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What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.
Jeremiah 23:6
6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’
Acts 10:43
43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Romans 3:22–28
22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 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. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
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 5:17–19
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.
2 Corinthians 5:19–21
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 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.
Galatians 2:16
16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Philippians 3:9
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Titus 3:5–8
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
Welcome to the reform standard. I'm Tony, let's get started. Question 70 of the Westminster Larger Catechism reads: What is justification? And the answer is: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.
This is kind of the granddaddy question of the Westminster larger catechism. So it's it's not the case that everything in the Catechism revolves around this. But both the Lutheran and the reformed tradition recognize that justification by faith alone is the central or the hinge doctrine on which the church falls or stands. And that doesn't mean that it's the most important element of the Ordo salute is or that everything is organized around it. But it is a watershed or a dividing line between reformed or reformation theology and other forms of more workspace Christianity, like Roman Catholicism, Armenian ism in a lot of ways, especially the anti Baptists. And so this question here, lays out a couple specific things. So the first is found in this first clause justification is an act of God free grace. So when the divine is want to talk about something that is an instantaneous thing that God does in a moment, once for all, they use the word act, will we've already seen and will see again, that when they want to talk about something that God does, over time, that's a process, they use the word work. And so here, they're delineating that justification, in contradistinction to the Roman Catholic model, as a once for all, Act, or once for all, operation that God executes temporarily in a single instant. And then they go on to delineate here exactly what that what that is. And so the first is that he pardoned with all their sins. So in the moment of justification, in that, that once for all act, God forgives and pardons all of the sin of the person who has been justified. So whether that's sins past sins future, original sin, which they inherited, through ordinary generation, from Adam's first sin, all of that is pardoned by God, in an act of free grace. And then consequently, to that he accepts and accounts to their person righteous in His sight. So not only does he forgive their sins, not only does he pardon them of their sins, but he actually and we'll get to this, but he actually now counts them and excites accepts them as though they have a positive righteousness in His sight. And this acceptance and this accounting of their person as righteous is not because he infuses something into them that makes them lovable, or that they have done or will do something in the future that makes them worthy of this, but rather, it is because of the perfect obedience and satisfaction of Christ. And so we have to go back to the previous, the previous question here in question 69, where we talked about what it is that the members of the invisible church have what it is the communion, they have the benefits, they gain because of their union and communion with Christ, because of that union, this acceptance and this accounting as righteous is not because of what they've done, but because in, in the mediation of Christ. This is a manifestation of that union. So once a person becomes united with Christ by faith, God considers them to be as righteous and obedient and holy as his perfect, perfect, righteous, Holy Son is. And so because of because of this, because of this reality, God has imputed to us the obedience and satisfaction of Christ. And so he imputed this to us. This amputation is God's act. And so we, we receive this act not by anything that we do, but by faith which God in our effectual calling creates in a and so from start to finish. justification is entirely tied up in the operation and execution of God's will. In that he is the one that pardons our sin. He is the one that accepts and accounts us as righteous. And he does this not because of who or what we are what we will do, but because he loves his son, who we are united to by faith alone.