How does imputation work?

Question

When someone believes on Jesus Christ how does Jesus sinless perfect righteousness is transferred to the believer and the believer's sin transferred to Jesus? Like what is the theory or doctrine that explains this in detail. And how is Jesus who was one man also God but one man imputes his righteousness for more than one sinner? For example if you have debt of $100 and I have $100 and I take your debt and you take my $100??

Answer 1

First, it is vital to understand that it is the righteousness of God that is imputed to the believer:

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

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross takes the place of the punishment we ought to suffer for our sins. As a result, God’s justice is satisfied, and those who come to saving faith in Christ can be forgiven and reconciled to God. Jesus Christ is the substitute, and the punishment He took (at the cross) was ours, based on our sin:

1 Peter 2:24: He himself bore our sins' in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; 'by his wounds you have been healed.'

The description of Messiah in Isaiah 53:4–6 says His suffering is meant to heal our wounds. The fact that the Messiah was to be “crushed for our iniquities” (verse 5) is a direct reference to penal substitution. God's justifying of us—His making us righteous—came through the redemption that is in Jesus.

1 Peter 3:18: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit...

We can never repay the debt we owe. Only the perfect, sinless Son of God could take upon himself the sins of the world and pay the price by the shedding of His blood.

Only by faith in Christ Jesus can the righteousness of God be imputed to us, as a free and undeserved gift of God. Only by the grace of God can we stand before Him and when God looks at the believer, He sees only the righteousness that is in Christ. Our sins are no longer remembered. They are as far away as the east is from the west.

The reason why one man imputes his righteousness for more than one sinner is simply because Jesus, while fully human, was also God incarnate. Immanuel, God with us. God did all of this, through Christ Jesus, the Son of God. God did all of this in His infinite wisdom, grace and power.

We can only plead the blood of Christ as we approach the mercy seat and thank God for saving sinners such as you and me, for which we shall be eternally indebted.

If I understand you correctly, you ask if you have debt of $100 and I have $100 and I take your debt and you take my $100 then that somehow cancels out the debt. No. That is not how it works. Nothing any human being can do can cancel the debt of our sin. We cannot repay God for cancelling our debt. It is a free and undeserved gift. Forgiveness of sin requires only that we repent, turn to God and thank Him for all He has done through Christ Jesus to save us from the penalty of sin.

I have been saved – in the past – from the penalty of sin – by a crucified Saviour: “For in this hope we were saved" (Romans 8:24). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Romans 2:8).

I am being saved – in the present – from the power of sin – by a living Saviour: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18).

I shall be saved – in the future – from the presence of sin – by a coming Saviour: "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" (Romans 5:9)

In a nutshell, that is how the righteousness of God is imputed, through Christ Jesus, to believers.