Imputation (also imputed righteousness) is a concept in Christian theology proposing: the righteousness of Jesus Christ satisfies all criteria necessary to share in God's grace. Those who trust in the promise that the death of Jesus on the cross atones for their sins believe in this type of righteousness as opposed to imparted righteousness and sanctification. The teaching of imputed righteousness is a signature doctrine of the Lutheran, and Calvinist/Reformed traditions of Christianity.
The case for imputed righteousnessImputed righteousness is the Protestant solution to a "divine predicament." On the one hand, God is infinitely merciful, "not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9). On the other, God is infinitely holy and just, which means that he cannot approve of or even look upon evil (Habakkuk 1:13), neither can he justify a wicked person (Prov. 17:15). Because the Bible describes all men as sinners and says that there are none who are righteous (Rom. 3:23, 10), these two "competing" traits in God's nature appear to put him in a dilemma.
- The imputation of Adam's sin to his descendants
Romans 5:12-19
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. - The imputation of the believer's sin to Christ
2 Corinthians 5:18-21
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Peter 2:24
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
Isaiah 53:6
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. - The imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer.
1 Corinthians 1:30
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Philippians 3:8-9
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
Acts 3:14
14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. Romans 4:23-24
23 The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Jude 1:24-25
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Protestants' answer to this dilemma is imputation. The New Testament describes the method of man's salvation as the "righteousness of God" (Rom. 3:21, 22; 10:3; Phil. 3:9). They then note that this "righteousness" is more particularly that of the second member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Cor. 1:30). When they refer to the "imputed righteousness of Christ," they are referring to his life of sinlessness and perfect obedience to God's law on this earth. The need for a human life of perfect obedience to God's law was the reason, they claim, that Christ had to live as a human being for a certain period of time. Paul's statement in Romans 4:6, that God "imputes righteousness apart from works," bolsters the fourth step in their argument that this righteousness of Christ is imputed to our accounts. By this terminology they mean that God "legally credits the believer" with the righteous acts that Christ performed while on this earth.
The verse (2 Peter 3:9) above does not clearly define the "divine predicament". The reason is in the understanding of two words that Simon Peter uses. Those words are; any, and all. In the context of Peter's book where he often refers to the "elect" or "chosen" it's not unconceivable and highly likely to understand those words to be referring to "any of the elect" as opposed to "any one who ever lived" and "all of the elect" as opposed to "all persons who ever lived". The "divine predicament" seems to be the tension between God's sovereignty and man's will. Can man's will resist the decree of God. Here is where the imputed righteousness of Christ becomes significant.If God puts the righteousness of Christ on the sinner, he becomes righteous. Conversely if the sinfulness of the sinner is put (imputed) on Christ, he becomes sin, 2 Corinthians 5:21.
This is not a legal fiction, they argue, just as adoption is not a legal fiction. Adoption legally constitutes a child the son or daughter of a person that is not that child's birth parent. Similarly, in marriage the married partners are considered one entity legally. When a sinner believes in Christ, they are spiritually united with Christ, and that union makes it possible for God to credit believers with the righteousness of Christ without engaging in "legal fiction." There are three explicit theological truths in the bible directly interdependent to the ideology of imputation: Arguments against the doctrine of imputed righteousnessMany Christians understand that righteousness is only really imputed when they obey God, and this will not be complete until the Second Coming of Christ. If this is so, then the Protestant doctrine of "imputed righteousness" is in error. This argument is not really over whether there is imputed righteousenss, but when it occurs. The typical protestant understanding of the Greek word DIKAIOO, usually translated "justify" is "declared righteous". Hence they say Christians are "declared righteous by faith". This doctrine is an error supported only by misunderstanding three Greek roots. The Greek word DIKAIOO means "to do justice" "to have justice done" or "to satisfy justice". The noun means "justice". The Greek word PISTIS means "faithfulness" (BDAG, definition 1A), and the verb "faithfully trust". NOMOS means a "norm" (BDAG, def. 1). 21 But now 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (Rom. 3:21-31 ESV) Upon correcting the Greek, the doctrine of "justified by faith" = "declared righteous by our faith" falls apart. And the Gospel comes forth clearly as "justice is done by Christ's faithfulness" to do the work of atonement on the cross.Lutheran viewPhilipp Melanchthon, a contemporary of Martin Luther, stressed the classic Lutheran desire to distinguish carefully and properly between Law and Gospel. In doing so he emphasised that Law binds us, convicts us, and drives us, whilst the Gospel proclaims repentance, the promise of grace, eternal life, and proclaims our liberty in Christ. Reformed viewThe Reformed and Presbyterian churches have generally followed the Lutherans on the importance of distinguishing the law and the gospel. Articulated in terms of Covenant Theology, law and gospel have been associated with the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace, respectively. Historically, they have been more open to the broader biblical language which the Lutheran Formula of Concord calls “correct” but not “proper". Recently, some prominent theologians have disputed the centrality of the law-gospel distinction in the Reformed tradtition. Covenant of worksThe covenant of works was made in the Garden of Eden between God and Adam who represented all mankind as a federal head. (Romans 5:12-21) It promised life for obedience and death for disobedience. Adam, and all mankind in Adam, broke the covenant, thus standing condemned. The covenant of works continues to function after the fall as the moral law.
