How does God justify the wicked?
We are happy to know that God creates (makes) staff just and declares him just. The believer is declareding righteous, because he is righteous in Christ Jesus.
How does God justify the wicked?
Table of Contents
“… He who is dead is justified from sin” (Rom. 6: 7)
Saved from character?
Dr. Bancroft, writing about justification, noted the following:
“The method is divine and not human. Man can only justify the innocent; God justifies the guilty; man justifies based on merit; God justifies based on mercy (…) If man had to be justified on this basis, his moral character would have to be perfect; but nobody is perfect. ‘There is no man who doesn’t take it.’ ‘There is no salvation through character. What men need and be save from their character. ‘”Emery H. Bancroft, Elementary Theology, Ed. EBR, ed. 2001, Page 256, III. (Emphasis added).
The Bible is clear in saying that God does not blame the innocent “Who keeps the beneficence in thousands; who forgives iniquity, and transgression and sin; that the guilty is not innocent; who visits the iniquity of parents on their children and on their children’s children up to the third and fourth generation ”(Ex 34: 7).
Hence, the question arises: Is it possible for God to justify the guilty without going against his own word? Is Bancroft’s placement relevant? “… I will not justify the wicked” (Ex 23: 7).
Jesus said that it is necessary for man to be born again and not referred to human elements such as character, morals and behavior. Is man saved (redeemed) from sin (a condition inherited from Adam), or from his character?
How is justification in Christ?
In order to undo the apparent contradiction that exists in a just God who justifies the sinful man, some thinkers think of justification as an act of mercy on the part of God, in which He innocent a guilty person (sinner).
Others consider justification an act of judge, where God treats the unjust sinner as if he were just, but this person is not just. In this tuning fork, Scofield says:
“The believing sinner is justified, that is, treated as righteous for the sake of Christ (…) Justification is an act of divine recognition and does not mean making a person righteous” CI Scofield, The Scofield Bible with references, note on Rom. 3 : 28. (Emphasis added).
Others present the love of God as the basis for justification. Others have justification as an act of Father, which does not take into account the children’s mistakes. For others, justification is an act of amnesty. Others that justification stems from God’s sovereignty.
After all, what is the basis for justification so that there is no contradiction in God being Just and justifying those who believe in Christ?
“For the demonstration of his righteousness in this present time, so that he may be just and justifying him who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26)
Humanity was founding guilty in Adam (Rom. 5:19). In Adam, all men became sinners and were depriving of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).
God’s salvation through Christ seeks to save (rescue) man from this condemnation (Rom. 5:18 b), and to lead them into the kingdom of the Son of his love (Col. 1:13).
Jesus, speaking of salvation, said to Nicodmus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever is not born again cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3: 3).
This verse demonstrates that the obstacle to man’s entry into the kingdom of heaven is at his birth. If a new birth is necessary, the old birth is the cause of man’s inability to have access to God. All men became children of wrath and disobedience by being descendants of Adam.
The parable of the two doors and the two paths (Mt 7:13 -14), and the figure of the vessels for honor and dishonor illustrate this reality (Rom. 9:21).
Access to the wide door and the path that leads to perdition results from the birth in Adam, and access to the narrow door, and the path that leads to life, is the new birth. Likewise, vessels for dishonor are created in Adam (Rom 9:22), and vessels for honor are created in Christ (Rom 9:23).
To revert this impossibility to the children of Adam, Jesus demonstrates through the gospel the need for a new birth, where those who believe in Christ are again begotten, of incorruptible seed, which is the word of God (1Pe 1: 3 and 23) .
Adam and Christ
Condemnation took place in Adam, and salvation takes place in Christ, through the regenerating washing. Those who believe are born again, for a living hope for the resurrection of Christ.
Those born of Adam were founding guilty and condemnation weighs on them. The born-again are justified, that is, after being createding in true justice and God declares holiness, the new creature, or the new man for being FAIR, righteous.
It is true that God finds man guilty because of a condition acquired in Adam. Why would God declare man righteous, if this is not his real condition? If the condemnation of the past has affected all of humanity, why is Christ’s righteousness not effective today?
