<font color="blue">JustificationLatin justificatio; Greek dikaiosis.)

This is an ecclesiastical term as it describes the transforming of the sinner from the state of unrighteousness to the state of righteous holiness and sonship of God. Considered as an act (actus justificationis), justification is the work of God alone. "Saving grace" is another term, meaning that in spite of our original sinful nature, because of our accepting by faith God's Gift, Christ justifies our righteousness. Grace is unmerited favor. It means something good though we don't deserve it.

Psalm 130 :<font color="purple"> "If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (130:3 NKJV) </font>

The answer? No one. That is, on our own accord for we are born into unrighteousness. The doctrine of justification refers to our status before the judgment of God. Every person will be called to account before God for his life and whether he or she accepted God's Gift of salvation. Those who have not, and remain unrighteous will be judged to damnation, but those who have accepted the Gift will be seen through Christ's work on the cross, and be declared righteous, and justified...sola fide. (By faith alone.)
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("For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written:<font color="purple"> "There is none righteous, no, not one...." Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:9-10, 19-20 NKJV)) </font>
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Paul excludes justification virtue of our doing deeds of the law. Justification on the ground of our works is eliminated as an option. Christians were once debtors who could not pay their debts to God. God requires perfection. We cannot meet that requirement. And, by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in God's sight.

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"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 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 to be 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 3:21-26 NKJV) </font> Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.

This is the same way of justification given by The Law to Jews, and spoken by the Prophets of old. It is justification through faith in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. As mentioned before, elsewhere, the Jewish people were required to offer a sacrifice with faith that God would do as He promised them: send the Messiah in the future, to redeem them.

Such justification only is given to those who believe.

"Again,the dilemma faced by the sinner summoned to the judgment seat of God is this: The sinner must appear before a divine Judge who is perfectly just. Yet the sinner is unjust. How can he possibly be unjust and justified? For God to justify the impious (iustificatio impii) and himself remain just in the process, the sinner must somehow become actually just by a righteousness supplied him by another. "

How can this happen? Anyone who is a photographer will easily understand my analogy. When you take a red filter and place it over a lens and take a photograph, the filter filters OUT all the red in the picture. Imagine sin is red, and when the blood of Christ is place before us in our sinful state, God the Father does not see our sin, because we are justified through Christ and deemed righteous. I imagine a scene before the throne for those who are the redeemed, where God calls each of our names and Christ stands in front of us and with arms wide stretched to cover us up, declares we are justified by faith in Him. I hope I see you there.







Study of the doctrine of justification can be found in Systematic Theology texts.