“What does it mean to be justified?”
Our teacher looked up from his Bible at the quiet adults gathered for Sunday School. Suddenly, a middle-aged woman across from me quipped, “Just-if-I’d never sinned!”
I was twenty-something, new to the language of theology. All the “-cations”—justification, sanctification, glorification—were strung out along the timeline of salvation like beads on an abacus; I mentally slid them back and forth with furrowed brow.
Her answer stuck with me, and I often pulled it out and compared it to what I understood about justification—which wasn’t much. Until a couple of years ago, when I dug into the doctrine in a large tome of systematic theology.
It was riveting.
What God does in the heart of a believer when they receive Christ is astounding. Awe-inspiring. Life-giving. How can we study the doctrines of our faith and not jump for joy?
For years I had moved through life with shoulders hunched as I strived to pay God back for my salvation through my own good works. The woman’s words, “Just as if I’d never sinned,” haunted me, because I had sinned, this I knew. I had accepted God’s forgiveness yet felt I still needed to do something to be worthy of such grace, to pay it back. It was as if I began to believe a different gospel: Christ’s sacrificial death plus my own behavior must equal salvation. My mouth uttered words of amazing grace, my ears heard the sweet sound, but I lived out my life in continual striving.
I had become a foolish Galatian, someone who began following a way that pretended to be Good News but was not the Good News at all. The truth had become twisted and fooled me (Galatians 1:6-7 NLT). Though it took me a while to realize it, all my religious behaviors only checked off boxes in my head and puffed up my pride.
Paul David Tripp says, “The thought that any fallen human being would be able to perform his or her way into acceptance with God has to be the most insane of all delusions. Yet we all tend to think that we are more righteous than we are, and when we think this, we have taken the first step to embracing the delusion that maybe we’re not so bad in God’s eyes after all."1
That was exactly the direction I was headed.
I wanted a list of do’s and don’ts, I wanted something to be responsible for, to contribute to, because then I had control over it. I tried to ignore the miserable sense of failure from unchecked boxes, but the feeling of never doing enough was constant. In my desire to do for God, I easily fell into legalism.
Just What Does Justification Mean?
It took me two years to work my way through the heavy theology book, but here’s what I learned about justification: to be justified means to be declared righteous by God. Declared means asserted, affirmed, announced. Righteous means virtuous, noble, upright. God affirmed that I was virtuous. What?
My Sunday School friend was right, it was indeed as if I’d never sinned. And I was right, I had sinned. In fact, the sin of Adam boiled in my blood, imputed (attributed) to me from that first forbidden bite. Romans 5:15 explains:
For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. -Romans 5:15 NLT
Justification is the opposite of condemnation. Sin says, “guilty!” But the moment we place faith in Christ, God says, “not guilty!” Wayne Grudem sums it up like this: "God declares the ungodly to be righteous in his sight—not on the basis of their good works but in response to their faith." 2
The tension I felt between believing in God’s grace yet needing to deserve it finally dissolved. My shoulders slumped with relief.
Just Relax: The Work has Been Done
In a beautiful circle, justification comes as God’s response to our faith, which he also gives us (Romans 12:3 and 1 Corinthians 4:7)!
Grudem also writes, “Justification is the dividing line between the biblical gospel of salvation by faith alone and all false gospels of salvation based on good works.”3 Faith is the chosen instrument through which we receive justification because it “is the one attitude of heart that is the exact opposite of depending on ourselves”4 [emphasis mine].
Those of us who wrestle with legalism, who are tempted to see Christianity as a to-do list to check off (and to hold others to) can find peace in the fact that God, the ultimate judge, has legally declared us righteous! And this not of ourselves! Instead of constantly checking to make sure we’ve crossed all our spiritual T’s and dotted our religious I’s, we can remember the legal declaration God has already made because of the work Jesus has done.
The Heidelberg Catechism helps us answer the question, "How are you righteous by God?" this way:
Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, of never having kept any of them, and of still being inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without any merit of my own, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, and as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me 5 [emphasis mine].
It's almost unbelievable—but I shout Hallelujah!
