Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Imputation

The reckoning or crediting of one person's status to another — Adam's sin to humanity, the believer's sin to Christ, and Christ's righteousness to the believer.

Latin imputare, 'to reckon, charge to an account'; renders Greek logizomai ('to count, credit'), used eleven times in Romans 4.

Genesis 15:6 (Abraham's faith 'counted' as righteousness); Romans 4:3–11, 22–25; Romans 5:18–19; 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21; Philippians 3:9.

A Reformation emphasis: righteousness is credited, not infused, so that assurance rests on Christ's finished work, not the believer's progress. Catholic theology speaks instead of an imparted/infused righteousness.

Distinguishes justification (a change of status) from sanctification (a change of character), while insisting the two always go together.

Whether Scripture teaches the imputation of Christ's active obedience; the New Perspective and N. T. Wright's critique of 'imputed righteousness' as a category mistake.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.