© F.O’Donoghue 2007
Justification is the judicial act of God, based on the work of Jesus Christ, which justly declares and treats the one who believes in Jesus Christ as righteous because they stand in the righteousness of Christ by imputation (our sin is imputed to Christ, and His righteousness is imputed to us). Justification is a judicial concept which relates to God as the righteous Judge of all the earth;
Gen 18:25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Deut 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
2 Tim 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
The notable theologian Charles C. Ryrie had this to say;
“If God, the Judge, is without injustice and completely righteous in all His decisions, then how can He announce a sinner righteous? And sinners we all are. There are only three options open to God as sinners stand in His courtroom. He must condemn them, compromise His own righteousness to receive them as they are, or He can change them into righteous people. If He can exercise the third option, then He can announce them righteous, which is justification. But any righteousness the sinner has must be actual, not fictitious; real, not imagined; acceptable by God’s standards, and not a whit short. If this can be accomplished, then, and only then, can He justify.”
Job saw this apparent dilemma, and asked himself;
Job 9:2 I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
The answer to Job’s question is found in Romans 4 in reference to Abraham;
Rom 4:20-25 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
The word impute in Greek is logizomai meaning ‘to pass to one’s account’.
To understand Justification, we must understand the nature of imputation and righteousness. The righteousness which is from God is Christ;
1 Cor 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
God has revealed His righteousness even before the full revelation of the gospel. It is revealed in His Law, in His judgments against sin, in the preaching of the prophets, and in His blessings on the obedient. All these bear witness to the righteousness from God in the Old Testament sacrifices, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the prophecies, and the types. But though the Law could witness to God’s righteousness, it could never provide it for sinful man;
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
God is perfect in justice and holiness and therefore can show no favouritism. Since all have sinned and fallen short of His holiness, as the Judge, He must deal with our actual righteousness, which is as filthy rags;
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Justification is free to the believer, but it was not without cost. The price paid to redeem us from the power of sin and death was the substitutional death of Christ who alone could satisfy (propitiate) the holy character of God;
Rom 3:24,25 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
When a believer receives Christ, he is spiritually placed in Christ, making him righteous. We are made the righteousness of God in Him. This righteousness alone measures up to all the demands of God’s holiness;
2 Cor 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
God always remains perfectly consistent with Himself. He will not break His own Law nor contravene His own nature. God is love (1 John 4:8), and He is light (1 John 1:5). In his love, God wants to forgive sinners, but His holiness must judge sin and uphold His righteous character as witnessed in the Law.
How can God be both ’just’ and the ‘justifier’ of sinners? The answer is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus took the wrath of God upon Himself on the Cross for the sins of the world, fully meeting the demands of God’s holiness as required by the Law, and at this time, He also fully expressed the love of God’s heart.
The justified sinner remains a sinner, and is not without personal sins, yet he is viewed as righteous by God and justly so because of the gift of Christ’s righteousness by imputation. The believer stands in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and his sins are not imputed to him, and furthermore Christ’s perfect righteousness is added to his account.
Justification does not mean ‘to make righteous.’ If it did, the believing sinner would have been made constitutionally righteous so he could not and would not sin. That condition occurs in our ultimate condition of sanctification at the resurrection, but for the present, we are imputed with the righteousness of Christ. Justification means that God accepts us and views us as perfectly righteous in Christ even though in our experience we will commit acts of sin or unrighteousness.
The failure to understand this distinction has led many people into error, whereby they attempt to become righteous and acceptable before God on their own merit. Our acceptance before God can only come through the gift of Christ’s righteousness, and Justification can be by faith in Jesus Christ alone;
Rom 3:19-25 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
The believer is righteous in Christ, and justified before God.
