Imputed Righteousness

Heresy: Imputed Righteousness

The belief that God's saving and sanctifying grace is imputed to man, rather than infused in man. That is, God's grace "covers" the sin and impurity of man, making him "appear" righteous in God's judgement, which in turn allows man to enter heaven. According to this belief, man cannot undergo an interior change that is sufficient to be saved; he must be covered by the grace of God in order to be counted as righteous.

Catholic Teaching

Catechism of the Catholic Church

1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:

Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.

Common Scriptures Used & Replies

• Romans 4:3: "For what does the scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'"

Some argue that Paul's use of the word "reckoned" here suggests that righteousness was merely imputed to Abraham since it did not say that he was "made" righteous, or similarly. In other words, they argue that Abraham was internally still unrighteous, but externally counted as righteous.

Scripture

Jesus

Scripture: Matt 5:25-26, 1 Cor 3:10-15

Tradition

The Acts of Paul and Thecla

• “And after the exhibition, Tryphaena again received her [Thecla]. For her daughter Falconilla had died, and said to her in a dream: ‘Mother, you shall have this stranger Thecla in my place, in order that she may pray concerning me, and that I may be transferred to the place of the righteous’” (Acts of Paul and Thecla [A.D. 160]).

Tradition: The Acts of Paul and Thecla, Abercius, The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity, Tertullian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Augustine