“God shatters our self-confidence and self-righteousness, so that we will put our faith in Jesus Christ. Luther goes on to say that “hunger is the best cook. As the dry earth thirsts for rain, so the Law makes the troubled heart thirst for Christ. To such hearts Christ tastes sweetest, to them He is joy, comfort, and life. Only then are Christ and His work understood correctly.”
― Thomas R. Schreiner
Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Justification by Christ is a spring of the water of life. To have the poison of corrupt doctrine cast into this spring is damnable. It was a saying of Luther, "that after his death, the doctrine of justification would be corrupted." In these latter times, the Arminians and Socinians have cast a dead fly into this box of precious ointment.
--Thomas Watson
Justification is one of the central benefits of redemption that God applies to believers on the basis of Jesus’ sinless life, atoning death, and resurrection from the dead. In justification, ungodly and guilty men and women are counted righteous before God (Rom. 4:5). This means that God forgives their sins and accepts them as righteous in His sight on the basis of the saving work of Jesus alone (Rom. 4:6–8). Scripture is clear that individuals are justified by faith alone in Christ alone (Gal. 2:16; Phil. 3:9).
-- RC Sproul
Concise meaning of Justification
Justification is not something that occurs in man, nor is it a process. It refers to the legal, judicial and forensic declaration of God. “It is to declare forensically that the demands of the law as a condition of life are fully satisfied with regard to a person, Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1, 9; 8:30-33; I Cor. 6:11; Gal. 2:16; 3:11.”2 The ground of justification is Christ’s sacrificial death and perfect obedience to the law (i.e., “the righteousness of God,” Rom. 3:21).
When a man by faith lays hold of Jesus Christ and His merits, God imputes that person’s guilt for sins past, present and future upon Christ on the cross. God also imputes Christ’s perfect righteousness to that sinner. The Father then declares that man righteous or just in the heavenly court. Because Christ has removed the guilt of that man’s sins past, present, and future legally before God, it is as though that man never committed sin. He is white as snow (Isa. 1:18). His record is perfect. Judicially, he is just as righteous and perfect as Jesus Christ. Since Christ’s perfect obedience is imputed to him, he has eternal life because Christ merited it for him."
“Wherefore it ought to be the first concern of every Christian to lay aside all confidence in works and grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of Christ Jesus, who suffered and rose for him.” — Martin Luther”
Justification by Faith (Reformation Study Bible Notes.)
Martin Luther declared that justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls. This cardinal doctrine of the Protestant Reformation was seen as the battleground for nothing less than the gospel itself.
Justification by faith alone means justification by the righteousness or merit of Christ alone, not by our goodness or good deeds.
The issue of justification focuses on the question of merit and grace. Justification by faith means that the works we do are not good enough to merit justification. As Paul puts it, “By works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20).
Justification is forensic. That is, we are declared, counted, or reckoned to be righteous when God imputes the righteousness of Christ to our account. The necessary condition for this is faith.
Protestant theology affirms that faith is the instrumental cause of justification in that faith is the means by which the merits of Christ are appropriated to us.
Roman Catholic theology teaches that baptism is the primary instrumental cause of justification and that the sacrament of penance is the secondary, restorative cause. (Roman Catholic theology views penance as the second plank of justification for those who have made shipwreck of their souls—those who have lost the grace of justification by committing a mortal sin.) The sacrament of penance requires works of satisfaction by which human beings achieve congruous merit for justification. The Roman Catholic view affirms that justification is by faith, but denies that it is by faith alone, adding good works as a necessary condition.
The faith that justifies is a living faith, not an empty profession of faith. Faith is a personal trust that clings to Christ alone for salvation. Saving faith is also a penitent faith that embraces Christ as both Savior and Lord.
The Bible says that we are not justified by our own good works, but by what is added to us by faith, namely the righteousness of Christ. In a synthesis, something new is added to something basic. Our justification is a synthesis because we have the righteousness of Christ added to us. Our justification is by imputation. God transfers to us, by faith, the righteousness of Christ. This is not a “legal fiction” because God ascribes to us the real merit of Christ, to whom we now belong. It is a real imputation. Galatians 3:2
"It is forgiveness that sets a man working for God. He does not work in order to be forgiven, but because he has been forgiven, and the consciousness of his sin being pardoned makes him grateful to God for his mercy and his love for him abounds.”
~ Horatius Bonar 1808-1889
"God chooses us, not because He foresees that we would choose Him, or that we would believe, but for the very opposite reason. He chooses us just because He foresees that we would neither choose Him nor believe in ourselves at all. Election proceeds not upon foreseen faith in us, but upon foreseen unbelief." -- HORATIUS BONAR
“The Triune God was alone when He made His decrees, and His determinations were influenced by no external cause. He was free to decree or not to decree, and to decree one thing and not another. This liberty we must ascribe to Him who is Supreme, Independent, and Sovereign in all His doings.”
