While researching Ephrem's Mariology just now, I came across the following from one of
his Hymns on Paradise:
Adam had been naked and fair,
but his diligent wife
labored and made for him
a garment covered with stains.
The Garden, seeing him thus vile,
drove him forth.
Through Mary Adam had
another robe
which adorned the thief (Luke 23:43);
and when he became resplendent at Christ's
promise,
the Garden, looking on,
embraced him in Adam's place. (The Hymns on
Paradise IV, 5 in Hymns on Paradise
[trans. Sebastian Brock; Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1990],
99)
Here we see
further evidence of clothing imagery not supporting imputation, but a
transformation—the thief’s “garment” in Christ transformed him and he “became”
resplendent.
For more on
the evidence against the Protestant doctrine of imputed righteousness, see:
Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness
