What Is Justification?

Primary Scripture: Romans 3:20-28; Titus 3:3-7 Message Overview: Most people can remember when they had done something bad as a child and wanting relief from guilt. Even as adults, guilt can weigh us down. Fear over our past can steal our joy in the present and cause us to be stuck in our faith. Settled and clear awareness that a Christian stands in the righteousness of Jesus before Holy God has transformative power. Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which He declares a sinful person righteous in His sight. Justification is the result of our sin being forgiven through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus and the righteousness of Jesus being imputed to us. To repeat, justification is an act of God that gives us right standing with Him. The set-point of religion is salvation by my effort to achieve some kind of standard. Jesus does not offer a better form of religion based on a better moral law. The “work” of salvation is to believe (John 6:29). Even people who have gone to great lengths to be good enough to satisfy God will always find that their efforts fall short of their self-created and often-changing standard. Religious effort is exhausting. The peace we crave is only satisfied when we recognize salvation must come to us from outside of ourselves...it is a gift from God! A clear personal sense of lostness, hopelessness, and brokenness, are often used by the Holy Spirit to open the heart and mind of a lost person who needs hope in Jesus. God uses Christians to speak the Gospel into the lives of people struggling under the weight of the natural consequences of living apart from God. Forgiveness removes sin and guilt. Justification establishes Christians as adopted Children of God, free from both the penalty and power of sin. Grasping the reality of right standing before God secured by the blood of Christ allows us to rest from striving as we step into joyful use of our gifts for God with a heart at peace. Goal: Empowerment to live fully engaged lives of faith built in genuine rest in God. Cross References: Jeremiah 2:22; Romans 5:1-2, 6:23, 8:1-2, 30; Galatians 2:16, 3:11-12; Ephesians 2:8-9, 4:30.