- It leaves one completely mystified as to why Christ had to die.
- It then generates nuclear-physics level complication in rationalization explanation as to how the basic Gospel is compromised by anyone who doesn’t promote IAO.
I think there IAO makes sense within the comprehensive claims of Christ as representative head, but that isn’t strong enough for the loud advocates of IAO.
I’m sympathetic to IAO because of Romans 8, but I don’t see it as an exact exchange or reckoning. I think Paul understands that as one net result of union. But taking it on its own, alone, isn’t what I see in either Paul or even Westminster. Justification and Sanctification are inseparably linked (so says Westminster). That alone means imputation is a contextual operation, not something that can be separated out as if nothing else is required or follows.
There was no “imputation alone” slogan in the Reformation.