You can just look at the greek. The word is dikaioō.
Ok, how was Jesus justified by the grace and mercy he showed sinners and contempt he showed to the self righteous:
(
G1344 - dikaioō δικαιόω) To render righteous or such he ought to be. To show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered. To declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be.
How did the wisdom of grace justified? They repented, his critics did not:
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified G1344 of her children. (Matt. 11:19)
How was God justified by the preaching and baptism of John? They repented:
And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified G1344 God, being baptized with the baptism of John. (Luke 7:29)
Why does justifying yourself make you unrighteous? Repentance justifies God, self righteousness make people conceited and hardened in sin:
But he, willing to justify G1344 himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? (Luke 10:29)
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify G1344 yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15)
When you pray God have mercy on me a sinner, it provokes God's mercy and grace, and glorifies God rather then your own bloated ego.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified G1344 rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:14)
This one has long been my primary proof text for justification by faith. Peter preaches the gospel to the Gentiles, saying that all the prophets speak of him and that:
by him all that believe are justified G1344 from all things, from which ye could not be justified G1344 by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)
I think the question of the OP has been answered. Opinions vary I suppose.
What I mean is that Jesus is the divine Son of God, part of the godhead. He is justified in the same way that the Father and the Holy Spirit are justified: by being the divine godhead, he/they are the DEFINITION of what "just" IS.
Being God, Jesus is the definition of just. Therefore, how is Jesus "justified"? By his divinity he is just by definition - he is the standard by which that which is right and just is measured.
Put another way, what is a kilogram? It is a specific object, the IPK - the "International Prototype of the Kilogram". This is a physical object whose weight is DEFINED as "1 kg". It is the scale. Everything else is measured against that. IT isn't measured against anything. It is defined as the kilogram, and is the standard to which everything else is calibrated.
So, to put it plainly, Jesus is perfect and doesn't HAVE to be justified, because he is the standard to which all other humans are compared.
In that sense God is shown to be just, thus justified:
God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou might be justified
G1344 in thy sayings, and might overcome when thou art judged.
To declare,
I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier
G1344 of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:4; 3:26)
To make 'righteous' δίκαιος (G1342), that is, ‘to render righteous or as he ought to be; (Vulgate
justifico)... is extremely rare, if not altogether doubtful (Thayer's Greek Lexicon). Justified doesn't mean Jesus or God is made righteous, it means proven to be righteous throughout the New Testament and the Septuagint.
Grace and peace,
Mark
