A recent email caused me to think about justification, so I started looking stuff up and dusted the cobwebs off some good theological terms. By faith in Christ, we are declared just before God. What does this mean? Christ's death fully atoned for all sin, God has forgiven all sin, and the Gospel reveals this forgiveness to all men. (1 John 2:1-2) We are sinners and we are worthy of death. But when we believe in Christ's atoning sacrifice, we are declared righteous before God. (Romans 3:21-26) We are still sinners, but that sin does not count against us. Instead, it is credited with the merits of Christ. (Rom 4:5-8)
So where does faith come in? The book I'm reading says it better than I could: "Christ paid for the sins of all men, and God, accepting this payment, has in His heart forgiven all sins of all men. This is called objective or universal justification. The moment our faith trusts in the promise of God...God confirms the gift upon us personally. This is called personal or subjective justification." Thus by faith we receive personal possession of that justification, which the Gospel offers to all men in general. As Derek pointed out, faith itself is also a gift from God (Eph 2:8-9). That's amazing and reassuring, for us sinners who fall short in every way without Christ's sacrifice, God's love, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Illustration: On 01 JAN 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and declared slaves to be free. This was a general statement that applied to all men. But an individual slave was not personally freed until he heard about Lincoln's proclamation and it was applied to his life. In the same way, when Christ died on the cross 2000 years ago, the reconciliation of the world and forgiveness of sins through Christ became an accomplished fact. The attitude of men, whether he belives or not, cannot change that fact. Yet when a man believes this fact, he has the forgiveness of sins and is personally justified before God.
"Thus it appears that universal justification does not benefit anyone unless it is followed by personal justifcation, and that personal justification is possible only because of the preceding universal justification." Don't get lost in the terminology, it's actually quite simple. Illustration: "Bread will not nourish us, unless we eat it; but we cannot eat it unless it is there."
Justification is not an internal transformation that makes the sinner less sinful. It is an act performed by God, taking place outside the sinner, in which God absolves the sin of sinful men who believe in Christ. He absolves them not on their own merit or worth, but solely on the merit and righteousness of Christ and their faith in Christ's righteousness. "Faith is absolutely necessary as a means of salvation, but faith is not the Savior. Not the act of eating, but the food we eat nourishes us. Thus, not the act of believing, but what we believe saves us."
Justification is complete and perfect. All sins are forgiven, completely. I liked this part: "For this reason, faith does not look forward to forgiveness of sins, as a thing to be hoped for, but forgiveness and justification are a present possession, which we have and hold in their completeness as long as we continue in the faith. There are degrees of faith, weak and strong, but there are no degrees of justification."
That's all for now. But this review of justification made me read up on sanctification as well, so I may blog on that soon, if I have the luxury of time to do so.
PS: I have a new first cousin, once removed. Congrats Julie and Brian!!
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2 comments:
Hey, Stef! I have two comments:
1. When I read your posts, I can mouse over the scripture references and the actual text of those verses pops up in a little window. This is because I have Instaverse installed. Just thought I'd put in a plug for that (Instaverse is made by WORDsearch, where I work).
2. One sentence you quoted from the book set off my "theology alarm." It said "by faith one puts himself into personal possession of that justification..." I don't think we put ourselves into possession of justification, because the Bible teaches that faith is also a gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9); it is not "of ourselves." So God not only provides the payment for our sin, He even provides the very means by which we can apprehend that payment.
Naturally, if you buy that, it leads to bigger questions (like, why do I get to have faith, but some do not?), but I think it's scriptural, and as a Christian it gives me much peace to know that even the fact that I am a Christian is a gift of God; the work and the glory are entirely His.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post!
The universal gift of God to everyone is grace (prevenient grace), that universal grace which calls everyone and must be present before possible personal justification (unless you are a hard core Calvanist, but that's another discussion). The adjective "prevenient" describes one effect God's grace has on us; it is this aspect of grace, God's grace, which creates in us an awareness and desire to respond to him. God gave all of us this gift of prevenient grace (which is universally justifying). He has already given us the gift; the only thing in the way is our sin. Is it neccessary for him to again give a select (or elect) few faith simply to get past our sinful nature? I am going to suggest the word "that" in the scripture you quoted does not refer to the mechanism of "faith" (I agree, the scripture says that in English), rather salvation, as it does in the original Greek letter. Well, if faith leads to salvation, is this a big deal? I think it might be, because if faith is the gift and it is only given to a view, then I think we have to believe in the most true-to-Calvin form of elected predestination.
Here's a page which tries to summarize at least the evidence of what the word "that" modifies, and does it better than I ever could (in it's pithiness, doesn't answer all the questions it raises. I guess that's left as an exercise to the reader).
http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2297
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