Samuel Baird writes, "To impute, is, to attribute a moral act or attitude to a party" (The Elohim Revealed, pg. 471). In the historia salutis, three contexts in which some sort of important attribution or imputation is theorized include:
1. Sins are imputed to Christ when He suffered for the sake of His sheep.
2. Sin is imputed to us when we are born.
3. Righteousness is imputed to us when we are converted.
Let's look at these more closely:
1. Here is why I think this proposal is problematic: Christ never sinned, nor did He participate in sin... so how can He be truthfully attributed, regarded as, or charged with being a sinner? Now, I would agree that it is just for Christ to voluntarily experience the wrath of God (see note below) in anticipation of union with sinners such that His suffering satisfies the punishment due to them (penal substitution). However, it seems to me that the Father never falsely looks at Christ as something that Christ is not (a sinner). Thus, #1 is false.
Another problem: if sin's are said to be imputed to Christ at another time than His suffering, when would that be? Whilst He is reigning in heaven? That isn't intelligible. Or if sin is imputed to Christ at the time He suffered on the cross, whose sins are imputed? The elect's? If so, then why are the elect regarded as enemies of God and under God's wrath before they are converted? That would imply double punishment - the same sins are unjustly punished twice over. I write more on this point here (see the comment section as well).
[Side note: one doesn't need to suppose that the Trinity experienced ontological separation in order for Christ to endure the just wrath due to sinners. As an analogy, consider that we were "children of wrath" and "enemies of God" even while "in love He predestined us." A fortiori, Christ's experiencing the wrath of God - suffering in body and soul - does not suggest an internal rift within the Trinity. See, for example, Psalm 22:1-2 specifying the withdrawal of the experience of the presence of the Father at the time of the crucifixion.]
2. Adam's sin is imputed to us when we are born because we are born "in Adam." We are united to our prototypical father by having been naturally generated from or been begotten by him. In the case of Christ, He is of the same spirit - consubstantial - with Adam (and us) but is not from Adam's concrete spirit, having been born of a virgin. We, on the other hand, are not only of the same spirit but from his concrete spirit. Having been multiplied out of him, we can be justly regarded as having sinned in him. While we did not exist as persons, Adam's same, concrete spirit by which he sinned is now in us (paternal traducianism).
To deny any of this seems to lead to irresolvable problems. Are we are punished for something for which we are not guilty? Are we guilty without having participated in that in virtue of which we are guilty? I plan to outline this participation in a separate post, but suffice it to say that I think #2 is true.
3. Whereas I have suggested that there is a sense in which "we" were "in Adam" when he sinned (and, thus, were participants in his sin), we were not "in" the last Adam at the time He lived perfectly or suffered on the cross (cf. John 7:39). Thus, we did not "participate" in Christ's work of redemption. That is, while the ground of our condemnation is our own wrong-doing, the ground of our justification is not on the basis of our right-doing.
On the other hand, justification is based on our union with Christ and, by extension, His work (cf. the Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 66). In fact, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 2:5-6, etc. show that those who are in Christ are attributed, imputed, or regarded as experiencing crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and seating with Christ. Christ's life forms the basis for and pattern of our salvation.
We bear an inverse relationship to the first Adam as we do to the last: pertaining to the spirit of the first Adam, by natural generation we are born out of him and his (and "our") sin. By contrast, pertaining to the Spirit of the last Adam, in regeneration we are born into Him and His righteousness (et al.). This inverse relationship explains why participation is necessary in the one case but not the other: the imputation of sin presupposes participation in said sin which, in turn, entails a real union with the first Adam. By grace, the imputation of righteousness does not require participation in the same sense, although said imputation does still require a real union with the last Adam. For more on this, see here. Thus, #3 is true.
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