Alien Righteousness? - Timothy Ministries

Let us carefully understand Grudem’s thought here. Grudem does not derive
the idea that “God thought of us as going through everything that Christ
went through” from a biblical passage about being “in Christ.” Rather, he
takes that idea from his understanding of Christ as “our representative.” In
other words, this articulation of Alien Righteousness does not emerge from
passages about being “in Christ,” but from Grudem’s Federal theology.
Having subscribed to the premise that Christ is our federal Head, Grudem
and others of like theology have then inferred that “in Christ” passages
support the idea that God sees us as having done what Jesus did, i.e., the
idea that God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us.
Furthermore, we “put on” Christ.
Having said that the NT phrase “in Christ” supports the idea of the
imputation of Christ’s righteousness, Alien Righteousness proponents have
also offered what they see as the parallel biblical metaphors of “being
clothed” and of “putting on Christ” as supporting their thesis. R. C. Sproul
provides an example of this sub point of the “in Christ” argument:
Calvin uses the biblical metaphor of clothing to describe imputation.
In the biblical image the sinner is described either as “naked and
ashamed” or as clothed in “filthy rags.” The first conscious awareness
of sin in Adam and Eve was a sense of being naked. … God’s redemptive
grace occurred when he condescended to clothe his embarrassed
fallen creatures.
The image of “covering” occurs frequently in Scripture, particularly
in connection with atonement. The accusation of Satan against
the priest of Zechariah was directed against the priest’s soiled garments.
God rebuked Satan and clothed the priest in a way that made
him acceptable in God’s sight (Zec 3.1-5). The New Testament speaks
of “putting on Christ” (Rom 13.14) and of Christ being our righteousness.
By imparting or imputing Christ’s righteousness to us sinners,
God reckons us as just.… 65
The Reformation Study Bible reflects this perspective. In its notes on the
parable of the Marriage Feast (Mat 22.1-14), it explains,
Although everyone who hears the gospel has been invited, and
although many may claim to be in the kingdom, only those clothed
65
Calvin, Institutes Of The Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Bellingham, WA:
Logos Research Systems, 1997), III,xi,3) but it is not clear that he thought the
imputation was expressed by the biblical phrase “in Christ.”
R. C. Sproul, Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine Of Justification (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker, 2000), p. 102.
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