The Christadelphian, August 1959, John Carter

“The Bible Doctrine of Justification”

(Based on a lecture in the series of addresses preparatory to the Campaign in 1960 in Birmingham.)

Much has been written about the meaning of the word justification. It has an important place in the New Testament, and it is important we know what are the ideas which the word is used to represent.

We have several words built up from the word “just”—principally justice, justify and justification. A glance at a good concordance which gives the original word for those used in our English Bible, and also the various other words which translate the same original word, shows there is a fundamental connection between the word righteous and the word just. Both are used to translate the same word. In usage there is this difference—the range of words which have arisen from the word righteous does not exactly correspond with those connected with just. We have the verb “to justify” but we have no corresponding verb from the root “righteous”. We have to say “declare righteous”. This fact has led the translators to use the two words, “just” and “righteous”, in some passages of Scripture where only words from one root are in the original. This is so in the important passage Rom. 3:21–26. It might be noticed also that the two words “faith” and “believe” translate words from one root. Here again, while we have the verb “believe” we have no verb from the root “faith”. We have to say a person “has faith”, or he “believes”. In the verses quoted the words in italics illustrate the matter, and careful study of them is essential to follow the apostle’s meaning. “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forebearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

While this passage illustrates the usage of the word “justify”, something more has to be said about the meaning. Scholars have discussed at length whether the Greek word means to “pronounce righteous” or “to make righteous”. The correct answer appears to be the first one, some writers going so far as to say there is no known case of the word being used in the second sense.

The word is a legal term: it describes a decision of a judge. This is clearly illustrated in Deut. 25:1: “If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked”.

“To justify the righteous” is to state the truth as discovered by the evidence, it being understood that it has reference to the particular issue before the judge. “To justify” stands in contrast to “to condemn”—both words describing a judge’s decision. The same two words are used in contrast in the Lord’s own words: “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. 12:37). Paul brings the two words into sharp antithesis when he says “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? (Who shall impeach?) It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8:33, 34).

It is God that justifieth; and it is of this divine justification, this decision of the Sovereign Judge that the Scriptures give us instruction.

It is obvious that before God none of us can be justified for our works. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” and God cannot, therefore, declare us to be righteous if we are judged by our actions. There has been only one member of the race that God could declare to be righteous. The Spirit in Isaiah has portrayed in advance the attitude of the Lord to his Father in the days of his greatest trial. It is an attitude of one who seeks the instruction of God and is never rebellious. “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Isa. 50:4–7). It is implied that his obedience to God would provoke the hatred and persecution of ungodly men, who would pour upon him all forms of contempt. But against this treatment of men there stands out the sublime confidence of the one in whom God was manifested (mark “when I came”, verse 2) in the righteous judgment of God. God would judge him and then he would be shown to be righteous. “He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up” (Isa. 50:8–9). When the servant of God is vindicated his enemies vanish as the moth-eaten garment.

The passage is a prophecy of the sinless servant. When God justifies him He declares what is in fact the case: he is declared to be righteous.

The spirit of this prophecy is reproduced in the New Testament. Peter recalls the trial of Jesus which he witnessed to his own shame: and he sets forth Jesus in that very situation foretold by Isaiah when the Lord was reviled and spat upon. “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered he theatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (Peter 2:21–24). “He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously”. Peter may have known from the Lord’s own teaching about God and from his practice of seeking God, that in the crises of his life the Lord’s trust would be in God and in that strength he would be fortified to display the patience and assurance which still make men wonder. But we may be sure that Peter added this information which is additional to the story of the gospels by inspiration. Only in that way could there be certainty that this penetrating comment on the Lord’s own mind was correct. He did no sin, and He to whom he committed himself, in sharp contrast to the unrighteous judgment of Pilate and Caiaphas, justified him in raising him up from death and exalting him to His own right hand.

The Forgiveness of sins

If the righteous judge has to condemn the wicked, how can God justify sinners? The answer is that He forgives their sins and so reckons them to be righteous. This is the divine method. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:6–8).

