Justification

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
The Apostle Paul

Let us dwell on justification, as Paul saw it and presented it. There is much confusion today, reinforced by the pulpit and the seminaries, about the meaning of this crucial word. Many will say that being “justified by faith” means that because someone believes something essential about Jesus, God considers them innocent before Him, and will not punish them (“The vilest offender who truly believes—that moment from Jesus a pardon receives”). There is an important amount of truth to this, but strictly speaking that is more like a by-product of justification.
Justification is an act of God in the central part of the soul through which God reestablishes a close relationship to us by imparting some of His life to us and thus making us acceptable to him. It is the first instance in which our name is written in the Book of Life: that is, when our own person is included in the infinite Life of God that floods the universe.
In the passages quoted at the beginning of this essay, several things are to be noted. Paul says, first, that he and the early Christians had been justified by faith. We must understand what this faith is and how it works to effect justification in a human soul. Faith is a spiritual substance containing energy, thought, intention, and feeling. When it comes to an individual, it comes through God impressing it upon the individual’s mind, so that they see something about God and, feel like his life is desirable. The energy in it, stemming from the Holy Spirit, is sufficient to break through the fallen structure of the human mind without God. And finally, the intention that is in it leads toward the choice of obedience to God.
Now, all of this is in faith apart from anything we may do or make of it. Often it is in fact present in the individual’s mind for a season before the individual claims it as his or her own. But, when the individual ceases resisting and engages his or her will with this substance, that faith becomes his or her own and remains in the heart of that person. The person then naturally has an inclination to obedience, however slight, and the ability to know other spiritual things through the new found energy in the will. Thus it is a work of God in the heart of the human being, although it is received through a human choice, and in fact begins to influence the further choices of that individual.
Secondly, Paul says that we are justified freely by his grace. “By his grace” indicates that this justification comes out of the greatness and generosity of God, and not upon the basis of our merits. It is a free gift which we can receive simply on the basis of God’s goodness.
Finally, Paul adds that the grace was given through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. I think he is referring to the “whole package” that comes to a person when they hear about whom Christ is and what he said; and, usually, when they are faced with an actual human being who stands in Christ’s life.
I must briefly depart from this to clear something up. I think there is room, in Paul’s eyes, for some justification occurring simply through the knowledge of God that is found in nature, in some of God’s words in the Old Testament, and even extra-biblical oracles of God, such as those given to the Greeks, Romans, and Chinese in their history. These things are rare to be sure, but today we must mention them to dispel the idea that those who have not heard of the historical Jesus are automatically left out. (Of course, I believe that God in some way initiates to some extent with every human being who ever lives, but that is another story.)
To resume the line of thought, “through the redemption that came through Jesus Christ,” refers to all experience, thought, and feeling given to people who are actually acquainted to Jesus. This includes the knowledge of His life, death, and resurrection; His teachings; and His representatives on the earth. The “grace” that enters those who trust Christ is so substantial that the individual believer is now in a position, with God’s help and His people’s help, to begin to rise to the stature of Christ and recover the glory of God in his or her own personality.