Justification: May 2007
Table of Contents
Justification by Grace, by Blood and by Faith
“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Rom. 8:33). From the above scripture we learn that to be justified is to be free from the charge of sin. Until we believed the gospel, the charge against us was that we had “sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” but, having believed, we have the privilege to know that we have been “justified from all things” (Acts 13:39). To any who would question our right to this position or bring any charge of sin against us, the divine answer is, “It is God that justifieth.” If God, the God against whom we had sinned has justified us, who is he that shall condemn? In the Epistle to the Romans, justification is said to be (a) by grace, (b) by blood and (c) by faith.
Justification by Grace
Until, by the advent of Christ, the grace of God was revealed, the Jew was under the law. But as Romans 3:20 tells us, the law did not justify. It had, indeed, quite the opposite effect. The law was a standard by which man’s shortcomings were revealed, and, instead of clearing him of the charge of sin, established his guilt. But what of the Gentile? He, too, is proved to be “under sin” (Rom. 3:9). True, he was never tested by the law publicly, but the trial of the Jew was sufficient to prove that “by the deeds of the law . . . no flesh” (neither Jew nor Gentile) could be justified in God’s sight. All human effort as a means of obtaining blessing is thus ruled out and God discloses that “by His grace” He can justify all who believe.
Justification by Blood
It is never God’s way, however, to act in grace at the expense of righteousness, nor does He justify the sinner by ignoring his sin. Sin is a challenge to the righteousness and supremacy of God, and to vindicate His righteousness, God must judge sin. But how could God execute the judgment on sin that His righteousness demanded and yet justify the sinner according to the desire of His grace? It is in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ we find the answer to this question. On the cross, the unsparing judgment of sin that God’s righteousness required was carried out and thus His attitude to sin was plainly declared. Since the Lord Jesus has borne all the weight of divine wrath against sin, God is just in justifying all who have faith in that which is the witness of His death — the blood.
Justification by Faith
If on God’s side justification is by grace, on man’s side it must be by faith. Grace is in contrast with law; faith is in contrast with works. Grace implies gift, and no one works for a gift. “To him that worketh,” says the Scripture, “is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” That is to say, had it been possible for men, by works of righteousness to have fulfilled God’s demands, then they would have been entitled to justification. But, as we have seen, law and the deeds of the law are ruled out; hence, if men are to be justified, it must be by grace on the principle of faith.
A. Whitesmith
Source, Basis and Principle of Justification
There are three parties to my justification: God, Christ and myself. On God’s part there is grace: “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). On Christ’s part there is His blood: “Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom. 5:9). On my part there is faith: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Grace is the source, blood the basis, and faith the principle of my justification. This being so, what credit and glory God and His blessed Son get, and what full blessing is the portion of the non-working but believing sinner! And we learn elsewhere that we cannot take any credit for our faith, for it is “the gift of God.”
Christian Truth, 12:3-18
How We Are Made Righteous
1. The righteousness of God is revealed for the sinner in virtue of Christ set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, and it is upon all who believe.
2. God accounts as righteous the ungodly sinner who believes (Rom. 4:5).
3. Not only have we clearance from guilt by the blood of Christ, but by His resurrection we are also put in the cleared place.
4. In virtue of our being in Him, the risen One, the last Adam, we are not only justified from all things, but have also justification of life. This we have through His one righteousness.
5. By His one righteousness — His obedience unto death — He stands accepted as the last Adam before God, and we, poor sinners who believe, being linked with Him, are constituted righteous—accepted in the same perfection as Himself — in that sweet savor that ever ascended to God from the obedient Man.
6. God has made Christ our righteousness, and in Him as our righteousness we stand before God. What a robe! Surely it is the best robe!
7. We become the righteousness of God in Him. In virtue of this stupendous work accomplished through Christ, a new and everlasting glory accrues to God — a glory displayed in the last Adam, the Son of God, the Man in the glory. One gaze upon His blessed face by faith ought to be enough to fix the heart upon Him forever.
