Justification
The three-fold plan of salvation are justification (past), sanctification (present) and glorification (future). Justification is salvation of your past and is the work of God where the righteousness of Jesus is reckoned to the sinner so the sinner is declared by God as being righteous under the Law (Rom. 4:3; 5:1,9; Gal. 2:16; 3:11). This righteousness is not earned or retained by any effort of the saved. The Christian gets into such a relationship with God in which our past sins no longer condemn us (Rom. 8:1). To be justified, we need to be born again as Jesus taught Nicodemus. Only to those who “receive Him” is the right given to be called the sons of God (John 1:12). To receive Him is to trust God’s Word and obey it. It is to appropriate the riches of grace to our lives, to cause the principles of the Christian way of life to develop in our character. Justification is an instantaneous occurrence with the result being eternal life. It is based completely and solely upon Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24) and is received by faith alone (Eph. 2:8-9). No works are necessary whatsoever to obtain justification. Otherwise, it is not a gift (Rom. 6:23). Therefore, we are justified by faith (Rom. 5:1).
In spite of the horrible fact that we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Rom. 3:24–25).
Based upon the death of Jesus Christ as our sinless substitute God is holy and just in His decision to declare us acquitted. Because of His death for us and our faith in Him God has chosen to forgive us, cleanse us, and give us a perfect position before Him. We are wanted, loved, cherished, and accepted by God the Father! It is all of His grace.
Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardoned all our sins, and accepted us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, and received by faith alone. God takes away our guilt because Jesus paid the penalty of our sins, and He bestows upon us a positive righteousness, even Jesus Christ Himself, in whom we stand forever, uncondemned and right in God’s sight.
God declares that the believing sinner has been made right in His sight and acceptable to Himself. This is the eternal position to which the believer has been brought through God’s grace.
The one saved was perfected in the sight of God as being in Christ. The believing sinner has partaken of Christ’s saving merit and standing. We don’t have to add anything of merit to that which is already perfected. It is all of grace that it may be by faith. “For by one offering He has perfected those who are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). Remember that Christ is interceding on our behalf. John wrote, “And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16). “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power (Col. 2:9–10).
Based upon the death of Jesus Christ for our sins God can declare the believing sinner just in His sight. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).
The purpose of God’s sovereign grace is to create a new people in which to display His glory. He called and justified those on whom He had laid His choice. “And whom He justified, He also glorified.” (Rom. 8:29-31)
God in His eternal counsel foreknows and foreordains. That is His prerogative. The calling and justifying takes place in the believer. That is our experience. One day in the future we will be glorified, and will share in Christ’s glory.
Does this mean that those justified by grace can sin as much as they want?
Rom. 6:1-2 says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer in it?”
1 Thess. 4:7 says, “God has called us not for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.”
The Scriptures teach us that we are to live holy lives and avoid sin (Col. 1:5-11). Just because we are saved and eternally justified before God (John 10:28), that is no excuse to continue in the sin from which we were saved. Of course, we all sin (Rom. 3:23). But the war between the saved and sin is continuous (Rom. 7:14-20) and it won’t be until the return of Jesus that we will be delivered from this body of death (Rom. 7:24). To seek sin continually and use God’s grace to excuse it later is to trample the blood of Christ underfoot (Heb. 10:29) and to reveal the person’s true sinful, unsaved nature (1 John 2:4; 2:19). (Other verses worth checking out are: Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:14-16; and 1 Pet. 2:21-22).