Are You Justified?

1. Introduction.

“Justification” is one of those fancy theological terms we hear thrown about from time to time, but do you know what it means to be justified, and do you know why you need justification?

Justification, or being justified, is used 31 times in the New Testament, including 28 times alone in Paul’s writings.

Justification is an extremely important concept if you you want to go to heaven. We are going to define justification, and we are going to look at how we are justified. Listen to me very carefully.

Justification is not just one of those fancy terms preachers throw around trying to make themselves sound smart. If you are not justified, you are lost and headed to hell. It is an extremely important biblical concept. It is a concept that every Christian needs to understand, and it is a concept that lost people need to understand because if a lost person understands what being justified means, he or she will get saved because justification shows the lost the desperation of their situation.

2. What is justification?

A. Justification does not mean to be acquitted.

An acquitted person is one that is found not guilty. If a person is acquitted, it means that person successfully defended himself or herself against all charges, but dear fried, no one will ever be acquitted before God.

Romans 3:19–20 “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those 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 no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

We are guilty. Every single man, woman, boy, and girl are guilty before God. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. All the charges brought against us are true. The Bible even tells us that before we are born we are sinners.

Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.”

God does not rig the system against us. All of the charges against you and me are recorded.

Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.”

Justification does not mean acquittal because all are guilty.

B. Justification does not mean to be pardoned.

If a person is pardoned, that means that person was found guilty but given a second chance. There are no second chances with God.

Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”

When a person dies, there are no more chances. Your guilt is determined, and death does not change your guilt. Do you remember the rich man?

Luke 16:24–31 ““Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’

Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead?”

Justification does not mean to be pardoned because there are no pardons in eternity.

C. Justification does not mean to be paroled.

If a person is paroled, that person was guilty but set free with certain restrictions. Well, dear friend, there are no restrictions. God cannot overlook any sin. If God overlooked one sin, He would no longer be God. Sin is the ultimate crime before God, and there is no parole.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We think of this verse solely in terms of physical death, but, dear friend, this verse is far more serious than physical death. The wages of our sin is spiritual death, and there is no parole for spiritual death.

So, justification is not acquittal, pardon, or parole.

What is justification?

“By justification, God declares a sinner to be no longer exposed to the penalty of the Law, but restored to God’s favor.” (A. H. Strong) AMEN!!!!

You and I, and I mean all of us, are guilty. We deserve what the Law demands, but if you are saved, you are justified and restored to God’s favor.

Justification is an act of God; not an act of yours.

Through justification, a born-again Christian’s legal status before God is changed eternally.

Justification means our status is changed. You hear me say this often, but it is so true. The Gospel transforms lives. The Gospel gives new life. It is a new life that comes from God changing our legal status eternally. Through justification, we go from being spiritually dead to being children of God.

Romans 8:16–17 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Every single human being needs justification before God.

D. You need justification.

Justification is necessary because we are all guilty, and the determined sentence is spiritual death resulting in eternal separation from God.

Matthew 25:41 ““Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:”

Revelation 20:15 “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

You can argue about what hell is and what it is not until you are blue in the face, but the worst thing about being in hell is be forever separated from God. When you are separated from God, there is no air, no water, no mercy, no comfort, and no forgiveness, and if you are not justified, that is exactly what you are going to experience. The outcome has been settled for all of those who choose to stand on their own merits.

In the Book of Romans, by the way, all Christians need a grasp and an understanding of the Book of Romans, Paul presents sinful man in a courtroom on trial for his life. The charge against every man, woman, boy, and girl is treason against the God of the Universe.

Even in the US Constitution, treason is punishable by death. How much more serious do you think it is in God’s court?

You are on trial for treason, and the Judge is none other than Jesus Christ.

John 5:22 “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,”

Acts 17:31 “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.””

Jesus Christ has been given the legal authority to Judge, and He will Judge righteously.

The jury in your trial is the Law of God.

Romans 2:12 NKJV

For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law

In your trial, your deeds are compared to the Law of God. The only possible verdict is guilty before God.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—”

All of us are guilty before God. Our works cannot justify us because our hereditary condemns us. The Law of God offers no hope. Mankind is desperate. Mankind needs justification.

E. Justification is a miracle.

Up to this point, your trial has proceeded as all trials, but suddenly something unexpected happens.

After the Judge, Jesus Christ, has carefully heard all the evidence, He has no choice but to hand down the supreme penalty, spiritual death, but before He executes the sentence against you, the Judge quietly closes the book on your case, lays down His gavel, rises to His feet, takes off His judicial robe, and puts on the Cross of Calvary to die in your place.

That is justification. Jesus Christ died as you for you on the Cross. He died as me for me. It is that act and that act alone that delivers a guilty sinner from the penalty deserved. It is that act alone that wraps a child of God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

No one is automatically justified. A baby that dies prematurely is not justified because of being a baby. That baby is justified because of Jesus Christ.

1 John 2:2 “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

If you say a baby can be justified because they are a baby, you are saying there are some who are innocent, but none are innocent in the eyes of God. Mitzie is not justified because Mrs. Geraldine is justified. Justification is not inherited. Listen to what the Bible says.

Job 25:4 “How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?”

Dear friend, as far as I know, all of us here were born of a woman. According to Job, there is no way we can be righteous. We are guilty, but we can be justified.

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

We are justified before God by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

God so wants us to be justified that He gives us the faith to believe in Jesus.

Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,”

The faith to be justified comes from God. It is not of ourselves.

One of the great Old Testament examples of salvation by faith is found in Numbers Chap. 21.

At that time, many Israelites, because of grumbling, complaining, and disobedience, were dying from the bite of poisonous serpents, but God offered a solution. When the person was bitten, in faith, all they had to do was to look upon a brass serpent atop a pole to be saved. The brass serpent did not justify them. They were justified by their faith. If you think otherwise, you are wrong. No one is ever justified apart from faith.

Romans 1:17 “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.””

The best way for God to be glorified is for us to for us to put the faith He has given us in His grace.

Romans 3:24 “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

Titus 3:7 “that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Man justifies the innocent, but God justifies the guilty because none are innocent. Man justifies on the basis of merit. God justifies on the merits of His Son, Jesus Christ.

When a person is justified, that person is freed from the penalty of sin.

Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

Romans 8:33–34 “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

When a person is saved, are they made sin free? NO!!! Because we sin after we are saved, but we are justified before God, and Christ, when we do sin, intercedes on our behalf before God.

When a person is justified, that person is restored to God’s favor.

Romans 5:8–11 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

When a person is justified, Christ’s righteousness is charged to that person’s account.

Romans 4:24–25 “but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

If you are saved, God sees Christ’s righteousness, and that justifies you, but if you are lost, God sees you.

Justification is based solely on the work of Jesus Christ, and justification is made possible for us because of the Resurrection.

Romans 5:9–10 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

The death of Jesus Christ took care of our sins. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ justifies us before God. We are made alive because Jesus is alive.

Now, I know I went through justification quickly, and there is much more to say, but hopefully, you understand the need for justification. Take this passage as an example.

Romans 10:9–10 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Can you see the faith element in this passage? If you confess and believe

Can you see justification in this passage? You will be saved

Can you see how justification was brought to man? That God has raised Him from the dead

Dear friend, if you have not been justified, you are not saved. You might be a church member, but only true salvation makes you justified before God. It is justification based upon Christ and Calvary made possible by His Resurrection, and that is it.