Theology of Justification

One of the fascinating features of Christian thought is the idea that God is involved in rescuing people and creation from sin and restoring all things into a right relationship with Him. The Scriptures refer to this activity of God using the broad term “salvation,” but being “saved” has various aspects.

The theology of justification is one of those aspects. It is defined as a legal declaration from God that a sinner is not counted as guilty, but as truly righteous because he receives by faith the righteousness of Jesus (Rom. 3:21-26, 5:6-10, 18-19, Gal. 2:20-21, I Pet. 3:18). Justification is a one-time objective event, not a process. The process of being saved from sins is known in the Bible as sanctification, another aspect of salvation (Rom. 6:22, I Thess. 4:3).

The doctrine of justification is what makes the Christian faith truly unique. It is the one faith tradition granting assurance that those who have failed at perfect morality can be forgiven and restored to life. Justification declares that a sinner has right standing before God because of Jesus, the one who didn’t fail morally, but paid the ultimate price of death as if He had.

Since the basis of being declared righteous is not the ability of people to live a certain way, the apostle John assures believers that we can “know that you have eternal life” (I John 5:13), because they are counted as righteous (Rom. 4:1-8, Phil. 3:7-9) or have Jesus’ righteousness credited (the theological term is “imputed”) to them. Paul explains it this way, “For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Cor. 5:21).

This doctrine was the central issue of the Protestant Reformation. While the clarity was elaborated because the Roman Church was abusing its members with a false understanding of salvation, the implications of a correct understanding were too great to be ignored. The Reformers wanted a return to the biblical teaching that believers work from a position of justification with glad hearts, sincere joy, and bold confidence instead of for it, allowing our works to prove our faith rather than earn our justification (Heb. 10:19-24, James 1:22-25).

In many ways we need this reminder today since people profess justification by grace through faith, but do not live as if they have been justified. Churches are filled with people who think that they have to perform to earn God’s approval and are motivated by guilt and fear of condemnation. If any do not live as men and women who have “escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire,” then he is “so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (II Pet. 1:4, 9). Jesus’ life and work were sufficient and our hearts can rest believing “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).