Biblical definition of justification
Biblical justification is not a judicial act. There is no parallel between the justice of human courts and the justice of God. God’s Justification comes from a creative act of God, through which a new man is created according to God in true justice and holiness (Eph 4:24). Biblical justification does not resemble a judicial act, because even in a human court the guilty party is not found innocent.
Biblical definition of justification
Biblical JUSTIFICATION refers to the new condition pertinent to those who believe (rest) in Christ through the truth of the gospel (faith), as a result of a creative act of GOD, and the man generated in Adam, guilty before God, after dying with Christ is again created (made) a new righteous man, free from guilt and punishment.
It is known that the words ‘justified’ and ‘justice’ are translations of similar Greek words (verb dikaioõ, to make, declare just, justify; noun, dikaiosune, justice; adjective, Dikaios, just).
When God justifies man it is because He created a new man, that is, the new man was createding just, and for this reason, God declares him just and upright.
A judicial act or act of clemency would never establish the condition of righteousness (innocence) that is pertinent to the new creature. The new man generated in Christ is declared just because he is in fact free of guilt, that is, the new man is the son of Obedience, which contrasts with his old condition: guilty, damnable, son of wrath and disobedience.
For many theologians and among them we highlight E. H. Bancroft, the justification is:
‘The judicial act of God, whereby the one who places his trust in Christ is declared just in His eyes, and free from all guilt and punishment’ Bancroft, Emery H., Elementary Theology, 3rd Ed, 1960, Tenth Impression , 2001, Editora Batista Regular, Page 255.
For Scofield, although justified, the believer is still a sinner. God treats him as being righteous, but that does not mean that God makes someone righteous.
“Justification is an act of divine recognition and does not mean making a person righteous” Scofield, C. I., Scofield Bible with References, Romans 3: 28.
It appears that Justification is not a judicial act. There is no parallel between the justice of human courts and the justice of God. Justification comes from a creative act of God, through which the new man is generated, according to God in true justice and holiness (Eph 4:24). Justification is not a judicial act, because even in a human court the guilty person cannot be declareding innocent.
Justification is through the truth of the gospel, that is, through the faith (gospel) that was once giving to the saints. It is not the ‘faith’ that man deposits in God that justifies him, but the justification comes from the ‘gospel message’ (faith) that contains the power that gives life to the new man (Rom. 1:16 -17).
Such power is given to those who believe (faith), that is, who rest in Christ, the One who has the power to make the children of Adam children for Himself (John 1:12 -13). That is why Paul says that God’s justice is ‘faith in faith’.
For Scofield, God does not make a person fair, but only recognizes and treats him as being fair. Now the word translated by justification is to do, to make, to declare righteous, and in creating the new man in Christ, God makes all things new. In Christ a new man appears, with a new condition and in a new time!
The new man was createding in true justice and holiness, and therefore the statement that God makes falls on the new creature, never on the old man generated in Adam. God is not the man to lie. He does not declare falsehoods. Only the righteous are declared righteous. If God recognized and declared a person righteous, although he was not, it would not be true. However, we know that God is true.
“So that for two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have firm consolation, we who put our refuge in retaining the proposed hope” (Heb. 6:18).
Louis Berkhof in his Systematic Theology defines justification as a judicial act, which differs from the considerations above:
“Justification is a judicial act of God, in which He declares, based on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that all claims of the law [both in terms of what the Law requires of us in the form of positive obedience and judgment of the sinner as to condemnation and death] are satisfied with a view to the sinner”. Idem.
Just as in a human court, the guilty person cannot being acquitting or free from punishment, so God does not justify the wicked, because such an act would be injustice.
“You will turn away from words of falsehood, and you will not kill the innocent and the just; for I will not justify the wicked” (Ex 23: 7).
That is why when believing in Christ; man dies with Christ, because the established penalty cannot pass from the person of the transgressor (Rom. 7: 4). Only the one who is dead is justified from sin “For he who is dead is justified from sin” (Rom. 6: 7). This means that God never declares the wicked righteous, that is, men born after the seed of Adam will never be justified by God. Only those born again in Christ are declared righteous, because they died with Christ, and a new creature resurfaces. God only declares righteous those who rise from the dead with Christ, for the new man was planting according to the incorruptible seed, the seed of the last Adam: Christ (Is 61: 3).