Well might Paul call it blessedness. We have only to think of the enormity of sin in the eyes of a righteous God to appreciate the wonder of this divine blessing of sin being covered. Sin brings many consequences: it brought fear and shame to Adam and Eve, and death followed in its wake. The forgiveness of sins provides the way to peace, to fellowship with God, and at last to eternal life. Justification then is a divine act: God forgives our sins and so reckons us to be righteous; even as Abram believed God and God counted his faith for righteousness. The record of this divine reaction to Abram’s faith was not made for Abram’s sake alone, says Paul, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on God (Rom. 4). It might be noted that “counted” (verse 3), “imputeth” (verse 6), and “reckoned” (verse 10) are all translations of one word; and since impute can easily take on a shade of meaning not intended by Paul, perhaps the word “reckon” serves best. As “justify” belongs to the law court, so “reckon” belongs to the counting house—but it is necessary to remember that we cannot compress divine dealings with men into the figures which are taken from human activities. Thus, a man is acquitted by a judge in a court of law and he leaves the court free: but at no point has his relationship with the judge been other than that which exists between one who judges and one who is tried. The judge has administered the law to which he is himself subject. A man’s acquittal does not at all affect his personal relationship with the judge. With God as judge, however, acquittal means the establishment of a right relationship with the Creator. The issues in one case are primarily the application of law as a kind of abstraction men have created. It is the authority of law that gives the policeman his power. But while God is a lawgiver, it is because He gives the law and men have an obligation to God, that when God acquits, personal relationships are altered. The forgiven man becomes the friend of the Almighty. So it is with the figure of debt. A human debt is met and a man stands free: there may be grounds of gratitude for help, but it does not necessarily bind the debtor and creditor in the bonds of intimate friendship. But when God “counts” our debts as cancelled there is a restoration to friendship.

The conditions of justification

The factors of justification are three: all are definable in scriptural language. We are “justified by grace” we are “justified by faith”; and we are “justified by the blood of Christ”. These are not alternative ways of justification; the terms all converge on the one act by which God changes our relationship to Himself. “Grace” describes God’s activity; “faith” describes the essential condition man must fulfil; and the blood of Christ describes the basis upon which God forgives and upon which man receives forgiveness. Each phrase calls for notice.

Justified by grace

Since it is more usual to associate justification with faith, we could begin with that aspect: but “justification” has its inception with God and it is better to begin with the divine origin of justification.

It is obvious that salvation must be of God since no man can redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him. God could have left the race to perish, but that would have allowed human sin to frustrate His purpose in creating man. It is of the very nature of God that He must achieve His purpose and must therefore be a Saviour. “A god that cannot save” is the last word of derision of idol worship, but the very potency of the saying of the prophet implies that the living God whose servant he was was one who saved. “Look unto me and be ye saved”, says God.

God is love, and springing from His love for His creatures God has made known His will and the way whereby the sundered friendship with man can be restored. God so loved the world that He gave His Son. But the word that is used particularly in connection with justification, is grace. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11–14). The grace is God’s grace just as the love He has shown is His love toward us. It describes the personal attitude of God—the attribute of His character which is particularly manifested in His redeeming activity. It is His unconstrained love shown to us in the gift of His Son. It is not that we can separate one attribute from another except as a necessity of thought to define a particular aspect of His working with men. The wrath of God is another phrase which defines God’s attitude in relation to ungodliness and unrighteousness.

The word grace has a series of related meanings. It denotes something that gives joy, and the gracious attitude which produces joy. It can describe a favour bestowed, and also thanks for the favour. Just as in the New Testament the significance of the word translated “love” has been transformed by its usage in Christian thought, so grace in relation to God has been ennobled to describe His kindness and favour in the wondrous work of salvation. Because of the vital part in this work by the Son of God, the word is also used of him, as when Peter says “We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved” (Acts 15:11).

Contrasting the operation of law, which because of man’s failure to keep it works wrath, the apostle sums up his argument of Rom. 4:1–16 by saying, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” In the comprehensive statement in Rom. 3:22–26, Paul says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The language in Ephesians glows as Paul contemplates the work of God. The adoption of men as His children is “to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence” (1:5–8). Again, “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us” hath raised us up with Christ “that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (salvation) not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:4–9).

