Imputation

Is used to designate any action or word or thing as reckoned to a person. Thus in doctrinal language (1) the sin of Adam is "imputed to all his descendants, i.e., it is reckoned as theirs," and they are dealt with therefore as guilty; (2) the "righteousness of Christ is imputed to them that believe in him," or so attributed to them as to be considered their own; and (3) "our sins are imputed to Christ, i.e., he assumed our" "law-place, undertook to answer the demands of justice for our" sins. In all these cases the nature of imputation is the same "(Rom. 5:12-19; comp. Philemon 1:18, 19)."