They deny that the righteousness of Christ is imputed
The paper cites Adam Clarke to deny that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the believer, striking at the heart of the justification by faith taught by the apostle Paul.
Por Rodrigo Custódio ·
The moment
On Thursday, July 14, 1881, the Signs of the Times of Oakland, California, carried in volume 7, number 26, page 303, a section entitled "The moral law." There, under the authority of a respected name — "Dr. Adam Clarke speaks thus of the Scriptures" — the paper published, with evident approval, a theological sentence devastating to the heart of justification by faith.
The sentence, in translation: "To say that the personal righteousness of Christ is imputed to every true believer is not scriptural; to say that he fulfilled all righteousness for us, or in our place, if by this is meant the fulfillment of all moral duties, is neither scriptural nor true." And the context reveals the reason: "there is a multitude of duties which the moral law requires, which Christ never fulfilled in our place, and never could." The thesis is clear: Christ died for us, but did not obey for us.
Note the method: instead of speaking in its own voice, the paper borrows the voice of Clarke — a Methodist, a respected commentator, dead for nearly fifty years. It is the outsourcing of heresy: the polemical thesis comes signed by another, and the paper merely "quotes." But to quote with approval is to endorse; to publish without a single line of refutation is to preach. The reader of 1881 received the denial of imputation wrapped in another's authority.
And the target is the heart of the gospel: imputation. If the personal righteousness of Christ is not imputed to the believer, all that remains for the sinner is to present his own — and the "multitude of duties" that Christ "never fulfilled in our place" will have to be fulfilled by us, one by one. Grace becomes assistance for the task; salvation, an assisted task. The gospel of grace becomes a gospel of installment payments.
Apothecary's scale with weights on a wooden counter — period engraving.
The absurdity
The paper uses the authority of Adam Clarke to decree that the imputation of Christ's righteousness "is not scriptural" — the exact word Paul uses in Romans 4:5. Christ would have died in our place, but not lived in our place; His obedience does not cover us, and every moral duty remains pending over our heads. Read the exact words of the printed page, in translation:
"To say that the personal righteousness of Christ is imputed to every true believer is not scriptural; to say that he fulfilled all righteousness for us, or in our place, if by this is meant the fulfillment of all moral duties, is neither scriptural nor true"
Source: Signs of the Times, vol. 7, no. 26, July 14, 1881 — p. 303.
Marked clipping of the printed page with the quoted passage, edition of July 14, 1881, p. 303.
Why this is serious
Paul uses the exact word that the paper declares unscriptural: "to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Rom. 4:5). Counted — the Greek verb stands in the inspired text, applied to the justification of the ungodly who believes. To say that the doctrine "is not scriptural" when Scripture formulates it with the very term is to contradict the Bible by citing a commentator. Between Clarke quoted and Paul inspired, the Christian does not hesitate.
The thesis separates what God has joined: substitutionary death, yes; substitutionary obedience, no. But it was the obedient life that qualified the sacrifice — without perfect obedience, death on the cross would be that of a common sinner, incapable of bearing the sins of others. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). Become the righteousness of God — in him. Not "helped to become righteous": become. It is the great exchange: our sin imputed to Him; His righteousness imputed to us.
Romans 5:19 closes the parallelism that the thesis attempts to break: "for as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." We were made sinners by Adam's disobedience without having participated in it; we are made righteous by Christ's obedience without having participated in it. The logic is the same on both sides. To deny the second half — the imputation of obedience — is to saw off the branch on which the first half rests.
And the practical result is a return to the law as a regime: if Christ "did not fulfill any of these duties for us" and merely "supplies grace so that the believer may fulfill them," then every commandment becomes once again a pending requirement over the sinner, now with divine assistance. Paul, however, wanted to be "found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Phil. 3:9). The believer's righteousness is not the one he produces with help — it is the one he receives by faith.
White linen garment over a wooden chair by the window — period photograph.
The verdict of the Scriptures
Romans 4:5 pronounces the forbidden word: "his faith is counted as righteousness." The verb that the paper says is not scriptural stands in Scripture, in the chapter that defines justification. There is no way to declare imputation "not scriptural" without declaring Romans 4 not scriptural — and no one has dared to say that out loud.
2 Corinthians 5:21 decrees the exchange: "so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Become — not in the process of becoming, not aided in reaching: become, in him. The believer's righteousness before God is not an ongoing project; it is a status received, complete, worn like a garment.
Romans 5:19 anchors the doctrine in the history of the fall: "by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." If Adam's disobedience constituted us sinners by imputation, Christ's obedience constitutes us righteous by the same principle — and to deny one is to deny the other. The paper wants substitutionary death without substitutionary life; Paul does not permit the division.
And Galatians 2:16 delivers the final blow to the regime of duties: "a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ." Not by works — neither by ours, nor by ours "with the aid of grace." By faith. The "multitude of duties" that the paper hangs over the believer was fulfilled by Another, and that Other offers it freely to whoever believes. That is exactly what the word "imputed" means — and that is exactly why it is in the Bible.