A common Christian tradition is that God imputed our sins to His Son Jesus on the cross, so that He would pay the price of our sins instead of us.
First, No Scripture ever says that the righteous God imputes any evil to the righteous, especially not the sins of those doing unrighteousness. And by no means to His own Son Jesus Christ the righteous, who never sinned, nor knew any sin in His own soul and life.
What is the Scripture, that is abused by men to say. that God did impute sin, and esteem Jesus legally guilty, and smitten by law?
Isa 53:34:
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Who is it, that Scriptures says will impute Jesus Christ with sin, and esteem Him smitten of God on the cross, as if by law of God? God Himself, or man? Only man, not God.
And so, we see the prophecy was not of God Himself esteeming Jesus guilty of sin unto death by law, but only of sinful men
believing He was guilty of blasphemy and smitten by law:
Mar 14:64
Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.
Only men imputed Jesus with sin of blasphemy, and esteemed Him guilty by law and smitten of God on the cross. Not God Himself at all...And only some men still believe by false tradition, the lie that God imputed His Son with sin, and made Him legally guilty of sin unto death.
Jesus Christ was the Christ and Son of God on earth, and not a blasphemer, even though all men believed otherwise at the cross, and in death. No one went to His tomb on the third day to watch Him rise again, as He said, but only to anoint His dead body...
Your claim collapses because you stop at Isaiah 53:4 (“we esteemed Him stricken”) and ignore the very next verses where God Himself says what He actually did.
Men misjudged Jesus as guilty — true — but Scripture explicitly says God laid sin on Him:
“The LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6),
“He shall bear their iniquities” (53:11),
“He bare the sin of many” (53:12).
That is divine imputation, not human accusation.
Paul repeats the same truth: “He hath made Him to be sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21).
And Isaiah says His soul was the sin‑offering: “Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin” (Isa 53:10).
Isaiah 53:4 describes human misunderstanding, but Isaiah 53:6–12 describes God’s actual atonement.
The tradition you reject is not a tradition — it is the plain text of Scripture
Isa 53:34:
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
The prophet says that 'we' wrongly imputed Jesus with sin of blasphemy on the cross. Not just His false accusers and crucifiers, but also all His disciples:
Jhn 16:32
Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone:
All men believed Jesus was made guilty of sin by blasphemy at the cross, because no man believed He could be the Christ and Son of God and yet be handing from a tree at all, much less as by law.
None of His own disciples believed He was indeed the Son of God on the cross, because none of them believed the Scriptures, that prophecied His own affliction and crcuifixion by sinful men, accusing Him of blasphemy and smitten by God:
Luk 24:20
And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
His disciples still believed Jesus was imputed with sin and guilty by God, and smitten by law for blasphemy. Because they did not believe the prophecuies of His on false accusation and suffering at the hands of sinners.
Again, your entire argument collapses because you freeze Isaiah 53 at verse 4 (“we esteemed Him stricken”) and treat that as the whole doctrine, while ignoring the very next verses where God Himself says what He actually did.
Isaiah distinguishes human misunderstanding (53:4) from divine imputation (53:6, 10–12).
Yes — men wrongly thought Jesus was guilty of blasphemy;
yes — the disciples scattered and doubted;
yes — they failed to believe the prophecies of His suffering.
But Isaiah does not say their misunderstanding was the truth of the atonement.
Scripture says the opposite: “The LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6),
“He shall bear their iniquities” (53:11),
“He bare the sin of many” (53:12).
That is God’s action, not man’s opinion.
And Jesus rebukes the disciples not because He was not the sin‑bearer, but because they failed to believe the prophets who said He must suffer (Luke 24:25–27).
Romans 1:3–4 does not deny imputation; it declares the resurrection as the public vindication of the One who bore sin and was raised in righteousness.
The short biblical chain is unavoidable:
men misjudged Him (Isa 53:4),
God laid sin on Him (53:6),
He bore it (53:11–12),
He died for it (Rom 4:25),
He rose vindicated (Rom 1:4), and sinners receive that justification through repentance and faith (Acts 3:19; Rom 10:9–10).
Your reading preserves the disciples’ confusion; the text itself corrects it.
