A Thumbnail Sketch On The Doctrine Of Justification

[Was asked by someone if I could break down the doctrine of Justification succinctly]

A Thumbnail Sketch On The Doctrine Of Justification

The Doctrine of Justification in a nutshell. First the meaning of "justify" or "justified" is to declare, accept as righteous & all our sins forgiven. All mankind is under God's wrath for breaking His law [Rom 1:18-3:19]. As Paul states in [Rom 5:9]; "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him."

Jesus took our sins and deserved wrath in our place on the cross. He also kept the law perfectly in thought, word, and deed. This is Christ's righteousness which is imputed {credited) to our account. His doing and dying in our place is imputed to us, and our sins are imputed to Christ.

By holding out the empty hand of faith, and receiving the "free gift" of justification [Rom 3:24; 5:12-19] we become justified and looked upon as perfectly righteous in God's eyes as we are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Faith is only the instrumental cause in our justification, that like a beggar accepts the free gift of justification. But this faith is saving faith, not the dead kind James speaks about [Jas 2:14-24]/

To be justified is to be saved from God's wrath, and to experience salvation. And as a result, we become adopted children of God, as part of the covenant family of God [Rom 4; Gal 3-4] and United to Christ with full assurance of salvation as a new believing Christians, as God actively looks upon us as righteous [Rom 5:1-11] (Present Active Indicative).

This is the glorious gospel of Grace. And as we lay our heads down tonight, we be can be assured that we have eternal life because of the merit's of Christ alone. Sola Fide (by faith alone).