Salvation comprises several acts of God on behalf of the repentant sinner. In this lesson we’ll consider justification and imputation.
Justification
Justification is the judicial act of God whereby He declares the repentant sinner who believes in Christ for salvation as righteous (in right standing with Himself). It includes both pardon for sin, and the imputation of righteousness.
Man is separated from God because of His sins (both in nature and actions):
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2 NKJV)
In order to be reconciled to God a man or woman must be brought back into a position where sin no longer presents a barrier to God’s holiness. God’s answer to this problem was justification. Some have defined this as essentially bringing us into a position where it is just-as-if-I’d never sinned.
Biblically we discover that to be righteous is to fulfil the conditions of the Covenant relationship we have with God. To act righteously, one must act in accordance with the covenant. In this way, Abraham’s obedience was “accounted to him as righteousness” (genesis 15:6).
There are only two possible ways a person could seek to be justified before God; absolute and stringent obedience to the stipulations of the law, or by grace as a gift given on the basis of Christ’s work of salvation. In a sense, to be ‘justified’ is to be declared to be ‘within the covenant relationship’.
In Christ, and therefore in those who accept Christ’s substitutionary offer of exchange through the cross, the law is declared to be fulfilled in the strictest sense.
The law of the Covenant is not relaxed or set aside, but fulfilled. Those who accept Christ as their Justifier and their Righteousness through faith are therefore declared to be entitled to all the advantages and rewards resulting from perfect obedience to the law.
Read that last sentence again and consider its implications!
The only two ways that mankind can possibly seek to be justified are:
By works
This is self-justification and seeks to earn a position of perfect righteousness before God by adherence to the letter of the law. In reality this is impossible. The very nature of man is contrary to God and even his best works are as filthy rags when considered against the perfect standard of God’s holiness:
“But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.” (Is 64:6 NKJV)
“knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” (Gal 2:16 NKJV)
By Grace
Whereby the sinner receives right standing with God as a gift of grace (undeserved favour and merit). Because it is clear that no man can be justified by his own efforts this remains the only option for all who want to be reconciled to God. They must humbly accept the offer that comes through Jesus Christ:
“being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (Rom 3:24 NKJV)
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NKJV)
It must be noted that justification is a legal or forensic term, and in declaring the sinner righteous He is neither lying nor ignoring the offense. Such an action would be unjust, and place God Himself in a position where He would be transgressing his own holy laws of truth and justice. His ability as a righteous Judge to pardon and declare a sinner righteous is based entirely upon the substitutionary sacrifice of His perfectly righteous Son, Jesus Christ.
In Christ He becomes both just (righteous) and the justifier (the righteousness) of the ungodly:
“whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” (Rom 3:25-28 NKJV)
There are no degrees of justification as there are degrees of sanctification. When God justifies the repentant believing sinner, thus making them righteous, he or she is forgiven completely, not by a long drawn-out process but in an instant.
In a fundamental sense, justification is not concerned so much with our condition as a sinner, but with our position. Through God’s act of justification a man is restored to his original relation to God through the work of Christ.
In essence, justification and indeed the entire work of salvation, is motivated by God’s desire for relationship. As Exodus 34:14 so adequately expresses in the New Living Translation:
“You must worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.”
Universal Justification, But Not Universal Salvation
The justification of the sinner through the cross of Christ is both objective and universal, and subjective and personal.
Objectively, Christ died for the world.
Through the death of His Son God pronounced absolution for the entire human race (1 John 2:2; Rom 4:25).
Objective justification does not mean universal salvation however, merely universal grace and forgiveness. Although God declared all men righteous in Christ, many still will not accept this forgiveness and others may not even hear of it (Rom 10:14-17).
Subjectively, the individual hears of the justifying work of the cross, and of the universal offer of forgiveness, and accepts it as applying to himself.
Thus, what was once a general, universal justification, becomes an active force in the new believer, and the work of salvation begins in their life.
As sinners in the court of God’s law we were condemned as guilty, the sentence being death and separation from all that is good. We had no means to save or justify ourselves before God or man, and were therefore without hope. However, One who did have the means of payment, and no criminal record requiring payment of their own, chose to take our place of punishment. Furthermore they allowed us to take their place of favour and innocence. The innocent took the place of the guilty, thereby paying in full the debt which was owed and justifying the transgressor.
The transaction, which took place when Christ became our substitute, not only provided pardon for our sins and transgressions, it also involved a second and very powerful element: Imputation of righteousness to the pardoned sinner.
Imputation
Imputation is the act whereby God credits to the account of the believer His own righteousness. Now the pardoned sinner is not just a sinner saved by grace, but by all accounts a saint, the very righteousness of God Himself.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Cor 5:21 NKJV)
In this verse the Holy Spirit describes what happened at the cross:
- Our sins were imputed upon Christ.
- His righteousness was imputed, or credited, to our account.
A transaction takes place which places in our account all that is necessary to now stand in a new position of right standing with God. Our slate is wiped clean of all past transgression, and we are declared righteous with the righteousness of Christ. Again, the exchange took place on the cross, and God is perfectly just in crediting righteousness to our account, because all of our sin was credited to Christ’s account and He was duly punished on our behalf.
Three great instances of imputation stand out in the scriptures. These are:
The imputation of Adam’s sin upon the whole unborn human race.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—” (Rom 5:12 NKJV)
Adam, as the natural father of the human race, sinned. This was accounted to his children throughout their generations. In the first instance this may seem unfair, however, the legal framework whereby God could later impute righteousness to Adam’s progeny needed to be established right here. Already, God’s plan for the redemption of mankind was underway, and what appeared as a resounding victory for satan, was the very foundation upon which ten thousand times ten thousand saints would later stand praising the last Adam, Jesus Christ!
The imputation of the sins of Adam and the whole human race upon Christ.
“Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
(Isaiah 53:4-6 NKJV)
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Cor 5:21 NKJV)
Christ was “reckoned (numbered, accounted) among the trangressors” (Luke 22:37)
The imputation of the righteousness of Christ upon the whole human race, and especially believers.
Just as our sin was imputed to Christ, so Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us.
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;” (Phil 3:8-9 NKJV)
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Cor 5:21)
Just as Christ chose to accept the imputation of our sins upon Himself, we now must choose to accept by faith the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to our account. There is nothing we can do to earn it, or deserve it, but it must nevertheless still be accepted and received by faith. God does not force anyone to accept what He has already given to them in Christ.
The imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer is at the very heart of the doctrine of salvation.
Imputed righteousness is described in several ways including:
- The righteousness of faith (Rom 4:13; 9:30; 10:6)
- The righteousness of God, without the law (Rom 3:21)
- The righteousness of God by faith in Christ (Rom 3:22)
- Christ being made righteousness to us (1 Cor 1:30)
- Our being made the righteousness of God, in Christ (2 Cor 5:21)
