 |
GIRS syllabus index: Survey Studies in Reformed Theology Unit Index: Subjective Soteriology |
|---|
Justification
by Pastor Bob Burridge ©1998
Westminster Confession of Faith XI
I. Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness, by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.
II. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.
III. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to his Father's justice in their behalf. Yet, inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them; and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead; and both, freely, not for anything in them; their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.
IV. God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect, and Christ did, in the fullness of time, die for their sins, and rise again for their justification: nevertheless, they are not justified, until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them.
V. God doth continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified; and, although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God's fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of his countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance.
VI. The justification of believers under the old testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the new testament.
Westminster Shorter Catechism
Q 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.
The Work of Justification and the Individual
Justification is established in the eternal decree of God. It is a
judicial declaration grounded upon the objective work of Christ, and is
therefore termed a forensic act. The work of Christ in satisfying the
demands of divine justice for all of the elect has been summarized in
WCF chapter 8 (see our Syllabus on Objective Soteriology
Jesus Christ the Mediator).
Jesus, in his suffering and death in the sinner's place, removes the
offense of sin effecting restoration to fellowship with God covenantally
and establishing the flow of spiritual life into the sinner.
In Justification, the objective work of the Savior is subjectively applied to each individual for whom satisfaction has been secured. By imputation, the sinner is accounted as righteous before the judgment seat of Christ. He is not considered holy for any works, merits or attitudes of the sinner himself, but for the merit of the Savior alone.
Evidences that Justification is Forensic
The term justification is a purely declaratory and legal term. It is a
pronouncement of the divine court that justice and the demands of
holiness have been met. Charles Hodge clarifies the meaning of the term:
"That to justify means neither to pardon, nor to make inherently righteous or good is proved -- 1. By the uniform usage of the word to justify in Scripture. It is never used in either of those senses, but always to declare or pronounce just. It is unnecessary to cite passages in proof of a usage which is uniform." (Systematic Vol 3, Page 120)
This usage is illustrated in each of the uses of the term in Scripture. The following texts illustrate the forensic nature of justification.
Deuteronomy 25:1 If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,
Galatians 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.
Justification is distinct from Sanctification
Justification is not the same as sanctification which is the bringing of
the person's attitudes and behaviors into agreement with what is holy.
Justification has to do only with one's standing, not his acts.
(Sanctification will be taken up in more detail in WCF chapter 13.)
Some have therefore said that justification is associated with regeneration, and sanctification is associated with conversion. The confusion of these two distinct concepts has caused some to speak of justification as including an infusion of righteousness, rather that an imputation of righteousness. This Romanist view makes the continuing good works of the believer to be a truly meritorious element in his being forgiven. This is contrary to the forensic view of the Reformed churches.
Though sanctification is not the same as justification, neither can occur without the other. Those truly remitted of their sins are those for whom Christ died. Those for whom he died show their sonship by growing in personal obedience, repentance and desire for holiness. Justification does not appear by itself in the regenerated heart. It is accompanied by all the other fruits of regeneration which are manifested through the conversion of the sinner's life. The lesson of James 2:14, 17 confirms that a true redemptive faith is not alone. It is but one attribute of the renewed relationship with God in the believer.
James 2:14 What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
James 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
Justification is More than Mere Pardon
In justification as a forensic act the offenses of those justified are
neither set aside, nor merely pardoned. The justice of God demands that
full satisfaction of the penalty of sin must be made. Either the sinner
himself faces an eternity of separation from God in agony and suffering,
or the Savior is taken as a substitute for the sinner.
To presume that justification is mere pardon looks only to the penal aspects of sin. Pardon sets aside the legal demand that the consequences of a crime must be carried out. Pardon is the action of a Sovereign to circumvent the demands of established justice. In contrast, justification is the declaration of God as Judge affirming that all the demands of justice have already been met for the sinner by a Redeemer.
While pardon occurs as an aspect of justification, it is not accomplished by dismissing the demands of justice, but by satisfying them in the substitutionary atonement. The person is accounted as righteous and accepted as such on the basis of the work of Christ alone.
