Conversion iv / Justification

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

                       (Rom.5:1-2)

…you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

(I Cor.6:11)

We … know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

(Gal.3:15-16)

 

There are so many dimensions to the radical change that takes place the moment that we are grafted into the life of Jesus (Jn.15:5).  Our relationship with everything and everyone is fundamentally transformed, in many cases utterly inverted.  Being born again (Jn.3:3) radically alters all of who and what we are, and most profoundly of all, it radically changes our relationship with God.  It affects us psychologically, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, relationally … and legally. The legal change in our standing before God is what the Bible is talking about when it uses the word justified / justification.  ‘Justification’ is the opposite of ‘condemnation’ in the Divine Court of Law.  It speaks not merely of acquittal, but of a right legal standing, a vindication, in this case: of being judged to possess a perfect human righteous.  The implications are breathtaking.  By virtue of our being united to Christ, ‘[God] constitutes the ungodly righteous, and consequently can declare them to be righteous… God cannot but accept into His favour those who have been invested with the righteousness of His own Son’ (Murray, 123-4).  In a similar vein, the mighty Dutch Reformed theologian, Bavinck wrote: ‘Of all the benefits [of our union with Christ] first place is due to justification, for by it we understand the gracious, judicial act of God, by which He acquits humans of all the guilt and punishment of sin, and confers on them the right to eternal life’. 

It is a powerful spiritual reality that takes us to the heart of one of the deepest mysteries in the Bible:  How can God justify (i.e. declare righteous) the wicked (Rom.4:5)?   How can God look on a life that is riddled with intrinsic sinfulness and declare it to be righteous, without violating His own righteousness?  If he is going to do what is right, then He ought to look at a life that is sinful and wicked and declare it to be sinful and wicked, and deal with it accordingly (Dt.25:1; Prov.17:15; Ps.11:4-7 etc.).  This is a question of God’s righteousness as much as it is ours.  How can God ‘not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities’ (Ps.103:10)?  It is the deepest problem of a fallen creation.  How does God in His wisdom, resolve that problem without causing dissonance within His own being?  How can He be gracious and righteous, forgiving and just? 

The answer is found at the cross.  God’s putting forth Christ as a sacrifice is first and foremost a demonstration of His own justice … so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Rom.3:26).  It is what Martin Luther describes as ‘the great exchange’ that comes about through faith.  In one direction, my sinfulness is credited, attributed, imputed to Jesus and as He takes to Himself a sinfulness that is not His own, so He takes to Himself God’s righteous condemnation of that sin.  In the other direction, His righteousness as a Man who has lived in total obedience to the Law (Gal.2:16; 3:11) is credited to my account, and on that basis God declares me to be righteous (Rom.5:17-19).  Remember that this is a legal transaction.  None of this changes my nature, or affects my spiritual condition.  I remain a sinner who is at the same time declared righteous.  You may have heard this referred to in disparaging terms as a ‘legal fiction’.  But as there is nothing fictitious about Jesus becoming sin on the cross and dying a God-forsaken death, so there is nothing fictitious about my becoming the righteousness of God and as such being vindicated by Him (II Cor.5:21).  It can feel counter-intuitive to begin with, but it is liberating, both for God and for us. The demands of obedience to the Law have been satisfied and fulfilled on my behalf by Jesus. 

This has always been the understanding of the Church, and as such, the grounds of her worship: ‘I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.  For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness’ (Is.61:10).

Questions

What would you say to a Christian who thought that they had to be a good enough person / Christian before they could be acceptable to, and accepted by, God?

 

Have you ever wondered if God is continuing to punish you for sins you committed in the past?  How does this study help you to think this through?

 

The Canons of the Council of Trent (1545-63) still stands as the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.  Canon 9: “If anyone says that by faith alone the impious is justified … let him be anathema.”  Why do you think RC-ism takes such a strident view of this?  How do you feel about it?

 

Read Phil.3:1-14

How is Paul’s experience and understanding of justification linked to his joy, and his expectation of the Church’s joy (3:1; 4:4)?  Does this resonate with your own experience of faith in Christ?

 

Why does Paul spell out his credentials in 3:4-7?

 

Why does Paul now consider ‘loss’ what he previously considered ‘gains’ (3:7-8)?

 

How would you explain Phil.3:9 to someone who wasn’t a Christian?   What objections would you anticipate to Paul’s teaching?  How would you respond?

 

What does it mean to know ‘the power of [Christ’s] resurrection and participation in His sufferings’?  How can we become like Christ in His death, so as to attain to the resurrection from the dead (3:10-11)?  Would you say you shared Paul’s spiritual ambition here?

 

How does Paul’s thinking about what Christ has done inspire him to ‘press on towards the goal’ (3:12-14)?  What is ‘the prize’ Paul refers to in v.14?  do you share Paul’s attitude of ‘straining’?  Why / Why not?

 

Memory Passage:

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.

Rom.3:22-25

 

For further reflection:

While the doctrine of ‘justification’ is under siege in today’s Church, it remains ‘the very hinge and pillar of Christianity’ (Thomas Watson).  An error here is like a faulty foundation undermining the integrity of the whole building.  The Church simply cannot stand without it.   As such it finds its place in the CofE’s basis of faith: We are accounted righteous before God solely on the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, through faith, and not on account of our own good works, or of what we deserve. The teaching that we are justified by faith alone is a most wholesome and comforting doctrine…’ (Art.11, see also the Homily on Salvation.  Also Heidelberg Cat. Qu.59-64; Westminster Confession, Ch.11). 

This doctrine inspires evangelism and world mission (Rom.10:6-15); breeds humility (Rom.3:27); establishes equality throughout the life of the Church, so that there is no room for a sense of superiority or inferiority (Rom.3:29).  It teaches us how to interpret our experience of suffering (Rom.5:1-5). It motivates and makes possible our pursuit of holiness, and our fulfilling of the Law (Rom.3:31 & 13:9).  But that is a subject for a future study.

We finish this study recognising that the doctrine of Justification is the grounds of our spiritual confidence before God.  If my sense of acceptability before God is based on my own ‘goodness’, or how I think I’m doing as a Christian, then awareness of sin and failure will cripple any sense of assurance.  Once I realise that my standing before God is on the basis of the righteousness of Christ, then my confidence is unshakable (Rom.8:1 & 33).  As John Newton wrote: ‘This heap of inconsistency and instability found his hope outside himself in the Christ who love and holiness are perfect’.