As I wrote earlier, I recently finished reading a book by Charles Leiter entitled Justification and Regeneration. It is inexpensive on Amazon (link: Justification and Regeneration (Expanded Edition): Charles Leiter: 9780981732152: Amazon.com: Books).
Chapter Three spans pages 33-49 and is entitled “Justification Its Characteristics.” The theme of this chapter is Christ alone makes a person right (justified) before God. John 14:6 (NET) reads:
6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Also, Jesus Christ saves His people from the penalty of their sins and the power iof their sins. The former is justification. The latter is regeneration.
This chapter considers seven truths about justification only through Christ’s atoning work on the cross.
First, justification is based on the blood of Jesus Christ. Romans 5:9 (NET) reads:
9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath.
The reference to Jesus’ “blood” is to His atoning death on the cross. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION: Even if we have a very weak faith, it is the strength of Jesus’ sacrifice that saves us and not the strength of our faith. See page 35. It is the blood of Jesus that puts one’s sins away and makes the believer safe and keeps a believer safe all the time.
Second, to “justify” means “to declare righteous.” It does not mean that God makes us righteous. It is important to appreciate that justification is a declaration that a believer is right before God. On pages 36-37 Pastor Leiter writes [italics in original]:
When God justifies us, He declares that something is true about us “on the outside” (i.e., “objectively”); He declares that we are righteous (“right”) in the sight of His law. Justification does not make us good on the inside. (God does make us good on the inside, but that has to do with regeneration – the new man is “created in righteous and holiness of the truth”1). Justification, by contrast, is a statement (a declaration) about our standing in the eys of God’s law.
Footnote 1 cites Ephesians 4:24.
Third, justification has no degrees or gradations. A person is either 100% righteous or they are condemned. There is no middle ground. If a person belongs to Christ they are 100% justified in Him, and there is zero condemnation. It is important to appreciate that the righteousness one has is the righteousness of Jesus Christ! 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NET) reads:
21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.
Fourth, justification more than a pardon. A pardon is an act by one in power (e.g., a governor). A pardon does not satisfy justice. However, justification is a declaration by a judge that proceeds on the basis of justice. A Christian’s sins are not left dangling in mid-air, but they came down on Jesus Christ. He actually paid for our sins with His atoning death. See Isaiah 53:6. He bore those sins on His body on the cross. See 1 Peter 2:24.
Fifth, justification is both positive and negative. Pastor Leiter cites Romans 4:6–8 (NET), which reads:
6 So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin.”
The negative side of justification is God does not impute our sins to us. Our sins have been covered and He does not take them into account. See vv. 7-8.
The positive side of justification is God places His blessing on upon us by crediting Christ’s righteousness to us (v. 6). Pastor Leiter writes that Christ not only pays our debt, He puts a vast fortune in the bank for us.
Pastor Leiter also cites Romans 5:1-2 to demonstrate the positive and negative sides to justification. The negative is a believer is no longer under a curse so they have peace with God. The positive side is we can now have the confident expectation of the glory of God. Eternity is not something that we may have someday, eternity is our present possession.
Sixth at page 41, Pastor Leiter points out that justification is once-for-all. We have peace with God (Romans 5:2) which put us in a new standing, status, or position. Justification is a once-for-all past completed event with results that last forever.
Even though a believer sins after their conversion, they do not have to be justified over again. The believer still remains justified. Pastor Leiter cites Hebrews 10:1-4 (NET) as clearly proving the once-for-all nature of justification:
1 For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship.2 For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have no further consciousness of sin? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 4 For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.
When the blood of Christ is applied, we are perfected for all time!! A believer does not have to be resaved after post-conversion sin.
Seventh, justification is received by faith. The blood of Christ is the ground for justification and faith is the instrument or channel by which a believer receives the gift of righteousness. Romans 5:17 (NET) reads:
17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!
Pastor Leiter points out two things. First, justifying faith is not “doing” something to be justified, it is giving up on doing anything and falling on the mercy of God.
Second, we are not saved by faith general, but by faith in Christ (atoning sacrifice on the cross). This is important to keep in mind because many people have a general faith, but not a faith or trust in Christ’s atoning work on the cross.
If you are unsure about your salvation or are not a Christian, it is vital that you continue reading.
IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT YOUR SALVATION
If you are unsure about your salvation, you need to check out my book The Salvation Meter: Biblical Self-Diagnostic Tests to Examine Your Salvation and Spiritual Growth (book link at Xulon Press: https://www.xulonpress.com/bookstore/bookdetail.php?PB_ISBN=9781662828638 ). At Amazon the book link is https://www.amazon.com/Salavation-Meter-Biblical-Self-Diagnostic-Spiritual/dp/1662828632 . I also have a website in which I am updating the content in the book. The link to my website for the book is https://thesalvationmeter.com .
IF YOU ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN
… please (1) read through “God’s Plan of Salvation” so you can understand what God did for you through His only unique Son, Jesus Christ, and (2), from the bottom of your heart, pray the “Sinner’s Prayer” meaning every word. If you do, you will be reconciled to God – saved – through Jesus Christ.
God’s Plan of Salvation
In the beginning, God, who is holy, created the entire universe. As a part of His creative actions, He made humans (male and female) in His image to know Him. For a while, everything was right between God and our ancestors, Adam and Eve. But Adam and Eve sinned, whereby sin was passed down to all of humankind so that we became sinners separated from God. Nothing we could do on our own could bridge that separation so that without God’s intervention, hell would be our eternal destination.
Fortunately for us, in His great love and mercy God provided humankind with the only means of salvation, which is through Jesus Christ who is God’s only unique Son. While retaining His deity, God the Son became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died a substitutionary atoning death on the cross, thus fulfilling the law Himself and taking on Himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever repent and trust in Him for their salvation. Jesus rose from the dead, showing that God the Father accepted Christ’s sacrifice and exhausted God’s wrath against every believer. He now calls all unbelievers to repent of their sins and trust alone in what Christ did to save them.
If we repent of our sins and completely trust in Christ alone that He died for our sins and rose to life from the dead, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God.
Scripture References: Genesis 1:1, 26, 31; Habakkuk 1:13; Genesis 2:7-25; Genesis 3:1-7, 22-24; Isaiah 59:2; Romans 3:19-20, 23; 5:17-19; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 6:23; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Colossians 1:15; 2:9; Matthew 1:18, 20, 24-25; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 2:17; 9:25-26; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 John 4:10; John 3:16-18; Mark 1:15; Acts 17:30; 26:20; Romans 1:4; 4:25; John 3:5-8; 1 Peter 1:3.
“Sinner’s Prayer”
Lord, Jesus Christ, the only unique Son of God, thank You for Your free gift of eternal life. I know I’m a sinner who cannot save myself no matter what I do, and I deserve to spend eternity in hell. But, I know that because You loved me so much, You voluntarily died on the cross for me taking my sins upon Yourself, and You physically bodily rose from the grave showing that Your sacrificial death was sufficient payment to give me eternal life in Heaven. I now repent of my sins and completely trust alone in what You did for my eternal salvation. Please take control of my life as I now receive You as my Lord and Savior. Thank You so much for saving me. I am now Yours forever!
(Scripture references: John 1:1-4, 11-14; John 3:16; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:21-26; Isaiah 53:4-6; Mark 1:15; Acts 16:31; Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9-10, 13; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; John 10:27-29).
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