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What is… justification?

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Our Theology Thursday word for this week is justification.

“dikaioō”

The verb to justify in the New Testament Greek is dikaioō. Dikaioō has a range of meanings, but a very common use of the word is “to declare righteous.” This is the general meaning of justification in the New Testament. Furthermore, the use of the word indicates that justification is a legal declaration, in this sense, by God.

justification (n) jəs-tə-fə-‘kā-shən – the act, process, or state of being justified (declared righteous) by God.1

Applied by God in salvation

In Romans 8:30, the apostle Paul provides an overview of the process by which God applies salvation to us, and he includes the verb form of justification:

“Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

Here Paul explicitly mentions that this is something that God Himself does. It is not a product of man. “Those whom he called he also justified.”

Double imputation

When God declares us to be just in His sight, there are two aspects involved:

  1. We have no penalty to pay for our sins because of Christ.
  2. We are declared righteous because of Christ.

This is often called double imputation, or “Our sins are imputed onto Christ, and His righteousness is imputed onto us.”

The believer’s sins are imputed onto Christ. Paul tells us, in Romans 8:1, that “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Thus, those who are justified in Christ are no longer obligated to pay the penalty for sin. And why are we no longer obligated? Because our sins have been imputed onto Christ on the cross and there, as He hanged, He paid the penalty for God’s children.

Christ’s righteousness was imputed onto believers. If God’s act of salvation toward sinners only included the payment of sins on the cross, we would still remain morally neutral before God. Remember how I mentioned that justification is the act of being declared righteous before God? Well, if we are to ever be declared righteous before God, we cannot stand on our own righteousness since there is none righteous (Romans 3:10). Therefore, God has imputed Christ’s righteousness onto us.

How God Can Declare Us to Be Righteous

When we say that God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us, this means that God considers the righteousness of Christ as belonging to us (Romans 4:6). Let’s close this week’s theology post by revisiting a passage we highlighted in last week’s post:

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-26)

Praise God for justifying us in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior!

Comments

  1. All the references are from Romans. While I agree with the content, it seems to draw from a small portion of God’s Word. i.e. How is justification demonstrated throughout Scripture?

    • Thanks for the feedback. That wasn’t really the purpose of this post. It is more a “definition of” as opposed to a “biblical study of”.

      But that’s a great idea for a future post. I’ve noted it down. God bless!

  3. I hope my comment doesn’t come across as “snarky”. 🙂

    You wrote above, “Here Paul explicitly mentions that this is something that God Himself does. IT IS NOT A PRODUCT OF MAN. “Those whom he called he also justified.”” I get that justification comes from God because of Christ’s atonement. I get that justification is not “earned” by any act of mortal man. And I also get the concept of double imputation. All these concepts are scripturally sound. And yet Paul says justification comes to man “through faith”. Who’s faith? God’s? Of course not. So man must exercise faith in Christ in order to qualify for the gift of justification. So while it is God’s righteousness not man’s that brings about this grace, yet that is not to say there is nothing required of us. We are like a drowning child in a pond who can’t swim to whom the Savior holds out a long stick and says, “If you trust Me, grab hold of this stick, and I will pull you to shore.” If we will simply grab hold He will do the rest. For a scriptural pattern in these things, I am reminded of the children of Israel in the Wilderness who had been bitten by snakes and who, to be healed, were only required to look upon the brass serpent–a type of Christ–raised upon the poll by Moses. Despite the easiness of the way, many did not look and perished.

    Paul in the aforementioned verse suggests another pattern for how justification works–“because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed”. Perhaps Paul’s reference to “passed over” is to the original Passover. Therein we see that the children of Israel were saved by God on condition that they would take the blood of the lamb and wipe it on the door posts (which thing Christ alluded to in Jn. 10)–if they would exercise this faith, then their firstborn would die. Thereafter, they had to walk through the door and out of Egypt (a symbol of the world). But it didn’t end there. They were required to exercise enough faith to follow Moses through the Red Sea (a type of baptism by water) and thereafter to follow the Shikenah, the shining cloud (a type of baptism by the Spirit). And where was God leading the children of Israel? To the Holy Mount (a type of the temple). So, the exercise of faith necessary to qualify for God’s grace requires accepting the Lamb of God (Christ), leaving all worldliness (repenting of all sin), being baptized by water and the Spirit, and following that Spirit to His Holy Temple (His Presence). According to the scriptural patterns, being saved by faith means doing all things God has commanded us to do.

