Justification Series: God Declares the Sinner Righteous Through Faith in His Son Jesus Christ

One of the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith is that of the doctrine of justification.

This doctrine has given assurance to believers throughout the centuries and has changed the course of human history.

By way of definition, justification is a judicial act of God whereby He declares a person to be righteous as a result of crediting or imputing to that person His righteousness the moment they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Consequently, God accepts that person and enters that person into a relationship with Himself since they now possess His righteousness.

The mechanics of justification are as follows:

(1) God condemns the sinner, which qualifies them to receive His grace.

(2) The sinner believes in Jesus Christ as His Savior.

(3) God imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to the believer.

(4) God declares that person as righteous as a result of acknowledging His Son’s righteousness in that person.

Justification is God declaring a person to be righteous as a result of acknowledging or recognizing His righteousness in that person, and which righteousness He imputed to that person as a result of their faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Justification causes no one to be righteous but rather is the recognition and declaration by God that one is righteous as He is.

It is a once and for all declaration, which never changes and never can be rescinded since God is a perfect Judge who because He is immutable, always makes perfect decisions.

To be justified by God through faith alone in Christ alone means that God can never condemn us for our sins.

It means that a believer can never lose his salvation because of any sin since God, who is a perfect judge, rendered a perfect decision when he declared righteous the person, who exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ!

Thus, Paul declares the following in Romans 8:1:

Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (NIV84)

In Romans 3:20 and 24, “justified” and “justifier” in Romans 3:26 is the verb dikaioo, which refers to God declaring a person as righteous as He is as a result of God imputing or crediting to that person His Son’s righteousness, the moment they exercised faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. 3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” 5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8 Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved. 9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (NIV84)

“Are justified” is the nominative masculine plural present passive participle form of the verb dikaioo (δικαιόω), which means, “to declare or pronounce righteous.”

This verb’s cognate adjective is dikaios (δίκαιος), “righteous,” which refers to aperson as having virtue in the sense that they have moral excellence, goodness, and their conduct conforms to the will of God.

The word refers to being upright, honest, perfectly whole and undiminished, sound, and unimpaired and in a sound or good condition.

Of course, only the Lord Jesus Christ was dikaiossince all members of the human race are sinners.

No one in the human race is righteous before God since only the Lord Jesus Christ was sinless as manifested in that He was perfectly obedient to every aspect of the Mosaic Law.

Also, the word describes the state or condition of a person who has fulfilled his obligations to both God and men, which is to love God and your neighbor as yourself.

Since, the Lord Jesus Christ was impeccable, He was the only member of the human race who was truly righteous in the eyes of God and who truly loved God and His neighbor as Himself.

Therefore, the adjective dikaios refers to a person being declared by God as righteous as He is and is thus in right relation to both God and man.

Again, there is absolutely no one in the human race that is in right relation to both God and man since there is no one righteous because of sin and disobedience to the commands to love God with one’s entire being and one’s neighbor as oneself.

Only the Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient to the Word of God, which can be summarized by the commands to love God with one’s entire being and one’s neighbor as oneself.

In Romans 2:13, Paul teaches that only the doers of the Law will be justified.

No one in the human race is righteous before God and therefore justified before Him since no human being except Jesus Christ was ever perfectly obedient to the Law.

The function of volition in obeying the sin nature prevents any human being from keeping the Law perfectly.

Also, in Romans 3:9-20, Paul teaches that there is absolutely no one in the human race who can ever be accepted by a holy God and enjoy a relationship with Him by obeying the Law, i.e. the Old Testament Scriptures since they can never be perfectly obedient because the entire human race is under the power of the old Adamic sin nature.

Therefore, in order for man to be justified before God, God must treat him in grace and provide a way for him to be justified.

Thus, justification is based upon God’s grace as we will note.

The voluntary substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ on the cross is the basis for justification since they propitiated or satisfied the demands of God’s holiness, which required that sin be judged.

They also redeemed mankind out of the slave market of sin, fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law and reconciled the human race to God.

Redemption and deliverance from the Law and reconciliation are appropriated through faith alone in Christ alone.

The imputation of divine righteousness at the moment of faith in Christ and the believer’s resultant justification was made possible because the Lord Jesus Christ’s spiritual and physical deaths on the cross dealt with the issue of the sins of the world.

It also fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law that demanded that human sin be judged.

The perfection of Christ’s Person and Work are the foundation of the imputation of divine righteousness and resultant justification.

The Scriptures teach that the only way that a member of the human race can ever be declared righteous by God is through receiving the gift of divine righteousness by grace through faith alone in Christ alone (Romans 3:21-30; 5:1-21; Galatians 2:16).

Therefore, in Romans 3:24, the verb dikaioorefers to God declaring a person as righteous as He is as a result of God imputing or crediting to that person His Son’s righteousness, the moment they exercised faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

The word refers to the doctrine of “justification,” which by way of definition is a judicial act of God whereby He declares a person to be righteous as a result of crediting or imputing to that person His righteousness the moment they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Consequently, God accepts that person and enters that person into a relationship with Himself since they now possess His righteousness.