Justification is one of the greatest wonders in the order of salvation. In fact, the apostle Paul describes justification as the heart of salvation. For example, we read in Romans 3:24 that when sinners are saved they are “justified freely by (God’s) grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” In Romans 8, Paul fits justification into the order of salvation when he writes in verse 30, “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” There are more points that Paul could have men­tioned, but justification is among the few that he highlights here. There­fore, justification is a very important biblical subject.

But what is justification, and what does it mean to be justified? Very sim­ply, the bible explains that justification is God’s declaring a sinner to be righteous. God says this about a sinner, not due to anything in the sinner but due to the Saviour, Jesus Christ, whose righteousness God imputes or credits to the account of those sinners who receive the Saviour by faith and rest entirely in Him.

It’s important to emphasize that justification is an act of God alone. Man does not cooperate with the Lord in justification. Instead, it is something He does. More specifically, it is something He says. The words for “jus­tify” and “justified” come from the court of law where a judge makes an official, legal pronouncement concerning a defendant, whether guilty or not (see Deut. 25:1). In justification, the Lord states concerning sinners that they are not guilty. In fact, more than that, He states that they are righteous, that is, obedient in His sight, even perfect, conforming entirely to His good and holy law.

It is forever amazing that God “justifieth the ungodly.” He makes His pro­nouncement not because He looks down and sees someone living well, not sinning, keeping the law, etc. The fact is, no one does that. “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). We are all sinners and there is nothing we can do of ourselves to please the Lord. That’s what makes justification so amazing! The Lord God justifies the ungodly.

That should raise the question, How can He do that? How can the Lord say about sinners like us: You are righteous in My sight!? The answer is God justifies sinners entirely through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know from the Scriptures that Jesus did two necessary things for sinners who trust in Him: He lived the life we ought to live, and then He died the death we ought to die. In justification, God imputes or credits to us all that the Lord Jesus Christ did. God the Father credits His life and His death to believers. When we are in relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, in view of Him and His accomplishments, the Lord God says concerning us: Not guilty, but righteous. Not guilty because the Saviour died for you, and righteous, because His life counts as if it were yours. This is what the Bible describes as “the righteousness of the faith” (Rom. 4:11), and this gracious justification counts for forever!

Evidently, the key thing is to belong to Jesus by faith. Paul writes in Ro­mans 3:26 that God is “the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” To believe in Jesus means to receive Him and to rest in Him and in His fin­ished work. We are justified not by working for it but through believing in Him who accomplishes it.

All this raises a very important question: Are you justified? Has the God who justifies the ungodly in and through His Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit, justified you too? How might we know? As was pointed out above, justification is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we truly believe in Him, if through divine calling and regeneration we’ve come to the Sav­iour and confide in Him, then the Scriptures teach us to understand that we too have been justified. Let no one reading this be content not to be justified or simply uncertain if you are. If you are not justified, you stand condemned before the Lord and at any moment you might justly fall into the fires of God’s judgement. Instead, seek the Lord, look to Him in faith and so be saved, yes, justified!

And then also as justified, let us do what Paul writes about elsewhere, let us “live by the faith of the Son of God who loved (us), and gave Himself for (us)” (Galatians 2:20b). And let us also “yield (our) members servants to righteousness unto holiness” (Rom. 6:19b).

Q. 60. How art thou righteous before God?

A. 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.