Not Guilty: The Doctrine of Justification

Theological Argument

Believers are reckoned as righteous by God not on the basis of their good works but because of what Christ has achieved for them, received by faith.

Foundational Scripture

Romans 3:21–25 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Romans 3:28 ESV

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

The Root of Every Schism

W. M. Clow in The Cross in Christian Experience (1910

“I believe, that the root of every schism and heresy from which the Christian church has suffered, has been the effort to earn salvation rather than to receive it; and that one reason why preaching is so ineffective is that it calls on men oftener to work for God than to behold God working for them.”

The Theology of Justification

Justification is a Christian’s judicial acceptance by God as not guilty because his sins are not counted against him. “Salvation provides us access to the Father through Jesus; justification shows where we stand with God in Jesus Christ.” The central theme of justification is one of the most theologically important segments of the entire New Testament, and oft the most debated theological issue in Christendom. The Reformers coined the doctrine of “justification by faith alone.” Yet, this does not mean that faith exists on its own. Saving faith is expressed in baptism, is joined with repentance and works through love. Christians are not justified by such things, but nor are they justified without them. It is only faith that saves, not because faith is greater that love or any other virtue, but because faith unites believers with Christ, in whom and because of whom they are accepted. So faith alone justifies, but the faith that justifies is never alone, it never exists without love and good works.

Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains (34.46 δικαιόω; δικαίωσις, εως; δικαιοσύνη, ης)

δικαιόωa; δικαίωσιςa, εως f; δικαιοσύνηb, ης f: to cause someone to be in a proper or right relation with someone else—‘to put right with, to cause to be in a right relationship with.’ Some scholars, however, interpret δικαιόω, δικαίωσις, and δικαιοσύνη in the following contexts as meaning ‘forensic righteousness,’ that it to say, the act of being declared righteous on the basis of Christ’s atoning ministry, but it would seem more probable that Paul uses these expressions in the context of the covenant relation rather than in the context of legal procedures.

Palestinian Judaism Soteriological pattern: Jews believed that:

Covenantal nomism: a pattern of religion where righteousness was seen as a way of maintaining the covenant relationship and never as a means of obtaining or earning a relationship with God.

They were elected by grace (Deut. 7:6-7);

God gave the commandments as a gift;

Obedience to the commandments brings blessing while disobedience brings cursing ( Deut. 11:26-32);

Repentance and atonement for sin through animal sacrifice;

Will yield God’s forgiveness

Paul’s Theology of Justification: The Answer to our Basic Dilemma

From a human standpoint—and by nature people are legalists—the plan was radical. It excluded anything and everything that people by themselves might do to attain righteousness. Paul’s theology of justification developed in the context of the questions whether or not the Gentiles needed to obey the law of Moses in order to be right with God and full members of the elect and redeemed community.

“God justifies the ungodly, not the well intentioned.”

Justification is a gift of grace through Christ’s work on the cross (Rom. 3:23).

We are justified by faith, not by works (Rom. 4:1).