Justification....

[Proeliator]

From a Calvinist standpoint, detailed, but in laymens terms.

 

[heymikey80]

From a Calvinist standpoint, detailed, but in laymens terms.

Best intro on it I've read is the chapter in John Murray's "Redemption Accomplished and Applied".

Essentially it goes like this: "justification" is not being made righteous; it's being considered or declared or certified to a righteous standing. It's used often in court proceedings, it's the declaration of the court. While there are religious references to God actually being intrinsically righteous, it certainly doesn't mean that God is actually made righteous -- He already is righteous, His righteousness is just being visibly put in evidence. And it's the same way with us. We aren't being made into something; a fact is being declared about us on the basis of our faith in Jesus -- that is, our trust in Someone Who is intrinsically righteous to save us.

 

[Cajun Huguenot]

Best intro on it I've read is the chapter in John Murray's "Redemption Accomplished and Applied".

Great book, but its a hard read. Keep your dictionary close by, because it is not written in layman's terms.

Here is a quote from J.I. Packer on the subject:
What justification is, said the Reformers, must be learned from Paul, its great New Testament expositor, who sees it clearly and precisely as a judicial act of God pardoning and forgiving our sins, accepting us as righteous, and instating us as his sons. Following Augustine, who studied the Bible in Latin and was partly misled by the fact that justificare, the Latin for Paul's dikaiou'n, naturally means "make righteous," the Mediaevals had defined justification as pardon plus inner renewal, as the Council of Trent was also to do; but the Reformers saw that the Pauline meaning of dikaioun is strictly forensic. So Calvin defines justification as acceptance, whereby God receives us into his favour and regards us as righteous; and we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ." Justification is decisive for eternity, being in effect the judgment of the last day brought forward. Its source is God's grace, his initiative in free and sovereign love, and its ground is the merit and satisfaction—that is, the obedient sin-bearing death—of Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son.

For the rest of Packer's article, SOLA FIDE: THE REFORMED DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION, click on the article title.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

 

[mlqurgw]

Justification is basically to be declared righteous and considered righteous. It is a legal term and means more than having no sin accounted to you. I will give you an example to show what I mean. Lets say that I have committed a crime and go before the judge. Now he declares me guilty and sends me to prison. I serve my time and have paid the penalty that was required. I am let out of jail but I am still guilty of commiting a crime. My debt is paid but I am still guilty. I am not justified. Now lets say that I go before the judge and he says that I am not guilty. That means that I have actually kept the law. It is more than just being innocent but to be accounted as actually having kept the law. We are justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ. He kept the law perfectly not for His own sake but for ours. We are declared to be righteous in Him. That is, we are justified. I hope that helps.

 

[Proeliator]

It was explained to me last night by someone that justification naturally leads to a discussion on perserverance.

 

[seekingpurity047]

It was explained to me last night by someone that justification naturally leads to a discussion on perserverance.

Sanctification inevitably and immediately follows justification. Dr. Donald B. Mackay, Pastor of Campbell Baptist Church, Windsor, ON, Canada.

To the glory of God,

Randy

 

[edie19]

Great book, but its a hard read. Keep your dictionary close by, because it is not written in layman's terms.

Here is a quote from J.I. Packer on the subject:
What justification is, said the Reformers, must be learned from Paul, its great New Testament expositor, who sees it clearly and precisely as a judicial act of God pardoning and forgiving our sins, accepting us as righteous, and instating us as his sons. Following Augustine, who studied the Bible in Latin and was partly misled by the fact that justificare, the Latin for Paul's dikaiou'n, naturally means "make righteous," the Mediaevals had defined justification as pardon plus inner renewal, as the Council of Trent was also to do; but the Reformers saw that the Pauline meaning of dikaioun is strictly forensic. So Calvin defines justification as acceptance, whereby God receives us into his favour and regards us as righteous; and we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ." Justification is decisive for eternity, being in effect the judgment of the last day brought forward. Its source is God's grace, his initiative in free and sovereign love, and its ground is the merit and satisfaction—that is, the obedient sin-bearing death—of Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son.

For the rest of Packer's article, SOLA FIDE: THE REFORMED DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION, click on the article title.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Far be it from me to argue or disagree with Packer (which I don't). I would add though that our justification isn't solely the result of Jesus the Christ's sin bearing death, but also the result of His sinless life. It is both events combined that allows us to be regarded as righteous.

What it isn't (contrary to what I hear from more than a few people) is an ongoing process, rather it is a one time act followed by the ongoing process of sanctification. People seem to use the two interchangeably.

edie

 

[Cajun Huguenot]

Far be it from me to argue or disagree with Packer (which I don't). I would add though that our justification isn't solely the result of Jesus the Christ's sin bearing death, but also the result of His sinless life. It is both events combined that allows us to be regarded as righteous.

You are correct and I don't think Packer would disagree with you at all.

What it isn't (contrary to what I hear from more than a few people) is an ongoing process, rather it is a one time act followed by the ongoing process of sanctification. People seem to use the two interchangeably.

edie

Salvation is by God's grace through faith (that he gives to us) and he works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. It is a one time act of God. He changes our heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

All that you write above is true. At the same time, there is an "already, but not yet" aspect to our salvation.

The "already" is the work of God in our hearts, no man can see that. This is a one time event, that makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. The "not yet" is our working out our salvation in fear and trembling. It is our persevering in the faith. It will continue until we leave this life, or until the consumation of our salvation and election in Christ on the day of judgement. On that day Christ will say to us "Well done, my good and faithful servant" all of whom are elect from before the foundation of the world and predestined unto eternal live.

All these people were given to Christ by the Father and He lost none of them.

In Christ,
Kenith



Coram Deo,

 

[heymikey80]

It was explained to me last night by someone that justification naturally leads to a discussion on perserverance.

I guess; or sanctification.

Justification is an evaluation, an assessment by God. And it's a foregone assessment in the case of someone who is put in union with Christ by faith: that person is considered righteous by God.

With that the question naturally arises, "Well can I sin all I want then?" And Paul's reaction is horror, "No way! How can someone who died to sin [through union with Christ's death] live in sin anymore?" (cf Rom 6). His point is very interesting, because Paul then agrees, sin permeates our lives and doesn't simply disappear (Rom 7). But as the Spirit works in our lives, we come more and more to rely on the Spirit of God, to submit to His way, and thus to infuse this grace into our mortal lives and bodies (Rom 8).

This is a very terse statement from Westminster's Larger Catechism showing the distinctions between justification and sanctification in Reformed terms:

"Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ, in that God in justification imputeth the righteousness of Christ; in sanctification of his Spirit infuseth grace, and enableth to the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is pardoned; in the other, it is subdued: the one doth equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation the other is neither equal in all, nor in this life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection." WCF LC 77