Imputation of Sin to Christ - Excerpts...

SECTION XII
THE IMPUTATION OF THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST UNTO THE LAW DECLARED AND INDICATED

John Owen

Pardon of sin is in God, with respect unto the sinner, a free, gratuitous act: "Forgiveness of sin through the riches of his grace." But with respect unto the satisfaction of Christ, it is an act in judgment. For on the consideration thereof, as imputed unto him, does God absolve and acquit the sinner upon his trial. But pardon on a juridical trial, on what consideration soever it be granted, gives no right nor title unto any favour, benefit, or privilege, but only mere deliverance. It is one thing to be acquitted before the throne of a king of crimes laid unto the charge of any man, which may be done by clemency, or on other considerations; another to be made his son by adoption, and heir unto his kingdom.

And these things are represented unto us in the Scripture as distinct, and depending on distinct causes: so are they in the vision concerning Joshua the high priest, Zech.3:4,5, "And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair metre upon his head. So they set a fair metre upon his head, and clothed him with garments." It has been generally granted that we have here a representation of the justification of a sinner before God. And the taking away of filthy garments is expounded by the passing away of iniquity. When a man's filthy garments are taken away, he is no more defiled with them; but he is not thereby clothed. This is an additional grace and favour thereunto,--namely, to be clothed with change of garments. And what this raiment is, is declared, Isa.61:10, "He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness;" which the apostle alludes unto, Phil.3:9. Wherefore these things are distinct,-- namely, the taking away of the filthy garments, and the clothing of us with change of raiment; or, the pardon of sin, and the robe of righteousness. By the one are we freed from condemnation; by the other have we right unto salvation. And the same is in like manner represented, Ezek.16:6-12.

CALVIN ON JUSTIFICATION AND

RECENT MISINTERPRETATIONS OF HIS VIEW

by J. V. Fesko

Generally speaking, Calvin understood that man “is said
to be justified in God’s sight who is both reckoned righteous in
God’s judgment and has been accepted on account of his
righteousness.” This means for Calvin that there are two constituent
elements of justification: the remission of sins and the need for
righteousness. This is evident in his definition of justification: “The
acceptance with which God receives us into his favor as righteous
men. And we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the
imputation of Christ’s righteousness...”

How are they justified? Calvin explains that men are
returned to God’s favor “by being regarded as righteous, by
obtaining the remission of their sins. As long as God imputes our
sins to us, He cannot but regard us with abhorrence, for He cannot
look with friendship or favor upon sinners.”27 Here we see, then,
Calvin’s emphasis upon the remission of sins, but what about the
imputation of Christ’s righteousness?...

Calvin explains that the believer’s remission of sin comes
through Christ’s sacrifice: “As a man’s curse used to be cast upon
the sacrificial victim, so Christ’s condemnation was our absolution
and with His stripes we are healed.”28 So, at least at this point, one
should take note how justification is intertwined with Christ’s
atonement. The first element of justification, the remission of sins,
is inextricably linked with Christ’s sacrifice. We find emphasis upon
the second element, the imputation of righteousness, when Calvin
comments upon 2 Corinthians 5:21:

"How can we become righteous before God? In the same way as
Christ became a sinner. For He took, as it were, our person, that He
might be the offender in our name and thus might be reckoned a
sinner, not because of His own offences but because of those of
others, since He Himself was pure and free from every fault and
bore the penalty that was our due and not His own. Now in the
same way we are righteous in Him, not because we have satisfied
God’s judgment by our own works, but because we are judged in
relation to Christ’s righteousness which we have put on by faith,
that it may become our own."29

While Calvin does not say so in the most specific terms, his

interpretation is one that hinges upon imputation: the imputation of

the sins of the ungodly to Christ, which is the remission of sins, and

the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the believer. Where

the emphasis upon imputation is the strongest comes in Calvin’s

appeal to Romans 5:19.

Commenting on Romans 5:19 Calvin makes the connection

between the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the

believer when he writes that Paul

"states that we are made righteous by the obedience of Christ, we

deduce from this that Christ, in satisfying the Father, has procured

righteousness for us. It follows from this that righteousness exists

in Christ as a property, but that that which belongs properly to

Christ is imputed to us. At the same time he explains the character

of the righteousness of Christ by referring to it as obedience."30

Here the connections between the obedience, or righteousness, of

Christ and imputation emerge quite clearly. Moreover, from this

triad of scriptural passages one can see the inextricable links

between the remission of sin, the imputation, of sin to Christ, and

righteousness, or obedience, to the believer. It is based upon

Calvin’s analysis of Romans 4:6-7, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, and

Romans 5:19, then, that Calvin is able to conclude that justification

involves the remission of sin and the imputation of the

righteousness of Christ.

Covenant Theology Illustrated:
Romans 5 on the Federal Headship of Adam and Christ.
by Stephen M. Baugh, Ph.D.
We have seen that Adam in Romans 5:12-21 was the federal representative of his race under the covenant of works. Some theologians reject this understanding of Paul's teaching outright, because it "violates all sense of justice."20 But if we are to use our "sense of justice" as an ultimate criterion for judging the truths of Scripture, then shouldn't we deny all covenant imputation as well? If sin cannot be imputed from one to many, conversely it cannot be imputed from many to one. Under this method, how can we maintain that "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" "the righteous for the unrighteous" (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; cf. Isa. 53)? Shouldn't this violate our sense of justice, too? And if our sins were not imputed to Christ, neither can his righteousness become ours (e.g., 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). Then we would all be cut off from Christ and personally obligated (as was Adam), to keep all of God's holy law ourselves (Gal. 5:2-3 again).