And yes, James 2:24 says a person is “justified by works and not by faith alone." So how can it also be true that we are justified by faith alone (Galatians 2:16, Romans 5:1)? Grudem explains that James’ use of the word for justified implies a demonstration, or showing, of faith—through works. Though good works can never earn our justification, they do give evidence that we have been justified. 6
Just Receive: It’s More Than a Gift
As much as we want to feel like we have a part in our own salvation, it all leads back to God’s initiation. He calls, He saves, He justifies (Romans 8:30). The word justification may sound as legal as wrought iron, but it symbolizes a soft pillow on which we can rest. Or a gentle yoke shared by Another.
But wait, there's more!
Justification comes to us entirely by God’s grace. And in his grace, justification contains two aspects: forgiveness of sins and imputation of Christ’s righteousness. 7
We can open up our hands and receive that glorious forgiveness, and rejoice with the psalmist who said, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Psalm 32:1-2). What joy!
Yet justification goes even deeper: Adam’s sin was imputed to me. My sin was imputed to Christ on the cross, where he paid the price to cleanse me completely. But God didn’t just leave me morally neutral at forgiveness. He imputed Christ’s righteousness to me. He didn’t just give me a clean, white robe to put on, but a robe, a sash, and a crown! Not just a new denim jacket, but a bedazzled denim jacket!
He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. -Isaiah 61:10
Grudem reminds us, "God declares us to be just or righteous not on the basis of our actual condition of righteousness or holiness, but rather on the basis of Christ’s perfect righteousness, which he thinks of as belonging to us."8
Even though I am the farthest thing from righteous by any definition of the word, I am declared righteous by the grace of God. Christ’s righteousness has become mine. I can’t take an ounce of credit for it. His declaration makes it so!
Just Rejoice: Go in Peace and Give God the Glory
God declares us righteous by imputing Christ’s righteousness onto us at the moment of belief. Then, he lovingly shapes us into the righteous image of his Son through the process of sanctification.
The Holman Bible Dictionary shares this good news: “Biblically, the spiritual journey begins at the point of justification … it establishes the future. God in the present moment announces the verdict He will pronounce on the day of final judgment. He declares that trusting faith in Jesus Christ puts people in the right with God, bringing eternal life now and forever. The only stipulation, accessible to all, is faith”9 [emphasis mine].
What deep grace! What dazzling joy! Justification is cause for celebration!
Just Remember: The Dazzling Joy and Deep Grace of Justification
Because of Christ, God now sees us, yes, just as if we'd never sinned—and so much more.
Let’s review the benefits of justification, this deep and dazzling grace:
Our sins are no longer counted against us (Psalm 32:1-2; Romans 4:6-8); we’ve been declared “not guilty.”
We did not have to do anything to earn it; it was a gift we received the moment we placed our faith in Christ—the moment of salvation (Romans 3:27-28).
Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to us; therefore, we are declared righteous by God (Philippians 3:9).
God will continue the work he began in us through the process of sanctification (Philippians 1:6) to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29).
Our salvation is secure forever; we have received the blessing of eternal life (John 3:36).
We have peace with God (Romans 5:1).
We are friends of God (James 2:23).
We are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).
Justification leads to sanctification, which leads us ultimately to glorification (Romans 8:30).
Because justification requires nothing of us but the faith that God provides, God receives all the glory! (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 5:1-2).
I can only describe this newfound understanding of justification as sheer staggerment, akin to Bilbo the Hobbit standing awestruck in the dragon’s cave, beholding gold beyond price and count.
And just think, it is a treasure you and I can keep forever.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
-Romans 5:1-2
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1. Paul David Tripp. New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), January 5.
2. Wayne Grudem. Systematic Theology, Second Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020), 885.
3. Ibid., 884.
4. Ibid., 893.
5.https://www.crcna.org/sites/default/files/HeidelbergCatechism.pdf [emphasis mine]
6. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 894-895.
7. Ibid., 887-888.
8. Ibid., 889.
9. Paul Jackson, “Justification,” Holman Bible Dictionary, ed. Trent C. Butler, PH.D. (Nashville: Homan Bible Publishers, 1991), 829-30.
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