Pardon and justification are not the same thing. The latter relates to righteous judgment, the former, to kindness. In the case of the sinner before God, they approach one another, and run together in fact, but are not the same, nor is the effect the same in the heart.
Pardon is the favor and kindness of a person wronged passing over faults against himself, an act of prerogative goodness, so that kindness flows forth unimpeded by the wrong-though in the case of the sinner it is by the blood of Christ.
Justification is holding one as not chargeable with guilt. Justified, I do not fear judgment; pardoned, my heart returns in comfort to Him who has pardoned me, but by His blood we have both. It is another aspect, not another act.
When we connect our risen position with justifying, it is not exact. The justifying is always holding discharged from accusation. Our standing is not simply that we are held to be clear of guilt, but by the resurrection of Christ, we have been put in a new position in Christ. God by the resurrection has acknowledged the satisfaction made in Christ's death and He has therein justified us.
But what Christ did for our justification implies more than pardon, for we have been introduced into
God's presence as Christ stands there. If Christ is not raised, we are yet in our sins, but if He is, we are cleansed by a work which brings us into the glory of God in perfect acceptance. We are justified by being the righteousness of God in Him, and are warranted practically in taking what Christ is as the measure of our justification, because it is that which will be recognized in the Day of Judgment.
“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world." 1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17). The Day of Judgment pronounces that we are as the Judge-clearly justified therefore. But the Lamb is the judge, so we appear before Him who bore our sins. Their being put away, then, covered (in virtue of which work all is pardoned), is our justification too, for "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Eph. 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7).