JUSTIFIED

Being JUSTIFIED freely by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus – Romans 3:24

We are not only forgiven by Grace, but also JUSTIFIED – meaning that, God has granted us a standing before Him just as if we had never sinned!  This was no small feat for God to accomplish! For if we have all sinned and missed the mark, how can God look at us as if we had never sinned and still be just? If He must act according to His attribute of justice, how can He treat us as though we were perfect? This is where the Power of Grace comes in. God made the sinless Jesus to be sin for us. He laid on the innocent Christ the iniquities of us all. Jesus literally took my place and the punishment that was due me as a guilty sinner. He wore the crown of thorns so I could wear the crown of righteousness. Being justified gives me the right to stand before God and claim His best. This is the Glorious Gospel of Grace that grants me a standing of righteousness before God far superior to anything I could achieve under the law.

The righteousness which comes through faith in Christ is imputed to us and is complete. There is nothing that can be added to it. In Christ, I have an absolutely perfect, righteous standing before God, with no charges against me. In His eyes, I am perfect. That doesn’t mean that I am a perfect person in myself – not by a long shot! It means that Jesus Christ is perfect and I have His righteousness credited to my account by my faith in Him. Colossians 2:10a testifies: “and you are complete in Him…”! Through the glass of Christ's blood, my soul is looked upon as beautiful and glorious: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom.5:1, 9). He who has the righteousness of God, is perfect: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

God chose us to perfection: “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4). An artist, who has begun the crude draft of a picture, sees in it what he intends to make it. Even from the first draft God calls us perfect, because He intends by the pencil of the Holy Spirit to draw us out in eternal beauty, and lay the golden color of glory upon us. How I praise God for the knowledge of His Grace and for the love relationship that I have with Him! God is my Father. He loves me when I am sweet and when I feel sour or even mean. Human beings may assess or measure me and mark me “condemned”; but my Redeemer and Justifier calls me “Justified” and “Accepted”: “To the praise of the Glory of His Grace, by which He has made us ACCEPTED in the Beloved” (Eph.1:6).

When a guilty woman was brought before Jesus, with her immorality blatantly exposed, the crowd did more than just watch. They called for her condemnation, but Jesus showed mercy. The only One with the right to judge sin responded to her failure with compassion and grace. After dispatching her accusers, “Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more’” (Jh.8:11). His compassion reminds us of His forgiving and justifying Grace, and His command to her points to His great desire that we live in the joy of that grace. These show the depth of Christ’s concern for us when we stumble and fall. Even in our most embarrassing moments of failure, we can cry out to Him and find that His Grace is truly amazing: “Amazing Grace – how sweet the sound – that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see”!