[Nang;4976995]I believe you are defining "Justification" which is the basis for the legal "Imputation" of Christ's righteousness.
It is true that Christ had to be
perfectly righteous to become the sacrifice for sin and that it is through
believing in Him that we are cleansed and made righteous. Nevertheless "justification" is not the result of God "imputing" the merits of Christ's righteous life "to our account." It is through being forgiven that we are cleansed from unrighteousness and restored to right standing with God.
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds
are forgiven, and whose
sins are covered;8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not
count his sin”
(
Romans 4:6-8)
We are able to receive this forgiveness by
believing in Christ rather than through works of the Law. When the Lord forgives us He does not "count" our sins against us. That is what forgiveness means.
While the natural
consequences of the Fall necessarily affect us God does not hold one person liable for the sins of an ancestor.
32"But now, if You will, forgive their sin-- and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!" 33 The LORD said to Moses, "
Whoever has sinned against Me,
I will blot him out of My book.…
(
Exodus 32:32-33)
The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son
(
Ezekiel 18:20)
God judges people for their own sins not for the sins of their ancestors. As I said before Augustine's idea of "Original Sin" (which was that all men sinned in Adam) came from reading a mistranslation of Romans 5:12 in the Latin Vulgate. Actually the verse says "death passed to all men" and "because all sin"
They are connected through cause and effect.
Only because of Christ's perfect obedience unto death, are souls justified (pardoned) of their sins. Romans 5:9
If a person is pardoned there is no need to "impute," or "transfer" the righteousness of Christ "to his account.
As a result of this offering for sin, God has legal basis for attributing (imputing) righteousness to the justified sinner. Romans 5:19
The passage of Romans 5:12-21 is teaching both.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world
through one man, and death through sin, so also
death was passed on to all men, because
all sinned (
Romans 5:12).
All this verse says is that
sin entered the world through Adam. It does not say the his guilt was "imputed" to us individually because he was our "federal representative." If he was our "federal representative" who gave him that office and when was it given? Even more important where does the scripture say so? It is an important question since if he had NOT been then the legal culpability for his crime would not have been imputed to us.
As to the multigenerational transmission of the sin nature, I think you are caught between two contradictory explanations. One is the
forensic model of
imputation. Then you bring up traducianism which ties this transfer to
organic descent. Well, if you believe in legal
imputation, traducianism is unnecessary. It is more compatible with traducianism to say that a
non-living human spirit (spiritual death) was passed on and that sin came out of that.
Yes, here is evidence of the two doctrines.
Yes, again the two truths are revealed to be in conjunction.
It is my belief that Justification is a one-time event. Christ only died once on the cross to pardon our sins.
However, the Sanctification that comes from being attributed with Christ's righteousness, is an ongoing process of successfully conforming to His image of holiness.
Justification = Forgiveness = Once for all
Sanctification = Holy Living = Continuous
Result: A permanent salvation that cannot be undone.
1 John 1:7-9 says that cleansing, forgiveness as well as being made righteous (by the removal of unrighteousness) are an
ongoing process not a one-time event. The verbs used here are in the present tense which denotes action that is durative, repetitive, or continuous. These are not one-time events. The meaning of this passage verse does not agree with your belief.