Day 14
Righteous through Justification

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

Romans 5:1

From redemption and forgiveness we move to justification—the term that describes the judicial verdict of God on behalf of the redeemed sinner. The Greek word dikaioo and its related terms referred to legal acquittal of a charge and are used theologically to speak of a sinner being vindicated, justified, and declared righteous before God.

Justification is God’s declaration that all the demands of the law are fulfilled on behalf of the believing sinner through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. As a wholly forensic or legal transaction, justification changes the judicial standing of the sinner before God. In justification, God imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to the believer’s account, then declares the redeemed one fully righteous. Christ’s own infinite merit is the ground on which the believer stands before God. Paul said that we have been “justified by His blood” (Rom. 5:9). Thus justification raises us to a level of complete acceptance and divine privilege in Christ. As a result, believers are not only perfectly free from any charge of guilt (see 8:33) but also have the full merit of Christ reckoned to their personal account (see 5:17). It is important to note, however, the distinction between justification and sanctification. In sanctification God actually imparts Christ’s righteousness to the sinner.

While the two must be distinguished, justification and sanctification can never be separated. God does not justify whom He does not sanctify.1

The most immediate consequence of our justification is our reconciliation, which brings us peace with God. The Greek legal term translated “reconcile” (katallasso) meant to bring together two disputing parties. In the New Testament it is used to speak of a believer’s reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ.

Because most unbelievers have no conscious hatred of God and don’t actively oppose Him, they don’t consider themselves to be His enemies. But the fact is that the mind of every unsaved person is self-centered and at peace only with the things of the flesh, and therefore by definition is “hostile toward God” (8:7). God is the enemy of the sinner, and that enmity cannot end unless and until the sinner places his or her trust in Jesus Christ.

Once a person embraces Christ in repentant faith, the sinless Son of God, who made perfect satisfaction for all our sins (an element of Christ’s work that we’ll examine on a later day), makes that person eternally at peace with God the Father. Beyond that “He Himself is our peace” (Eph. 2:14).

Full reconciliation with God is ours through the Lord Jesus. Because He possesses all the fullness of deity (see Col. 1:19), He is able to fully reconcile sinful men and women to God, “having made peace through the blood of His cross . . . He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death” (vv. 20, 22). Only His violent death on the cross could effect our reconciliation with God. Those who trust in Christ are no longer God’s enemies or under His wrath but rather are at peace with Him.

Perhaps no passage stresses the vital importance of reconciliation more than 2 Corinthians 5:17–21, in which we can discern five truths. First, reconciliation transforms men: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (v. 17). Second, it appeases God’s wrath: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (v. 21). Third, it comes through Christ: “All these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ” (v. 18). Fourth, it is available to all who believe: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (v. 19). Finally, every believer has been given the ministry of proclaiming the message of reconciliation: God “gave us the ministry of reconciliation” and “He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (vv. 18, 19).

God sends His people forth as ambassadors into a fallen, lost world, bearing amazing good news. People everywhere are hopelessly lost and doomed, cut off from God by sin. But God has provided the means of reconciliation through the death of His Son. Our mission is to plead with people to receive that reconciliation before it is too late. Paul’s attitude should be true of every believer: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (v. 20).

To be ambassadors, we must be able to live the part. And that was God’s ultimate goal in effecting our redemption, justification, and reconciliation. We just looked at 2 Corinthians 5:21, where Paul said, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” In Colossians 1:22 Paul said the goal of reconciliation is “to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” And Peter said, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24). Those verses don’t claim that Christ died so we could go to heaven, have peace, or experience love; He died to bring about a transformation—to make saints out of sinners.

The Greek word translated “die” (apoginomai) in 1 Peter 2:24 is used only here in the New Testament. It means to “depart” or “cease existing.” Christ’s substitutionary work enables a person to depart from a life of sin and enter into an eternally new life pattern: a life of righteousness.

The apostle Paul said, “Our old self was crucified with [Christ], in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom. 6:6). Our identification with Christ in His death results in our walking “in newness of life” (v. 4). We have died to sin, thus it no longer has a claim on us. First Peter 2:24 echoes that thought: our identification with Christ in His death is a departure from sin and a new direction in life.

Let’s review the last few days: we began life as enemies of God, guilty of violating His standard of holiness, living a life of slavery to sin, and owing God a debt we could never repay. But through Christ, God bathed us in His love, offering up His Son as the ransom price in payment of our sin and thus accomplishing our redemption, forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation.

Daily Challenge

If God so loved us, how can we not love Him and His Son with the depth of our whole being? What Christ accomplished for us deserves our utmost devotion. Anything less than undying love to Him depreciates His wondrous work on the cross. It is my sincere prayer that by continually remembering what you once were without Christ, and by realizing what you have now that you are in Him, you will revitalize your love for Him.