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How is justification an act of God's free grace?
A. Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in the behalf of them that are justified; yet inasmuch as God accepteth the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace.
Isaiah 53:4–12
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Daniel 9:24–26
24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
Matthew 20:28
28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Romans 3:24–25
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Romans 4:6–11
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,
Romans 5:8–19
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Romans 8:32
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Ephesians 2:8
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
1 Timothy 2:5–6
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Hebrews 7:22
22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
Hebrews 10:10
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
1 Peter 1:18–19
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Welcome to the Reformed Standard. I'm Tony, let's get started. Question 71 of the Westminster Larger Catechism reads: How is justification an act of God's free grace? The answer is: Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in the behalf of them that are justified; yet inasmuch as God accepteth the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace. So this question at first blush sort of feels a little bit like maybe it's talking about the process, or the mechanism that God justifies. But when we get into the answer here, what we realize is that this is actually a question that's designed to answer and defend against the idea, that justification, although it may be God's act is not an act of God's free grace. And so this question is clarifying in what way can we say that this justification is an act of God's free grace. And so here, it's saying that Christ by his obedience made a real proper and full satisfaction of God's justice. But because of the fact that God accepts the satisfaction from a surety, that is he accepts it on behalf of one who promises to pay our debt. So when we're talking about this transactional or this, this debt language that is used in the Scriptures, and then is picked up on in the reformed tradition, a surety is that person who guarantees that the debt that is, is obtained with a debt that is created will be paid. So we can kind of think of it in our more modern idea of like a co signer, or in medical insurance, we talked about a guarantor. So that's the person that if if you go to the hospital, and you are injured, and you're not able to pay your bill, the guarantor is the person that they're going to call in order to attempt to collect that debt. Or if you send your child off to college, and you cosign on a loan, and they're not able to get a job and not able to make their payments, they're going to call you and you have a legal obligation to fulfill the debt which they, which they obtained. And so what he's saying here, and what is being said here in the Catechism is that the way that this is an act of God's free Grace is that although the the debt, the payment, the satisfaction, for the debt that was obtained by Adam's sin, and by our ratification of that sin in our own personal sin, although he might have demanded that from us, and he does and did demand that from us, he accepts this satisfaction from a surety who is Christ. And not only did he accept this satisfaction from a surety, but he provided this surety himself in his own son. And so the way that we know at least one of the ways we know that this is an act of God's grace is that he not only allows another to pay this debt on our behalf, but he actually provides that person to pay that debt for us. And And what's more, that person who pays that debt for us is his own righteous son. And so it then goes on here to clarify that, that this payment is made by and results in him impugning His righteousness to us. So it rather than going in and, and just wiping out the debt and forgiving the debt, he actually grants us the resources to have that debt paid in our behalf. So this is not a straight act of forgiveness of debt. He's not just ignoring the debt that we obtain. He's not just ignoring the fact that we owe him perfect, perpetual obedience, which we're not able to provide. But he actually provides that righteousness, that positive merit for us. And then finally, here, it says here that the only thing he requires from us The only thing he requires on the side of the elect for justification is faith. And in order for that, to still be a free act of grace, that faith itself is provided for us as well. And so not only does he accept a payment on our behalf, but he provides for that payment and for the person who would make that payment. And he does so by giving us that righteousness and requiring nothing of us but faith and providing in itself that face as a free gift of His grace.