying, "God made Him," Jesus, "who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. " It's one of my favorite verses, because it encapsulates the entire gospel. SPROUL: We often think that all, you know, that Jesus just died on the cross.
Well, that would put us back at point zero, we'd be innocent but not positively righteous. We'd be right back to where Adam was before the fall. But now He's not only taken our sin, but He's given us His righteousness.
It's a double transfer. WEBB: So, it's not enough just to have our sins forgiven? SPROUL: No, it's not enough to just have our sins forgiven.
We need to have the attribution of His righteousness to us as well.
