Essential Grace: Justified by Faith

“Guilty!”

Now that’s a word that no one would ever want to hear, particularly in a court of law. To be pronounced guilty means that there will be a sentence to be carried out, and that’s never good.   

Since I have never been put on trial or accused of a crime, I can only imagine what it would be like to have that experience. I don’t know about you but I think I would be scared to death (figuratively, of course). Just the thought of being accused of some awful crime would be bad enough. Think of the harm it could do to one’s reputation and standing in the community.  

But to make it even worse, what about having to put your future in the hands of some attorney? You’d better hope he knows what he’s doing. And then there are the twelve jurors from all walks of life. Can you depend on them paying close attention during the proceedings? Can you trust that they don’t hold some sort of biases against you? What if they just want to hurry up and convict you so that they can get back to their normal lives? And what if you were truly innocent all along? Imagine spending the rest of your days in prison separated from family and friends never to be with them again. Imagine instead spending the remainder of your life with hardened criminals and trying to survive. Talk about a frightening proposition.

Thankfully, the vast majority of people will never have to worry about that. And most of us don’t go about our lives thinking about it too much either, because most of us have never been remotely close to committing an act that could result in such a legal charge. So we live out our lives day after day in the confidence of knowing that we will likely never face such a scenario.

Sadly, though, that’s not the case for a lot of Christians. Many Christians live everyday with the fear that they may one day be charged and found guilty before God’s court of law. If you are one of those, I want to assure you that those fears are completely unfounded.  

“But how can you say that?  You don’t know the awful things I’ve done throughout my life.  You don’t know how many of God’s laws and commandments I’ve broken.”  True, but it doesn’t matter if you are in Christ. Allow me to explain.

We turn to Romans to see how God used Paul to explain this wonderful truth to us. Starting at Romans 3:23, we see that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Now you may think, “Aha! See, that’s what I’ve been saying. I have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. He’s going to hold me accountable for that.” Not so fast. If you stop reading there, you will totally miss the good news.

Let’s read on. In Romans 3:24, we find, “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” There’s one key word in that statement that I want to draw your attention to.  It’s the word justified. A small but powerfully significant word, it’s essentially a legal term. It means to be declared just or right. In this case, it’s to be declared right before God.

So you see, you’ve been declared right before God if you are in Christ. That’s astonishing news! “But how can that be?” you may ask. “What about all the bad stuff I’ve done? Don’t I have to answer for that?” The simple answer is no. Jesus answered for it. He satisfied the requirements of the law. He paid the price the law demanded for your sins and imperfections. He paid for it on the cross. That’s what it means when it says the you’ve been redeemed by Christ Jesus. You have been bought and paid for; there is no more price to be paid.

Notice too in v. 24 how this justification is offered to us. It is offered “freely by his grace.” It’s as if the judge – God – has listened to all the accusations brought against you by the prosecutor – Satan – but has announced your acquittal, despite the fact that you had committed all the wrongful acts you were accused of. How could God do this and still be a just God? Because your guilt was removed from you and placed on Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we would become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) So God did justly punish sin, but it was poured out on Jesus, the one who could take the punishment, rather than on us.

So there it is once again. God’s essential grace revealed to us through our justification. And yet still many Christians struggle with accepting this. It can be such a huge struggle for us to get over the fact that there is nothing we need to do or can do to make up for all the sinful acts we’ve committed or will yet commit. We could never right all our wrongs even if we lived for a million years. It’s simply impossible for us to justify ourselves. That’s why Paul maintained “that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” (Romans 3:28)

If Jesus had not done what he did, we could never have been justified. And make no mistake, it is a done deal. Listen to what Paul says in the following verses:

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” (Romans 5:9)

“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)

Notice in each case, Paul has written about our justification in the past tense. It’s already been accomplished. If you are in Christ, then you are justified. It’s done. It’s over with. You’ve been set free from the penalty and power of sin. Never will you hear the word “guilty” come from the mouth of God.

So that leaves us with a choice. Are we going to continue to live in the fear of future punishment and wrath because of our sins or are we going to live as justified sons and daughters of God? I choose the latter because it’s true. God’s essential grace through Jesus Christ has made it so.  Believe it and live victoriously.