One of Dabney’s answers to the charge that imputation is unjust is tat “God forbids imputation of capital guilt by human magistrates,” but “He customarily claims the exercise of it in His own government.” The difference he explains by saying “Human magistrates are themselves under law, in common with those they rule; God is above law, and His will is law.”

God’s government is not man’s. And yet, this answer to the objection is deeply unsatisfying. After all, the cross is supposed to be the revelation of God’s justice. If that’s so, then it has to be identifiable as justice . Dabney’s argument makes this impossible. We just have to accept that the atonement is just, which makes it something much less than a revelation of the righteousness of God.