Justified by faith

This phrase occurs at the close of the section of Rom. 3:21–26, where the apostle has repeatedly stressed the place of faith in redemption. “The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe.” God hath set forth Jesus “to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood”. The punctuation of the R.V. guides us away from treating as a single phrase, “through faith in his blood”. The propitation is available through faith on man’s part, and it is effective because of the offering of Jesus or “in his blood”. “We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law”, says Paul. In his statement of the theme of his letter to the Romans, Paul had said the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17).

The Galatian letter is practically devoted to faith as the ground of justification as against the works of the law. The defection in Galatia, through the influence of Judaizers, moved the apostle to write what is perhaps his most intense letter. Yet the argument is clear even when the emotion is most evident. It clearly describes what had become to Paul the way of salvation, in opposition to the whole trend of his thinking before Christ apprehended him for his service. Standing bravely before the dissimulating Peter and Barnabas in what was a vital issue in relation to the conditions whereby man can receive God’s mercy, he said: “We who are Jews by nature ... knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified”. As in Romans, he cites Gen. 15:6; and deduces that in the promises of blessing for all nations God proposed to justify the Gentiles by faith, and therefore they that are of faith are the children of Abraham (3:6–8). The blessing of Abraham thus comes upon the Gentiles through faith (verse14); and by the tutor-slave’s work of the law Jews are brought to Christ “that we might be justified by faith” (3:24). God has put no difference between Jew and Gentile, “purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9).

The word faith is sometimes defined as taking God at His word. It is all that: it is taking Him at His word even when as in Abraham’s case the promise of a seed appeared humanly impossible. Disregarding his own years and Sarah’s age, Abram believed God that he should have a son. Faith is accepting the divine work when it touches what is impossible for man. Salvation is exactly such: and faith in this connection must be given its full significance of accepting fully in trust what God has done in Christ Jesus. Salvation is of God: only He could raise up the redeemer of the seed of Abraham; and when the redeemer had died in obedience to God, only God could raise him up from death. “He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). We must “believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead”.

There is first the recognition of human impotence. Paul works it out at some length in Rom. 10. “The righteousness which is of faith” does not say who (that is, which of us) shall bring the redeemer into the world and then later raise him from death. Faith recognizes these are impossible for man to do: but faith also recognizes that God has done both. If faith does not say which of us shall do this, what is the positive attitude of faith? “What saith faith?” Paul asks, and answers, “The word is nigh thee: even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is the word of faith” which the apostles preached. Paul declares that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; for faith is not an intellectual assent; it is truly understanding, but it is one that touches the whole being which responds in faith. Paul cites the Scripture “whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed”, and then taking up the word “whosoever” to show that faith is the universal condition for salvation, for both Jew and Gentile cites also from Joel: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. Then follows a series of statements joined by verbal thought-links on to the reference to Isaiah: “Lord, who hath believed the hearing of us?” Belief is rooted in hearing the prophetic message: hence Paul concludes: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” “The Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15).

The indispensability of faith by man for justification is evident. But God has not chosen faith as a condition in an arbitrary fashion as if He could have made something else the condition. Faith is the only way. We can see this when we reflect that in Eden man sustained a creature-relation to His Creator, where obedience was an appropriate and necessary response of the creature. But with the changed conditions after sin entered into the world, man is not a very good creature, but a sinner, unable to render obedience. All human merit is ruled out; all human glorying is excluded. Man can offer nothing that he does; he can only receive; and when he perceives the grace of God in the offer of forgiveness and life the only possible attitude he can adopt is one that empties him of all self-righteousness; he accepts in faith God’s gracious gift. This complete exclusion of human achievement as the basis of favour excludes human glorying and pride. It is the opposite of the assertion of self which Adam manifested: in the language of Jesus “self” is denied, and when the significance of the cross is perceived in relation to justification, the “self” is crucified with Christ. It is “of faith” that it might be “by grace”, and anything other than faith would exclude grace as the true basis of salvation. But in the divine plan “Grace reigns through rightenousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord”.

