From Dunghill to Temple: A Gospel of Imputation and Transformation

A cozy town sleeps through the cool of a tranquil night.

This peace couldn’t last however, and it was abruptly shaken by a blood-curdling scream. Rocked from their peaceful slumber, the townspeople rushed out of their homes and beheld a gruesome sight; one of the town’s children was caught in jaws of death—lifeless body torn to pieces in a wolf’s ravenous frenzy.

Just as the town rose to enact righteous judgement on this beast, the town’s shepherd was moved with compassion—seeing a creature enslaved to its own nature, unable to overcome its own ingrained impulses—so he intervened, offering his own precious, beloved, and spotless lamb to die in the place of this wolf. To pardon it of its crimes, so it could be regarded—not as a murderous wolf—but as though it were the innocent, spotless lamb that died in its place.

But let me ask you dear reader, say the town did accept this atonement for the wolf’s transgressions. Could they allow the wolf to live in peace with them afterwards? Wouldn’t the wolf’s inherent desire for death pose a constant threat to them? Even though its sins may have been forgiven, even though it may have been declared innocent and righteous, it would still be shackled by its savage and blood-thirsty nature.

We instinctively recoil at the thought: if a serial killer were pardoned and released into our neighborhood, would we rest easy—even if the law declared him innocent? Of course not! While the man may be justified, the nature which committed those murders remains unchanged.

Imputed righteousness is such a rich and beautiful biblical truth, but can you see how this alone is not enough? Can you see how imputation without transformation is utterly futile? If we are only “sinners saved by grace” and nothing more, then how can we commune with God?

While the Reformers were right to emphasize the wonder of imputed righteousness, we do wrong to stop at the courtroom door. God not only justifies—He sanctifies (Lev 22:16) and glorifies (Rom 8:30). Imputed righteousness is the foundation—but whoever laid a foundation and called it a home? He does not merely drop the charges and send you on your way. No—He changes your very being, He makes you new, so He can invite you into His household, adopt you as His child, and indwell you with His very Spirit.

If, as the famous saying goes, all we are is “a dunghill covered in snow”—externally righteous yet remaining inwardly foul— then how could we ever hope to fellowship with God? Just as the forgiven wolf still poses a threat to the town, a forgiven but inherent sinner can’t stand before a righteous and holy God, “For [He is] not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with [Him]” (Psa 5:4). The gospel doesn’t stop at acquittal—it includes resurrection, new birth, and union with Christ.

Jesus gave a harrowing parable in Matthew’s gospel. He talked of a servant, begging to settle an insurmountable debt with the king, and out of pity the king cleared the entirety of it. However, this same servant then went out and began to choke another who owed him money. Because of this blatant hypocrisy the servant was brought under the king’s judgment. He was scolded, “You wicked one! I forgave you all that debt... and should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?” (Matt 18:32-33), then delivered to the jailers until he paid his dues, effectively given the death sentence.

In the end, the servant received mercy but never became merciful. He loved the king’s gift, but he despised the grace which gave it. And so, rather than becoming like the king, he remained merely a servant saved by grace—and nothing more.

Beloved reader, I want to call you into a deeper faith, one more powerful and transformative than merely forgiven debt. Yes, I know, we have been saved by grace through faith, not by works lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9). But beloved believer, you must also see that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation! The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17)! Even when we were dead in our sins, He made us alive together with Christ (Eph 2:5), truly a new workmanship created in Christ Jesus so we would walk in the good works God prepared for us (Eph 2:10)!

We are not just a “sinner saved by grace”. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession (1 Pet 2:9)! Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you (1 Cor 3:16)? God’s presence is too clean to dwell in a dunghill my fellow Christian!

We have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and abiding word of God (1 Pet 1:23)! And whoever has been born again is not merely seen as righteous—they are righteous, just as He is righteous (1 John 3:7). For through faith, they were given union with Christ, and from this union they received the very glory the Father gave to the Son (John 17:22) through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

This is why we can work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12): because it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). Jesus said that no bad tree bears good fruit (Luke 6:43), and that the good person, out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good (Luke 6:45). How then could someone who was only declared good purify themselves as He is pure (1 John 3:3)? Only a good tree bears good fruit, beloved!

This isn’t the town forgiving the wolf then locking him in a cage. It’s the wolf being miraculously changed into a peaceful sheep by the Shepherd. God doesn’t simply forgive us and then expect us to obey a righteous law we still inwardly despise. He puts His laws on our hearts and writes them on our minds (Heb 10:16). He circumcises our hearts so that we will love Him with all our heart and soul (Deut 30:6).

This new nature is not partial or potential—it is perfect, and created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:24), how could we not be transformed by the renewal of our mind (Rom 12:2)?

But please don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not claiming that we are sinless while trapped in this mortal flesh. Even now, we often fail to do what we want, and instead do the very thing we hate (Rom 7:15). We may delight in God’s law inwardly yet still find that we lack the strength to carry it out perfectly (Rom 7:18). Why? Because nothing good dwells in our flesh—and the flesh cannot please God (Rom 8:8).

But beloved, take heart: if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous—who is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1–2). So, when we truly desire to do good and yet fall short, we can say with Paul: “It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Rom 7:20).

For we are not in the flesh any longer but in the Spirit (Rom 8:9), and although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom 8:10). So, if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He will also give life to your mortal body through the same Spirit (Rom 8:11).

This means that we are no longer debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (Rom 8:12). We now put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit (Rom 8:13), because we delight in the law of God in our inner being (Rom 7:22). That delight in His law is a powerful witness, even in the midst of repentant tears, that we are Children of the Living God.

This is not what is often referred to as “progressive sanctification—slowly becoming something you’re not. It’s the triumphant opportunity of putting on what we already have in Christ—perfection, holiness, and righteousness—and removing what we are no longer—stained, profane, and sinful.

Just as Israel was given the promised land by the decree of God, we are given a truly perfect and divine nature through the Word of God. The Israelites weren’t told to earn their inheritance by defeating the Canaanites, they were assured that the land was already theirs, it was set before them, all they had to do was take possession of it—to clear out what no longer belonged in it.

Beloved, the land is already ours! We are already clean because of the word that He has spoken to us (John 15:3); we are already a new creation, created after God’s own perfect, righteous, and holy likeness. We have already become perfect temples being indwelt by God’s own Spirit through Christ’s blood. All that is left is to take off the old self (Eph 4:22), and to put on the new self (Eph 4:24).

How then can we see ourselves as mere hills of filth veiled in snow, if God has made us His holy nation? That hill has been eradicated! You are a temple of God dear believer! Being built up, cared for, and indwelled by the Lord Himself! How then can we walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds (Eph 4:17)?

The wolf no longer stalks the town. It now grazes in the Shepherd’s fields, clothed in the innocence of the Lamb who died in its place—and gifted with the Lamb’s very nature. Our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so we would no longer be enslaved to sin (Rom 6:6). So if you have been buried with Him by baptism into death, then walk in the newness of life that comes with it beloved (Rom 6:4).

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