A. H. Rule
Justified
I’m justified by grace divine;
Before my God I stand
Without a charge of guilt to fear,
Or judgment from His hand.
I’m justified through blood alone,
Which He on Calvary shed;
That precious blood alone avails
For sinners lost and dead.
I’m justified by simple faith,
At perfect peace with God,
Through Him who now in glory sits,
Who once this desert trod.
I’m justified by works as well,
Before the eyes of men,
But not before the eyes of God;
No works are needed then.
Grace is the source, and blood the ground,
And faith the simple means,
And works the proof what God has wrought,
Mid earth’s defiling scenes.
E. B. Hartt
Seven Results of Justification
“If we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us” (Rom. 4:24-25; 5:15).
We commence with, “If we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord.” We believe on Him who is God, the source of all, acting in divine power, raising the One who was delivered for our offences. This act is God’s approval and satisfaction of the work of Christ on the cross, answering to the type of the Red Sea. The “therefore” of Romans 5:1 is the first consequence of this — justification. This is righteousness imputed to us. A righteous God imputes righteously His own righteousness to us on the principle of faith. Not only are our sins forgiven, but He looks upon us in all the perfection of Christ Himself. Through the work of Christ, like the prodigal, we are given the best robe. Merit, acquirement or works on our part have no place here. This constitutes the believer’s standing before God, based on Christ’s work, and is therefore settled and unchanging.
The passage now sets before us seven blessed results of this justification which are divided into two parts — the first three and the last four. The first three, “We have peace with God,” “access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,” and “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” apply to our past, present and future.
#1: Peace With God
“We have peace with God,” the first consequence of justification, is that God removed, and eternally removed, the reproach of guilt on our consciences before Him who is holy. Not only are we justified before a holy God, but that God against whom we had sinned has Himself justified us. Old Testament saints had forgiveness governmentally, and thus only in a temporary or limited way. The three instances of forgiveness during the Lord’s life would go further than that of the Old Testament saints. The man with the palsy in Luke 5 certainly teaches governmental forgiveness, but may also have been judicial. The other two cases, the woman who was a sinner in Luke 7 and the disciples in John 20:23, were judicial and anticipated the true Christian position—the work of Christ, His ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit. But we who live in the Christian era are eternally and judicially forgiven, and God will never raise with us the question of our sins. Indeed, He looks at us now as “in Christ.” This is peace with God.
#2: Access to True Grace
“By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” Our present standing before God is in grace, and the favor and love of God rest uninterruptedly upon us. Nothing can impair or impeach this. We got into this position by faith and certainly not by our own works. This is not enjoyment, for had it been enjoyment it would have said “by the Spirit.” No doubt this standing gives us great enjoyment, but we enter this standing by faith. This is the true grace of God wherein we stand (1 Peter 5:12).
#3: the Hope of Glory
This brings us to the third result. The first had more to do with the past, the second is our present standing, and undoubtedly the third has the future in view. “And rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” The future display of kingdom glory is where Christ will have the central and prominent place — God’s answer to the cross. This is our hope and we now rejoice in this bright future prospect when we shall be with and like Christ.
The first three results of justification have to do with the soul’s relationship with God, but the last four have more to do with God entering into our wilderness experience on our behalf. These last four are presented as normal Christian experience with development of soul maturity and a deep sense of God’s love by the indwelling Spirit. These begin with, “And not only so.” Justification has already given us blessed results, but more follow.
#4: Tribulation Works Patience
“But we glory in tribulations also.” The “but” suggests something contrary to what is normal. Why so? Because of His great work on the cross, we are able thus to glory in the midst of scenes of opposition and personal stress. There are cases when we look back with gratitude and praise at God’s past deliverance, and there are many examples of this in the Word. But this is not the case here. This passage informs us that when we are actually in these adversities, we glory. We rise above the plight and sorrows when we are in them and glory not with self-satisfaction, but in the One in whom we have been consciously sustained. “Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well” (Psa. 84:6).
