Justification

Galatians 3:24-26, “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

"...You are indeed guilty in yourself, but God no longer regards you as guilty, because the guilt of your sin has already been borne by Christ as your substitute. The sentence has been served. The penalty has been paid." – Jerry Bridges

The Westminster Larger Catechism asks in Question 70, “What is justification?”

An it answers thus:

“Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which He pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in His sight; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.”^[1]

Sometimes terminology, though it is always intended to bring clarity, can sometimes bring ambiguity. One challenge I think we face is to make clear distinctions between Salvation as a whole, and the particular operations or stages that compose this whole. One common mistake is to accept one stage of salvation as the entire work. This is most challenging for us when dealing with "Justification" and coming to a realisation that this word is NOT entirely synonymous with the word "Salvation". Justification is the principle work in our “being made right with God” and yet is not the entirety of Salvation.

Follow the “Ordo”

“Ordo Salutis” is a Latin phrase directly translated, "order of salvation". When a person is saved by God, they are done so according to an order of Divine plan and sovereign will. We Christians do not each differ from one another in the order of salvation we enjoy. We do not find some sanctified before they are justified, and others justified after they are glorified, nor others regenerated before they are elected etc. The order of salvation is terribly important, scripturally and experientially, because we must understand the work of grace in and through us which God works for our good, and His eternal glory.

God operates to a Sovereign plan and pattern, and He is always consistent; He's a God who changes not.^[2]

In biblical understanding, the 'Ordo Salutis' is (Rom 8:29-30):

1. election, (chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be SAVED)
2. predestination, (the eternal decree of God, by which He determined with Himself whatever He wished to happen with regard to every person)
3. gospel call, (the message of the cross is presented and clearly understood)
4. inward call, (the stirring of inward conviction and hope in the gospel; by the Holy Spirit)
5. regeneration, (God imparts 'FAITH' and the person believes in the gospel)
6. conversion, (the application of faith and repentance to both the gospel and the inward call),
7. justification, (being declared judicially/legally RIGHT'  and guiltless before a just God)
8. sanctification, (on account of all that’s proceeded, the person justified strives to love God through obedience to His moral standards – being conformed to the image of Christ)
9. glorification, (when we put off this mortal frame, we will be, in the twinkling of an eye, conformed to the image of Christ, forever perfect and holy, forever)

This whole process is called "Salvation", but note that only one aspect is justification. The word "Salvation" or "Saved" has such a wide application that it can be difficult to decipher what is meant whenever the term is employed. In scripture we notice that saved/salvation is an event/process that is spoken of as past, present and future.

• • "by grace you have been saved" - Eph 2:8 (past tense)
  • "by which you are being saved" - 1 Cor 15:2 (present and ongoing tense)
  • "for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." - Rom 13:11 (future tense)

So we see that using the word, “Saved” or “Salvation” is challenging because the meaning cannot always be discerned.

It is at regeneration (becoming born again) that faith is given by God to His elect. ^[3,4] When faith is divinely given, the elect are capable and compelled to trust the message of the cross and believe unto Justification.^[5] It becomes very important that the order is not confused. The message of the cross is utter foolishness to the world and cannot be received unless one has had a changed heart and been given a heart of flesh with the necessary removal of the heart of stone.^[6] This is the process of Regeneration, where God quickens and awakens the dead man.^[7] "When the regenerate heart hears the gospel, it is awakened and, because of the faith given, miraculously believes the message which the world cannot accept". Once a person's faith meets the only true and saving Object of faith (Jesus Christ) that person is immediately justified, by imputation. At this point it is pertinent that we affirm that faith in itself is not salvific; faith does not have any intrinsic meritorious properties, but leads to salvation because of its Object. The true and meritorious, salvific object of faith is the Saviour, Jesus the Christ.

So when we see the term “Justification” in Romans, Galatians or anywhere else in Holy Writ, we must understand it is referring predominantly to the process of being made ‘Just’ and ‘Right’ before God, not by attaining one’s own perfection through works of the law, but by Christ’s perfect obedience imputed to the believer when they ‘believe’ the gospel of grace^.[8]

When we say Christ’s perfect obedience has been imputed to the believer the question then arises, what do we mean by, “Imputed”?

Imputation means to take something from someone and attribute it or accredit it to another on behalf of that original someone.

So in this sense, we are imputed with Christ’s righteousness by faith, and by faith alone on behalf of Christ. It is not a wage or a reward; it is entirely a gift that is accredited/imputed to the regenerate (those who are believers) by God’s free grace.

Justification is based solely upon this imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the recipient by grace on account of their faith.

Justification is what we call a legal (judicial) declaration by God toward sinners, counting them righteous instead of recognising them as they truly are; God-hating sinners.^[9]

I say ‘counting’ them and not ‘making’ them righteous because this is not what God does at justification. To suggest this would be to blur the clear biblical distinction between justification and sanctification, and to further confuse the “Ordo Salutis”. God, through the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling believers, works to produce righteousness in them as the life-long process of sanctification. But this is NOT justification and cannot be said to be so, though both are ‘Salvation’ (which again shows just how confusing this word can be).

God counts His elect just in His sight by the sacrifice and substitution of Christ; the atoning Lamb. This justification is immediate and obligatory the moment God’s elect are regenerated to believe in the gospel. It is permanent and can never be undone, the child of God cannot be unborn-again and God's justification of the regenerate is eternal.^[10] As the one who believes is imputed with Christ’s righteousness they are now viewed by God as being perfectly holy, just as Christ is, and He, the atoning Lamb, on the cross was conversely imputed with the sin of God’s elect, thus making the perfect and eternal transaction both complete and immutable.^[11] 

The lesson we should learn from all this is that we must have clarity of mind regarding how God saves sinners and how we have personally come to know the gospel is true. Subsequent to this, it is our duty to exercise extra care regarding what terms we use when trying to explain salvation to others; especially to those who are yet to believe in the gospel. We can so easily lead people astray into dead ends and muddled thinking about the work of God when we are either

1. lazy in our own understand of salvation

or

1. lazy about the way in which we present it to others

Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”