JUSTIFICATION: JUDGE OF UNIVERSE SAYS ‘NOT GUILTY’,PART 1

According to Dr.Hayford, “ Justification is the act of God by which He declares the guilty sinner acquitted of all charges against him. The Judge of the Universe says ‘Not guilty’. There is no grander biblical theme than the grace of God by which He justifies sinful Man—that Jesus, in dying for us, swallowed up all the sin, guilt and shame of mankind in Himself, that Jesus, the Son of God, became forsaken by God for our sake.” 1 So when Man puts his faith in Jesus, which is also a gift of God, there is no longer a sin record held against Man that he needs to pay. All that believe in Jesus are declared ‘Not Guilty’ by God. And because he has been ‘justified through Christ’, Man now has peace with God, so that he no longer needs to live under condemnation of His judgment even when he may still stumble and fall. As it says in Romans 8: 1 , “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

Of course, as Erickson says, “Even after sin has been forgiven and the sinner justified, the consequences of sin seem to linger on.” 2 For example, when King David murders Uriah, and he then realizes he has sinned against the Lord, God tells him he won’t die; but the first child born to Bathsheba would die because of his sin. ( 2 Samuel 12: 13-14). So there is a need to make a distinction between the temporal and eternal consequences of sin. When a sinner is justified, all of the eternal consequences of sin are cancelled, including eternal death. But the temporal consequences, are not necessarily removed as seen in the above example! So after being justified, believers should walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh!

Erickson also says: “Because of the fall, humanity has a twofold problem. One has to do with a person’s moral pollution which is taken care by regeneration or a ‘new-birth’… The second is our liability to punishment for having failed to fulfill God’s expectations” 3 But here is where ‘justification by faith’ comes in, where God declares sinners ‘righteous’ or forgiven. Martin Luther was preoccupied with this issue which led to his breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church and from whence came his doctrine of ‘justification by faith’ which brought in the Reformation Movement in the 16th century!

NOTES
1Jack W. Hayford, Grounds for Living, (Tonbridge: Sovereign World, 2001), 124
2Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology,(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006),973.
3 Ibid., 968.