professor emeritus of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary, and member of Southwest PRC in Wyoming, Michigan

In this and following articles in the rubric “Taking Heed to the Doctrine,” I plan to spend an article or two explaining a number of different theological terms. These are terms that are used to explain important doctrines of Holy Scripture. Often these words are used in our Reformed confessions, in systematic theologies, and even in upper level catechism books like the “Essentials of Reformed Doctrine,” by Herman Hoeksema, which is used by high school students in the Protestant Reformed Churches. These terms are of crucial importance for a correct understanding of the truth of God’s Word. Sometimes these terms are not found in Scripture, but have been developed by the church to summarize the Bible’s teaching. One example of this is the word “trinity.” But most are taken directly from the Bible.

I want to begin our survey of theological terms with a word that has been of crucial importance in the history of the church. It was a term that was decisive in the days of the Reformation in connection with the pivotal doctrine of justification by faith alone. The term is imputation. There is no doctrine of justification by faith alone apart from the closely related truth of imputation. Christ’s righteousness becomes ours by imputation.

THE MEANING OF IMPUTATION

The word “impute” is similar in meaning to “reckon,” “credit,” “count,” or “ascribe.” To impute something to someone is to ascribe it to them, to reckon it to their account, to count it as theirs.

Let us imagine that someone in your congregation takes note of a large family with many school-age children and an obviously high Christian school tuition bill. In love for them, he sends a check to the school instructing the treasurer to credit the amount of his check to the tuition obligation of this family. That is an illustration of imputation. The money for the tuition is not that of the father of the large family; it is the money of his benefactor. The money of his benefactor is applied to his tuition account as though it were his and he had paid the tuition bill. It is his by imputation.

The Bible gives us an example of imputation. The example is found in Paul’s epistle to Philemon. At the time that he wrote this brief epistle, Paul was a prisoner in Rome. While he was imprisoned, Paul received an unexpected visit from Onesimus, the runaway slave of Philemon. Philemon was a believer, likely converted through the apostle Paul’s preaching. That seems to be indicated when Paul writes that Philemon “owest unto me even thine own self besides” (v. 19b). During his visits to Paul, Onesimus was converted. To Philemon he writes, “I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds” (v. 10).

Although Onesimus was a great encouragement to Paul, he insisted that the runaway slave return to his master Philemon. Along with him, Paul sent his epistle to Philemon. In his letter, Paul included these instructions: “If he [Onesimus] hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on my account; I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it” (vv. 18-19a). Literally, when Paul writes, “put that on mine account,” he says, “impute that to me.” Although Paul had not personally wronged Philemon by taking any of his goods or owing any lost earnings, he instructed him to put any loss to his account. He would take responsibility for anything that Onesimus owed. Philemon must reckon that to Paul as though Paul himself had wronged him.

The term imputation, now, is used by Scripture  to describe our righteousness in Jesus Christ. The teaching of the gospel is that our righteousness before God is an imputed righteousness. We are not righteous in ourselves. Rather, the righteousness of Christ is reckoned to our account.

DOUBLE IMPUTATION

Reformed and Presbyterian theologians have traditionally spoken of “double imputation.” Double imputation refers to the imputation of the sins of the elect to our Lord Jesus Christ and the imputation of Christ’s perfect righteousness to believers. Both our original sin and all our actual sins are reckoned to Christ. He died enduring God’s wrath against our sins. And the fruit of His atoning death is that Christ’s righteousness is reckoned to believers.

In reality, we can speak of triple imputation. For before our sins were imputed to Christ and Christ’s righteousness to us, Adam’s transgression was imputed to the entire human race. The sin of the first Adam was imputed to all those of whom he was the head, just as the righteousness of the second Adam is imputed to all those of whom He is the Head.

The doctrine of imputation is closely related to the doctrine of headship. It was only because Adam was the head of the human race that his sin could be imputed to all his posterity. It is only because Christ is our Head, that His perfect obedience and lifelong suffering can be imputed to us. Headship carries with it very serious responsibilities—fathers take note.

Especially two errors stand opposed to the truth that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. Those two errors are the teachings that either righteousness is inherent in us or that we are able to acquire righteousness.

Inherent righteousness was the teaching of Pelagius. Pelagius taught that human beings are born into this world essentially good. Infants are born into the world sinless and blameless. Because they are essentially good, human beings are able to manufacture their own righteousness. The main opponent of Pelagius was Augustine, who taught the truth of original sin and total depravity.

The teaching of acquired righteousness is the teaching of both semi-Pelagianism and Arminianism. Fundamental to both errors is the heresy of the free will of the fallen sinner. By the exercise of his free will, the sinner is able to contribute to his righteousness before God and actually do works that are pleasing to God.

