But this is the most perverse sense which can be put on words, or a setting this doctrine in such a light as no one takes it in, who pleads for it: we do not suppose, that God looks upon man with his all-seeing eye, as having done that which Christ did, or to sustain the character which belongs to him in doing it; we are always reckoned, by him, as offenders, or contracting guilt, and unable to do any thing that can make an atonement for it. Therefore, what interest soever we have in what Christ did, it is not reputed our action; but God’s imputing Christ’s righteousness to us, is to be taken in a forensic sense, which is agreeable to the idea of a debt being paid by a surety: it is not supposed that the debtor paid the debt which the surety paid; but yet it is placed to his account, or imputed to him as really as though he had paid it himself. Thus what Christ did and suffered in our room and stead, is as much placed to our account, as though we had done and suffered it ourselves; so that by virtue hereof we are discharged from condemnation.[39] This is the sense in which we understand the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us; and it is agreeable to the account we have thereof in scripture: thus we are said to be _made the righteousness of God in him_, 2 Cor. v. 21. the abstract being put for the concrete; that is, we are denominated and dealt with as righteous persons, acquitted and discharged from condemnation in the virtue of what was done by him, who is elsewhere styled, _The Lord our righteousness_; and the apostle speaks of his _having Christ’s righteousness_, Phil. iii. 9. that is, having it imputed to him, or having an interest in it, or being dealt with according to the tenor thereof; in this respect he opposes it to that righteousness which was in him, as the result of his own performances: and elsewhere Christ is said to be _made of God unto us righteousness_; that is, his fulfilling the law is placed to our account; and the apostle speaks of _Christ’s being the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth_, Rom. x. 4. which is the same with what he asserts in other words elsewhere concerning the _righteousness of the law’s being fulfilled in us_, chap. viii. 3, 4. who could not be justified by our own obedience to it, in _that it was weak through the flesh_, or by reason of our fallen state; therefore Christ did this for us; and accordingly God deals with us as though we had fulfilled the law in our own persons, inasmuch as it was fulfilled by him as our surety.