Trusting Jesus = Justification

'Whereas forgiveness is the negative side of salvation, justification is the positive side. To justify is to declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. It is a forensic {legal} act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous on the basis of the blood of Christ. The major emphasis of justification is positive and involves two main aspects. It involves the pardon and removal of all sins and the end of separation from God. [Acts 13:39; Romans 4:6-7; 5:9-11; II Corinthians 5:19] It also involves the bestowal of righteousness upon the believing person and "a title to all the blessings promised to the just." Dr. J.I. Packer, "Justification," in Walter A. Elwell, ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), p. 594.

'Justification is a gift given through the grace of God (Rom. 3:24) and takes place the moment the individual has faith in Christ (Romans 4:2; 5:1). The ground of justification is the death of Christ (Romans 5:9), apart from any works (Romans 4:5). The means of justification is faith (Romans 5:1). Through justification God maintains His integrity and His standard {of righteousness and holiness Ray's inclusion} and is able to enter into fellowship with sinners because they have the very righteousness of Christ imputed to them. {Romans 4:6 Ray's inclusion}

Justification is a peculiarly Pauline term. The verb is used forty times in the New Testament, but Paul uses the word twenty-nine times. Drs. William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, "A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature" 2nd ed., edited by F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1979, p. 159-81.

Dr. James I. Packer, D. Phil., is or was on the faculty of Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. and is the author of numerous articles and books, including "I Want To Be a Christian and Knowing God."

 

John Gilmore,

Thanks for your clarity of insight. I too, have read of Erasmus (1466-1536) who was admitted to the Catholic priesthood and took the vows of a monk. He was a gifted man with the original language and his translation became the 'textus receptus' meaning the received text. It was used by the leaders of the Reformation as the basis of their common language versions of the New Testament. He corrected the errors in the Latin texts and called attention to the original Greek for purposes of translation.

The word 'being justified' in Romans 3:24 is the basic word, {dikaioo} and means to render or regard as just, innocent, free, or just. I believe the Lord God counts the sinner who has had faith in Jesus as having a clear record before the throne of His holiness, because of the atonement of Jesus who covers those sins. But, although Jesus covers those sins He does not ignore our subsequent sins as believers, but will also sanctify we believers who are in Christ, more and more each day {Romans 8:29} so we might be eventually ' . . . conformed to the image of the Son of God our Savior.'

Does the Roman Church have a doctrinal statement about justification in their official catechism?

 

Thessalonian,

I am pleased to know that the Roman and Eastern Orthodox churches have a strong statement of the reality of justification.

I personally like this plank of theology the best.

1996. "Our JUSTIFICATION comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor,
the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to
become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of
eternal life.[Cf. Jn 1:12-18 ; Jn 17:3 ; Rom 8:14-17 ; 2Pet 1:3-4.]"

I think this is the weakest of the several you offered up to us.

1446. "Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of
his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave
sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial
communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new
possibility to convert and to recover the grace of JUSTIFICATION. The
Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as 'the second plank (of
salvation) after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace.'[Tertullian, De
Paenit. 4, 2: PL 1,1343; cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1542.]"

You use the word, Penance, and I think this is our equivalent of confession of sin to the Lord, when fellowship is broken between the erring saint and Almighty God. It is a matter of semantics.

I grew up in a church that had a most definite leaning toward Arminianism. When arriving at Bible college I believe that a person might be saved twice if his sin necessitated this experience, but not more than twice. And then I began to study what the Bible had to say about the matter. God's Word never speaks about a repeat in what the Lord has done for us when we are justified.

Although God most deeply frowns and hates our sins after conversion we never completely lose His grace in our hearts. We might 'grieve' or 'quench' the Spirit, but He never abandons ship in our heart of hearts. If the Christian refuses to listen to the admonitions of Scripture while out of fellowship with God, then, our Lord must step into our lives with His providence of chastisement. [Hebrews 12:5]

In the best sense of the word, we never recover our justification. We remain in a justified state of grace even when out of fellowship and closeness with our God. This is what makes sin so awful for those who backslide away from the Lord, because we then take advantage of His wonderful grace. That is what Paul means in Romans 6:1.

Tertullian was not too far off the mark. Some true Christians do make 'shipwreck' of their faith, but that is in the human earthly side of things. God never gives up on the soul of a true believer. Example: I Timothy 1:19-20 speaks of two men who fell away from the faith and Paul delivered them to God, probably in his prayers, and God disciplined, chastised them for their erring ways. The Lord was teaching them not to blaspheme. If the Lord didn't give a care and had given up on their eternal soul, He would not have stepped into their lives with this extreme discipline to teach them to follow Christ more closely.

Matthew Henry's Commentary says,

'The primary design of the highest censure in the primitive church was to prevent further sin and to reclaim the {erring saint.} In this case it was for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit/soul might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.' {Dr. Matthew Henry, "Matthew Henry's Commentary," Volume VI, p. 811, left column.} [I Corinthians 5:5; I Corinthians 3:13-15] The latter reference is to the Judgment Seat of Christ. [II Cor. 5:10] 'The destruction of the flesh' was some sickness or bodily disease that would awaken the Christian to his or her need to return to the Lord in a close fellowship with Him. Relationship to Christ was never broken in the case of Humenaeus and Alexander and never will be in the lives of those who truly have come to know the Lord as Savior and Shepherd of their lives. [John 10:1-30 & especially the thoughts of vs. 27-30 spoken by our Lord]

Christians don't want to get in the cross fire of His judicial chastisement. Either we listen to His Word, the Bible, and follow Him closely or we bring on ourselves His severe discipline.

 

Charles C. Ryrie, a Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Ph.D., from the University of Edinburg has said,

'To justify means to declare righteous. Both the Hebrew {sadaq} and the Greek {dikaioo} words mean to announce or pronounce a favorable verdict, to declare righteous. The concept does not mean to make righteous, but to announce righteousness. It is a courtroom concept, so that to justify is to give a verdict of righteous. Notice the contrast between to justify and to condemn in Deuteronomy 25:1; I Kings 8:32; and Proverbs 17:15. Just as announcing condemnation does not make a person wicked, neither does justification make a person righteous. Condemning or justifying announces the true and actual state of the person. The wicked person is already wicked when the verdict of condemnation is pronounced. Likewise, the righteous person is already righteous when the verdict of justification is announced.' From "Basic Theology" Moody Press, Chicago, p. 343.

As Christians we can say with the Apostle Paul, 'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God Who justifies.' [Romans 8:33] In other words, if the Lord declares a Christian saved, no one else has anything to say about the matter. After all Christ died for our sins. [I Corinthians 15:3; I John 2:2] He not only died for our sins up until our conversion/faith in Christ/trust in Him, but for present and future sins.

Dr. Paul Enns says in his text, "The Moody Handbook of Theology," Moody Press, p. 464,

'As Luther, so also his followers taught that justification is based on the meritorious death of Christ, which death alone atoned for sins. The Augsburg Confession of 1530 explained justification as "to absolve a guilty man and pronounce him righteous, and to do so on account of someone else's righteousness, namely, Christ's."'

Luther while studying Romans 1:17, came to the knowledge of justification by faith alone. 'For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.'

 

John Gilmore,

Thanks for you inclusion of the reality of our imputation. It is more than wonderful that Jesus has done this for all those who have trust in Him and now love Him. As Christians we are a blessed people because our Lord promises that never again will He impute sin to our personhood. [Romans 4:8] When we stand before the Lord in Heaven it will be only because of Him, His grace, and our belief in Him. [Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16] Truly it is wonderful!!