Justification

In this series, we are considering some of the word pictures used in the Scriptures to help us understand the atonement. If ‘redemption’ took us to the market place and ‘propitiation’ led us to the temple shrine, then ‘justification’ is surely the language of the law court. The imagery conjured by the word ‘justification’ causes us to consider our own appearance in the dock to face the judgment of the cosmic Judge, before whose eyes everything we have thought, said and done is uncovered and laid bare.

Justification, then, is a legal pronouncement, the verdict of the Judge. It is the opposite of condemnation (Rom 5:18) since, when justification takes place, God bangs the gavel and declares a person to be not guilty, but just in his sight.

I have sometimes heard justification explained by the phrase ‘just as if I’d never sinned,’ but I suggest that this definition is somewhat deficient and might lead someone to the assumption that God is complicit in a legal fiction - simply ignoring a person’s sin. That phrase also fails to convey the wonder of the great exchange that had to take place for us to have a righteous standing before God.

Martin Luther’s famous phrase - simul justus et peccator (a latin phrase meaning, ‘at the same time just and sinner’) - might sound like a contradiction in terms, but it more accurately expresses this gospel truth. Justification is God’s provision for sinners so that, while they are still sinners, they may be reconciled to him and declared righteous by him.

The big question that justification raises is how a holy God can declare an unjust person to be just? Let’s explore the answer to this as we look at three phrases the apostle Paul used to explain our justification. We shall see that this is no legal fiction!

Its origination - by grace

The first phrase, “justified freely by his grace” (Rom 3:24; see also Tit 3:7), points us to the source, the origin of our justification.

It is the prerogative of the Judge to condemn or to justify. Grace, in this context, refers principally to the disposition of the Judge. He is gracious, that is he is minded to find a way to acquit us.

The fact that justification is by grace reminds us that it is not our entitlement. Indeed, Paul spends the opening two and half chapters of his epistle to the Romans firmly closing the door to any attempt by humans to reach God’s required standard by their own efforts before his summary statement in Romans 3:23-24.

Romans 3:23–24 NIV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

The point is that we have no leverage over the Judge; neither can his pardon be obtained by deception or bribery. There is nothing that we can offer him to tip the scales in our favour. We are fully reliant on his grace.

So, justification is wholly a result of the gracious disposition of the Judge toward the ungodly. Unless God had wanted to be the justifier of those who have faith, there would be no justification.

Its basis - by blood

But how can God be so graciously disposed towards people who have spurned his laws and scoffed at his love? To simply declare the unrighteous righteous would be contrary to God’s self-revealed standards of justice (Ex 23:7). As Judge, God must himself act righteously in giving his verdict on the unrighteous. Yet Paul’s staggering claim is that God does indeed justify the wicked (Rom 4:5).

Without the atoning sacrifice of Christ, Paul’s claim would be preposterous. But the atonement is the basis of God’s gracious justice; the blood of Christ’s cross enables God to be the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus, whilst all the time remaining supremely just (Rom 3:26). This leads us to our second phrase, “justified by his blood” (Rom 5:9), which reveals God’s righteous way of providing for our justification - its basis and its cost. Indeed, a good definition of justification is God’s “righteous way of ‘righteousing’ the unrighteous” (John Stott).

There are two elements to the problem: on the one hand God is absolutely holy and just; and, on the other, men and women are universally unjust, all falling short of his glory. To a two-fold problem, God has presented a two-fold solution, involving a double imputation.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Firstly, our sins have been imputed to Christ, that is they have been transferred to his account in order that the full penalty accruing to them might be justly paid. That is what is means when we read that “he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross” (1 Pet 2:24). God held Jesus to account for our sins and punished him for them at Calvary.

And, secondly, the Lord’s righteousness has been credited to our account. In pronouncing us to be just, God is not saying that we have righteous character; he is declaring that we have righteous standing because when he looks at our account he sees the record of Christ’s performance on the ledger.

If the phrase ‘just as if I’d never sinned’ implies a miscarriage of justice, we must be clear that the Judge has neither acted unjustly nor suffered amnesia in cancelling our debt at the expense of his Son. But that is only half the story: we remain sinners and, indeed, we continue to sin; yet we are now cloaked in the righteousness of Christ’s perfectly obedient life. You might say it’s ‘just as if I’d always obeyed!’

The consequence of our legal standing in Christ is that we now have peace with God, meaning that we can appear before him with confidence (Rom 5:1-2). That confidence and the assurance of our justification is rooted in the resurrection of God’s Son (Rom 4:25), since the resurrection is the evidence of Christ’s righteousness - the necessary vindication of a life which could not be bound by death and the confirmation of the good standing possessed by all who trust in his name .

Its appropriation - by faith

The last of the three phrases is “justified by faith” (Rom 3:28; 5:1). This phrase calls attention to the means by which justification is received or appropriated. A person is justified by faith and by faith alone.

Righteousness is and always has been the pre-requisite for justification. But God, recognising that humans are incapable of reaching the required standard through human endeavour or effort, credits righteousness to the account of those who have faith. So it was in the case of Abraham, whose simple yet profound faith in God’s promises was credited as righteousness (Rom 4).

This doesn’t mean that Abraham was justified for mustering such a righteous faith. It would be a complete misunderstanding of the work of justification to think that a person is righteous because he has faith. That would turn faith itself into a work - the work of believing.

Yet the faith which God accepts, crediting it as righteous, is faith that acknowledges our complete dependence upon God and that rests fully in the perfect life, the atoning death and the triumphant resurrection of his Son. Indeed, boasting is excluded precisely because no room is left for any human co-operation or contribution in the matter of our justification (Rom 3:27-28). Faith, then, does not merit the Judge’s verdict; it simply receives what the Judge freely dispenses, in his grace and on the basis of the cross. And even our faith is a gift! (Eph 2:8)

How should we respond to this wonderful picture of the atonement? Let us praise God for his glorious grace, so freely given to us in the Son he loves. Although human boasting is excluded, there is a joyful boast associated with our justification, as we eagerly anticipate a day in which we will no longer fall short of his glory, but share in it (Rom 5:2) - our character matching our standing. And that final link in the golden chain is as certain as our justification, since “those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom 8:30).