Justification

Job 9:2b

How can a man be justified before God?

Martin Luther from Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that 'the just (righteous one) shall live by his faith' (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38). Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith.

Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A 33

Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Acts 13:39 (HCSB)

Everyone who believes in Him is justified from everything that you could not be justified from through the law of Moses.

Romans 2:22-24

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 

Romans 4:5 (NLT)

People are counted as righteous (justified), not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.

Romans 5:1

Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2:16

A person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

2 Corinthians 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

John Calvin  Institutes, Book 3rd, Ch. 11.23  "On Justification by Faith"

It is entirely by the intervention of Christ's righteousness that we obtain justification before God. This is equivalent to saying that man is not just in himself, but that the righteousness of Christ is communicated to him by imputation, while he is strictly deserving of punishment.

        Letter to Cardi­nal Sadoleto

If you would understand how inseparable faith and works are, look to Christ, who, as the Apostle teaches (1 Corinthians 1:30), has been given to us for justification and sanctification. Wherever, therefore, that righteous­ness of faith, which we maintain to be gratuitous (a gift from God), is, there too Christ is, and where Christ is, there too is the Spirit of holiness, who regenerates the soul to newness of life.

(You cannot have Christ only for justification and not also for sanctification.)

William Gurnall  The Christian in Complete Armour

Christ the Son of God—both God and man in one person—laid down his life upon agreement with his Father, to make an atonement for the sin of the world; and now offers thee that blood which then he shed, as a price to carry in the hand of thy faith to the Father, for pardon and peace. Peace of conscience is but a discharge under God's hand that the debt due to divine justice is fully paid. The blood of Christ hath done that for the believer. Christ purchased peace of pardon, to obtain peace of conscience for his pardoned ones.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

We are justified, not by giving anything to God, - what we do, - but by receiving from God, what Christ hath done for us. 

Thomas Watson  A Body of Divinity  "The Application of Redemption - Justification"

http://www.gracegems.org/Watson/body_of_divinity8.htm 

God does not justify us because we are worthy, but by justifying us make us worthy. 

God the Father justifies, as he pronounces us righteous; God the Son justifies, as he imputes his righteousness to us; and God the Holy Ghost justifies, as he clears up our justification, and seals us up to the day of redemption.  

J.C. Ryle  Old Paths  Chapter 8 – “Justification”

http://www.preachtheword.com/bookstore/old-paths-ryle.pdf

The true Christian is counted righteous for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is justified because of the death and atonement of Christ. He has peace because “Christ died for his sins according to the Scriptures”. This is the key that unlocks the mighty mystery. Here the great problem is solved, how God can be just and yet justify the ungodly. The life and death of the Lord Jesus explain all. “He is our peace” (1 Corinthians 15:3; Ephesians 2:14).

Christ has stood in the place of the true Christian. He has become our Surety and our Substitute. He undertook to bear all that was to be borne, and to do all that was to be done, and what He undertook He performed (Isaiah 53:6).

Christ has suffered for sins, the “just for the unjust”. He has endured our punishment in His own body on the cross. He has allowed the wrath of God, which we deserved, to fall on His own head (1 Peter 3:18).

Christ has paid the debt the Christian owed, by His own blood. He has reckoned for it, and discharged it to the uttermost farthing by His own death. God is a just God, and will not require his debts to be paid twice over (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18-19).

Christ has obeyed the law of God perfectly. The devil, the Prince of this World, could find no fault in Him. By so fulfilling it He brought in an everlasting righteousness, in which all His people are clothed in the sight of God (Daniel 9:24; Romans 10:4).

Christ, in one word, has lived for the true Christian. Christ has died for him. Christ has gone to the grave for him. Christ has risen again for him. Christ has ascended up on high for him, and gone into heaven to intercede for his soul. Christ has done all, paid all, suffered all that was needful for his redemption. Hence arises the true Christian’s justification, hence his peace. In himself there is nothing, but in Christ he has all things that his soul can require (Colossians 2:3; Colossians 3:11).

Who can tell the blessedness of the exchange that takes place between the true Christian and the Lord Jesus Christ! Christ’s righteousness is placed upon him, and his sins are placed upon Christ. Christ has been reckoned a sinner for his sake, and now he is reckoned innocent for Christ’s sake. Christ has been condemned for his sake though there was no fault in Him, and now he is acquitted for Christ’s sake, though he is covered with sins, faults, and short-comings. God can now be just and yet pardon the ungodly. Man can feel that he is a sinner, and yet have a good hope of heaven and feel peace within.

Is this peace your own? Bought by Christ with His own blood, offered by Christ freely to all who are willing to receive it, is this peace your own? Oh, rest not until you can give a satisfactory answer to my question, HAVE YOU PEACE?

Saving faith brings with it nothing to Christ but a sinful man’s soul. It gives nothing, contributes nothing, pays nothing, performs nothing. It only receives, takes, accepts, grasps, and embraces the glorious gift of justification which Christ bestows, and by renewed daily acts enjoys that gift. If you would have peace, and keep peace, remember that faith alone justifies, and that not as a meritorious work, but as the act that joins the soul to Christ. The crown and glory of the Gospel is justification by faith without the deeds of the law.

Octavius Winslow  Morning Thoughts on Romans 8:33 "It is God who justifies."

Behold the eternal security of the weakest believer in Jesus. The act of justification, once passed under the great seal of the resurrection of Christ, God can never revoke without denying Himself. Here is our safety. Here is the ground of our dauntless challenge, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies.’ What can I need more? What more can I ask?                                                                                                                                                                                                           

If God, the God of spotless purity, the God of inflexible righteousness, justifies me, ‘who is he that condemns?’ Sin may condemn, but it is God that justifies! The law may alarm, but it is God that justifies! Satan may accuse, but it is God that justifies! Death may terrify, but it is God that justifies! ‘If GOD is for us, who can be against us?’ Who will dare condemn the soul whom He justifies?                 

How gloriously will this truth shine forth in the great day of judgment! Every accuser will then be dumb. Every tongue will then be silent. Nothing shall be laid to the charge of God’s elect. GOD Himself shall pronounce them fully, and forever justified: ‘And those He justifies, He also glorifies.’

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones  Spiritual Depression

I have a very simple test. After I have explained the way of Christ to somebody I say “Now, are you ready to say that you are a Christian?” And they hesitate. And then I say, “What’s the matter? Why are you hesitating?” And so often people say, “I don’t feel like I’m good enough yet. I don’t think I’m ready to say I’m a Christian now.” And at once I know that I have been wasting my breath. They are still thinking in terms of themselves. They have to do it. It sounds very modest to say, “Well, I don’t think I’m good enough,” but it’s a very denial of the faith. The very essence of the Christian faith is to say that He is good enough and I am in Him. 

Our justification means not only that our sins are forgiven and that we have been declared to be righteous by God Himself, not merely that we were righteous at the moment when we believed, but permanently righteous. For justification means this also, that we are given by God the positive righteousness of His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.