Is Imputed Righteousness Biblical?

In the orthodox Protestant tradition, 2 Corinthians 5:21 has been a key text to support the doctrine of imputed righteousness. The verse reads, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

According to this doctrine, believers possess, on account of their union with Christ, a righteousness that Christ earned by perfectly obeying God’s law in his life, death, and resurrection. Our sin is removed and God bestows Christ’s righteousness on us in one fell swoop. Many have observed that Paul’s discussion in 2 Corinthians 5 is indebted to the “suffering servant” poem of Isaiah 52:13–15 and 53:1–12.

Some scholars readily affirm the substitutionary removal of sin because of Isaiah 53 in 2 Corinthians 5 but ignore the substitutionary bestowing of righteousness. This is odd because English translations of Isaiah 53:11 affirm that the suffering servant does both. Christ bears the sinners’ iniquities and declares them righteous: “By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

When we examine the relationship between the Hebrew and Greek texts of Isaiah 53:11, we’ll see that New Testament writers followed the Hebrew over the Greek version in their understanding of imputed righteousness.

Denial of Imputation in the Septuagint

The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament that circulated widely before the New Testament’s arrival. Its translation of Isaiah 53:11 contains a critical difference from the Hebrew text.

Note the translation found in the New English Translation of the Septuagint: “From the pain of his soul, to show him light and fill him with understanding, to justify a righteous one who is well subject to many, and he himself shall bear their sins.”

Thus, according to the Septuagint, God declares righteous (or vindicates) “the righteous one.” He does no such thing for the “many” or “all of us” in verse 6. In other words, the Septuagint affirms only the removal of sin, whereas the Hebrew text seems to express the imputation of the servant’s righteousness to the many (sinners or transgressors) in verse 11. So, which is correct, the Hebrew text or the Septuagint?

According to 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul appears to follow not the Septuagint but the Hebrew text. He takes a both/and approach by claiming that our sins are removed and that we receive God’s righteousness in Christ. Other New Testament authors also refer to the righteous One in the same substitutionary context of Isaiah 53 (see Acts 3:14; 7:52; 1 Pet. 2:22; 3:18; 1 John 2:1).

Peter, for example, clearly states, “The righteous for [in the place of] the unrighteous” (1 Pet. 3:18). By his death on a cross and resurrection, Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). In sum, only the Hebrew text of Isaiah 53:11 refers to God’s crediting of righteousness to the “many” based on the servant’s work.

Righteous by Faith

The Scriptures teach that righteousness is the currency through which we obtain our eternal inheritance (Gen. 15:6; Isa. 60:21; Matt. 5:20, 48; Rom. 14:17). How are we to obtain it? By faith, of course. But what kind of faith? Faith plus obedience or faith alone?

Only the Hebrew text of Isaiah 53:11 refers to God’s crediting of righteousness to the ‘many’ based on the servant’s work.

The battle lines of this question have been drawn for centuries. One contention of those who deny imputed righteousness is that we can’t ride on the coattails of Christ’s righteousness. These scholars argue that our inheritance is the result of Spirit-empowered obedience of faith that lies within us.

This definition of righteousness is entirely too anemic, however—Job, Isaiah, Paul, and countless others have found out the hard way that the trifecta of holiness, righteousness, and glory cannot be attained by our own best efforts. Yet God demands that we possess perfect righteousness to receive the inheritance of eternal life in the new realm of heavens and earth (2 Pet. 3:13).

A simple illustration supports the notion of imputed righteousness: the right of the firstborn in Israel’s inheritance laws (Deut. 21:17). A father’s inheritance to his son is never assumed to be earned but is bestowed by virtue of bloodline or in a spiritual sense through adoption by faith (see Gal. 3:26–29; 4:7; Eph. 1:11). We cannot earn anything since we are born of God. We become the beneficiaries of the right of the firstborn in Christ. Our inheritance is imperishable, and in Christ we have every blessing of the Spirit (Eph. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:4).

Righteous People Live Righteously

Is there a participation dimension to our union with Christ? Of course. Your imputed righteousness will be confirmed by a life above reproach, fueled by repentance and grace-produced “good works” (Titus 2:11–15). The imperfect righteousness that believers produce is the result of the perfect righteousness that God has given us in his Son.

The imperfect righteousness that believers produce is the result of the perfect righteousness that God has given us in his Son.

In a culture captured by guilt and shame and dopamine addictions, we need to be reminded that we don’t build a righteousness of our own. Instead, we have one built on the righteousness of God in Christ (Christ’s righteousness and God’s righteousness are the same!).

We are empowered by the Spirit who “helps us in our weakness” (Rom. 8:26). This is what we bring to the table when it comes to our own righteousness: a statement of our utter helplessness.

Isaiah says it best when confronted by the holiness, righteousness, and glory of God: “Woe is me!” (6:5). We too cry out the words of the old hymn: “Wash me Savior, or I die.”