From this analysis, it follows that justification is not an act of judge, it is not an act of Father and neither is it a judicial act. That is, justification stems from a creative act on the part of God.
God will never declare the wicked innocent (Ex 23: 7).
The sinner will never be considered innocent (Num 14:18), since, ‘the soul that sinneth itself will die (Eze 18: 4).
The penalty cannot pass from the person of the offender (Deut 25: 1).
Another person cannot suffer the penalty in the place of the offender (Eze 18: 4).
The principles contained in the law are all taken into account when justifying man, without any contradiction. In justifying the man who believes in Christ, God is just and his declaration of righteousness is not directing at an ungodly man considered innocent.
The man without Christ is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2: 1). The condition of the dead results from the fall in Adam, however, the one who is dead to God lives for the world.
The Bible informs us that Christ, sent to the world, is man’s only access to God. He is the new and living way consecrated in his flesh (Heb 10:20). Christ died for the unjust, that is, his death was for the unjust. All who believe in Christ’s sacrifice become partakers of his death, and effectively die together with Him (Rom. 6: 6-7), and have come to live for God (Eph. 2: 5).
When the old man, the old nature is crucifying with Christ, the law determines, the sinner will not be considering innocent; the soul that sins, it will die, and; the penalty is nothing more than the transgressor. When uniting with Christ in his death, man ceases to live for the world, and is justified from sin Rom 6: 6, and declared righteous by God (Rom 5: 1).
We know that our old man, the old nature inherited in Adam, was crucifying in Christ (Rom. 6: 6). The body of sin was broken through our union with Christ’s death, and we no longer serve sin (Rom. 6:18). We were planting together with Christ, in the likeness of his death (Rom. 6: 5). Through communion with Christ, we become a participant in his death, and in fact, we die with Christ (Col 3: 3). We receive the circumcision of Christ, which is to strip (undo) the body of the flesh inherited in Adam (Col 2:11).Adam and Christ
Declared fair
The words translated ‘justify’ and ‘justification’ mean, according to the biblical idea, ‘declare righteous’, ‘declare upright’ or ‘exempt from guilt or punishment’, a condition that is possible after man is generated again, through incorruptible seed (1Pe 1: 3 and 23).
God declares righteous only those who are actually righteous, a condition that occurs through divine sonship (John 1:12). All who believe in Christ are giving power to be madding that is, created children of God. These are created a new, not according to the seed of Adam, but through the word and the Spirit (John 3: 5), as promised in the Scriptures “Then I will sprinkle pure water on you, and you will be purified; I will purify you from all your filth and all your idols.
Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and will cause you to walk in my statutes, and to keep my judgments, and to observe them” (Eze 36:25 -27).
Justification is through the Word of God he sprinkled pure water on men, through the word, man is clean and purified. Why?
Man is giving a new heart and a new spirit (regeneration), as Jesus said to Nicodemus, it is necessary for you to be born of water and the Spirit. After man is born of God (the Spirit) and of his Word, he will be declareding righteous, as the psalmist David predicted: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me” (Ps 51:10).
How to erase men’s transgressions? How to make them pure and clean? How can we rescue them from Adam’s condemnation? (Ps 51: 5, 7 and 10). Only after the death of the old nature and through a new Creation. This condition is only possible after the circumcision of the heart!
We know that any incision in the heart is death. After circumcision not performed by human hands, man is given a new heart and a right spirit.
After we understand how justification occurs in Christ, we realize that there is no contradiction in God being Just and Justifying. It is clear that justification is not a judicial or forensic act. It is clear that God is not to blame for the innocent. We are happy to know that God creates (makes) staff just and declares him just. The believer is declareding righteous, because he is righteous in Christ Jesus.
Man needs to be saveding from the condemnation of sin in order to receive the righteous declaration from God. God exercises mercy, but that does not mean that he receives the guilty as if he were innocent. God justifies the innocent, the one who is born again, regardless of merits, character, morals, conduct, etc. Amen.
