Definition
Imputation (Latin: imputatio, from imputare = to charge, to credit) is the juridical-theological term for the crediting of righteousness or guilt to a person. In soteriology one distinguishes: (1) the imputation of Adam’s sin to all people (Rom. 5:12-18); (2) the imputation of our sins to Christ (2 Cor. 5:21); (3) the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer (Rom. 4:5). In the corpus imputation is contested: defended by Warnock and Jones as the forensic foundation, but rejected by Nee/Lee as an instrument of sanctification.
Usage in the Corpus
George Warnock
Warnock defends imputative justification as the necessary foundation of the Passover level of salvation: God credits Christ’s righteousness to the believer. Without imputation, no justification. He is classically Protestant on this point.
Stephen Jones
Jones acknowledges forensic imputation as the first work of Christ (death work), but emphasizes that imputation is only the beginning. The actual goal is the constitutive transformation of the nature — which is not imputation but re-creation.
Watchman Nee & Witness Lee
Nee/Lee reject imputation as an instrument for sanctification: one cannot produce the holiness of Christ by imputing it. Sanctification requires not legal crediting but actual indwelling and transformation. This distinguishes their pneumatological soteriology from the Reformed tradition. [Nee/Lee, The Economy of God]