JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

The biblical doctrine of justification by faith is a fundamental truth of God's Word that should be understood by every believing disciple of the Lord Jesus. The word "justification" is a legal term that means that a person is forgiven of one's sins, declared "not guilty" in God's sight and given the legal status of righteousness - or being "in the right" with God.

Biblically, the ground for a believer's justification is the sacrificial [sin-offering sacrifice] death and then resurrection of the Messiah by which he paid the price for the sins of all mankind and reconciled mankind to his God and Father Yehovah. The means by which a person receives this justification is personal committed obedient faith in Jesus the Messiah, obeying all the word his God Yehovah gave to him to give to the world. The Book of Romans sets forth these truths clearly:

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus the Messiah, to all who believe his words and obey them, live them out in their lives. There is no difference,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came through the Messiah Jesus.

God presented him as a [sin-offering] sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his shed blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished –

He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-26).

To be justified in God's sight means that the verdict of the final judgment has already taken place for the believer in the Messiah. Why? Because when someone believes in Christ he receives the gift of God's Spirit and is at that moment incorporated into the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:12-13). As a result, the believer is said to be "in Christ" and thus identifies in all that Christ accomplished for the believer by means of his sacrificial death, resurrection, etc. In short, through the Spirit the believer is "created in Christ Jesus" and receives by grace the spiritual benefits of this new relationship with God. Look at I Corinthians:

It is because of him [God] that you are in the Messiah Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption (I Corinthians 1:30).

The Bible clearly teaches that man's relationship with God is entered into and maintained by faith. Biblically, faith is not a meritorious work but a humble acceptance and dependence on the words of God. This is made clear in Romans:

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness (Romans 4:4-5)

Biblically, faith always takes place in the heart. Since God is a God who "looks on the heart" he cannot be fooled. Thus the humble acceptance of the Messiah by any individual always results in God's acceptance and the cleansing power and witness of his Spirit. Look at the following verses:

'Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith' (Acts 15:7-9). Faith, of course, is not simply mental assent but is a commitment of mind or heart to the truth of a statement or to a being, such as God. In short, it is a decision to humbly accept something as being true and then to hold to it within one's life. Because of this, true faith conditions a person's understanding, outlook and actions. The following New Testament examples illustrate this:

And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as 1 the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe (I Thessalonians 2:13).

But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in the Messiah Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:5-6).

These verses are important in regards to understanding God's gift of salvation and man's proper response to it. Justification and, therefore, salvation is a gift from God to man made possible by God's gracious action in Christ for the redemption of mankind. Through faith in the Messiah a person receives God's gift of the Spirit and is thus acquitted from all sin, declared "not guilty" in God's sight and brought into a right relationship with God. As a result, the justified believer has "peace with God" and is able to bring forth the spiritual fruit of that relationship with God in his daily life. Again, the Book of Romans makes this clear:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-2).

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in the Messiah Jesus, because through the Messiah Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4).

The New Testament stresses these same truths throughout. Salvation is by grace through faith in the Messiah. The gift of the Spirit is the "firstfruits" of this salvation imparting God's own nature into the heart and life of an individual. The result is a new creation of God's own making which is then manifested to the world through a life of good works. As Paul states:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in the Messiah Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Written by Richie Temple and edited by Bruce Lyon