“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1 (NASB)
So what does it mean to be justified?
Dikaioo from díkaios (just, righteous) – the same root for words translated righteous, righteousness, justification, just, justifier, defines the act of declaring one not guilty. It means to pronounce and treat as righteous. Hence, we may say it is not a process, as we may have been taught.
The aorist tense used identifies the justification as a one time event in the past, in which we as believers were declared not guilty. There is a need to recognise that justification is not something that is going on now, but rather it is something that has already happened and was completed the moment you were saved.
We may then simplify it and say it refers to the act of God removing the guilt and penalty of sin from a sinner who places his faith in the Lord Jesus as Saviour.
So there’s justification, salvation and glorification. But aren’t they all just the same thing?
I’ll leave a link to a more in-depth study of the three tenses of salvation, but in short it can be summarised as is below:
JUSTIFICATION = PAST TENSE
SANCTIFICATION = PRESENT TENSE
GLORIFICATION = FUTURE TENSE
Justification can therefore be said to equate with what has been referred to as Past Tense Salvation, which would be the moment we were cleansed of guilt, forgiven of sin and the penalty of eternal death, reborn, clothed in Christ’s righteousness, freed from condemnation and eternally safe in Christ (though we may not “feel” like we possess the divine benefits at this point). This would be intimately associated with the following stage known as Present tense salvation or sanctification, the consummation of which is our Future Tense Salvation or glorification.
We are justified by faith, right. But what is faith? How do I know its faith and not just, you know, an acceptance of God’s existence?
It is hard to give an absolute definition of what faith is, in relation to Christ, but here are a few general definitions of faith. I will also leave a link to a very thorough discussion on Biblical doctrine (See Chapter 35, in which they address ‘what is saving faith?’)
Faith (pistis) is synonymous with trust or belief and is the conviction of the truth of anything, but in Scripture usually speaks of belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things.
“This word denotes confidence in the reliability of a person or thing and can describe one’s trust in a person’s word, a compact or treaty, or a deity (or deities). The term implies both knowledge and action. One may receive knowledge of a certain truth and may even offer verbal agreement, but “trust” or “confidence” is not said to be present until one’s behavior reflects that truth” – Swindoll
A definition which I do believe encapsulates our behaviour as it relates to faith is this: faith is not believing in spite of evidence—that’s superstition—but obeying in spite of circumstances and consequences.
We do also need to make it clear what we believe and have faith in.
“It is not by faith, abstractly considered, that we are justified, nor even by faith in everything that God reveals. It is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even this phrase itself, namely, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is still elliptical, and supposes the knowledge of what is to be believed with respect to Christ. It is not believing in His existence, but believing on Him as revealed in the Scriptures, in His person and work.” – Haldane
Faith without works is dead. So where does that come into play?
To avoid going off on a tangent, I will draw from W E Vine’s definition of faith, stating that true faith, that saves one’s soul, includes at least three main elements:
- Firm persuasion or firm conviction
- A surrender to that truth
- A conduct emanating from that surrender.
In sum, faith shows itself genuine by a changed life, through works.
Ah okay. And what about the peace?
The justified person is no longer tormented by questions of their relationship with God arising from the fact that they are a sinner. Sinner though we are, despite falling short of His glory, we are now at peace with God because of what God has done for us.
God Bless!
My Sunday Skl 