Impute

By Joe Keim

July 1, 2024

The word impute is an accounting term. In Scripture the word impute is speaking of recording our debts or crediting to our accounts. Imagine you go to the store, buy a product, walk to the register, and hand the cashier your credit card. The cashier imputes your charges to your credit card account. Later, your bill comes due, and you are obligated to pay your bill.

If I were behind you in the checkout line and handed the cashier my credit card to pay for your transaction, it would be unjust for her to charge both of us. If I placed your purchase on my credit card, the charge would not appear on your account.

Likewise, when we, by faith, believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, God imputes our sins to Jesus’ account. You could say that God gave His credit card so all the sins of the whole world could be placed on Jesus’ account. Since God paid for our sins by imputing them to Jesus, we will not have any charges showing up on our account. Jesus took care of the charges. Every one of them. It’s just as if we’d never sinned. That’s justified!