If preachers insist on competing with psychiatrists as counselors, with physicians as healers, with politicians as statesmen and with philosophers as speculators, then these specialists have every right to tell them how to preach. If a minister’s message is not based on “Thus saith the Lord,” then as a sermon it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of the specialists in the department with which it deals.
John Gerstner

Justification

Justification

JUSTIFICATION

Author: Jim Fox

Justification can be defined as God’s just act of counting as righteous everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words it is “Just as if I had never sinned.”

The Greek word from which we get our word justification is “dikaioo” which means “to acquit”, “to vindicate”, or “to pronounce righteous”.

Our justification starts with grace, and it is through the work of redemption and propitiation that is in Christ Jesus. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Rom 3:23-25).

Our justification then comes to us by our faith in Jesus Christ. “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). So then who justifies us? “God is the one who justifies” (Rom 8:33).

The Apostle Paul illustrates the doctrine of justification in the first part of his book to the Romans. In chapters 1-3, Paul begins showing that in God’s sight, no man is worthy (righteous). Since all of us are sinners, salvation can only come if God chooses to justify. Rom 3:21-31 anounces a “righteousness from God”, a righteousness given freely, and which we recieve by faith in Christ Jesus.

What we can see through all of this is that God acts through the believer to make righteousness a reality. Thus the gospel offer of salvation by faith includes more than a pardon, it includes a transformation. God will declare the sinner righteous, and then God will act to make the sinner what God has declared him to be.

But now there is a dilema, Paul is saying that ” we are not justifed by works” (Gal 2:16, 3:11). Yet the Apostle James says ” a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone”(James 2:24) “Faith without works is dead”(James 2:17 &
26).

Now how do we ronconcile what at first appears to be some contridictions between Paul and James. What needs to be done to help clarify this question is for us to see exactly where Paul and James are coming from and what there goals are. So lets compare the two….

Paul has in mind Abrahams attitudes, Abrahams acceptence of God’s word.

James has in mind the acceptance of certain statements about God, which may affect our conduct (James 2:19).

Paul is concerned with a right relationship with God.

James is concerned with a right conduct with God.

Paul records the events in Gen 15, believed.

James records the events in Gen 22, obeyed.

Paul – The Romans epistle is occupied with the effect of this God ward attitude, the contrast between faith and the lack of it, or unbelief (Rom 11:20)

James – The James epistle is occupied with the contrast between faith that is real and faith that is false, a faith that is barren and and a faith that is dead, which is not faith at all.

So then what can we conclude? That we are justified by faith! Now how do we tell between real faith and false faith? By their works!

Sources:

The Open Bible (NASB)
Richards Expository Dictionary of Bible words The Zondervan Pictorial Dictionary
Basic Bible Doctrine by Day
Vines Expository Dictionary of N.T. Words Youngs Analytical Concrdance
Naves Topical Bible
NASB Handy Concordance