Theological Term of the Week: Imputation

imputation
“The attribution of a verdict or quality from one party to another A reckoning or crediting of something to a person.”1 Used theologically, it refers the crediting of the personal guilt or personal righteousness of another, as in the imputation of the sin of Adam to all his descendants, the imputation of the sins of human beings to Christ, or the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to believers. 

• From scripture:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore, as one trespass  led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:12-21 ESV).

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV).

• From the London Baptist Confession, chapter 6: 

2. Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

3. They being the root, and by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free.

• From the London Baptist Confession, chapter 11: 

1. Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.

Learn more:

1. B. B. Warfiled: Imputation
2. Bob Burridge: The Meaning of Imputation
3. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: The Meaning of Imputation in the Bible

Related terms:

• federal headship
• double imputation
• justification
• original sin
• penal substitution

1Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition by Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt

Filed under Salvation

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Sunday Hymn: Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee

Jesus, the very thought of thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far thy face to see,
And in thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the mem’ry find,
A sweeter sound than thy blest Name,
O Saviour of mankind.

O Hope of ev’ry contrite heart,
O Joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind thou art!
How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show:
The love of Jesus, what it is
None but his loved ones know.

Jesus, our only Joy be thou,
As thou our Prize wilt be;
Jesus, be thou our Glory now,
And through eternity.

—Ber­nard of Clair­vaux

By Faith Enoch

God Took Enoch by Gerard Hoet

If you’ve read many folk tales or children’s stories, you know they often feature repeated lines or refrains. These refrains not only help us remember the story, but they often show us its main point.

Take the tale of The Three Little Pigs, for instance. When you hear “Little pig, little pig, let me come in,” you probably know exactly what comes next. Who can forget all the repeated lines in this story?

Once a story’s pattern of refrains is established, we know to watch for something to change. In The Three Little Pigs, the wolf “huffed and puffed” twice, and each time he blew down a little pig’s house. But at the third little pig’s house, the one built with sturdy bricks, the wolf “huffed and puffed, but he could not blow the house down.” This change in the refrain points to the story’s lesson: Wisdom and hard work paid off for the third little pig, and they will pay off for us, too.

When we read Genesis 5, which is the Old Testament passage containing the story of Enoch, the second person in the Hebrews 11 hall of faith, it helps to read the text a bit like we would read a folk tale. Of course, it’s true history, not a folk tale, but to record the history, Moses used a series of repeated lines with some unexpected changes. And just as the changes to the refrains of children’s stories are significant, so are the pattern changes in the historical account in this chapter. There’s a whole lot of meaning smuggled into small differences in the wording.

Genesis 5 is the genealogy of the main line of Adam’s descendants. It includes nine men, and follows a pattern—a series of repeated phrases—for each man on the list. Each one lived a very long life, had children, “and then he died.” 

Except for Enoch. The record of his life doesn’t follow the pattern.

Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered Methuselah. And after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters. So Enoch’s life lasted 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24 CSB).

Like the other men, Enoch lived and had children, but just when we expect to hear, “and then he died,” there’s a twist. “Then he was not there,” we read, “because God took him.” 

This is a mysterious statement, isn’t it? What does it mean to be taken by God? One thing is sure: Enoch didn’t die, or Moses would have ended his account of Enoch’s life with the same line he used for the others. The other eight men died, but something different happened to Enoch. He just disappeared one day when God took him. 

Enoch lived his life differently, too. The other eight men just lived their lives, but Enoch “walked with God”—and Moses described his life this way twice for emphasis. 

When I was a child, I heard this phrase and imagined Enoch taking an afternoon stroll with God. But of course, “walked with God” is a figure of speech, and not meant to be understood literally. From Moses’s description of Noah, who also “walked with God” we know walking with God means living a righteous life (Genesis 6:9). Or to put it another way, to “walk with God” is to live a life that pleases him, which is why the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, translated “Enoch walked with God” as “Enoch pleased God.” This is what the figure of speech “walked with God” means.

These three verses are all the Old Testament says about Enoch, but it’s enough for author of Hebrews to include him in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. Here’s what he wrote about Enoch: 

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:5-6 NIV?).

Just as he did with Abel, the author reasoned that since Enoch “pleased God” (He followed the language of the Septuagint.), and since it’s impossible to please God without faith, Enoch was a man of faith. Enoch knew God was there, he believed God was good, and he regularly sought him out (verse 6). We might say that Enoch had a deep and lasting relationship with God. And he lived his life waiting patiently for the reward he knew would come.

The author of Hebrews noticed the way the refrains changed in the verses about Enoch in Genesis, and knew this was significant.  He saw the different ending of Enoch’s life—being taken from this life without experiencing death—as the direct result of the different way he lived. God rewarded Enoch for his faithfulness by bringing him to himself. 

For the first readers of Hebrews, who were feeling cultural pressure to abandon the Christian faith, Enoch’s life is an example of someone for whom remaining faithful paid off. And it probably wasn’t easy for him to live a life of consistent faithfulness. After all, he lived only three generations before the flood when God wiped out all of civilization because of its wickedness. Do you think the culture was a whole lot less evil in his time? It’s likely Enoch was pressured to abandon his faith, but he kept on trusting God.

Like Enoch, if we are going to please God, it will be by faith. Yes, he is delighted by our obedience, but true obedience is the fruit of a faith. It can only come from a heart that loves God. Like Enoch, we will only truly walk with God when we trust that he is good, and that his goodness overflows to those who seek him.

It is by faith that we will receive our reward, too. We won’t skip death like Enoch did (although those who are still alive when Christ returns will), but we will be raised from the dead. And we will be with him, which for those who desire him more than anything else, is the best reward there is.    

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Previous posts in this series:

• By Faith the Ancients
• By Faith Abel