What Is Justification?

The Bible's Answers to Man's Questions

Key Verses:  Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

The short answer to the question is "not guilty".  The term used for justification, dikaiosis, is a legal term, and refers to being absolved of guilt as a result of a court proceeding.  In God's eyes, we are all guilty of sin (Romans 3:23), and worthy of death (Romans 6:23).  That judgment derives, first of all, from the guilt we inherit from Adam, but each of us is a sinner by nature.  It is impossible for any of us by our efforts (by keeping the law) to gain forgiveness, a verdict of acquittal.  Under human law, someone guilty of murder is not declared innocent of the deed simply because he or she performs a multitude of good deeds before and after.  The only way to be absolved of guilt is to be pardoned by a government official.

The analogy of a courtroom, like most, is not exact.  We are not acquitted because we are not guilty, and neither are we pardoned while the fact of our guilt remains a matter of record.  In God's "legal" system, our guilt is totally expunged from his records; we are not found "not guilty" of a crime we didn't commit, but of ones that we did do.  Our sin is not just pardoned, but forgotten.  We have a clean slate in life, unlike a murderer who is pardoned but whose guilt still remains.

Justification is always by faith.  That means we are justified because of our acceptance of what Christ did for our behalf.  The "crime" of sin does not go unpunished, but Christ assumed the guilt for us.  He was punished so we would not have to be.  Until we accept the "verdict" of his guilt for us, though, by asking him into our lives as Savior, our own guilt remains, and so does our ultimate punishment.  Justification is only necessary because of our guilt; if we could win our own release from judgment by our own righteousness, Christ need never have died.

We can't talk about justification without at least mentioning atonement.  Under the old sacrificial system, the blood of animals was used to symbolically cover the sins of the people that rested on the altar.  "Atonement" literally meant "to cover", and in the same way the blood of Christ covers our own sins when we receive the forgiveness offered in him.  We are justified because God can no longer see our sins; they are covered by the blood of Christ.  Since he cannot see our sins, as a result of our faith in Christ, he sees us as righteous, or behaving and thinking in perfect obedience to his commandments.  Again, justification doesn't mean we are not guilty, but that our guilt has been assumed by someone else, Christ, and erased from our record.

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