Justification ____ the righteousness of Christ.

• A. Bestows
• B. Credits
• C. Attributes
• D. Imputes

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is that justification operates by God reckoning Christ’s righteousness to the believer. To say justification imputes the righteousness of Christ means God counts or credits Christ’s perfect obedience as belonging to the believer’s account. This is a legal, forensic act: God declares the believer righteous not because they have earned it by their own work, but because Christ’s righteousness is credited to them on the basis of faith.

This is supported in Scripture by passages like Romans 4 and Romans 5, where David and Abraham are described as blessed because righteousness is counted to them, and 2 Corinthians 5:21, which says God made Christ to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. In the doctrine of justification, the emphasis is on this credited righteousness rather than an immediate imparting of a new inner moral quality.

Other terms are less precise for this specific act. Bestows suggests God simply gives righteousness as a possession; imputation captures the legal act of reckoning righteousness to the believer’s account. Attributes would describe a quality that belongs to Christ being ascribed in some way, which misses the transactional, courtroom sense of justification.