Theological Term of the Week: Double Imputation

double imputation

The two-way imputation that is the grounds for a believer’s justification. In this exchange, God imputes (or credits) the sins of the believer to Christ, and imputes (or credits) Christ’s righteousness to the believer. 

• From scripture: 

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)

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith … . (Philippians 3:8-9 ESV)

• From the London Baptist Confession, 1689, Chapter 11: 
  

  1. Those whom God effectually calls He also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting them as righteous, not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone. They are not justified because God reckons as their righteousness either their faith, their believing, or any other act of evangelical obedience. They are justified wholly and solely because God imputes to them Christ’s righteousness. He imputes to them Christ’s active obedience to the whole law and His passive obedience in death. They receive Christ’s righteousness by faith, and rest on Him. They do not possess or produce this faith themselves, it is the gift of God.

  3. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those who are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due to them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in their behalf;yet, in as much as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them, their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. 

Learn more:

1. R. C. Sproul: Double Imputation: Our Sin For His Righteousness
2. Got Questions: What does it mean that Jesus became sin for us? and Why does Christ’s righteousness need to be imputed to us?
3. Stephen Nichols: The Doctrine of Imputation
4. J. V. Fesko: The Doctrine of Imputation
5. Albert N. Martin: Romans 5:12-21 - Justification: Double Imputation (mp3)

Related terms:

• active obedience of Christ
• imputation
• justification
• passive obedience of Christ

Filed under Salvation

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Sunday Hymn: Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in thy great day;
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

When from the dust of death I rise
To claim my mansion in the skies,
Ev’n then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.

Jesus, be endless praise to thee,
Whose boundless mercy hath for me—
For me a full atonement made,
An everlasting ransom paid.

O let the dead now hear thy voice;
Now bid thy banished ones rejoice;
Their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness.

—Nikolaus Ludwig von Zizendorf 

Another hymn for this Sunday:

• At Calvary at The Happy Wonderer 

Theological Term of the Week: Definite Atonement

definite atonement

The doctrinal teaching that “Christ died with the purpose of making full and effective atonement for all his people, who had been chosen to salvation from before the foundation of the world”;1 also called limited atonement or particular redemption.

• From scripture: 

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:22-27 ESV).

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:14-17 ESV)

• From the London Baptist Confession, 1689, Chapter 8: 

  5. The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of God, procured reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him….

  8. To all those for whom Christ hath obtained eternal redemption, he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same, making intercession for them; uniting them to himself by his Spirit, revealing unto them, in and by his Word, the mystery of salvation, persuading them to believe and obey, governing their hearts by his Word and Spirit, and overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom, in such manner and ways as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation; and all of free and absolute grace, without any condition foreseen in them to procure it. 

Learn more:

1. Kevin DeYoung: Theological Primer: Limited Atonement
2. Jonathan Gibson: Limited Atonement
3. Jonathan Gibson: 10 Things You Should Know about Definite Atonement
4. R. C. Sproul: Limited Atonement
5. Simply Put Podcast: Limited Atonement
6. Robert Raymond: Ten Lines of Evidence for the Doctrine of Particular Redemption

Related terms:

• penal substitution
• total depravity
• unconditional election
• irresistible grace
• perseverance of the saints

1 Systematic Theology by Robert Letham, page 571.

Filed under Salvation

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.