What Does It Mean to Be Justified

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When a sinner comes to the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time, one of the first things he seeks is forgiveness. What he finds is a God who delights to forgive, who is ready to forgive, who wants to forgive, and who has given a promise to forgive. That sinner may feel the full burden of the sins he has committed. With the words of David, he may say, “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” But when he confesses his sins, he finds forgiveness. First John 1:9 is still true: if we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He cleanses us from all sin and all unrighteousness. There is not one single sin that remains unforgiven. He forgives them all. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ has laid the righteous foundation for that forgiveness. Knowing that our sins are forgiven and that there is no punishment anymore may be the first blessing a person seeks, but it is by far not the only blessing God wants to grant. One of the great additional blessings presented to us in the New Testament is justification.

Romans 5:1–2 says: “Therefore, having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have also access by faith into this favor in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” The word “therefore” connects this passage with the chapters that precede it. In Romans 3, the apostle Paul explains what justification means. In Romans 4, he shows on what principle believers in the Old Testament were forgiven and justified. Then, in Romans 5, he returns to the subject and says, “Therefore, having been justified.” Since this is the case—since we have been justified—we now stand as just in the sight of God, and that on the principle of faith, not on the principle of works. Paul then gives us three results of justification: we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Him we have access by faith into the favor in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. But before considering these results, we need to understand what justification itself means.

Forgiveness and Justification

Consider the following illustration. There is a father who has the peculiar custom that every time his son does something wrong, he takes a nail and hammers it into a board. During the course of a week, quite a few nails may accumulate. Whenever his son comes to him and confesses what he has done, however, the father forgives him. As a sign that the matter has been dealt with, he takes a pair of pliers and pulls the nail out of the board. At the end of the week, the grandfather comes to visit. He knows about this unusual custom, so he goes straight to the board. He finds no nails, but he does find the holes they have left behind. The offences may have been forgiven by the father, but something remains visible. The punishment may have been removed, but the son still stands there as the one who committed the offences. The accusation remains. After the grandfather leaves, the father takes the board into his workshop, fills all the holes, and works on the surface until it is completely clean and smooth. When the grandfather returns and looks at the board again, he sees neither nails nor holes. He looks at his grandchild as though he had done nothing wrong. He sees him, in that sense, as a just person.

This illustrates the difference between forgiveness and justification. Forgiveness and justification are two blessings that rest on the same foundation: the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. God did not spare His Son but gave Him for us all. He was delivered for our offences. He bore our sins in His body upon the tree, and during the three hours of darkness God punished Him for our sins. Nevertheless, forgiveness and justification are not identical. Forgiveness is an act of God’s mercy, goodness, and kindness. We have sinned against God, but upon confession He forgives those sins and will not bring them up anymore. Hebrews 10:17 says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Not one single sin remains when God forgives us. There is no judgment and no punishment anymore. Justification, however, goes further. It is a legal term and means that God declares a person to be just. God declares those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be just, and as such they stand before Him. This goes further than merely being regarded as though we had never sinned, which might leave us on neutral ground. God gives us a positive position before Him: we stand before Him as just persons. With forgiveness, the punishment is removed; with justification, even the accusation is removed. It is as though God takes the indictment, opens it, and finds nothing but blank pages. That is justification.

The Authority and Foundation of Justification

Romans 8:33 says, “It is God who justifies.” God Himself is the authority who justifies, and He is the highest authority in the entire universe. There is no one above Him who can question or overturn what He has done. In earthly life, a person may receive a verdict in one court and appeal to a higher court. That higher court can review and even overturn the verdict of the lower court. Eventually, however, the case may reach the highest court, and once that court has ruled, there is no higher earthly authority to which the person can appeal. The same principle applies here in an absolute sense. When God justifies, there is no one who can bring a successful accusation against those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If God declares a person just, no one can overrule His verdict.

