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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

IMPUTATION*

Charging to an account, used in the Bible with legal reference to sin and salvation being recorded by God. The biblical teaching on imputation represents one of the principal doctrines of the Christian faith. Although the noun form is not found in Scripture, the verb “to impute” occurs frequently in both the OT and NT. The basic meaning of the biblical word “impute” is “to set down in a record or a ledger.” In relation to the doctrine of salvation, the word is consistently used in a legal sense. Philemon 1:18, which affirms that the apostle Paul assumed the debt of Onesimus, aptly illustrates the predominant theological usage of the word: “if he . . . owes you anything, charge that to my account.”

When Scripture speaks of the imputation of good or evil, it does not suggest that any change of moral character is involved. Scripture does affirm that, from God’s perspective, righteousness or sin is charged to an individual’s account. In the broadest sense, Scripture teaches that God participates in the process of imputing (Ps 32:2) as do people (1 Sm 22:15). Good deeds were commonly imputed for reward (Ps 106:30-31), and evil deeds were imputed for punishment (Lv 17:3-4).

The Bible sets forth the theological concept of imputation in three distinct yet related ways. First, Scripture affirms the imputation of Adam’s original sin to the entire human race. In the sovereign plan of God, the first man’s initial act of disobedience was set to the account of every member of the human family. Every person thus participates in the guilt and penalty of that original sin. Second, the sin and guilt of the human race was imputed to Christ, so that although the Savior was not a sinner, he nevertheless bore the penalty arising from sin. Finally, the Bible teaches that, as a result of his atoning work, Christ’s righteousness is set to the believer’s account. Although not yet perfectly holy or morally righteous, believers nevertheless are justified before the law of God, and they are “clothed” with the imputed righteousness of Christ.

The apostle Paul developed at length the theme that Christ on the cross bore the punishment for believers’ sins. Thus he wrote that God “made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21, rsv; cf. Heb 9:28). Similarly, he depicted Christ as bearing the curse of the Mosaic law (Gal 3:13). Finally, reflecting on Isaiah 53, the apostle Peter affirmed that Christ “personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross” (1 Pt 2:24, NLT). The idea that the guilt of the entire world was charged to the account of the sinless Savior largely explains Christ’s impassioned cry on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46, NLT).

The imputation motif is also employed, in the sense of Christ’s righteousness being credited to believers. An incident in the life of the patriarch Abraham illustrates the imputation of righteousness on the basis of faith. After God had promised material and spiritual blessing to Abraham, Genesis 15:6 states that he “believed the Lord; and he [God] reckoned it to him as righteousness” (rsv). The Bible teaches that no person naturally possesses the standard of righteousness demanded by God (Ps 130:3; Is 64:6; Rom 3:10). Yet, in his gracious plan of salvation, God himself supplies the righteousness to satisfy his holy character (Is 45:24; 54:17; Hos 10:12). That is, as a person accepts by faith the work of Christ in satisfying the demands of God’s law, God imputes or reckons Christ’s righteousness to the believer.

The imputation of divine righteousness to the believer constitutes a major theme of Paul’s Letter to the Romans (Rom 3:21–5:21). Thus the apostle speaks of the happiness of an undeserving sinner who is declared to be righteous (4:6). Moreover, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness results in justification before God’s law court (5:18). The merits of Christ’s death imputed to the sinner are the basis for acquittal by the holy God. Thus the Bible teaches that the ruinous effects of the imputation of Adam’s sin are effectively reversed for those who believe in Christ. The imputation of human sin to Christ makes possible the imputation of his righteousness to believers.