Knowing that “tribulation worketh patience [or endurance].” It is a deeper experience to go through the storm with the Lord in the boat than to see the Lord exercise divine power in quelling the storm. Having been with God in the many and various trials that we are called on to encounter, endurance is the outcome. Trials which in earlier times would have distressed and perplexed us are now entered into with God, and this gives the valuable moral trait of endurance. The words, “Thou art with me” (Psa. 23:4), have had their reward with us. We now know that endurance has been acquired by passing through tribulation with the Lord, and this is valuable in soul history. All this is based on justification.
#5: Patience Works Experience
“And patience experience.” This does not mean that we are occupied with experience so much as it teaches us what experience produces and indicates a deeper acquaintance with the God whom we have been brought to know, a more intimate communion with Him whose wisdom, power and love we have learned to know in all adverse circumstances and who has only our richest blessing in view. This brings us nearer to a God whose ear is always ready to listen to us and whose ceaseless presence with us is a constant comfort. It is not now a question of trials, vicissitudes, anxieties and sorrows, but the God whose love we have learned so well in all these and above all these. In fact, it is Himself and His presence which gives us experience of the richest value. We know Him that is from the beginning, that is, Christ.
#6: Experience Works Hope
“Experience, hope.” Passing through the many and varied trials, exercises and sorrows of the wilderness with God, we learn what the world is like without God, and we long for a better one. This engenders hope; then again, having passed through the wilderness with God and having been accustomed to His support and presence, hope looms before us of being with this One whom we now know so well, only in a more congenial environment and atmosphere.
#7: Not Ashamed of Our Hope
“Hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.” The hope of coming glory of which Christ is the center is assured to our hearts; therefore, we are not ashamed. Being confident regarding this hope and knowing that we shall not be put to shame gives assurance in our testimony before men. The love of God is the source of all. This, in the first place, brought about our justification in Christ. There this love is set forth objectively, but now, blessed be God, His love is shed abroad in our hearts. Here it is subjective — what an experience! What a reality! The first time in this wonderful epistle the love of God is mentioned, it is shed abroad in our hearts. It tells us it is by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. Here it is not new birth, but the indwelling of the Spirit, the result of the acceptance of Christ’s work. The scriptural principle is “washing [with] water,” “sprinkled with blood,” “anointed with oil.” This is a divine principle and concludes the seven results of justification.
R. H. Craggs, adapted
Not Justification by Faith
“God be merciful to me a sinner.” That publican in Luke 18 went down justified rather than the Pharisee. It is not what is called “justification by faith,” but it is the right thing that always takes place in a converted soul — self-condemnation before God. It is the light of Christ, entering, that produces that.
W. Kelly
Justification
Through the death of Christ there is the complete judgment and removal out of the sight of God both of a man’s sins and of the man who has sinned. Through the resurrection of Christ, man has a new Head in whom he lives before God. This work and position applies to a person if and when he trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
When a man’s sins are removed from God’s sight, God judges the man to be righteous before His eyes, that is, he is “justified from sin.” When a man by faith accepts this truth from God, he enjoys peace with God and shares with God in the enjoyment of what Christ has done for God and of what God has done for him.
Through the disobedience of one, Adam, death has come upon all men. Through the obedience of one, Christ, righteousness and life are available to all men. God is offering to all this “justification of life.” To receive this life in Christ, man must receive the gift of righteousness offered by God in grace. For all, sin and death once reigned; now, for all who believe in Christ, grace reigns, through righteousness, unto eternal life.
We hope that each will not only enjoy the peace that understanding our righteous place before God gives, but also that each will live like Paul, saying, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).
Justification “From Sins” and “of Life”
In the first eight chapters of Romans we get the gospel fully brought out. It is the answer to the question, “How can a man be just with God?” This is the great question of the whole Epistle. We do not get resurrection with Christ in this Epistle, nor is there union. It is death with Christ and life through Him. When you get resurrection with Christ, you are associated with Him in life, and when union is taught, you never find justification. A new creation clearly does not want justifying. This is the teaching of Ephesians, where you get nothing about justification, but all the privileges and duties of the new creation. In Romans we get sinners, and they want justification. In Ephesians we are looked at as “dead in trespasses and sins.”
