Justification From Eternity

Faith in Christ is the evidence and manifestation of our justification, but not the cause of it. God’s elect were justified in Christ from eternity. Justification is one of those “all spiritual blessings” with which God’s elect were blessed before the worlds were made (Eph. 1:3).

Christ stood before God as our Surety in the covenant of grace from eternity. In that covenant the Son of God voluntarily engaged to pay the debts of his elect and make full satisfaction for them. God the Father accepted him as our Surety. “Thenceforward,” wrote John Gill, the Father “looked at him for payment and satisfaction, and looked at them as discharged, and so they were in his eternal mind.” As soon as one person becomes surety for another, the debtor is freed and the Surety is accepted. Thus all God’s elect were justified in eternity, as soon as Christ became our Surety (Rom. 8:30).

Don Fortner