What is Justification

Introduction

The month of October is the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The primary doctrine of the reformation was the doctrine of justification. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at some terms you see in the bible, specifically in this passage; but you might just skip over them in your mind because you don’t exactly know what they mean. Words like justification, redemption, propitiation. Those are big words we don’t use a whole lot in English today. So this morning we are going to explore the doctrine of justification from Romans 3:20-26.

Paul has laid the case that we are all, Jew and Gentile, guilty before God and our guilt is inexcusable. Having answered all our arguments and excuses, we ended last week with these words Romans 3:19 “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.” That’s the bad news.

So having convinced us of being guilty what are we to do? Seems pretty hopeless right? We stand judged, condemned. A key word in this passage is righteousness. It is mentioned at least four times in these few verses and it is the root word behind our word justification. The problem is we are guilty and have no goodness or righteousness to commend us to God. So how is a person to escape the punishment we rightly deserve? The answer is justification.

What is Justification?

Romans 3:20 “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.”

Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

Romans 3:26 “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

To understand what justification is we are going to have to do a little bit of a word study. The first step is to look at how the word is used in other passages.

1. It is a legal term. Deuteronomy 25:1 “If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.” When men stood before a judge to receive their sentence, the judge would justify or declare innocent the innocent and he would condemn the guilty. So whatever this word means, it has legal connotations.

2. It is the opposite of condemn- Romans 8:33–34 “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Going back to that legal courtroom, if I am guilty the judge is going to sentence me to a punishment; I will be condemned. So justification is the opposite of that. It is the judge finding me to be innocent and letting me go.

3. It does not make you righteous- Luke 7:29 “And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.” This passage is an interesting one to see the word justify show up in because God is the one being justified. How can God be justified?

Let’s go back to our courtroom scene, when the judge says you are innocent of all crimes does that make you innocent or were you innocent all along? You either were or you were not. When you entered that courtroom you were innocent even if no one else knew it at the time. What the judge does in clearing you of all charges is merely declare you to be innocent.

The second step in finding out what justification is, is to look at the word itself. The word means to render a favorable verdict or vindicate. A simple definition for justification is to declare righteous. When the judge stands up there he declares you are innocent. You are acquitted of all charges against us. Here is the problem: How can I be justified when I am guilty? God cannot just pretend like I am innocent. It isn’t some game we play.

How am I justified?

Romans 3:21–22 “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:”

Those word but now are significant because they show a transition of time. Before I was guilty, I had no excuses left. My sin would be judged; but now, something changed. What was it that changed? God’s righteousness is made available to me. It was manifest or made known. For thousands of years God had prophesied of the days when Jesus would come and pay the penalty that we owe. That is what is meant by the phrase being witnessed by the law and the prophets. I don’t have any righteousness because I am guilty but God offers me His righteousness. So how do I get it? I am going to give you two answers:

Without the law- Back in Romans 3:20 “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.” We were told that the law cannot justify you. This was important for the Jews to hear but this is important for good upstanding American’s to hear. Your good deeds cannot erase your bad deeds. You cannot be declared righteous or innocent before God based on doing good. Paul says the law couldn’t do this because the law only brings the knowledge of sin. The law only tells you how bad you have messed up. It doesn’t have a plan to save you. You will never be justified by doing good or keeping the commandments.

by faith of Jesus Christ- There is only one way for you to be legally declared innocent and acquitted of all charges before God: by placing your faith in Jesus Christ alone. Galatians 2:16 “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Later in verse 24, we are told that we are justified freely. You don’t have to pay for it. You don’t earn it. You don’t have to be good enough. Jesus died for your sins paying the debt that you owe.

The work that Jesus accomplished for you on the cross to justify you involves two elements:

the forgiveness of sins Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” By placing our faith in Jesus Christ, all our sins are wiped from God’s ledger. God forgives us for what we have done. But if this were the only thing, as great as it is it would not be enough. This would merely get us to ground zero. It would make us neutral or return us to being like Adam in the garden.

the imputation of Christ’s righteousness Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” God doesn’t just forgive us of our sins; He puts Christ’s righteousness on our account. The word we use for this is imputation.

Imagine our lives being like an accounting record. We have debts on one side and positive money in our account on the other side. Unfortunately before we got saved, all we had were debts. Forgiveness wipes those debts away, but I can have all my debts eliminated and still be homeless. The other half of the equation deposits all the righteousness of Jesus Christ into my account. So now when God looks at me, he sees a righteous child of God.

Who needs to be justified?

Romans 3:22–23 “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;”

Every one needs to be justified. Notice how often all shows up in these verses. Salvation is made available to all because we are all sinners. There are no exceptions. Romans 4:5 “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” The ungodly need to be justified.

Conclusion

I want to give two applications to this verse, one for the lost for whom these words speak loudest. Maybe you are finally convinced that you are a sinner. You are guilty. You have no more excuses to give God. You are worried about what you can do. You have tried to be good, keep the 10 commandments and live a decent life; but you failed once again. There seems to be no hope. There is hope in those words but now. God has made a way so the charges against you can be dropped and not only that but legally you can be declared righteous, innocent before God. How does this happen? God freely gives you Christ’s righteousness if you place your faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus christ for your sins. In a moment the piano will play, if you have never done this, please come talk to me and we can help you.

Secondly, for the Christian. A message on justification seems so past tense for us, but it has its implications for our lives. I could give you many examples of gospel centered living for the believer based on our justification, but I am going to stick with one Paul brings up. In Romans 8:33–34 “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Satan brings his accusations against us all the time.

1. I can’t believe you did that again.

2. You must not be a Christian if you are struggling with that in your life.

3. You must not have had enough faith. You are a failure and God can’t use you.

All these lies are attacks of Satan. Paul comforts us by reminding us it is God that justifieth. You didn’t earn your salvation; so you can’t lose it. You weren’t righteous on your own to begin with; so God accepts us based on Christ’s righteousness alone. That’s still true today. It never was about how much faith you had, that would turn faith into a work. It is only God’s freely given grace that justifies you. I can resist the attacks of Satan because I know that it is God and God alone who justifies me and Satan cannot condemn me. Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts.