“As a matter of fact, the redeemed man gains more through redemption in Christ than he lost through the fall of Adam” [Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Faith, p.15]. That is good and glorious news packed into one sentence. While I love a good turn of phrase, sometimes it takes a paragraph to unpack an immensely glorious point. Such is the case when trying to explain the biblical doctrine of imputation. We need to know this doctrine because our eternal life is tied up in it. As I was reading Loraine Boettner’s little book (only 28 pages), The Reformed Faith, I ran across this wonderful paragraph explaining the doctrine of imputation,

“In Christian theology there are three separate and distinct acts of imputation. In the first place Adam's sin is imputed to all of us, his children, that is, judicially set to our account so that we are held responsible for it and suffer the consequences of it. This is commonly known as the doctrine of Original Sin. In the second place, and in precisely the same manner, our sin is imputed to Christ so that He suffers the consequences of it. And in the third place, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us and secures for us entrance into heaven. We are, of course, no more personally guilty of Adam's sin than Christ is personally guilty of our sin, or than we are personally meritorious because of His righteousness. In each case it is a judicial transaction. We receive salvation from Christ in precisely the same way that we receive condemnation and ruin from Adam. In each case the result follows because of the close official union which exists between the persons involved. To reject any one of these three steps is to reject an essential part of the Christian system” [Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Faith, p.9].

Our filthy rags of unrighteousness are given to Christ, and his spotless robes of righteousness are given to us. This is good news. Let’s rejoice in it.