Scripture rejects both the teaching of inherent righteousness and acquired righteousness. On the contrary, it teaches that the fallen sinner neither has nor can contribute to his righteousness before God. All his righteousness is that of another, the righteousness of Christ imputed by faith. As Luther taught, the sinner’s righteousness is an “alien righteousness.” By that expression, Luther did not mean that our righteousness is the righteousness of a creature from another planet. But what he meant was that our righteousness is foreign to us and is the righteousness of someone else that is attributed to us. That alien righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is not ours naturally but is imputed to us.

That which is imputed to us is righteousness. Faith is not imputed to us; righteousness is imputed to us. Faith is not imputed to us, but Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us by or through faith. Faith is the means or instrument by which God imputes Christ’s righteousness to our account. The effect of that imputation is that Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness so that we are as righteous as Christ is righteous. Luther said, “Therefore a man can with confidence boast in Christ and say: ‘Mine are Christ’s living, doing, speaking, his suffering and dying, mine as much as if I had lived, done, spoken, suffered, and died as he did.’”1

SCRIPTURE AND THE CONFESSIONS

The doctrine of imputation is set forth clearly both in Scripture and in the Reformed confessions. No one is Reformed who denies the doctrine of imputation.

The sacrificial system of the Old Testament gave witness to the truth of imputation. This was especially true on the annual Great Day of Atonement when the sins of the people were imputed to the scapegoat. The ceremony of imputation is described in Leviticus 16:21- 22: “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” By way of type, the scapegoat represented our Lord Jesus Christ to whom our sins were imputed.

Second Corinthians 5:21 teaches double imputation: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Christ was not sinful in Himself, but He was “made to be sin” by God. And through Him and because of Him, we are “made the righteousness of God.”

The outstanding chapter in Scripture on imputation is Romans 4. In this chapter Paul teaches the doctrine of imputation by appealing to the Old Testament. He is not teaching a new doctrine but a doctrine taught clearly in the Old Testament. He appeals, first, to the teaching of David in Psalm 32, and then to the establishment of the covenant with Abraham as recorded in Genesis 15 and 17. Several times throughout Romans 4, Paul speaks of righteousness counted, reckoned, and imputed by faith. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (v. 3). “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (v. 5). “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.” After several other references to imputation in the chapter, the apostle concludes the chapter in verses 23 and 24, “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

The Reformed confessions defend the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers. Q&A 60 of the Heidelberg Catechism highlights the doctrine of imputation:

Q. 60. How art thou righteous before God?

A. Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience accuse me that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ…[emphasis added].

And what is the result of this divine imputation?

…even so, as if I never had had nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.

Article 25 of the Belgic Confession of Faith is entitled, “Faith in Jesus Christ.” The article affirms that faith itself does not justify us, but it is the instrument or means by which we embrace Christ our righteousness. The article goes on: “But Jesus Christ, imputing to us all His merits and so many holy works which He has done for us and in our stead, is our righteousness.” Significant reference is made in this statement to Christ’s lifelong obedience, what is sometimes referred to as His active obedience, as well as His work of dying on the cross, what is sometimes referred to as Christ’s passive obedience. Both are aspects of Christ’s perfect obedience to God that is imputed to us by faith.

Q&A 70-72 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism clearly set forth the truth that our righteousness before God is an imputed righteousness.

Q. 70. What is justification?

A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone [emphasis added].

Throughout his writings, the great Reformer John Calvin emphasized the truth of imputation. Writing in the Institutes, Calvin says,

From this it is also evident that we are justified before God solely by the intercession of Christ’s righteousness. This is equivalent to saying that man is not righteous in himself but because the righteousness of Christ is communicated to him by imputation—something worth carefully noting (3.11.23, 1:753) [emphasis added].

And in another place, Calvin speaks of the “wonderful exchange,” which is the exchange of our sins for Christ’s everlasting righteousness.

This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; that, becoming Son of man with us, he has made us sons of God with him; that, by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; that, by taking on our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us; that, accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; that, by receiving our poverty unto himself, he has transferred his wealth to us; that, taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself (which oppressed us), he has clothed us with his righteousness (4.17.2, 2:1362, Battles ed.).

Since our righteousness and salvation is by imputation, since the One who stands in our place and endures the wrath of God that we deserve has been sent by God, accomplishes the will of God, and reconciles us to God, God and God alone must receive the glory for our salvation. If we do not manufacture our own righteousness and if we do not perform any works that contribute to produce our righteousness, but our righteousness is the gift of God imputed to us by faith, God must be glorified for our salvation. The doctrine of imputation stands in the service of the glory of God.

1 William R. Russell (author), Timothy F. Lull (editor), Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, 3rd ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012), 155.