- Legal justification does not come through the law,
nor through faith, but through judicial grace alone. And grace is
given freely. It is "in" Christ. It cannot be separated from
Him. God gave Him to the fallen race. And "in" Christ, this
gift of God, came the gift of legal justification. It is a unilateral
justification. In this justification there is no change of character.
Character change comes with faith in the fact of Christ's righteous
act on the cross. To summarize the literal meaning of Romans 3:23, 24
we learn that:
"All"
- sinned (3 pers. pl. aor. 2, ind.)
- come short by themselves (3 pers. pl.
pres. ind. mid.)
- are being justified (nom. pl. masc.
part. pass.)
Since all are being (legally)
justified, why then are not all saved? Because many, if not most, refuse
to believe. If everyone would keep what God gave them, in Christ, all
would be saved. The majority spurn the gifts of God. One day will be
revealed the fact that God gave to all men everywhere Christ, grace,
justification, and faith, but that mankind in general rejected God and
His gifts.
To illustrate. Pardon is an equivalent term for justification as used
today in our legal system. It can be obtained without a change of
disposition or character within the one guilty of a crime. To pardon
means to release a convicted person from punishment for a crime
committed by him. Usually a pardon is given by the governor of a state.
The offense is let pass without full punishment. It is by the authority
of the executor of the laws that the act of pardoning a convicted person
from the penalties of an offense or a crime comes. Unilateral pardon is
a reality in the present legal system of man. It is performed or
undertaken by only one side—the administrator of the law.
Can this pardon either be rejected or taken advantage of? Yes. Doubtless
it has been. But that does not negate the fact that it was given by the
executive administrator of the law. If the pardon is believed and
accepted, the lawbreaker walks free. Is there not a risk on the part of
the governor who releases the guilty one? Yes. It is a calculated risk.
The pardoned person may return to his formal criminal activity. There
are law-abiding citizens who get very nervous over unilateral pardons.
An anxious question asked is: once the convict is released, will he
return to his criminal activities? If he truly appreciates the pardon
and the person who gave it to him, he will not return to his former
unlawful practices. His energies will be newly directed to obedience to
the system of government that both convicted and pardoned him.
So it is with God's legal pardon or justification. The world of humanity
is as a convicted criminal, but released from the penalty of the second
death. This pardon was given to the race apart from a change of
disposition or of character. The offense was passed over without
punishment. There are law-abiding Christians who get nervous over the
concept of the divine unilateral legal justification or pardon. This is
because many feel that justification means only to make
righteous. These depend on the Latin definition instead of Greek and
Hebrew usage. However, when a person truly appreciates the goodness of
God because of His gift of Christ and pardon in Him, he will be
justified by faith, born again, and changed. He will not return to his
former ways. His energies are motivated by God's love and he will be
obedient to God's law by the power of Christ within. God's pardon is
free but it is not the teaching of cheap grace. It is of grace and it is
terribly expensive. Its cost is infinite. Once this is appreciated in
the heart of the recipient, it will be extremely hard to turn away from
God.
In Romans 3:24, the word translated "freely" (accusative of
the adverb) is a legal term. It denotes a formal endowment. It means gratis,
gratuitously, freely, unreservedly, and without cause. It is
used in John 15:25 concerning the attitude of Christ's enemies toward
Himself. "They hated me," said Jesus, "without a
cause."
Legal justification is a gift and not merely a disposition. It is
bestowed freely and not as a mere provision. Jesus is God's gift given
unilaterally to humanity, i.e., He is given to every man, without cause.
Forensic justification is God's gift in Christ. It is universally given.
This is so because it is embodied in the person, Christ Jesus. And as
Christ is given to every man, so is God's justification.
Christ, the gift of God, was hated without cause by those who refused
Him. Likewise, universal, legal, justification is freely given without
cause. This too is hated, without cause, by those who refuse it.
Notwithstanding the hatred against it, forensic justification is freely
given to everyone. There is no more cause as to why legal justification
is hated than there is as to why Jesus was hated. [return to
text]
- Emancipation Proclamation—To illustrate, consider
the emancipation proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln and its
ratification by the United States Legislature.