~ Arthur Pink, “The Attributes of God”
My trials increase with my years, they come from new and unexpected quarters, they often bewilder my mind, and harass my soul — but, "O Lord, You know" them! They do not come unobserved by You. May every trial drive me to the feet of Jesus — that I may soothe my troubled spirit with a view of His beauty and glory. "O Lord, You know" my TRIALS! In every trial, Lord, sympathize with me, give me special grace, and help me to endure temptation as a disciple of Jesus should.
James Smith
“Believers in Jesus Christ are “not guilty” by virtue of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Rom 4:25). Since they are “in Christ” (Eph 1:3 – 14) and united to him by faith, they are no longer in Adam (Rom 5:12 – 19; 1 Cor 15:21 – 22). Hence, Jesus’ vindication at his resurrection is their vindication, his status is their status. Believers, even now, enjoy by faith the status of the resurrected one.”
― Thomas R. Schreiner
“We live by faith alone, casting ourselves entirely on the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is our righteousness; his cross is our only hope in the day of judgment.”
― Thomas R. Schreiner, Galatians
“We should not interpret this to mean that repentance is another thing a person has to do to receive salvation in addition to faith. Rather, genuine faith includes repentance. Faith that doesn’t include repentance is false faith, for those who truly believe turn away from evil.”
― Thomas R. Schreiner
“O the sweet exchange, O the incomprehensible work of God, O the unexpected blessings, that the sinfulness of many should be hidden in one righteous man, while the righteousness of one should justify many sinners!”
― Thomas R. Schreiner, Faith Alone---The Doctrine of Justification: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters
When God works in us, the will, being changed and sweetly breathed upon by the Spirit of God, desire and acts, not from compulsion, but responsively.
-Martin Luther
"God has surely promised His grace to the humbled: that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another -- God alone. - Martin Luther
"As long as a man is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God. Such a man plans out for himself a position, an occasion, a work, which shall bring him final salvation, but which will not."
- Martin Luther
How dangerous it is to join anything of our own to the righteousness of Christ, in pursuit of justification before God! Jesus Christ will never endure this; it reflects upon His work dishonorably. He will be all, or none, in our justification. If He has finished the work, what need is there of our additions? And if not, to what purpose are they? Can we finish that which Christ Himself could not complete? Did He finish the work, and will He ever divide the glory and praise of it with us? No, no; Christ is no half-Savior. It is a hard thing to bring proud hearts to rest upon Christ for righteousness. God humbles the proud by calling sinners wholly from their own righteousness to Christ for their justification. -John Flavel
For Owen, the imputed perfect righteousness of Christ is the ground of the believer’s justification and salvation because imputation, not inherent righteousness, gives right and title unto eternal life.
Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believer, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience to the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God (emphasis).
John Owen
It pleased God, in his eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus his only-begotten Son, according to a covenant made between them both, to be the Mediator between God and man; the Prophet, Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of his church, the Heir of all things and Judge of the world; unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. -John Owen
Now the life which grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Faith is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its firstfruit. It is the neck which joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious Head. -Spurgeon
Without an understanding of justification by faith alone, we cannot truly perceive the glorious gift of grace—God’s “unmerited favor” becomes “merited” in our minds, and we begin to think we deserve salvation. The doctrine of justification by faith helps us maintain “pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). Holding to justification by faith keeps us from falling for the lie that we can earn heaven. There is no ritual, no sacrament, no deed that can make us worthy of the righteousness of Christ. It is only by His grace, in response to our faith, that God has credited to us the holiness of His Son. Both Old and New Testaments say, “The just shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). -Got Question's
The perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers so that their righteousness is not inherent but is theirs because they are united to Jesus Christ. ― Thomas R. Schreiner
Justification may be defined as that act by which unjust sinners are made right in the sight of a just and holy God. The supreme need of unjust persons is righteousness. It is this lack of righteousness that is supplied by Christ on behalf of the believing sinner.
Justification by faith alone means justification by the righteousness or merit of Christ alone, not by our goodness or good deeds. -RC Sproul
“When we trustfully resign ourselves, and all our affairs into God’s hands, fully persuaded of His love and faithfulness, the sooner shall we be satisfied with His providences and realize that “He doeth all things well.”
~ Arthur Pink, “The Attributes of God”
The true Christian carries the cross in his heart. And a cross inside the heart is one of the sweetest cures for a cross on the back. If you have a cross in your heart—Christ crucified in you—all the cross of this world's troubles will seem to you light enough, and you will easily be able to sustain it. -Spurgeon