The sixteenth-century Reformers agreed on the critical significance of the recovery of the New Testament doctrine of justification for the sake of the church. John Calvin refers to justification as “..the principle ground on which religion must be supported…”[1] Referring to our need for careful formulation of words when defining justification, Calvin writes that these things are not "frivolous word battles,” (but) a "serious matter" for we do not stand before a "human court" but the "heavenly tribunal.”[2]

To grow in our understanding of justification, we must first be reminded of the nature of mankind’s problem as having a guilty status before God. Ultimately our view of God’s grace is rooted in our understanding of sin and guilt. The Bible tells us God is perfect and holy. He hates sin and cannot tolerate its presence. 1 John 1:5 says “He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” This is why even one small sin makes us deserving of the full righteous wrath of God. For God to condone even one sin would defile His holiness like smearing a white satin wedding gown with black tar.

Because of sin, the Bible says we are all guilty before God. To be guilty implies that we are "liable for punishment”. Sin is the breaking of God’s Holy Law.  And the penalty for breaking God’s law is death, not only physical but also spiritual. So “The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

Whereas forgiveness through propitiation cancels our liability to punishment; justification is the positive counterpart (Stott 1986:182). Justification bestows on believers in Christ a righteous standing before God. Paul writes, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known . . . which comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. . . . ” (Rom 3:21-25).

The doctrine of justification occupies a central place in Paul’s understanding of the gospel. Paul writes, “Know that a man is not justified by observing 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 observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Gal 2:16).

How are you righteous before God?

The historic Heidelberg Catechism Question 60 gives us one of the most biblical and thorough definitions of Justification by answering the question:

Question: How are you righteous before God?

Answer: Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine,  but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.

The historic Westminster Larger Catechism gives us another thoroughly biblical, but more precise, definition of justification:

Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.” Westminster Larger Catechism Question 70

The Westminster Shorter Catechism also gives us a thoroughly biblical, but even more precise and succinct definition of justification:

Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 33

The much newer, New City Catechism, draws from these older definitions and gives us one that is even more precise:

Justification means our declared righteousness before God, made possible[3] by Christ’s death and resurrection for us.  New City Catechism Question 32

Declared, Not Made Righteous

One of the most common and important biblical concepts found in all these definitions of justification is that it is a legal declaration. This is why theologians often refer to justification as “forensic,” a synonym for legal. As with many of the spiritual blessings that come from being in union with Christ, the blessing of justification conveys a unique image. It’s the picture of a righteous judge making a legal declaration about a guilty person in a courtroom.

In Romans 4:5, Paul writes, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” Since justification is completely apart from works, it cannot mean to make a sinner righteous, only to count or declare a sinner to be righteous.

In Rom. 8:33-34 and other passages, the word justify is the opposite of condemn. And condemn means to declare a law-breaker guilty, not to make a law-breaker guilty. The law breaker is already made guilty before being declared guilty. This is why to justify a guilty sinner means only to declare a guilty sinner righteous, not to make a guilty sinner righteous.

Constituted Righteous: Not False Judgment

Some object to this understanding of justification because they think it presents God as making a false judgment by merely declaring something to be true that is not really true, i.e. God is declaring sinners righteous when he knows they really are not. This has been called a legal fiction.

The biblical doctrine of justification is not a false judgment or legal fiction because Jesus’ death really did fully satisfy the fullness of God’s just wrath against us. And because we are now in Christ, we really are fully clothed in the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. 

This is why John Murray argues that justification is not a mere declaration, but a declaration that “constitutes” a new legal status, what he called a “constitutive declaration.” Murray taught that “made righteous” in Rom. 5:19 means “constituted righteous.” But, even when we talk about God constituting us righteous, this still means God is constituting a new legal status for us as being righteous in Christ.

Justification and Sanctification

In the New Testament justification and sanctification are often closely related and it’s helpful to understand their similarities. But, it is also very important to understand their significant differences. In justification, the perfect righteousness of Christ is counted by God to be ours, covering all the remaining sin in our lives like a royal robe of perfect holiness.

But, in sanctification the remaining sinful corruption in our lives is in the process of being progressively purified as God’s Spirit enables us to keep growing in the likeness of Christ by putting off sin in repentance and putting on our new life in Christ by faith.

Differing views regarding the relationship of justification and sanctification are at the very heart of what separates Protestant Theology from Roman Catholic theology. The historic Protestant view is that the righteousness of Christ is legally imputed to us by God, whereas the historic Roman Catholic view is that the righteousness of Christ is infused within us by God.

This is why believers in Roman Catholic theology often rely on their active participation in their sanctification as the basis of their justification, “…drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”[4]

In contrast, Protestant theology calls on followers of Christ to rely on their justification for their sanctification, “…to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.”[5]

Footnotes:

[1] John Calvin, Book 3:11, The Institutes of The Christian Religion, Beveridge edition, 1863.

[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 3.12.1, pp. 754, 755.

[3] We understand “made possible” to be actual, not hypothetical.

[4] Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Renewal (Downers Grove: IVP, 1979), 101.

[5] Ibid.