Justification

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(judicial righteousness). Through faith in the work of Christ, God places the believer in the state of being permanently righteous before Him (Rom. 5: 16). By the death of Christ, God now offers the free “gift of righteousness” (Rom. 5:17).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

The word δικαίωσις occurs but twice in the New Testament, namely, Romans 4:25 and Romans 5:18. In the former passage it appears to be the equivalent in meaning of faith being imputed to the believer for righteousness, that is, of the believer being accounted righteous. Hence the word “justification” may be said to be the estimation formed in God’s mind of the believer in view of that order of things of which Christ risen is the Head. Such estimation has its expression in Christ Himself, and its consequences are seen in Romans 5.
The question as to how a righteous God can justify a sinner is raised and answered in Romans 3. It is difficult to conceive a subject more momentous for every human being. What is set forth in the gospel at the outset is the vindication of God in righteousness as regards sin by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, where, in God’s infinite grace to sinners, the question of sin and its judgment has been raised between Himself and the spotless Sin-bearer and settled to His glory. Of Him it is said, “Whom God hath set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in His blood....for the showing forth of His righteousness in the present time, so that He should be just, and justify Him that is of the faith of Jesus.” It is then in the blood of Jesus that God’s judgment of sin is seen, and it is on this righteous basis that He can justify all who believe in Him.
Justification of life (Rom. 5:18) is the righteous bearing into life which is toward all through the one accomplished righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ even to death, in contrast with the bearing of the one offense of Adam which brought in death and condemnation upon all. What has been effected by the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounds in the scope of it, over all that has been brought in by the one man Adam. In the death of Christ there is seen the complete judgment and removal out of the sight of God both of the sins and of the man who sinned, believers having, through the Lord Jesus Christ raised from the dead, a new Head, in whom they live for God.
There is another aspect of justification referred to in the Epistle of James (James 2), where it is entirely a question of what appears before men. “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.”

From Anstey’s Doctrinal Definitions:

Justification has to do with a person being cleared from every charge of sin that has been laid against him by being set in a new position before God in Christ, whereby he is no longer viewed by God as a sinner. The person is “reckoned” or "constituted" righteous in God's mind, and thus his legal standing in heaven is changed (Rom. 4:4-5; 5:19). The Concise Bible Dictionary states, “The word ‘justification’ may be said to be the estimation formed in God’s mind of the believer in view of that order of things of which Christ is the Head. Such estimation has its expression in Christ Himself, and its consequences are seen in Romans 5” (p. 465).
There are two parts to justification—a negative side and a positive side:
•  The negative side has to do with the believer being cleared “from all things”—i.e. charges of sin (Acts 13:39).
•  The positive side has to do with the believer being placed in an new position before God (“justified in Christ” – Gal. 2:17) wherein no further charge can ever be brought against him. (“In Christ” is a technical term used in Paul's ministry to denote the believer being in Christ's place before God.) Thus, the believer is not only in a new position, but he is there in an entirely new condition, having a new life that is without sin. This is called “justification of life” (Rom. 5:18).
W. Kelly said, “The weighty theme of justification has been now fully treated, on the side both of Christ’s blood shed in expiation and of His resurrection as carried through death in the power of God; that is to say, both negatively and positively—bearing all the consequences of our sins and manifesting the new estate in which He stands before God” (Notes on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 56).
J. N. Darby said, “There are two parts of justification—‘from sins,’ and ‘of life;’ the first, the clearing me of my old state; and the second, the putting me into a new place before God” (Collected Writings, vol. 21, p. 193). He also said, “‘Justification of life;’ this was a new position of man, not indeed yet the glory or resurrection with Christ and union with Him, but a new position and standing; not merely the clearing away of the sins a man was guilty of in connection with his old standing, but a new standing in life, a justification of life” (Collected Writings, vol. 13, p. 206).
F. B. Hole said, “Justification, as set before us in Scripture, implies more than the negative blessing of our being completely and righteously extricated from the condemnation [judgment] under which we lay; it involves our standing before God in Christ, in a righteousness which is positive and divine (The Great Salvation, p. 14).
The great result of being justified is that God no longer sees us as we once were (as sinners), because we are now in a new position before Him. This is illustrated in type in Numbers 23. Balaam prophecied about God's people from God's viewpoint ("the top of the rocks"), thus typifying what Christ’s work on the cross would make Christians through justification (vs. 9). From that vantage point, God did not view Israel as they actually were in the wilderness, as far as their state was concerned—which was in all kinds of sins. Balaam said, "He [God] hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel" (vs. 21). The prophet was not implying that God was blind; he was speaking under the power of the Spirit as to what Israel was positionally before God, and typically of what we are positionally before God through Christ’s finished work. Thus, in Paul’s epistles, justification has to do with the believer’s standing before God, not his state. It is a declarative act of God in which an ungodly sinner is "reckoned" righteous (Rom. 4:5).
There are eight different expressions regarding justification in Scripture, each denoting a different aspect. They are:
•  Justified by grace—the source (Rom. 3:24).
•  Justified by faith—the means of appropriation (Rom. 3:28).
•  Justified by blood—the price (Rom. 5:9).
•  Justification of life—a new condition (Rom. 5:18).
•  Justified from sin—an honourable discharge from that master (Rom. 6:7).
•  Justified by God—the One who does the reckoning (Rom. 8:33).
•  Justified in Christ—the new position of acceptance (Gal. 2:17).
•  Justified by works—the manifested evidence in the believer’s life of his being reckoned righteous before God (James 2:21, 24).
Some say that justified means "just-as-if-I'd-never-sinned." However, this definition comes far short of the truth of justification. If it were correct, justification would place believers back on the ground of innocence, equal to that on which Adam was in the Garden of Eden before he sinned. Adam fell from that ground, and that means that if we were placed there, there is a very real possibility that we could fall from it too. Then we would be sinners under judgment all over again! Justification sets us in a far higher place than that of innocence. As mentioned, our position before God as justified is the very place of acceptance and favour that Christ is in before God, because we are “justified in Christ” (Gal. 2:17), and we are there with a life that cannot sin (“justification of life” – Rom. 5:17). The believer cannot possibly fall from this place.

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