Justification
Justification is a legal word. It brings to mind a picture of a courtroom. In the “courts” of eternity it is clear that God alone is the Judge (Gen. 18:25; Jdg. 11:27;Ps. 50:6, 82:8; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Heb. 12:23), for He is the Creator of everything. Where does that leave us? We have already identified that we are sinful creatures apart from Christ. All that we are able to bring forth from our natural state is sin. The penalty of sin, as we know, is death (Rom. 6:23). Death means separation from God. We can only be separated from God if we are sinful. God cannot have a relationship with any sinful person, and thus we are left in the horrible position of being before God, the Judge, with nothing but our sin and our sinfulness. There is nothing that we can do to make up for our sinfulness.
The Problem
This puts God in quite a predicament. God loves us, but we are unable to have fellowship with Him. He wants to be in the wonderful life-giving relationship that He designed us for, however we are sinful. What can God do?
God could condemn us. He could have left us to die for our own sins, and spend eternity apart from Him. However, scripture is clear that God loves us too much to simply forfeit his beloved creation to eternal separation from Him (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). So this was not acceptable to Him.
God could compromise. God could compromise his very character and allow Himself to be associated with unrighteousness. This, however, also would not do. If God allowed Himself to be united to sinful people, and be associated with Sin than He would cease to be Himself (righteous, holy, perfect). This could never be, as, God is righteous and cannot lie. If God ceased to be Holy, or failed to Judge Sin he would have compromised His character.
God could find a way to make sinners righteous. Thank the Lord, this is the option He chose! We were guilty in our sins and trespasses. We were unable to do anything to remove the death penalty from our weary, sin-sick souls. However, God was able to take that penalty and put the judgment on Jesus, the only perfect and righteous one. Only one who is truly righteous can bear the sins of others. I cannot die for your sin, because I have my own sin penalty to pay. This is why Jesus is the only opportunity that anyone has to be saved.
The Process
Justification is the process of declaring something righteous in a judicial sense. We know that even our righteousness is only dirty rags compared with real righteousness (Is. 64:6). So God had to formulate a plan that would do two major things:
1 – Judge the sin, which must be paid for.
2 – Impart righteousness on the believer.
The process by which God did both of these things is called Justification. In the doctrine of Justification we find God is able to righteously declare each and every sin paid for, and simultaneously impart righteousness on sinful humans. But how is He able to do this.
The Sin Paid For
First, the Sin had to be paid for. This price was paid for by the blood of Christ. Romans 5:9 says: “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”[1] The penalty was paid by Christ on the cross. No other person throughout history has lived a perfect life. Therefore, no person can justify themselves, much less another! Christ’s blood was the price that had to be paid for our sin. Furthermore, it was powerful to pay for all of the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). While Christ’s death was powerful enough to save every living soul there is one thing that has to be done to bring the payment over to our account. We are justified by putting our faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1; Gal. 3:24). By trusting in Him to provide the payment for our sins we are now clearly free of all condemnation (Romans 8:1). This is miraculous, but there is more.
Declaring Us Righteous
When we put our faith in Christ we are told that we are divinely associated with Christ. We are baptized into His death burial and resurrection (Romans 6:1-11; Galatians 2:20). So, in putting our faith in Christ we are not only declared innocent from sin, but we are also accredited the righteous character of Christ. We share in His righteousness (Romans 3:22; Romans 5:17; 1 Cor. 1:30). It is in Christ that God can declare a person righteous, and this is the second part of Justification.
How not to receive the gift
The clear teaching of Scripture is that this cannot be earned through the Law. There is no way that we can earn this, or attain it. The Law cannot produce righteousness in us. It can show people how to be righteous, but it cannot empower people to do it! Even if we know all of the rules we have to keep we are not able to keep them because we are sinful right down to the very core. This is very important. Because Paul tells us: “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” (Gal. 2:21). Justification cannot be earned, if we are to be justified it must come about in some other way.
How do I get in on this?
The Bible is quite clear about how this Justification becomes ours. It cannot come by our own works or merit (as we have seen), it must come from God. This is where a very important word in the Bible comes into use. The word is Grace. Grace means a free gift, something that is given with no strings attached. Grace is the vehicle by which we are given the free gift of Justification, and this free gift must be accepted by faith (Romans 3:22: 3:25; 4:22; Eph. 2:8-9). This is the only way, as we can do nothing for ourselves. 2 Cor. 5:21 explains clearly: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is the transaction that happened at the Cross. By putting our faith in Christ God judicially moved our sin to Christ’s unlimited account, and then moved His righteousness into our account!
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