Killing. In a church. In a school. Globally, historically, not immensely uncommon. Yet still striking, somehow deeply unnerving. Maybe because it happened in my country. Maybe because it screams about questions that touch the foundations of my faith. The Christian faith. Based on immensely profound principles, revealed by an incomprehensibly profound Lord. Love and justice. Mercy and wrath. Good and evil. Protection and sacrifice. Sin and grace. Life and death. Heaven and hell. ...

One of the cornerstones of the Reformed doctrine of justification is the doctrine of “double imputation,” or the idea that the righteousness of Jesus Christ is “credited” to the “account” of a sinner, while the sinner’s condemnation is received fully by Christ. The sins of one and the righteousness of the other are exchanged, or imputed, by God each to their respective parties. But the question arises, “How can this be just or how is this moral?”

To take a biblical example, Proverbs...