“Justified by his blood”

Grace reigns by Jesus Christ: for in him is God’s grace revealed. This is the way God’s grace has manifested itself in bringing salvation. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:8, 9). The three strands of thought connected with justification are interwoven. In Rom. 5:1 Paul has said, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. The “blood of Christ” is the language of the types: it is ritual language, which serves the apostle as a kind of verbal shorthand. The death of Christ was a fulfilment of the ritual foreshadowing of the law, and its meaning must there be sought. There is no efficacy in blood as such for justification, but there is in the sacrifice of Christ because of what was declared by it. The offering of Jesus provided the condition for forgiveness: “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins”. Isaiah who portrayed the servant who was justified by God tells us that the servant’s work issues in the justification of others. “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.” “He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

“Justification” in its Biblical significance is not current coinage in twentieth century speech, but it is difficult to see how the glorious truths related to the subject can be expressed without it. It would seem that the only way to learn the divine themes of God’s revelation is by learning the language by which it is revealed. If the ideas do not belong to everyday life, we must remember that neither did they belong to the thought of the people of the first century. Old words sometimes had to acquire fuller meanings to convey the divine message. But the message is cast in the mould which revelation has shaped; and the only source of any knowledge on justification is the Word of God, and the words it uses are the vehicle of its thought.

Grace perverted

A word might be said on the perversion of the truth of the Bible about “grace”. Justification by grace has been largely lost sight of because “grace” has been given an unbiblical meaning by many in Christendom. It is thought of as something bestowed, as an endowment upon man; as a divine influence operating upon man and not as the divine attribute. Thus a child is “baptized” by a few drops of water that it might receive the grace of God and be baptismally regenerated. The sanctified water has to be ministered by a priesthood in apostolic succession; and as the “baptism” is the initial rite, so the eucharist is a further channel of grace. But here again the priest plays an important part as the essential medium of grace. Grace has been divided into prevenient grace and sanctifying grace, with other qualifying words such as “actual”, efficacious” and “sufficient”. Paganism with its mystical rites mediated through a priesthood with mythical powers — the essential characteristics of the mystery cults of the pagan world—conquered Christianity with its doctrine of faith and baptism unto Christ.

Augustine whose influence fastened the doctrine of the immortality of the soul on Christendom, was largely to blame for perversions of the doctrine of grace. “The church to him”, says Farrar, “was an external establishment, subjected to the autocracy of bishops largely dependant on the opinion of Rome. It was a church represented almost exclusively by a sacerdotal caste, cut off by celibacy from ordinary human interests, and possessing the sole right to administer a grace which came magically through none but mechanical means.” We are asked to believe that by the laying on of hands, generation after generation, a succession of men have had the power of conveying mystical influences which have been called “grace”. The Protestant world is divided because of refusal of Anglican and Nonconformists to recognise the validity of each other’s “orders”. In fact, if there is any validity in any of these “orders” the observance of the Lord’s supper under the presidency of an unordained person reduces the service to something comparable to the offering of strange fire. But if on the other hand the ministry of “sacrament” is in opposition to the truth of Scripture, then the offer of “sacramental grace” is fraudulent imposition as well as a reversion to paganism.

Rome not only interposes a church and a priesthood between man and God, but by its system of merit, whether by the efficacy of baptismal regeneration, or by payment for indulgences, or by penances, virtually annuls faith as the human contribution to salvation. Romanism provoked the violent reaction of Luther whose efforts to find peace by these means were so unavailing that he turned to the Scriptures and found that the just shall live by faith: and “by faith only” became his battle cry.

Faith and holiness

“Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” was an issue raised in Paul’s day. Men turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. Need we be surprised that in later ages men have found an antithesis between faith and holiness of life? Faith excludes works as a basis of justification. But faith of the apostolic character is creative of good works. No one can appreciate the need for the sacrifice of Jesus as God’s provision of forgiveness, and at the same time wilfully pursue the path of sin. The very response to God in faith is such a repudiation of sin and self that in John’s sense of the phrase such an one “cannot sin”. The love of God evokes love. “We love because he first loved us.” And the love of Christ so constrains that the one who has learned Christ does not live unto himself but unto him which died for him and rose again. A man who has learned of God’s grace seeks to walk worthy of God. The Lord’s life is seen as an example that we should follow his steps. “Be ye followers of Christ” becomes not only a reasonable but an essential attitude for a “justified” man. The very grace that brings salvation teaches us that denying ungodliness and wordly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world. “As he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of behaviour.”

John Carter