Two Parts of Justification
There are two parts of justification — “from sins” and “of life.” The first is the clearing me of my old state, while the second puts me into a new place before God. These two parts are treated of distinctly in this Epistle, dividing chapters 18 into two parts. The first part ends at chapter 5:11. In chapter 1 we see the ground that called for justification: “The wrath of God is revealed . . . against all ungodliness” (vs. 18). It is not governmental wrath, but wrath against the sinner, for “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). All the dealings of Christianity are on the ground of that. You must either walk in the light or have nothing to do with God.
In chapter 1 the fact is first stated that the righteousness of God is revealed; in chapter 2, the proof of this and the condition of man. In chapter 3, the Apostle gives us first the privileges of the Jew, and then he says that the very thing you boast of is that which condemns you. Then all are brought under sin. What is wanted is fitness to stand in God’s presence and not come short of His glory.
The Goodness of God’s Character
Propitiation meets God as a righteous, holy Judge. When a person has offended or wronged another, he requires propitiation. God provides the propitiation and sets Christ forth as such. The death of Christ glorifies God Himself. It is of immense importance to see the way God puts away the sins of the old man; there can be no peace without it. It is another thing to see how God makes a new man.
We get two distinct characters of blessedness in these chapters: the first, chapter 5:1-11; the second, chapter 8. In chapter 5, I get higher things about God than I do in chapter 8. In chapter 5, I find what God is to the sinner; in chapter 8 it is what He is to the new man in Christ Jesus. God is more fully revealed in the absolute goodness of His character in chapter 5, because there His dealings are with the sinner who is guilty before Him, and has come short of His glory. But the saint is in a higher place in chapter 8 — there God is for me. In the first place (ch. 5), God is known as the Justifier; in the second (ch. 8), as Abba, Father. Part 1 ends at chapter 5:11; that is the way God deals with a sinner about his sins. Now we come to part 2. Part 1 has nothing to do with experience, for there I get my debts paid. This may produce very happy feelings, as we see in chapter 5. Part 2 has everything to do with experience.
The Fruit and the Tree
It is the fruit, and not the tree, that is judged in part 1. The tree itself is judged in part 2. In part 1, we have a man who has done this, that and the other, and Christ died for him. God has raised up Christ, and I believe in Him and am justified. It is ratified. Justification was not completed on the cross, although the work by which we are justified was. I do not get the assurance of it until I see Christ in resurrection. The work on the cross is that by which I am justified, but He was raised again in order to our justifying. He was delivered, our offences being before His mind. He was raised, our justifying being before His mind.
Then chapter 5 begins, “Having been justified . . . we have peace.” Here we get the whole past, present and future: justified as to the past, having peace with God and standing in the favor of God as to the present, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God as to the future. I have learned by all this process not only what I am, but what He is. I have the Holy Spirit in me, as a consequence of justification, shedding abroad the love of God in my heart. When I know that all is settled and that I am reconciled, then I have peace.
The State of the Race
But when we come to chapter 5:12, we come to man’s condition. It is the state of the race, and not of the individual. I get more troubled about sin in me than by my past sins. But here we find the remedy too — not that Christ has died for my sins, but that I died with Christ to sin. This is justification of life here. We have now the positive side of justification: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). In the first eleven verses of chapter 5, we see the blessedness of the believer as the result of what the Apostle had been bringing out in the previous part of the epistle, while in chapter 8 we have the blessedness which is the result of what the Apostle had brought out from chapter 5:12 to the end of chapter 7. In part 1 we have sins put away; in part 2 it is a question of what man is. We find no forgiveness here. Sin is never forgiven, but condemned. “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). Sins are put away by blood; sin is gotten rid of by death.
We see that the grace must have an aspect as large as the sin. The presentation of grace is to the whole world, although its application is only to those who receive the gift. “As . . . by one offence towards all men to condemnation, so by one righteousness towards all men for justification of life” (Rom. 5:18 JND). The gift of righteousness is unto all. As the sin of Adam addresses itself to the whole race, so does the righteousness of one. Here I get justification connected with life.
