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: