What is justification?

Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is the heart of the Protestant Reformation, the hinge on which everything turns. It has to do with how we answer the question, “How can we be right with God?”

There are some key points to remember. The first is that justification is an act. It’s a once-for-all verdict–a declaration on God’s part of something about us. We’re guilty before him, but in justification he declares us to be something other than guilty. He declares us to be righteous.

How? God pardons our sin, and accepts us as righteous. How God can do that? After all, we’re still sinners right? How can he declare us to be something that we’re not? The answer is that it is not our righteousness that he counts, but Christ’s. He clothes us with Christ’s righteousness through imputation. A double imputation, actually. He imputes our sin to Christ – he counts it as his – and he imputes Christ’s righteousness to us – he counts it as ours. So Christ’s righteousness involves both his passive obedience (dying on the cross to pay for our sins) and his active obedience (obeying God’s law completely to purchase admission to heaven for us).

We receive all his righteousness! How? Through faith alone in Christ alone. There’s nothing that we do to earn or deserve God’s favour. It’s his free gift which we may receive through coming to Jesus in faith. This is what gives us great hope that we are accepted by God. Not because we’ve done better this week but, because he accepts us in Christ. He loves us for Christ’s sake!

This is a truth we can mediate upon day after day. Keep thanking God for his great love for us in Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in drawing us and giving us the gifts of faith and repentance.