Lesson for January 26, 2022
The Doctrine of Soteriology
Lesson 4
What Christ Accomplished on the Cross
The Doctrine of Justification
The Greek word for justification is “dikaiosis’ and means “to declare righteous” or “to be acquitted from guilt.” Justice is one half of God’s holiness, righteousness being the other half. Justice is the function of God’s holiness and righteousness is the principle or standard of God’s holiness. God’s justice carries out the judicial sentences pronounced by God’s righteousness.
At the moment of salvation, we are justified by God because His righteousness was credited to us. Justification means vindication (cleared of any blame). Because of the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ, we are set free from all charges against us. The penalty for sin was paid by Jesus Christ on our behalf so that our debt is now paid in full. The obligation that God’s righteousness demanded with regard to sin was satisfied by the justice of God at the Cross. (Romans 3:28, 5:1; Galatians 3:24)
It was the work of Christ on the Cross that completely satisfied the righteousness of God. Once God’s righteousness was satisfied, He was justified in declaring anyone that would believe in Christ to be righteous. At salvation, we are said to be “freely justified by His grace.” Justification, like righteousness, is a grace function of God, which means we cannot earn it, nor do we deserve it. (Romans 5:8-9; 9:30-32; I John 2:2)
Justification is the provision by God to solve the problem of our sinful condition as unbelievers, without compromising His perfect character. God’s love provided the answer in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Since Christ had no sin of His own to pay for, He was qualified to pay the penalty of sin (spiritual death) for the entire human race. (II Corinthians 5:21)
It is the gift of God’s righteousness to believers that guarantees them an eternal relationship with God and qualifies them to spend eternity with God. Giving us His righteousness means that God credits to our account something that properly belongs to another. In this case, God credits the righteousness of Christ to our account because at salvation we were justified and placed in union with Him.
Justification in the Old Testament was the same as it is in the New Testament. Justification has always been, and always will be, by faith alone in Christ alone. The Mosaic Law was never designed to justify mankind. The Mosaic Law was good and served a specific purpose, which was to point people to Christ. Every aspect of the spiritual code of the Law of Moses, including ritual worship, the furniture in the Tabernacle and sacrifices, pointed to the Person and work of Christ. Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law of Moses by never offending it in any point. Therefore, Jesus is the personification of the righteousness of God. (Matthew 3:9; John 8:39; Acts 15:1; Romans 9:30-10:3; Galatians 1:6-9, 2:15-21, 3:1-3, 5:1)
To show that justification has always been the same throughout the history of mankind, let’s see how Adam and Eve were justified after they sinned. Adam and Eve were created perfect from the hand of God and became spiritually dead because of their sin and were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Jesus Christ (Jehovah) had walked with them daily and taught them doctrine. After they sinned, we see them being clothed in animal skins by Christ, an illustration of His sacrificial death on the Cross.
Both Adam and Eve understood and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and received eternal life. (Genesis 3:21-22) After being sent from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve began to have children. The first two were Cain and Abel, and they provide an illustration of salvation in the Old Testament. As the story goes, both sons had been taught the correct approach to God, which was with a blood sacrifice. It was the blood sacrifice that symbolized the actual sacrifice that Jesus Christ would someday make on their behalf. However, there was no salvation in the ritual itself, but it was to be a representation of an inward faith in the coming Savior. Cain brought a sacrifice from “the fruit of the ground” (crops) to God from the labor of his hands, illustrating the fact that he rejected the teaching of grace and the coming Savior Jesus Christ. Cain was attempting to reconcile himself to God by his good works (look what I have grown), which God rejected. Abel brought “the firstlings of his flock” (sheep), which was the blood sacrifice required by God to illustrate Christ’s death. Abel’s sacrifice was therefore accepted, illustrating that he understood and accepted salvation through the coming Savior. (Genesis 4:1-8)
The other well-known illustration of justification in the Old Testament is Abraham, the Father of the Jewish nation. It was Abraham who accepted the coming Savior as illustrated in Genesis 15:6. He also understood that his faith must be demonstrated before the world. The story of Abraham taking his son Isaac to offer him as a sacrifice to God is the classic example in Scripture of a believer’s complete and unwavering faith in God. Abraham was already justified before God, so this test of his faith could only be an illustration of that faith to the world. (Genesis 22:1-14; Romans 4:1-5, 22-25)
As believers in Christ, our outward divine production justifies us before unbelievers but not before God. As Christ’s representative on earth, others judge us by what we say and what we do. Therefore, justification after salvation, as in the book of James, refers to the demonstration of our faith. It is through our divine production that we justify ourselves before others. In James 2:26 “Faith without works is dead” means that faith in Christ without divine production is useless or vain in the eyes of others. Only by producing the character of Jesus Christ can a believer be justified before others.
