God's elect were justified in HIs sight before the world began. The following is from a small book by Bill Parker, a good friend of mine, on
When Are God's People Justified in His Sight?(
When_Are_Gods_People_Justified_in_His_Sight_new.pdf (b5z.net)) :
"JUSTIFICATION IN ETERNITY
As stated, this is the view that God’s elect have always been justified IN HIS SIGHT, even before the foundation of the world. And even though they all fell in Adam into sin and death, and because of their sin, they deserve and have earned nothing but God’s wrath, God has always viewed and accepted them in Christ as their Representative, Surety, Substitute, Redeemer, and Mediator. They are the subjects of an eternal and everlasting covenant of grace made between God the Father and God the Son before the foundation of the world. God chose them by His sovereign grace, gave them to Christ and from the beginning placed all responsibility for their salvation and eternal well-being upon Christ. They are (and have always been) “the vessels of mercy, which HE had afore prepared unto glory” (Romans 9:23). They are recipients of a salvation that was given to them “in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9). They are the “election of grace” (Romans 11:5), and grace has always reigned “through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21).
Some object to this view because they argue that if this is true, God’s elect do not need to be saved, and it was not, therefore, necessary for Christ to come and die for their sins. They also conclude that if God’s elect were all justified in His sight from eternity that it is, therefore, not necessary for them to be born again and brought to faith in Christ. As stated above, it is true that there are some who hold a view of eternal justification that leads them to fatalism in denying God’s appointed means to bring all whom He has chosen and justified to complete salvation. But this is not Scriptural. First, eternal justification does not mean that God’s elect “have always been saved” in the sense of never having been lost in their sins. Justification before God is only one realm of salvation.1 God’s elect are not, in essence, born saved. They are born lost in their sins. And even though God has marked them out for salvation and has always viewed them in Christ, they are naturally born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins as enemies of and alienated from God. So, not only do God’s elect need to be justified before God, they also need to be redeemed by the blood of Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and glorified together with Christ. God’s people need to be saved because they are all sinners who deserve eternal damnation and who are born lost in their sins. It is true that in eternity God has been reconciled to them by the cross of Christ, but the redemption price must be paid for them by Christ, and they also must be reconciled to God by God-given faith in Christ. In fact, the Bible states that, as fallen in Adam and naturally born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, there is no difference between the vessels of mercy and the children of wrath."