Not only has the Lord Jesus put away sin, but He has borne all our sins, confessed them as if they were His own, and they are all gone. It is never said Christ died for the sins of the world. In Romans 67, I am dead and justified from sin. Now I can reckon myself dead. It is not I; I have had enough of “I.” Now Christ is “I.” If I am alive through Christ, I died through Christ. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). The individual is cleared from what he was as a child of Adam and gets the privileges of a child of God.
Perfectly Free
Now you are perfectly free. You were a slave to sin: Now yield yourself to God. In chapter 7 we have the same principle applied to law. You cannot have both the law and Christ. Verse 6 should be, “Having died in that wherein we were held.” It is not the law that is dead, but I am dead. The law is the jailer; I am the prisoner. The mistake people are making is that they are killing the jailer instead of the thief. The jailer is not dead; the thief is. This chapter is the experience of a quickened soul under law. Experience comes in here, and not in the first part of the epistle. In chapters 23 it is what a man has done. In chapter 7 it is what he is in himself. It is not only that I have done bad things, but “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (vs. 18). This must be learned experimentally, and not merely known as a doctrine. The soul here learns three things: first, that in himself, that is, in his flesh, dwells no good thing; second, he sees that the flesh is not himself, for he hates it; third, that it is too strong for him, and he cries out for deliverance. It is God bringing a man to the full knowledge of himself; then he says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). Then Christ comes in, and we have the full deliverance of chapter 8.
My Experience
This chapter, then, is experimental, and the truth must be learned, not merely as a theory, but experimentally. To say my sins are forgiven is not experience, but if you tell me something about myself, either my experience answers to it, or it does not. We never give up the flesh till we have learned how thoroughly bad it is. I must learn to say, “It is not I,” though not to say it lightly, because as a child of Adam responsible, it is I, but I have found out another I. As to the flesh, there is no question of forgiveness—I want deliverance from it. Romans 5:1-11, then, is what God was in love to the sinner. Chapter 8 is the condition of the believer with God.
J. N. Darby, adapted from
Collected Writings, 21:193-200
Living a Justified Life
In Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, he lets us perceive, as in his own person, that “justification by faith,” which he is there defending, is no mere dogma, or proposition which may exercise the intellect or give a theme to the mind to discuss. He lets us know that he himself had proved it to be a truth full of life and power. There is this difference, among others, between these two epistles. In Romans we get this doctrine propounded in its moral glory with its bearings on the glory of God and on the condition of the believing sinner, as we have seen.
Paul Lives It
In Galatians the Apostle shows himself to us in connection with this doctrine. He lives it, rather than teaches or proves it, though he does that also. He is defending it against gainsayers and not simply propounding it to sinners. In fervency of spirit he is led forth of God to tell us how this doctrine, this principle of faith, illustrated its virtue in his own person, and that, too, in varied relationships, as towards the creatures around him, as towards gainsayers, as in God’s own presence, and as in connection with this present, evil world.
As towards the creature, this doctrine or principle of faith had made him independent. He could go down to Arabia. He could turn his back on Jerusalem and all that was there to countenance and refresh him, and look to the solitudes of the desert (Galatians 1).
As towards gainsayers, it made him as bold as a lion, not intimidated even by the presence of a Peter, who, at that moment, more than any other man, had all respect in the flesh (Galatians 2).
As in God’s presence, it made him free and happy, breathing there the spirit of adoption, and knowing the liberty of one accepted as in the Beloved (Galatians 4).
As in connection with this present, evil world, it gave him victory over it. He was crucified to it, and it to him (Galatians 6).
The Spring of Hope and Love
These are some of the reflections of the doctrine of divine righteousness, or justification by faith, in the soul of this dear apostle. It was no mere intellectual possession of a dogma that could do these things for the soul. This doctrine implies restoration to God —personal, immediate restoration. Adam, through sin, lost Him; the sinner, through faith, recovers Him. It is the spring of hope and of love — as he tells us in this same epistle (Gal. 5:56). Justification by faith is the religion of a sinner in personal, immediate confidence in God.