Whatever God does and whatever blessing He gives us must rest upon a righteous foundation. Romans 5:9 says, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” The righteous foundation of our justification is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. What He accomplished on Calvary’s cross provides the basis upon which God can justify us. God wants to show mercy and love toward us, but He always acts in complete agreement with His own righteousness. Romans 1:16–17 says that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” and that “in it the righteousness of God is revealed.” It is not some righteousness on our side that stands before God; it is God’s own righteousness. God does not simply overlook sin in order to show mercy. His righteous claims concerning sin must be fully satisfied, and that happened at the cross. When Paul says that we are justified by the blood of Christ, the blood points us to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His death is the righteous foundation upon which God justifies the believer.

Grace, Resurrection, and Faith

But how can we know that God has accepted the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Romans 4:25 says that He “was delivered over because of our wrongdoings, and was raised because of our justification.” Because of our sins, He had to die; but He was also raised from among the dead. We therefore look at the empty tomb and the resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, and His resurrection is God’s stamp upon the work of Christ. It is God’s declaration that the work has been accepted and has answered every righteous demand concerning sin. Everyone who believes in this accomplished work can therefore know: I am justified. The source of this blessing is the heart of God. Romans 3:24 speaks of believers as “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Justification is given freely to us, although there was a cost attached to it. We do not deserve the mercy or love of God, yet He gives justification freely as a gift. We do not have to pay for it, but someone did have to pay. That is what is expressed in the word “redemption.” Because the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price, justification can be given freely to those who believe in Him.

There is, however, a prerequisite. Romans 3:26 speaks of God as being just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus, while Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified on the principle of faith.” The death and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ provide the basis upon which God can bless us, but we personally receive a share in that work by faith, by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. We repent, acknowledging our sinfulness and hopelessness, recognizing that we cannot save ourselves and that we need a Savior. Faith then connects us with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone once described faith as the hand that reaches out and takes what God has provided. Faith recognizes that what God has provided is enough. This is why justification is not on the principle of works. Paul makes this clear in Romans 3: no one will be justified on the principle of works of law, because through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Justification is on the principle of faith. It is not something to which we have to contribute or add something of our own. Everything rests upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has already done. That work is enough for God; for us, it takes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Scope and Results of Justification

What, then, is the scope of justification? Romans 3:22–23 speaks of “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The righteousness of God is toward all. No one is excluded. There is not one single human being to whom God does not offer salvation. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient so that, if everyone came to Him in saving faith, everyone could be saved. Unfortunately, not everybody comes, repents, or believes. Therefore, although the righteousness of God is toward all, it is upon all those who believe. They are the ones who actually come into the good of what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. There is no distinction because all have sinned, and all equally need the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. At the end of Romans 3, Paul asks whether God is the God of the Jews only or also of the Gentiles. Especially in the Old Testament, Israel was God’s chosen people and He dealt primarily with them. But the Lord Jesus Christ came, the Jews rejected Him as their Messiah, and God opened the way of salvation to all nations. He is not only the God of the Jews but also the God of the Gentiles. The foundation is the same and the way is the same: it is by faith.

One final aspect is presented in Acts 13:39: “Through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.” When it comes to forgiveness, God forgives all our sins. The same principle applies to justification. There is not one single sin or matter from which the believer has not been justified. God declares us just, and as such we stand before Him. Acts 13 presents the negative side: everything from which the law could never justify us is removed in Christ. The positive side is that we now stand before God as those whom He regards as just.

We can therefore return to the opening words of Romans 5. We have seen what it means to have been “justified on the principle of faith.” God looks at us in an entirely different way. We stand before Him as those who are just in His sight, and this position has wonderful results. First, we have peace toward God. Second, we have access to God in His favor at all times. We can come to Him knowing that He will never think of us in any way other than in grace, because we are those whom He has justified. Third, we boast in the hope of the glory of God. We have already been justified; it is a blessing we possess now. Yet because we have been justified, we can also look forward with certainty to what awaits us. And what awaits us is glory.