The Lord our God must deal with men upon the grounds of strict justice because he is Just? Justice and holiness are as essential to the character of God as love and mercy, God can no more put aside justice in dealing with men than he can put aside love from his character. Because God is Just, the only way he can save a guilty sinner, the only way he can bring the sinner into an eternal union of life with himself, is if he can make the sinner both guiltless and sinless in the eyes of his own law and Justice. This act of God's matchless grace, by which he declares that a person is guiltless and sinless is what Paul calls "Justification". Now, when God declares that a person is guiltless and sinless, perfectly righteous before him, that person really is in the eyes of God perfectly righteous. Our righteousness before God is not just a merciful supposition, it is a blessed reality in Christ. Here are four facts about Justification.
Paul, speaking of God's eternal decree in predestination, declares that all of God's elect were justified in his eternal purpose of grace - "Whom he did PREDESTINATE, them he also CALLED: and whom he called, them he also JUSTIFIED: and whom he justified, them he also GLORIFIED." From eternity God looked upon his Son as our Substitute, and looking upon us in his Son, we are, and always have been, righteous in his sight. The fact of our eternal Justification in Christ is the reason why our race was not destroyed immediately after the fall. John Gill put it this way, "As God's will to elect is the election of his people, so his will to Justify them is the Justification of them." Thomas Goodwin said, "We may say of all spiritual blessings in Christ, what is said of Christ, that 'his goings forth are from everlasting'. In Christ we are blessed with all spiritual blessings. As we are blessed with all others, so with this also, that we were Justified then in Christ!"
2. ALL OF GOD"S ELECT WERE JUSTIFIED AT CALVARY.
Having lived in perfect obedience to the law of God as our Representative, establishing a perfect righteousness for us, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died as our Substitute at Calvary, satisfying the penalty of God's law and Justice against us. In the Person of our Substitute, we have satisfied the law's requirements and its penalty. And now God, in perfect consistency with his Justice and holiness, declares that we are forgiven of all sin and justified - "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
3. EVERY BELIEVER RECEIVES JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IN CHRIST.
Christ Justified us by his great sin-stoning sacrifice; and all who believe on Christ as Lord and Savior receive all the many benefits of his finished work, one of which is justification. It is mitten that our Lord Jesus Christ "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore BEING JUSTIFIED, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Faith does not cause God to justify us. The obedience of Christ has done that for us. But faith, resting upon Christ alone as Savior, obtains peace with God, even the peace of perfect and complete justification.
4. AND EVERY TRUE BELIEVER IS JUSTIFIED BY HIS WORKS.
This is what James tells us in James 2:20-26. James and Paul are not opposed to each other. In Romans 3 Paul shows us the ACCOMPLISHMENT of Justification. Here James is showing us the EVIDENCE of justification. If a man is a true believer in Christ, he will Justify his faith and prove its reality by works of righteous obedience to God, even as Abraham did. Any faith which does not produce such obedience is a false faith, a demonic delusion. Justification, then, is an ETERNAL ACT of God, ACCOMPLISHED at Calvary, RECEIVED by faith, and PROVED by works.
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