Human beings were created in “God’s image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26,27). However, sin came into the world through the disobedience of the very first human being God created with the result that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This required divine intervention by God to reconcile man to Himself.
God is holy, just, and righteous, and is “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13). Therefore, God acted to restore the fellowship man once had with God by providing His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness Of God” (First Corinthians 5:21).
God is just in His character and in His being. That is why God can declare and treat the “repentant sinner” free from the guilt and penalty of his or her sin because Jesus Christ, who was completely sinless, was “made sin for us.” The Bible states, “For our sake He [God] made Him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).This means God wipes the slate of our lives clean when we trust Christ as our Savior, and accepts us “just as if we never sinned.” Isn’t this wonderfully amazing?
Jesus told a parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector that went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee hypocritically “thanked” God that he was “not like other men,” rather than repenting of his sinful condition. On the other hand, the tax collector realizing his sinful state repented saying “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Jesus said that the tax collector “went down to his house justified” (Luke 18:9-14). Upon trusting Christ as our Savior, our sins are transferred to Jesus’s account. And in turn, the righteousness of Christ is transferred to our account.
Justification originates in God’s grace, and only through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross for salvation. Paul points this out in his letter to the christians at Rome by stating, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gif, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23-25). The word “propitiation” means that God has provided the one and only means by which His anger and displeasure against sinners can be appeased and sinful man can thus be reconciled to Him. Christ Himself is the propitiation and His shed blood on the cross is payment in full for our sins.
Paul also writes concerning the rewards of justification. “Those whom He [God] predestinated He also called, and those whom He called He also justified and those whom He justified He also glorified.” Paul then explains the “security” of believers. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” … “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:30,35,38-39).
We can therefore see from Paul’s explanation that justification is absolutely a decisive act by God for the believer, and comes only through faith alone and in Jesus Christ alone. Works has nothing to do with it. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28).
We can therefore conclude that our eternal security squarely rests on God’s justification, resulting from the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). This being solely an act of divine grace.
Paul also records the results of justification in these verses, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1,2).
“Our justification is the result that is assured by Christ’s resurrection.” Writes William MacDonald, “There could have been no justification if Christ had remained in the tomb. But the fact that He rose tells us that the work is finished, the price has been paid, and God is infinitely satisfied with the sin-atoning work of the Savior” (Believer’s Bible Commentary, p. 1695).