Though it is not explicitly called a covenant in the opening chapters of Genesis, the comparison of the representative headship of Christ and Adam, as well as passages like Hosea 6:7 have been interpreted to support the idea. It has also been noted that Jeremiah 33:20-26 (cf. 31:35-36) compares the covenant with David to God's covenant with the day and the night and the statues of heaven and earth which God laid down at creation. This has led some to understand all of creation as covenantal: the decree establishing the natural laws governing heaven and earth. The covenant of works might then be seen as the moral law component of the broader creational covenant. Thus the covenant of works has also been called the covenant of creation, indicating that it is not added but constitutive of the human race; the covenant of nature in recognition of its consonance with the natural law in the human heart; and the covenant of life in regard to the promised reward.
Covenant of graceThe covenant of grace promises eternal blessing for all people who trust in the successive promises of God. Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of these promises. He is the substitutionary covenantal representative fulfilling the covenant of works on their behalf, in both the positive requirements of righteousness and its negative penal consequences (commonly described as his active and passive obedience). It is the historical expression of the eternal covenant of redemption. Genesis 3:15, with the promise of a "seed" of the woman who would crush the serpent's head, is usually identified as the historical inauguration for the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace became the basis for all future covenants that God made with mankind such as: These individual covenants are called the biblical covenants because they are explicitly described in the Bible. Under the covenantal overview of the Bible, submission to God's rule and living in accordance with his moral law (expressed concisely in the Ten Commandments) is a response to grace — never something which can earn God's acceptance (legalism). Even in his giving of the Ten Commandments, God introduces His law by reminding the Israelites that he is the one who brought them out of slavery in Egypt (grace).Roman Catholic view "The Catholic idea maintains that the formal cause of justification does not consist in an exterior imputation of the justice of Christ, but in a real, interior sanctification effected by grace, which abounds in the soul and makes it permanently Holy or sacred (set apart for the worship or service of God) before God. Although the sinner is justified by the justice of Christ, inasmuch as the Redeemer has merited for him the grace of justification (causa meritoria), nevertheless he is formally justified and made holy by his own personal justice and holiness (causa formalis)." Although internal and proper to the one justified, this justice and holiness are still understood as a gift of grace through the Holy Spirit rather than something earned or acquired independently of God's salvific (late Latin "salvificus") work.
Footnotes
- See James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1997), pp. 296-298, for a discussion of this topic.
- John Piper's Counted Righteous in Christ (Wheaton, IL:Crossway, 2002), provides a good example of this answer.
- Buchanan, pp. 334-338.
- Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), p. 971.
- "A critical analysis of the writings of Luther Colleague and Co-worker, Prof. Philipp Melancthon", http://www.elcm.org/, 2007-03-30.
- "Classical Covenant Theology", R. Scott Clark's Articles, 2007-05-16.
- "Law and Gospel", The Works of John Frame and Vern Poythress, 2007-03-30.
- "Sanctifying Grace", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913.
- Latin-Greek Dictionary WinDictionary.com "salvificus"
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