Reference: JUSTIFICIATION
American
The being regarded and treated as if innocent; or acquittal from the consequences of guilt before the tribunal of God. "Justification by faith" means that a person, on account of true and living faith in Christ as manifested by good works, will be delivered from condemnation on account of his sins; that is, his sins will be forgiven, and he be regarded and treated as if innocent and holy. Thus, besides the remission of sins and their penalty, it includes the restoration and everlasting enjoyment of the favor of God.
We obtain justification by faith in Christ. Yet neither this nor any other act of ours, as a work, is any ground of our justification. In acquitting us before his bar, God regards not our works, in whole or in part, but the atoning work and merits of Christ. He was treated as a sinner, that we might be treated as righteous. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus;" the moment we believe, our justification is as perfect as the infinite worthiness of our Redeemer. Its validity does not depend on the measure of our assurance of hope, nor on spotless holiness of life. Sanctification, indeed, or progressive growth in holiness, commences simultaneously with justification, and must in the end reach the same perfectness. Yet it is important to distinguish between the two, and to observe that, could the believer's holiness become as perfect as an angel's, it could not share with the atoning merits of Christ in entitling him to admission to heaven.
The best obedience of my hands
Dares not appear before thy throne;
But faith can answer thy demands,
By pleading what my Lord hath done."
True justification, by the gratuitous gift of the Savior, furnishes the most powerful motive to a holy life. It is followed by adoption, peace of conscience, and the fruits of the Spirit in this life; and by final sanctification, acquittal in the day of judgment, and admittance to heaven, Ro 3:20-31; 5; 8:1-4; 10:4-10; Ga 2:16-21; Eph 2:4-10.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Wherefore by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified is his sight, for by the law there is an acknowledgment of sin. BUT now God's righteousness has been made manifest without the law, being testified to by the law and the prophets, read more. but God's righteousness is through the faith of Jesus Christ, in all and upon all that believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth [to be] a propitiator through faith in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing by of the errors committed previously in the forbearance of God, to show his righteousness at the present time, that he may be righteous and justify him that is of faith. Where then is the boasting [of the Jew]? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law of faith. We conclude then that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law. Is God [a God] of the Jews alone? and not also of the gentiles? Yes, also of the gentiles, since there is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through the [same] faith. Do we then abrogate the law by the faith? By no means; but we establish the law.
THERE is no condemnation therefore to those in Christ Jesus; for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death. read more. For what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, God having sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned the sin in the flesh, that the righteous ordinance of the law may be performed by us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes. For Moses describes the righteousness of the law, that the man that does these things shall live by them. read more. But the righteousness by faith speaks thus; Say not in your mind, who shall ascend into heaven???hat is, to bring Christ down,??7 or who shall descend into the abyss???hat is, to bring Christ up from the dead.
But what does it say? The word is nigh you, in your mouth and in your mind; that is, the word of the faith which we preach. For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe with your mind that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved; read more. for with the mind we believe to righteousness, and with the mouth we confess to salvation.
knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Jesus Christ, that we may be justified by faith and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if seeking to be justified by Christ we are found to be ourselves also sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? By no means. read more. For if I build up again what I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For by a law I have died to the law, that I may live to God. I am crucified with Christ; and I no longer live myself, but Christ lives in me; and the present life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not reject the grace of God; for if rightousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
but God who is rich in mercy, on account of his great love with which he loved us,??5 even when we were dead in sins he made us alive with Christ,??y grace are you saved,
and raised us up and seated us together with Christ Jesus in the heavenly worlds, that he might show in the ages to come the transcendent riches of his grace in goodness to us by Jesus Christ. read more. For by grace are you saved through the faith; and that not of you; [it is] the gift of God; not of works, that no one may boast; for we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, in which God before appointed that we should walk.