You are almost in agreement with Scripture. A person is change, and that through he new birth of John 3. It is that new birth that takes us out of the condemnation of being born in Adam in the natural birth, and places us under a new headship, Christ. And it is the person and work of Christ, through his substitution, ransom, and propitiation that makes justification before God possible. And yes, justification means that we are reconciled to God.
However, if that were the end of the story of redemption, we would be made perfect at the point of conversion. in actuality---that is never committing sins. It is obvious that we still do sin and anyone who says they do not sin is a liar according to Scripture. That is what makes justified a legal ruling and term. In the first place, it is legal language. We are declared justified because the work of Christ has been applied to us. Our sins have met their just penalty in him and are no longer attributed to us (ransom). We are reconciled to God because of the Judge's declaration of "Justified!". And it is real. It does not have to be and cannot be, one or the other. It is both. One (justified) does not happen without the other("reconciled). And "reconciled" does not happen without the other ("justified").
The
legal language is
metaphor. Reconciliation, itself, is renewed
relationship with God, not just a change in status before Him. It certainly
involves forgiveness but isn't limited to that. It's the same as with relationships in this life. If I've offended someone and they forgive me, acceptance has been offered, a change is initiated and invited-and if I respond then reconciliation takes place and the relationship can bloom anew. In the case of man and God the relationship is essential:
just, vital, life-giving. It's about what we
love, for our own highest good, and what we love first above all else-and this is why the first commandments in the decalogue are what they are and why the greatest commandment is what it is. To the extent that we're perfected in that love, obedience flows of its own accord.
And, yes, this perfection will not fully occur in this life but that path is nonetheless the path we
must be on, the Way, now
with God instead of on our own, apart from Him. And that "withness", that union, that fellowship, means the life of grace, His life in us. But it's still a struggle,
because I'm not yet perfected. I'm not yet convinced that the Way is the only way, the best way, and I still possess the freedom to go another way, my way, the wrong way, the world's way; I can reject the gift, the gift of Himself to me, foolish as that may be especially after spending some time here in this world
exiled from Him with all that's implied in that. But I can, I can walk away just as I can walk away from the relationship with my human friend. It's a process, a journey that we're asked to persevere in with the gifts, the grace, given throughout whatever
time we're given on this earth; it's not a one time event, which is why salvation is spoken of in Scripture as past, present, and future: been saved, being saved, will be saved.
Well, (presumptuous statement of knowing more than the Reformers aside), they didn't do that. Justification was never treated as something "mere".
Well, they may have
thought they weren't treating it as "mere" but they
were compared to what it actually is.
The word is used frequently in the NT pertaining to the work of Christ. It states that in Christ one is justified through faith. So what does it mean to be justified in God's sight? You are simply confusing categories--a logical fallacy argument. Justified in Scripture has nothing to do with justice in man. And the Reformers never treated it as such. Neither do they treat it as actual righteousness because that would fly in the face of both empirical evidence and the internal evidence of the Bible itself.
Again, justification involves not only forgiveness of sin but also of entering fellowship with God, the Holy Spirit now indwelling. That,
itself, is the basis and essence of man's justice/righteousness. That's what it means to be "made just", for the ungodly to be justified. I can now walk by the Spirit, producing good fruit, putting to death the deeds of the flesh, etc, or not. Consider the Parable of the Talents/Bags of Gold in Matt 25 to see how this plays out. We're given the grace, the gifts. We can "invest" it and bring an increase, or not. We can also bury it and ultimately be booted from the Kingdom. We can reject the gift after having tasted it (
Heb 6:4), or after escaping the pollution of the world through the knowledge of Christ (
2 Pet 2:20). We can fail to profess our faith, having greater fear of man than of God (
John 12:42-43).
Or we can prove to be good soil, where the seed
"produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matt 13)
. Because the wise man is like one who builds his house on a solid foundation, who takes Jesus' words and puts them into practice (
Matt 7:24-27).
In any case, the gospel is violated when justification is separated from our being
made just. God didn't suddenly become interested in pretending that man is righteous-when he's not. Instead, He provides the way, the authentic way,
apart from the law, to the righteousness that precludes our condemnation to death (Rom 8:1-4). Perfection
is the goal, as is stated in Scripture (He never created us to be sinners to begin with, after all), but He doesn't demand absolute perfection in this life, but a life marked by increasing growth towards Himself and the reflection of His image within us. So at the same time He demands that we don’t rest on our laurels either; we cannot just remain in our sins now that He’s forgiven them, taken them away, and empowered us to do as He says, to ‘go, and sin no more’.
Again, it all begins here; eternal life begins here. If not, then no sin could ever separate us from God which would be absurd. We’ll be judged based on what we did in this life-with the gifts we’ve been given (2 Cor 5:10).
And;
“To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life” (Rom 2:7)
