Therefore, that joining together of Head and members, that indwelling of Christ in our hearts–in short, that mystical union–are accorded by us the highest degree of importance, so that Christ, having been made ours, makes us sharers with him in the gifts with which he has been endowed. We do not, therefore, contemplate him outside ourselves from afar in order that his righteousness may be imputed to us but because we put on Christ and are engrafted into his body–in short, because he deigns to make us one with him. For this reason, we glory that we have fellowship of righteousness with him.

John Calvin, Institutes, 3.XI.10

We should object to any notion of imputation that pictures God giving us something 0f Christ’s outside of Christ. The scene is not that Jesus Christ stands there in His righteousness and I stand here in my need and then God takes Christ’s righteousness there and gives it to me here. That is not how it happens and to contemplate it in that fashion is to undermine Christ Himself. This is the rigid individualism that raises valid concern.

The reality is not “there and here” but that we are there in Him. We are there in Him and being united with Him we share in the given righteousness of Himself to all those in Himself. Union with Christ and imputation are not two distinct categories. In Christ we are imputed with His righteousness. Being imputed with Christ’s righteousness means that we are in Him.