The means and results of justification

The means of justification is given to the believer by God, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God Who justifies” (Romans 8:33). It is God who justifies not the work of mankind, nor the law of God, (Romans 3:28). Yet it is the law that convicts us of sin as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ our Saviour so that we might be justified by faith.

Justification is the position or standing of not being condemned, (Romans 8:33-34), and being declared righteous in God’s sight, (Romans 3:26). Since it is God who justifies it is by His grace alone that He imputes Christ our Saviour’s righteous to us.

God has made Christ unto us wisdom, and righteousness… For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). God’s grace has made the provision for us to receive Christ’s righteousness through faith. It is this faith in Christ’s finish work that we can say the just shall live by faith. The finish work includes the death, burial and resurrection (Romans 4:25).

The means of justification then also comes from the finished works of Christ our Saviour. The finished work is in His death for it is by faith in His blood that we are declared righteous, (Romans 3:24-25), and for our justification that Christ was raised from the dead, (Romans 4:25).

The means then comes from the steps in the process of the salvation of mankind. First God draws them, “No man can come to me (Jesus) except the Father draw him.” (John 6:44). Faith then builds by the hearing of the word until the one who is drawn to God is pricked in the heart with the truth of his sinful state and repents and accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. God then forgives the penitent sinner and His grace is imputed to him. The sinner is converted, redeemed and justified by faith in Jesus Christ.

1.1.1    The results of Justification

The results of Justification can be seen in seven points:

Justification the believer is imputed Christ’s position as before God, flawless, (Col 1:20-22), it is like the clarity of a diamond.

Christ justifies us Isaiah 53:11, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities”. (KJV) “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses” (Acts 13:39 KJV).

 

Cleansing is the believer’s new standing before God we are now cleansed and made righteous in the sight of God. It is like the color of a translucent diamond. We are washed and cleansed from all unrighteous thus our condition before God is righteousness by the blood of Christ our Saviour.

 

Redemption The believer has been bought back from Satan’s dominion. He now is able to stand in the Kingdom of God as children of God in right standing and in their new position. They are now kings and priests.

Redemption is the restoration process. We have been restored back into the likeness of our Creator, a Genesis 1:26 man. We are now body, soul, and spirit the way God first created mankind. Without the redeemed spirit man cannot commune with God. The spirit is the communication link between God, (God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ), which now abides in our hearts. Christ paid the price for our redemption through His propitiation. Jesus died for my sins, was risen again the third day defeating death and sin, and now is walking in the newness of eternal life, (Romans 6:1-5), and now we too can walk in the power of the resurrection life, both now and in eternity. This is the new birth in which we are redeemed to walk in, born again and reconciled back to God to live in peace and the power of the newness of life given to us by Christ our Saviour.

 

Mediation: Here Jesus is the mediator between God and man. If we sin against God, we have an advocate between the penalty of sin and being forgiven by the finished works of Jesus Christ, (1 John 1:9, 2:1-2). He is our high priest in Hebrews chapter 9 and he has taken down the veil that separates us from the throne of God and now we can come boldly before His throne to obtain mercy in the time of our need.

 

Regeneration:  is the spiritual rebirth, renewal, to be restored, to be changed by grace from the carnal old nature unto a new godly spiritual nature. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Regeneration is the finished work of Christ our Saviour. Jesus said that it was expedient or profitable for us that He would go away. He was saying that after His death, burial and resurrection He would have to leave. He would have to go back to heaven, but He would not leave us as orphans. He was going to give us another Comforter, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our seal of promise until the day of Christ’s return. When Christ ascended He then sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter to abide in our hearts and fused to our spirit. The believer receives a new nature, if anyone is in Christ Jesus he is a new creature, (we have a new DNA), old things are passing away, behold all things are becoming new. We are born again our spirit is regenerated and now we are put back in right relationship with God our Father, (Gen 1:26 man).

 

Sonship:  We are now children of God and He has given all who believe the power to become the sons of God. We now have the ability to call upon the Father as His children, Abba, Father in our new justified standing.

 

Eternal Life: We know we have eternal life and can live a more abundant life in the power of the resurrected life, (1 John 5:13; John 10:10; Romans 6:4-6; Philippians 3:10).

 

These seven Results of imputed grace from God’s justification result in our new standing. We are justified by being cleansed by the blood of Christ from past sin and God imputes Jesus’ righteousness to us as if we lived a life without sin as Christ our Saviour did.

We have been redeemed from the kingdom and power of Satan and we have been translated in the Kingdom of God with an advocate, Jesus Christ our mediator and High Priest.

Our spirit has been regenerated and now we are new creatures in Christ Jesus we are now sons of God with an eternal inheritance because we are justified by the grace of God by our faith in Jesus Christ and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

In Christ,

Greg