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I. JUSTIFICATION DEFINED. Justification is the Divine judicial act which applies to the sinner believing in Christ the benefit of the atonement, delivering him from the condemnation of his sin, introducing him into a state of favour, and treating him as a righteous person. Though justifying faith is an operating principle which, through the Holy Spirit's energy, attains to an interior and perfect conformity to the law, or internal righteousness, it is the imputed character of justification which regulates the New Testament use of the word. Inherent righteousness is connected more closely with the perfection of the regenerate and sanctified life. In this more limited sense justification is either the act of God or the state of man.

I. GOD THE JUSTIFIER. The act of justifying is that of God as the Judge. Generally it is δικαίωσις, the word which pronounces the sinner absolved from the condemning sentence of the law, and it refers always and only to the sins that are past. Whether regarded as the first act of mercy, or as the permanent will of God's grace towards the believer in Christ, or as the final sentence in the Judgment, it is the Divine declaration which discharges the sinner as such from the condemnation of his sin. "It is God that justifieth" — God in Christ, for all judgment is "committed to the Son," who both now and ever pronounces as Mediator the absolving word, declaring it in this life to the conscience by His Spirit. It is the voice of God, the Judge in the mediatorial court, where the Redeemer is the Advocate, pleading His own propitiatory sacrifice and the promise of the gospel declared to the penitence and faith of the sinner whose cause He pleads. The simplest form in which the doctrine is stated is in Romans 8:33, 34. Here the apostle has in view the past, present, and future of the believer; the death, resurrection, and intercession of Christ; and the one justifying sense against which there can be no appeal in time or in eternity. God is Θεὸς ὁ διακιῶν, in one continuous and ever-present act.

II. MAN AS JUSTIFIED. The state into which man is introduced is variously described, according to his various relations to God, to the Mediator, and the law. As an individual sinner he is forgiven: his justification is pardon, his punishment is remitted. As a person ungodly, he is regarded as righteous: "righteousness is imputed to him," or his "transgression is not imputed to him." As a believer in Jesus "his faith is counted for righteousness." All these phrases describe, under its negative and its positive aspect, one and the selfsame blessing of the new covenant as constituting the state of grace into which the believer has entered and in which as a believer he abides. This is attested by passages running through the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles; passages which only confirm the promises of the Old Testament. Our Lord's forerunner was fore-announced "to give knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins" (Luke 1:77). Our Saviour's word was, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee"; but he spoke of the publican as praying, "God be merciful to me a sinner," and as going down to his house "justified" — these words being introduced for the first time, and both being reserved for abundant future service, especially in the writings of St. Paul. He left the commission that "remission of sins should be preached in His name." St. Peter preached that "remission of sins," and afterwards varied the expression, "that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19) — counterparts in meaning. But St. Paul takes up the Saviour's words and unites them (Acts 13:38, 39), and in this Epistle adds all the other terms and unites the whole in one charter of privileges (Romans 4:4-8). In this passage all the phrases are united without exception, and they are represented as the act of God and the state of man, the one and various blessing of habitual experience. To sum up: the state of διακιοσύνη is that of conformity to law, which, however, is always regarded as such only through the gracious imputation of God, who declares the believer to be justified negatively from the condemnation of his sin, and positively reckons to him the character, bestowing also the privileges of righteousness. The former or negative blessing is pardon distinctively, the latter or positive blessing is justification proper.

(W. B. Pope, D. D.)

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KJV: Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

WEB: Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;