Upholding the Truth
The Apostle protects this truth against all trespassers, whether they are chief in creation like angels, chief in office, like apostles, or chief in the ways of God, as the law (Gal. 1:8; 2:11-21; 4:19-31). Angels must stand accursed, if they would gainsay this truth. Peter shall be withstood to the face without sparing him, if he tried to cloud it. The law, which was God’s own voice in its time and place, must be silent when this truth proclaims itself.
Thus we see the wealth of that place to which justification by faith brings the sinner. It brings him into the family of God, making him a child. It brings him into the hope or prospect of glory as his inheritance. There, in these wealthy places, it teaches him to breathe the air of freedom and of love (Gal. 3:26; 5:1,56).
J. G. Bellett, adapted from Short Meditations
Plain Words on Justification
It was a serious question that was put to Job by one of his friends more than three thousand years ago: “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4). After all these centuries we may still ask, “Is there such a thing as justification with God?” Evidently Bildad the Shuhite (Job 25) would have inclined to a negative answer, for he proceeds, in pathetic language, “Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” (Job 25:56). If we turn to the words of the psalmist David, we find (Psa. 143:2) that he speaks in a similar strain: “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant: for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.”
New Testament Light
Happily we live in the bright light of the New Testament, and as we consult its pages we are at no loss to discover the true answer to our question. That wonderful third chapter of Romans, which stops every mouth and proves every man guilty before God, declares that by “the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (vs. 20). We are not surprised that Bildad and the psalmist should alike conclude there was no justification before God. For us, on the contrary, how blessed it is to find that when the Apostle summarily describes man’s condition and guilt in the brief words, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), it is but a preparatory clearing of the ground for the gracious assertion that follows in the same breath, “Being justified freely by His grace.” We read also in Galatians 3:8, “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen.” And again, in Romans 8:30, “Whom He called, them He also justified.”
Who Is the Justifier?
Justification involves a justifier. Who then is this justifier? In Romans 3:26 we read those blessed words, “To declare, at this time His [God’s] righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” So also in Romans 8:30, “Whom He [God] called, them He also justified.” God, then, is the Justifier, and the importance of this can scarcely be overstated, for whom He justifies must be justified indeed! It is no fallible work, marked and marred by human imperfection, but an altogether divine thing of incontestable and immutable value for eternity. The magnitude and grandeur of this piece of divine truth fired the heart of the Apostle when he exclaimed, “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:33-34).
Who Are Justified?
Our next question is, Who are they who are justified? If there is such a thing as justification, and God Himself is the Justifier, it is important for us to understand whom He justifies. Again we turn to Romans 3:26 and read there the conclusive words that He is “the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Nothing could be more plain. It is the believer, and the believer only, whom God justifies. We do not hesitate to say that no person can possibly know what it is to be justified who is not a believer in that blessed One — the Man of sorrows once, and the Man of glory forever! But perhaps it will be answered that in the next chapter we read of God’s justifying “the ungodly.” The word describes his state up to the time when he became a believer. This word “ungodly” then describes man’s state by nature, and that is fully unfolded in the fifth chapter, where three expressions are used descriptive of our natural condition. In the sixth verse we are “without strength,” in the eighth verse “sinners,” and in the tenth “enemies.” The first of these terms is negative—man powerless for good works. The next is positive — he is practically an evil worker, a sinner. The last is the worst of all, for he has a heart whose inmost springs are at enmity with God. This was clearly proved when Christ was here on earth, for God Himself was manifest in the flesh, dwelling among us in perfect love to man, and was hated without a cause. He was the song of the drunkard, and for His love they gave Him hatred. Such is man! Nevertheless, blessed be His name, “by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39). Such is God!
What Is Justification?