The Objects of Justification
Not one of God's elect is left out of this redemptive work, and none but
the elect is included. God redeems no one other than those he intends to
redeem and none he does not intend to redeem. Otherwise God either
intends against himself, or acts against his own intention, or utterly
fails to do what he intends. These alternate options are contrary to the
revealed character of God. In Romans 8:29-30 it is explicitly shown that
all those foreknown by God in his eternal redemptive plan are
predestined and effectually called. All those effectually called are
Justified and glorified.
God is not bound by any principle outside of his own decrees and is therefore free as he acts in justifying the sinner. There can be no obligation upon the redemptive plan of God that does not flow from the eternal and perfect nature of God himself. The imagined boundaries set by the reasoning of the fallen heart must not be permitted to impose upon the establishment of a biblical theology. God can not be bound by such supposed standards of fairness that do not flow from his own holiness and perfect justice. He justifies according to the good pleasure of his will.
Faith is the Means of Justification
No other grace than faith is the means by which the sinner lays hold of
the work of Christ resulting in justification. Yet clearly God has
ordained that faith is the instrument by which the sinner ordinarily is
declared holy in justification.
John 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Acts 10:43 "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."
This justifying faith should not be viewed as a work of the unregenerated sinner. No one is saved by any works which he performs or intends (Romans 3:20-28, Galatians 2:16). Faith, therefore, is a work of God's grace in us. It is not an exercise of the lost human heart or mind. The use of such instrumentalities as secondary causes toward his decreed purpose is established by the absolute Sovereignty of God over all things including the means toward all ends. (The nature of saving faith is taken up in WCF chapter 14).
Those who claim that the act of faith itself, or the performance of any evangelical obedience, is accepted as righteousness by God, neglect the necessity of justice as a natural divine attribute. If any foundation other than the atoning suffering and death of the Savior is admitted, then the sacrifice of Christ is diminished and transformed into a most cruel and unnecessary act of God.
While Scripture directly presents faith as that instrument by which we are justified, it is not presented as the cause or foundation of our justification. The cause is the eternal and unchangeable decree of God. The judicial foundation for it is the redemptive work of Christ consisting of both our guilt being imputed to him who knew no sin, and his righteousness being imputed to us who deserve only condemnation. These are the two opposite forensic pronouncements: justification and condemnation. Both are declarations of the Sovereign Judge. If either was not forensic in nature then imputation would be meaningless and contradictory to God's holy nature.
The Sins of the Believer
Since justification is imputed not infused, the justified sinner
remains, at the first moment, an unworthy person only beginning in
progressive sanctification. All who are justified have the seed of
personal holiness germinating in them and growing toward the likeness of
Christ's righteousness. Personal obedience, understanding, and faith is
in us imperfectly in this life and often calls for the "fatherly
displeasure" of God toward his children. While the redeemed cannot fall
again into condemnation (Rom 8:1) they do again and again transgress
God's revealed law and must come to him repentantly, resting by faith in
the promise and work of Christ, calling for forgiveness, deliverance and
restoration to God's blessed rewards. The chastising of God is not light
toward his children, he loves them too much to let the remains of sin
continue uncorrected.
Hebrews 12:4-13
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives." It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.Furthermore,we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
No Dispensational Differences in Justification
There are some temporal distinctions that must not be dismissed. While
we are elected by God's grace and are purposed by decree to be justified
from before the foundation of the world, we should not say we are
justified before creation. That ignores the distinction between the
decree, which is the ultimate cause of our justification, and its
execution in time by application to the individuals chosen by grace. And
while atonement was made for all the elect on the cross of Calvary, we
ought not say that we were justified at the time of Christ's death. That
ignores the distinction between the grounds of our justification and its
application to the elect persons.
Yet we must not distinguish ages in the outworking of the eternal decree as if in different periods of redemptive history the elect were justified differently. Those who propose that law was a means of justification in the Old Testament and grace in the New, obscure the meaning, grounds and forensic nature of justification. Law has never been a means of removing the guilt of sinners. It exposes their sin and declares the perfect standard of God's holy requirements toward all men. Grace has never been absent. If it was not for grace there would have been no saint, in either testament, who would have come to God trusting in the promise of redemption.
Though temporal execution of the grounds of justification waited until the fullness of time when Jesus Christ died for his people, they have always been the foundation for the removal of guilt by God who is not restricted to events that have already taken place in time.