Monday, May 1, 2023

Zechariah 3:3-4, 1 Corinthians 15:53-54, and the Absurdities of Forensic Imputation being Read into Clothing Imagery

  

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. And he spoke and said to those who were standing before him saying, "Remove the filthy garments from him." Again he said to him, "See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes." (Zech 3:3-4 | 1995 NASB)

 

This is sometimes taken as a "proof text" for imputed righteousness. However, as I have argued before, clothing imagery is an outward sign of an inward reality (whether intrinsic or infused). The same verb in the LXX of Zechariah, ενδυω, is used by Paul in a context that cannot be understood through the lens of forensic imputation:

 

For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put (ενδυω) on immortality. But when this perishable shall put on (ενδυω) incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on (ενδυω) immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. (1 Cor 15:53-54 | 1995 NASB)

 

No one in their right theological mind would claim that, at the resurrection, our bodies remain dead and continues to be physically corrupted but God looks upon us as if, via imputation, we have been bodily raised from the dead!


Further Reading:


Timo Eskola on the Enthronement of Enoch in 2 Enoch and Clothing Imagery Denoting Transformation, not Imputation