    Snarky?

    • Dave,

      Snarky? No, I wouldn’t say so. Actually to be honest with you I am not really sure what “snarky” means so I guess I can’t say if you are being that or not.

      I get what you are saying. I have one question though. You liken events in the O.T. to being “types” (of turning from sin, baptism, God’s presence etc.).

      I am not being “snarky” when I ask this. Where do you derive these types from? Does scripture call these types/parallels or are you? I am interested specifically in the Red Sea being a type of Baptism one. Thanks.

    • There are several passages that were translated in the KJV (but have been translated differently in newer translations), as “…faith of Jesus Christ…”, or “…faith of Christ…”. One of them is actually in the context of the Scripture verses that were in the discussion; namely Romans 3:22. Some of the others are: Gal 2:16, Phl 3:9, Gal 2:20, Gal 3:22, Jam 2:1,

      comparing those to Rom 1:17 (…faith to faith…) and Rom 4:9 (…faith was reckoned unto Abraham for righteousness…) give me the idea that Christ’s faith was necessary (imputed) and we are imparted faith to follow. This seems to fit the grace apart from works description the Bible repeats throughout the New Testament (and in the Old Testament, Ps.32 is an example).

      Be blessed in Christ.

  4. Why do you make the simple -refinement?
    During our pray we have to ask God for faith and what we need more.
    The answer for which faith our or God’s- is in:
    Gen 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness (for some people according to Greek translation the above mentioned verses are as follow”..the Abraham had a faith FROM God,and He counted him for righteousness..”).
    Jhn 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw [it], and was glad.

    • All good things come from God and faith is no exception. It is a gift from God. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Eph. 2:8.

      But what does it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Such will not rejoice in that which is given unto him, and neither will He rejoice who is the giver of the gift.

      For this reason Paul said,
      “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” (Heb. 11:4). If Abel had not chosen to accept the gift of faith given him by God, what would the gift have profited him?

      The apostle James, the Lord’s brother, harmonizes these doctrines beautifully when he writes,
      “What profit is it, my brethren, for a man to say he hath faith, and hath not works? can faith save him?
      “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” James 2:14,22.
      Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation for all of man’s hopes for salvation. It is a gift from God. But man must choose whether to receive the gift of faith. Those who do receive the gift will always manifest godly works by their faith and thus their faith will be made perfect. This is good doctrine. It tastes good.

    • Abraham is called the father of the faithful or the father of those who are full of faith because his faith was made perfect by his obedience to all things God commanded him, not even withholding his only son, Isaac.
      “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
      Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
      Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” Heb. 11:17-19.
      Abraham chose irrevocably to exercise the gift of faith given him by God by offering up his son Isaac, believing that inasmuch as the promise for an innumerable posterity was to be fulfilled in Isaac, that if he offered him up, God would raise him from the dead in order to fulfill the promise.

      True faith made perfect is always manifest by our choosing to exercise that gift of faith by being obedient to all things God commands, believing that God will not command that which is not right.

      • The “figure” I think showed a living testimony of the coming Messiah to be made a sin offering by the Father of Spirits. I was pondering this just hours ago, before even reading this post, and it seems to me that such an event “so close to home” would have given him a memory “etched” upon his mind, that it would have been impossible to forget this testimony of Him Who was to come.

  6. Can we conclude , that justification,double inputation are the
    gifts like faith.
    As Dave Osborn wrote-“man must choose to receive the gift.”
    Paul White said that GIFT of righteousness came because of Jesus
    obedience(not our).

  7. In order for the entire process to even take place, one must have faith. “For without faith, it is impossible to please God.” I believe that the double imputation is a bi-product of faith.