Proper representation of Christ to the world begins with Divine Viewpoint Thinking. The world cannot see our thinking. However, it can see the results of our thinking. Our thinking is evident in both what we say and how we act. In Romans 12:1-2 we are commanded to change our thinking from human viewpoint to divine viewpoint by presenting ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. Sacrificial living means setting aside anything in our life that would distract us or keep us from living the Christian life. God says that this is a reasonable or logical service. We cannot be the kind of representative of Jesus Christ that God wants us to be until we do what He commands us to do. (Matthew 12:33-37; Proverbs 23:7)
An example of justification before others is found in the Book of James in the New Testament. James addresses believers who lack mercy toward others, are judgmental of others, and are “respecters of persons.” For Christians who exhibit these characteristics, their faith is useless to others because it has not transformed their thinking. Only faith that is exercised in God and His Word will transform our thinking, attitudes, speech, and actions. Exercising our faith means making the truth of God’s Word part of our consciousness, our frame of reference, and our norms and standards.
“When we as Christians stand up and tell the world that we have a faith that will set them free, lift them up, transform their thoughts and actions, give them hope, joy and peace, it’s fair for them to ask: ‘Have you? Does it? Can it?’ If they fail to see these things in our lives, they most likely will not believe us. None of us is neutral when it comes to our effect upon people’s opinion of the faith we profess. You can be the best or the worst illustration of the truth of God’s Word by your words and your deeds.” (A quote from Rev. Buddy Dano)
The Doctrine of Righteousness
The word “righteousness” is translated from the Greek word “dikaiosune.” Righteousness is an attribute of God that denotes His perfect character. Originally it was spelled “rightwiseness,” which clearly expresses its meaning. It also means “right action,” which in the case of God means that He always does the right thing.
In order to fully understand righteousness, we must go back to the etymology of the word. Interestingly, the meaning of many words evolved into more complex and abstract meanings as the great thinkers of Athens sought to expand their thinking beyond the accepted norm of the day. This is exactly what happened to the Greek word for righteousness. There were two words originally: one a noun (dike) and the other an adjective (dikaos). Those thinkers of Athens simply added a suffix to change the meaning slightly (-sune). At the time of the writing of the New Testament “dikaiosune” (righteousness) no longer meant simply being “good,” but rather a principle that would lead one to correct thought and action based on a standard. For believers, correct thinking that is based on the standard of God’s righteousness is called Divine Viewpoint Thinking.
Many times, in the Scriptures, God’s righteousness and justice are interchangeable because they are so closely associated. Because God is righteous, He must condemn sin wherever it is found. God’s justice carries out that condemnation. And God always does the right thing, whether condemning sin or providing salvation in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Justification is the theological term for declaring believers to be righteous before God at salvation. Christ was condemned in our place as God’s justice carried out the sentence imposed by His righteousness, which was spiritual death. Jesus Christ is the personification of God’s perfect righteousness.
Mankind’s “righteous works” fall well short of God’s righteousness according to Romans 3:23. Mankind’s concept of righteousness is relative. For example, one person may think that their sin is not as bad as the next person’s sin. Therefore, they are more righteous in their opinion. Normally, this thinking falls into one of the two trends of the sin nature: self-righteousness (moral) or lasciviousness (immoral). Both, of course, are wrong. Mankind is minus the righteousness necessary to enter Heaven and no amount of human effort can produce the righteousness necessary to have eternal life. God’s estimation of a person’s viewpoint of their own righteousness is that it does not measure up to the absolute righteousness of God. Because of the lack of God’s absolute righteousness, no one can enter Heaven based on their own righteousness. Therefore, we need God’s righteousness in order to have an eternal relationship with Him.
When a person believes in Jesus Christ as Savior, God the Holy Spirit credits God’s own righteousness to that person. The Greek word for credit (impute) is “logizomai” and it means “to reckon” or “to take into account.” “Credit to one’s account” is a good rendering of the word from Greek. God does not credit His righteousness to us because we have earned it or because we deserve it. God’s righteousness is freely offered as a gift to anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as Savior. (II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:22, Romans 4:5; I Corinthians 1:30; 12:13; II Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9).