FOUR FACTS ABOUT
JUSTIFICATION
The Lord our God must deal with
all men upon the grounds of strict justice, because he is just. Justice and
holiness are as essential to the character of God as love and mercy. God can no
more put aside justice in his dealings with men than he can put aside love from
his character. Because God is just, the only way he can save a guilty sinner,
bring the sinner into an eternal union of life with himself, is if he can make
the sinner guiltless and sinless in the eyes of his own law and justice. This
act of God's matchless grace, by which he declares men to be guiltless and sinless is what Paul calls "justification''. Now, when
God declares that a person is guiltless and sinless, perfectly righteous before
him, that person really is in the eyes of God perfectly righteous. Our
righteousness before God is not just a merciful supposition,
it is a blessed reality in Christ.
1. EVERY BELIEVER IS ETERNALLY JUSTIFIED IN THE PURPOSE
OF GOD.
Paul, speaking of God's eternal
decree in predestination, declares that all of God's elect were justified in
his eternal purpose of grace - "Whom he did PREDESTINATE, them he
also CALLED: and whom he called them he also JUSTIFIED: and whom
he justified them he also GLORIFIED." From all eternity, God looked
upon his Son as our Substitute, and looking upon us in his Son, we are, and
always have been, righteous in his sight. This fact of our eternal
justification in Christ is the reason why our race was not destroyed
immediately after the fall. "As God's will to elect is the election of his
people, so his will to justify them is the justification of them. As it is an
immanent act in God, it is an act of his grace towards them, is wholly without
them, entirely resides in the Divine mind, and lies in his estimating,
accounting, and constituting them righteous through the righteousness of his
Son; and, as such, did not first commence in time, but from
eternity."(John Gill) "We may say of all spiritual blessings in
Christ what is said of Christ, that 'his goings forth are from everlasting. In
Christ we are blessed with all spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3). As we are
blessed with all other, so with this also, that we were justified then in
Christ!" (Thomas Goodwin)
2. ALL OF GOD'S ELECT WERE JUSTIFIED AT
Having lived in perfect
obedience to the law of God as our Representative, establishing perfect
righteousness for us, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died as our Substitute
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3. EVERY BELIEVER RECEIVES JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IN
CHRIST.
Christ justified us by his
great sin-atoning sacrifice; and all who believe on Christ as Lord and Savior
receive the many benefits of his finished work, one of which is justification.
It is written that our Lord Jesus Christ "was delivered for our offences,
and was raised again for our justification. Therefore BEING JUSTIFIED,
by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Faith does
not cause God to justify us. The obedience of Christ has done that for us. But
faith, resting upon Christ alone as Savior, obtains peace with God, even the
peace of perfect, complete justification.
4. AND EVERY TRUE BELIEVER IS JUSTIFIED BY HIS WORKS.
Read James 4:20-26. James and
Paul are not opposed to each other. In Romans 3 Paul shows us the ACCOMPLISHMENT
of justification. Here James is showing us the EVIDENCE of
justification. If a man is a true believer in Christ, he will justify his faith
and prove its reality by works of righteous obedience to God, even as Abraham
did. Any faith which does not produce such obedience is a false faith, a
demonic delusion. Justification, then, is an ETERNAL ACT of God, ACCOMPLISHED
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