Justification by Faith

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Justification by grace through faith erases past sins and gives encouragement for present struggles.

Justification by faith alone is a doctrine worth celebrating because it allows people to live lives reconciled with God through Jesus Christ. This makes a difference in providing Christian encouragement to others.

Defining Justification

The Bible often uses words related to “righteous” or “righteousness”, along with words related to “justification” or “justified.” It isn’t obvious in English, but these words are all part of the same word group in biblical Greek. The English words are interchangeable. The English word “justification” means the act of declaring a person righteous. That word “righteous” in the Bible has two essential aspects: right status and right behavior.

Righteous status refers to one’s legal standing. For example, a murderer may be acquitted in court if the prosecutor cannot prove his case. He defendant is thus declared not guilty. He is not condemned by the court even though he actually did the crime. His legal status is “righteous.” As far as the legal system is concerned, he is justified.

The same word in the Bible also refers in some cases to righteous behavior. In Matthew 5:20, Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Here he is talking about righteous behavior, not righteous status.

Justification by God’s Grace

When we talk about reconciliation with God, we’re talking about the first meaning: righteous status. When the apostle Paul talks about justification in the book of Romans, for instance, he is talking about a person’s right standing before God, not a person’s righteous behavior (Romans 3:23-24). Justification is a gift because God’s declaration of justification is not based on how a person lived their life up to that point. Because of the sacrifice for sin Jesus made (Romans 3:25-26), people who deserve condemnation receive justification instead.

Romans 4:8 (NIV) Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will  never count against them.

God chooses not to count a persons’ sin against them. He grants the legal status of being in the right as a gift of his grace.

The Bible teaches that God’s purpose is to bring our behavior into line with our status. A righteous status should always be followed by transformed righteous behavior.

Why Justification by Faith Matters

The doctrine of justification provides encouragement to people who are struggling in many ways. For example, many people have a severe sense of inadequacy. They don’t accept themselves and cannot see God accepting them. But justification means that God does indeed accept us, not on the basis of our adequacy (or feelings of adequacy), but because of his love. People may be suffering from sexual brokenness and the deep shame that often goes with it. It’s a great joy to discover that their standing before God has nothing to do with the shame they may feel within themselves and before their neighbors.

Once you respond to God’s invitation by faith in Christ, God doesn’t accept or reject you based on whether you think you are worthy or on what you have done in the past. No matter how often we condemn ourselves, justification means that in Christ, God does not condemn. No amount of sin or inadequacy is enough to keep God from accepting you. No amount of performance is enough to get God to accept you. We are justified, not because we deserve it, but because of the worth of Jesus Christ.