“And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." – Romans 4:5-8
“The man who is truly blessed is the man whose sin is forgiven as debt, whose sin is covered up so that God will never look at it again. He is one to whom it is never going to be imputed as a crime. There is the negative aspect. But it goes beyond that; he is also one to whom God reckons this righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is the doctrine of justification by faith. Here are we – all of us – sinners in the sight of God. What does the doctrine tell me? It tells me that as I stand there on trial, my debt is cancelled, my sin is covered. God has cast my sin ‘behind his back’. He will never look at it again; He will never see it again. It is blotted out – out of His sight for all eternity. And I shall never be charged with it as a crime. I’m completely delivered from it. But over and above that, God puts to my account, and reckons to me, this righteousness of Jesus Christ His Son.
What the Apostle has clearly demonstrated is that that has always been God’s way and method of dealing with man in sin. It was what He did to Abraham. David says that He does it…
God took our sins, and instead of imputing them to us and to our account, He put them to His Son’s account. He put them on Him and He punished them in Him. Christ came into the world deliberately in order to do it. This is how we are saved and reconciled to God – instead of reckoning my sins to me God reckoned them to Christ, and punished them in Him…We had no righteousness at all. He has a perfect righteousness. God reckons His righteousness to us.”
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapters 3.20-4.25 Atonement and Justification
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