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln declared free all slaves residing in
territory rebelling against the Federal government. Slavery was to be
terminated by local action. This declaration showed that the civil war
was then being fought to end slavery. It became a war goal and a
virtual certainty. The end of slavery in America was achieved finally
by passage of the 13th amendment to the Constitution on December 18,
1865.
The moment the Proclamation of Emancipation document was signed and
enacted, every slave was set free legally. But every slave was not set
free experientially. The legal act took but a moment. But before the
experiential aspect was set in motion several things had to occur:
- The slave must hear the good news. Knowledge of the legal
act of freedom was essential, not his feelings.
- The slave must believe the good news.
- The slave must reckon on the good news as true in his
case.
- The slave must refuse to remain in subjection as a slave.
- He must assert his freedom from his former master.
- The slave was to count on the authority and power of the
legislature of the United States of America to stand behind him as
he refused further bond-service.
Even so it is with the fallen human race!
Christ signed our emancipation papers with His own blood.
- We need to hear that good news. Knowledge of the legal act
of emancipation is essential, not our feelings.
- We need to believe that good news.
- We are to reckon on the good news as true in our case.
- We are to refuse to remain in subjection as a slave.
- We are to assert our God-given freedom from our former
slave master.
- We are to count on the authority and power of the
government of God to stand behind us, and in front of us, and with
us as we refuse further bondage to the enemy of freedom.
Ellen White understood the analogy.
"With His own blood He has signed the emancipation papers of the
race"—MH 90
In both the illustration and in the gospel reality the condition of
being emancipated follows the legal act of emancipating. While being
part of the whole there are separate, distinct, and distinguishable
aspects of emancipation. One is the root; the other is the fruit. One
initiates, the other participates. The order here is vital. It is not
the participation that comes first. Neither does the fruit first grow
and then the root.
The legal aspect of justification on Calvary demonstrates sufficient
judicatory reason for action taken by God to change the sinner when he
accepts Christ by faith. In this plan it is Christ's righteousness all
the way. [return to text]
-
Waggoner put it this
way: "Faith does not make facts. It only lays hold of them. There
is not a single soul that is bowed down with the weight of sin which
Satan has bound on him, whom Christ does not lift up. Freedom is his.
He has only to make use of it. Let the message be sounded far
and wide. Let every soul hear it, that Christ has given deliverance to
every captive. Thousands will rejoice at the news." The Glad
Tidings, p. 107 [emphasis his].
A young man, in answering questions about legal justification at the
cross wrote: "To the extent that we don't believe the objective
universal truth, to that same extent we insist on making faith our
Saviour, i.e. our faith makes true what was not before, instead of
accepting what is universally true without any merit of mine. Truth is
universal. The provisional [relates to the] question: Will I believe
it, have faith in it, and allow it to change my whole life? If faith
makes something truth, then any fairy tale that is believed in
strongly enough becomes truth. Since we have generally presented the
Gospel as only provisional, maybe this is why the world regards it as
a fairy tale"—Lee Greer III, "JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE FOR
ALL—Can it Really Be True?" July, 1994. [return to
text]
-
Justification is a fact
of history that is brought to bear upon the soul wholly from
without—by the Holy Spirit—to be received by faith. A believer's
justification is a fact brought into the present experience from the
past. When one believes the fact of Christ crucified and submits to
His Lordship, he becomes justified subjectively.
Christ's death was a justifying death for the lost race. In the very
act of Christ's tasting death for everyone, everyone was legally
justified. This justification means a legal acquittal from God and
more. It means restoration to favor with God. Ellen White recognized
this: "By His wonderful work of giving His life, He restored the
whole race of men to favor with God'—1SM 343. [return to
text]
-
The last phrase of verse
12, beginning with the preposition and pronoun literally means
"in which" or "in whom." Since the grammar at the
beginning of the verse demands a contrast involved with the first Adam
and sin, we are warranted to conclude that the contrast must be
involved with the second Adam and justification or acquittal. That is
precisely what we find in verse 18. Adam sinned and we were condemned
in him, but "much more" than that, Christ's righteous act
justified and acquitted us. [return to text]
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