A.A. Hodge on the Imputation of Sin to Christ:
2. The phrase to “impute sin,” or “righteousness,” in its scriptural usage signifies simply to set to one’s account, to lay. to one’s charge or credit as a ground of legal process. The thing imputed may belong to the person to whom it is imputed originally. In that case it is imputed in the sense of being simply charged to him, made the ground of a legal indictment preparatory to judicial process. Or the thing imputed may not be originally his, but may be made his by the imputation, because of the legal connection subsisting between the person to whom the thing originally belonged and him to whom it is imputed. Thus, not to impute sin to the doer of it is of course not to charge the guilt of his own sin upon him as a ground of punishment. To impute righteousness without works can only mean to credit a believer with the rewardableness of a righteousness which did not originate with himself. Rom. iv. 4-8. God in Christ not imputing their trespasses unto his people, is, of course, God for Christ s sake not charging their trespasses to them as a ground of punishment. 2 Cor. v. 19. Christ must be made sin for us in precisely the same sense that we are made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Cor. v. 21. But, as will be shown below, we are justified or pronounced righteous in Christ forensically, as a matter of legal relation, not made inherently righteous by the infusion of grace. The macula or pollution of sin might possibly be transmitted by generation. Otherwise it must ever remain the inalienable personal quality of the individual sinner. It is an absurdity, for which no class of Reformed theologians have ever been responsible, to represent personal character, either good or bad, as transferable from one person to another by imputation. All that can be imputed from person to person is the guilt or legal obligation to punishment of any sin, and that only in those cases in which the person to whom it is imputed has become in some way or other justly responsible for the action of the person the guilt of whose sin is imputed.

This usage of the word “impute”; is not a creation of “artificial theology” as is asserted by Dr. Young and by all those who maintain either the “Moral” or the “Governmental” theory of the Atonement. This is evident, because–

(1) this sense is embraced in the classical usage of the word logizomai. Its primary sense is to count, reckon. Then, when construed with a person in the dative and a thing in the accusative, it signifies to set down that thing to the account of that person, and is thus equivalent to the Latin term impurare.1 Ainsworth defines imputare– “to ascribe, to charge; to lay the blame or fault on any one.” Suidas Lexicon–“logizo, reputo; et logisomai, computabo; et logioumai, numerabo, computabo; et logo, existimo, ut illud: et imputatem est ipsi in justitiam.”

(2.) The same is true of the usage of the Hebrew chashab in the Old Testament. The daughters of Laban complained (Gen. xxxi. 15) that their father “counted” them strangers–that is, regarded and treated them as strangers:

If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offers it; it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eats of it shall bear his iniquity. Lev. vii. 18.

The sacrifice was offered as a matter of fact, but was not set to the credit of the offerer as acceptable or effective. The heave-offering of the Levites was to be “reckoned as though it were the corn of the threshing-floor, and as the fullness of the wine-press.” Numb, xviii. 27, 30. That Phineas slew the offending Israelite at Shittim a was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.” Ps. cvi. 31.

(3.) The same is true with regard to the New Testament usage of the word logizomai. Christ, referring to Isa. liii. 12, said: “For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors.” Luke xxii. 37. “Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?” Rom. ii. 26. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Gal. iii. 6. “To him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” “To him that works not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” David speaks of the blessedness of the man “to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works–to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” & “Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.” Rom. iv. 3-9.”God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” 2 Cor. v. 19. “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me; I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge,” 2 Tim. iv. 16. “He was numbered with the transgressors.” Mark xv. 28. “But also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be counted for naught,”2 Acts xix. 27.
The Scriptures plainly teach, therefore, that all the guilt or obligation to punishment incurred by the sins of his people was imputed or charged to the account of Christ, as the legal ground of the execution upon him of the penalty involved in the case. Yet, notwithstanding that the guilt of all our sins is thus charged to Christ, and expiated in him, all their blame, shame, pollution and power, as inherent personal habits or principles, remain all the while inalienably ours. These sins are none the less ours, after their imputation to him, than they were before, (a.) The very force of the imputation is to make him alienee culpce reus; that is, penally responsible for another s sin. They must remain ours in order that they may be to him the sins of an other.
(6.) Because personal moral qualities, and the pollution inherent in sinful ones, are inalienable and cannot be transferred by imputation, (c.) Because, as Owen pointed out long ago, to be alienee culpce reus makes no man a sinner, subjectively considered, unless he did unwisely or irregularly undertake the responsibility, (d.) Because our blessed Lord was a divine Person, and therefore absolutely incapable of personal sin in any sense or degree. While, therefore, he bore our sins, and consequently suffered the penalty involved, and hence was both regarded and treated by the Father, during the time and for the purpose of expiation, as vicariously guilty and worthy of wrath, he was all the while not one iota the less personally immaculate and glorious in holiness, and all the more the well-beloved Son of the Father, in whom he was well pleased.

All this the orthodox have always held and carefully expressed. We regard it, then, as an evident sign of weakness, and as an offense against honorable argument, when the advocates of the Governmental Theory (as for instance, Jenkyns, Fiske, and others), by studiously confounding the imputation of guilt with the transference of personal inherent sinful character, and by habitually setting forth the coarse and indiscriminating language of Luther on this subject as a fair representation of the Satisfaction Theory, disingenuously insinuate that at least the more self-consistent of the orthodox have held the blasphemy that Christ was made personally a sinner when he bore our sins upon the tree.
A. A. Hodge, The Atonement (London: T. Nelson And Sons, 1868), 158-162.
[Note: The point is, Christ is treated as though he were a sinner thereby answering the demands of justice due to our sins, but all the while we remain sinners, subject to the wrath of God. Neither actual sin-pollution or sinful acts are transferred to Christ.]

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