But it is time to ask the question, What is justification? We must refer to Romans 4:3 for God’s answer to our inquiry: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Again, in verse 5: “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” And also in verse 9: “Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.” The simple answer then is that justification is judicial righteousness; in other words, God’s accounting or adjudging us to be righteous before Himself — on what ground we shall see by-and-by. At present we must be clear as to the thing itself, and we would emphatically impress upon the reader’s mind this simple, but profoundly important truth, that justification signifies the being accounted by God and before God to be judicially righteous, which is the positive, absolute and changeless standing of the believer now and eternally. This and this only is justification. Thus it is not merely pardon or forgiveness, which is rather of a negative character, but a positive state of accomplished and ever-subsisting righteousness in Christ before God that we are already brought into by God’s own act, as the Justifier of him that believes in Jesus.
Christ’s Practical Righteousness
Here let it be noted that Scripture gives no support to the thought that Christ’s practical righteousness in His holy, blameless life on earth is accredited to our account for justification. That He magnified the law and put honor upon it in His own person is fully admitted, but nothing found in Scripture gives countenance to the mistaken notion that this was imputed to us. The scriptural doctrine of righteousness imputed signifies simply that we are accounted to be righteous apart from law-keeping as to the principle of it (Rom. 3:21) and apart from works of any kind practically (Rom. 4:5). It is our judicial standing which is signified by this imputation of righteousness, and it is based upon this ground alone that “we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 4:24). It is not that good works done by Christ are put to our account, which would be to make the life of Christ a vicarious thing, but rather that “as He is” (the glorified Man in the presence of God), “so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). This is the scriptural doctrine of the imputation of righteousness, and it beautifully exhibits the divine character of our justification.
On the Principle of Faith
Further, let us inquire, What is it by which we are justified? Romans 4:25 teaches that Jesus our Lord was raised for our justifying; Romans 5:1, that we are justified on the principle of faith; verse 9, that we are justified in the power of His blood. Each of these verses helps us to gather up an answer. In its intrinsic character our justification is according to the value of the blood of Christ to God. By that alone we are justified Godward, and according to its priceless worth is the character of our acceptance and standing in His holy presence. But looked at manward, it is by faith; that is, we get it on that principle and not on the principle of works. Practically we are not, and cannot be, justified until faith has been exercised by us. Thus we read in the peculiarly incisive language of Romans 4:5, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Accordingly Abraham, undistinguished for works but preeminent for his faith, is presented as the pattern of a justified man. Again, it is in direct connection with resurrection—the resurrection of Christ. He was raised, we read, for our justification, and unless we have part in His resurrection, we are not justified. God is our Justifier, and the risen Christ in His presence is our representative in justification, the expression of that state of ever-subsisting accomplished righteousness in which we are set as God’s justified ones in virtue of His death (2 Cor. 5:21).
The Results
Finally, let us ask, What are the results of it? The verses we were just now looking at supply the final answer. First, our sins (offences) are all gone, for the One who was thus raised had been delivered for them. He was delivered on account of them and for their putting away, and having been raised up, they can no longer have a place before the God who has righteously dealt with them. Second, having been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace is eternally established between us and Himself! Third, “being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” The first has to do with the past, for my sins were blotted out by His blood; the next with the present, for it is now that I have peace with God; the last with the future, for the wrath is the wrath to come, and I am assured, on divine testimony, that I am so cleared before God and so accepted and established in love that I am entitled to “have boldness in the day of judgment” (1 John 4:17).
How wonderful in every point of view is our justification before God! The Lord give us a truly scriptural apprehension of it, “to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6).
W. Rickards, adapted from
The Christian Friend, 1879
The Gospel of Justification
The Apostle Paul triumphantly challenges in Romans 8:33-34, “It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” Christ Jesus by His suffering work alone accounts for it. Our sins afforded a righteous ground for God to be against us, but Christ bore them in His body on the tree, and His resurrection proves them to be altogether and righteously gone. It is God's righteousness not only to raise Him from the dead, but to justify all who believe in Him. The Holy Spirit preaches and sustains these foundation truths both for God and for the soul that believes in Christ. May it be your portion through sovereign grace!
Adapted from The Bible Treasury