18. The Imputation of the Lord’s Merit Is Nothing More nor Less Than the Forgiveness of Sins That Follows upon Repentance.

It is believed in the church that the Lord was sent by the Father to make atonement for the human race, and that this was accomplished by his fulfilling the law and by his suffering on the cross, that in this way he bore our damnation and paid the full price, and that if it were not for this atonement, payment, and propitiation, the human race would have died an eternal death. This is believed to have been a matter of justice, which some, too, call “retributive justice.”

It is quite true that we would all have perished if the Lord had not come into the world, but how we should understand the Lord’s fulfilling everything in the law has been explained in its own chapter above [sections 8-11]. An explanation of why he suffered the cross has also been given in its own treatment [sections 12-14,15-17], enabling us to see that this was not a matter of retributive justice, since that is not a divine attribute. Justice, love, mercy, and goodness are divine attributes, and God is justice itself, love itself, mercy itself, and goodness itself. Further, where we find these we find no vindictiveness and therefore no retributive justice.

[2] Until now, many people have understood “fulfilling the law” and “the suffering on the cross” to mean that through them the Lord paid the full price for the human race and delivered it from the predicted or fated damnation. Put this together with the principle that we are saved simply by believing that this is what happened, and what follows is the dogma that the Lord’s merit is imputed to us if we take these two acts to be a substitute for our giving satisfaction [to God for our sins], though they actually belong to the Lord’s merit. However, this dogma collapses in the light of what has been said about the Lord’s fulfillment of the law and his suffering on the cross. At the same time we can see that “the imputation of merit” is a phrase without substance unless we take it to mean the forgiveness of sins that follows repentance. You see, nothing that belongs to the Lord can be credited to us, but salvation can be transferred to us by the Lord after we practice repentance-that is, after we see and acknowledge our sins and then desist from them, doing this because of the Lord. Then there is a way in which salvation is transferred to us: we are saved not on the basis of our own worth and our own righteousness but by the Lord, the only one who has fought and overcome the hells and who alone thereafter fights for us and overcomes the hells for us.

[3] These accomplishments are the Lord’s merit and righteousness, and they can never be credited to our account-because if they were, the Lord’s merit and righteousness would be attributed to us as though they were our own. This is something that never happens and that cannot happen. If imputation were possible, we could claim the Lord’s merit when we were impenitent and irreverent and think ourselves justified by doing so. Yet this would be polluting what is holy with profane things and profaning the Lord’s name, because it would be focusing our thoughts on the Lord but our will on hell, when in fact all we are is what our will intends.

There is a faith that is God’s and a faith that is our own. People who practice repentance have the faith that is God’s. People who do not practice repentance but think in terms of imputation have a faith that is their own. God’s faith is a living faith; our own faith is a dead faith.

[4] The following passages show that both the Lord himself and his disciples taught repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, because the kingdom of the heavens is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)

Jesus said, “Bear fruit that is consistent with repentance. The axe is already lying against the root of the trees. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:8-9)

Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will all perish.” (Luke 13:3, 5)

Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

Jesus sent out his disciples, and they went out and preached that people should repent. (Mark 6:12)

Jesus said to the apostles that it was necessary for them to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:47)

John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Luke 3:3; Mark 1:4)

“Baptism” means a spiritual washing, which is a washing from sins and is called “rebirth.”

[5] This is how the Lord describes repentance and the forgiveness of sins in John:

He came to what was his own, and yet his own people did not accept him. But as many as did accept him, he gave them power to become children of God and believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, and not of the will of the flesh, and not of the will of a man, but of God. (John 1:11-13)

“His own people” means people of the church at that time, the church where the Word was; “children of God” and “believing in his name” mean people who believe in the Lord and who believe in the Word; blood means distortions of the Word and justifying what is false by that means; the will of the flesh means the will belonging to our own [lower] self, which is essentially evil; the will of a man means the understanding belonging to our own [lower] self, which is essentially false; and “those born of God” means people who have been reborn by the Lord.

We can see from this that we are saved if we are focused on good and loving actions that come from the Lord and on truths of our faith that come from the Lord; we are not saved if we are wrapped up in ourselves.

The Lord as the Divine-Human One Is Called “The Son of God” and as the Word Is Called “The Son of Humanity”