What is justification?
Justification is one of the great words of the gospel, and it comes from the courtroom rather than the temple. It answers a question every honest person eventually asks: how can God declare a guilty person righteous and still be righteous Himself?
The meaning of the word
Commentators define it as a verdict, not a feeling or a gradual improvement. The picture behind it is a trial in which charges have been laid.
C. CrainTo begin with, it is important that we should have a right understanding of the term. I should say that justification is an authoritative declaration that an accused person conforms to righteousness. This is broader than the definition usually given, but there is good reason for it. A person who has not been accused does not need to be justified. In human courts an authorised judge or jury declares an accused person guilty or not guilty. When the decision is "not guilty," he is declared to be in a state of conformity to law. With this in mind, we pass on to consider divine justification. God declares that the charges made against a person no longer apply to him — that person being, through grace, brought into a state of conformity with Himself. That is what justification is in the divine sense.
Why it has to come from outside us
The reason justification cannot be self-produced is that no one has a clean record to plead, and no one can pay the debt.
VariousJustification is simply to be righteous in the sight of God: to be cleared from the charge of guilt. No one is free from guilt, for "all have sinned"; and no one can redeem himself, for we are without strength. So if sinners are to be justified, the means must be found outside of themselves. God in infinite wisdom has devised the means, which shows His great love and the riches of His grace. On the cross the Lord Jesus endured the divine judgment that sinners deserved, and shed His precious blood; and this enables God, in perfect righteousness, to clear from every charge of guilt those who believe on Him.
More than being let off
Some writers treat justification and pardon as the same blessing, while others insist the two must be kept apart. Those who distinguish them use a courtroom example to show what pardon leaves untouched.
C. CrainTo forgive is, in one sense, the very opposite of justification. When a man charged with theft is forgiven, he has not lost the character of a thief. His misdeeds are not held against him because he is forgiven; but if he is justified from the charge, he is cleared as to his character; and God has cleared us from every charge.
The several things it rests on
Scripture attaches justification to more than one word, and each preposition answers a different question — what paid for it, why God gave it, and how it reaches a person.
Mark BestJustification means that God reckons a believer righteous. Justification is by blood (Rom. 5:9). That is, the blood of Jesus is the moral basis on which God is able to justify a believer. Because of the blood, God is satisfied that the question of sins is fully settled according to the judicial requirements of His throne. Justification is by grace (Rom. 3:24), because there is nothing of merit in the believer. He is only guilty, yet, because of the blood, God justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5). It is God who justifies (Rom. 8:33)... Justification is by faith (Rom. 3:28; 5:1).
Righteousness reckoned, not earned
Two Old Testament cases are used to show that this verdict was never a wage. One is Abraham; the other is David, who describes the blessing of a man whose sins are not counted against him.
W. H. WestcottIf it had been some reward for his works, Scripture could not have said "it was reckoned to him." It was not that God owed it to him; God did it in grace... David speaks of a man needing forgiveness of iniquities, the covering of sins, and the non-imputation of sin. He rightly describes such a man as ungodly. And yet God justifies him, reckoning righteousness to him clearly without works.
The resurrection as the receipt
Christ's rising is treated as the public evidence that the debt was cleared, and so as the ground of the believer's assurance.
L. M. GrantBut our justification is inseparably bound up with His resurrection. He was delivered up to death for our offences. But if He had remained in the grave, where would our comfort and assurance be? How could we believe He had justified us if He were not living? But He "was raised for our justification"... His resurrection is proof that He has utterly exhausted the judgment: sin put Him to death; righteousness raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory.
A standing tied to Christ Himself
Because the verdict rests on Christ and not on our record, overturning it would mean overturning Him.
Michael HardtJustified means "declared righteous." This is even better than innocent. If you are justified you can point to Christ at God's right hand and say, "I belong to Him, that's why I'm righteous." Innocent Adam could not do this. So if someone wanted to condemn you as guilty, he would first have to condemn Christ as unrighteous — and this is impossible.
What James means by works
James also speaks of being justified by works, and writers read this as a second courtroom — the court of human observers.
William KellyWhat then does James 2 mean? Not the justifying of a sinner before God at all, but the justifying of a true professor, as distinguished from a false one, before men. So he says, "Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you my faith." The examples confirm it strikingly, for faith alone gave true character to Abraham's offering up of Isaac, or Rahab's receiving the spies: without it, what would either act have been? Murder, or treason.
Summary
- Accused. Only an accused person needs justifying; all have sinned, so the remedy had to come from outside us.
- Cleared. The verdict removes the charge itself, not merely the penalty — the accused is cleared as to character.
- Grounded. It rests on the blood of Christ, flows from grace, is pronounced by God, and is received by faith.
- Reckoned. Abraham and David show righteousness counted to the ungodly apart from works, so no one can call it wages.
- Proved. The empty grave is the receipt: raised for our justification, so no accusation can stand without condemning Christ.