Justification By Grace

. . . Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (Rom. 3:24 NKJ)

“Justification” means standing in righteousness before a holy God. But how could sinful man be made to appear before a holy God as sinless? The secret lies in the mystery of Christ. It is important to understand what “righteousness” means in order to understand what it means to be made righteous before God.

The most important meaning of righteousness, which permeates every other use of the term with respect to our new life in Christ, is that righteousness is a nature, the very nature of God Himself. Just as sin is much deeper than just an action or a lifestyle, but a nature in itself, righteousness is not only a nature but an inherently related lifestyle. The righteous nature is what produces a righteous lifestyle.

God gave the law to the Israelites so that they could work out righteousness for themselves by living right. They had the sinful nature, but were commanded to produce righteousness. That is why it could not work, but God gave the Law to them anyway so they could see that they really needed help.

The scripture above tells us that God has freely justified us by His grace. Rather than asking us to live right to earn righteousness and be justified in His sight, the Father sent His Son to die on the cross, pay for our sins, and give us a new nature, created in the very righteousness of God. It was a gift from God. This is justification by grace through Jesus Christ.

Since you are justified, if you were to stand today in God’s heavenly court, the Judge (Jesus!) would declare you not guilty and acquitted! It is His gift to you.