The most distinctive doctrine of the evangelical faith is justification by faith alone. There is no other religion in the world that has such a teaching. Not only is it a distinctive doctrine, but it comes to be the only solution to humanity’s most important problem: its own injustice and the breakdown of its relationship with the Creator. Justification by faith alone is the path that God has set to re-establish peace between Him and His creatures. It is the heart of the gospel, the good news of the Bible.
Despite its importance, many evangelicals are unable to clearly articulate this doctrine. In this article we will give a brief and simple explanation of justification according to the biblical testimony, in order to help us better understand this truth and apply it to our lives.
Justification according to the Bible
Let’s start with a definition of the word justify. In everyday language we use this word many times to talk about how we defend ourselves against accusations. For example, I justify myself by presenting evidence and arguments about my innocence. When I justify myself, I declare myself just or innocent. This is how we use this word in everyday life, but in the Bible it is used in another way.
In our versions the word appears justify as a translation of a Greek word, dikaio, which often refers not to a declaration of the human being about himself, but to a divine declaration. For example, Romans 5:1 says the following:
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In this text, and in others, the verb is used in the passive form. When the text says “justified”, or “having been justified”, it means that we do not justify ourselves, but it is God who justifies us. When God justifies, He declares that a person is just.
This divine declaration is a forensic act. It is a statement that God issues as judge. It is not a change or process within the person receiving the verdict. The word justify it is used in precisely this legal or forensic way in various Biblical passages. A clear example of this usage is found in Romans 8:33-34:
“Who will accuse the elect of God? It is God who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, yes, even more so, the one who rose again, the one who is also at the right hand of God, the one who also intercedes for us.”
When God justifies, he simply looks at the evidence and renders his verdict: fair and deserving of the corresponding privileges.
Here God is seen as judge, and the apostle Paul mentions two verdicts that he can render. One is to condemn. The sentence is clearly a legal declaration of guilt, without dealing with a process or subjective change in the sentenced person. When God condemns, he simply looks at the evidence and renders his verdict: guilty and deserving of the corresponding punishment.
In parallel, when God justifies, he issues a legal declaration without requiring a process or subjective change in the justified person. When God justifies, he simply looks at the evidence and renders his verdict: just and deserving of the corresponding privileges. So that the justification is legal, punctual, and external to the human being. It is not a process of inner transformation.
The plight of the rebellious human being
Who does God justify? From the outset, we would think that God should justify good people. Since God is an omniscient judge, He will know who is good and who is not, and being just, we suppose that God should justify people whose behavior is exemplary and blameless, who are just themselves. However, the Bible paints a very dark picture of humanity and its injustice. Paul, in the same letter to the Romans, states the following:
“As it is written: ‘There is no righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have strayed, together they have become useless; there is no one who does good, there is not even one’”, Romans 3:10-12.
According to the apostle (and the Old Testament, from which he quotes), there are no good people. We are all unfair, we all stray. We offend each other and offend God by committing injustice often, not only with external deeds, but also with internal attitudes and dispositions such as selfishness, pride, and hatred. If so, whom can God justify? If we didn’t continue reading the passage, we could conclude that, before a perfectly just God, no one will be justified. But the Bible surprises us. Romans 4:5 says this:
“But to the one who does not work, but believes in the One who justifies the wicked, his faith is counted as justice.”
According to the Bible, God does justify people. Not to good people, but to “impious” people, people who precisely do not deserve to be declared just, but condemned. This is very good news! But how can it be? Is not God breaking his own righteousness by justifying the wicked (Prov. 17:15)?
The solution: imputation
If God did nothing else, it would be unfair. What is it that God does so that his verdict is not unfair? We have a clue in a text that we have already considered. Romans 5:1 says that through justification we have peace with God. through Jesus Christ. The key to justification is Jesus. Paul expands on this idea in 2 Corinthians 5:21:
He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
It is thanks to Jesus that God justifies the wicked, and this is so because Jesus obeys and dies in the place of the sinner. Jesus was perfectly fair. If there has ever been anyone in history who did not deserve to die, that person was Jesus. Jesus had not sinned (“whom he knew no sin”); nevertheless, God treated him as a sinner (“made him sin”). He made it sin “for us,” that is, in the place of the human being She did it so that “we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
Thus, God can justify and satisfy his justice at the same time. We can sum it up this way: God treats Jesus as wicked (when Christ dies on the cross), and treats the wicked as Jesus deserves (when all the blessings of eternal life are bestowed on him).
God performs a double transfer: our sin is transferred to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness is transferred to us.
This exchange between the believer and Christ is known as imputation. On the one hand, God attributes the guilt of our sin to Christ, and Christ suffers the consequences of it on the cross. On the other hand, God confers the righteousness of Christ on us, and considers the merits or merits of Christ as if they were ours. God performs a double transfer: our sin is transferred to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness is transferred to us.
So God justifies the wicked not on the basis of the righteousness inherent in them, but on the basis of the righteousness of Christ. He justifies them not by what they do, but by what Jesus did.
What does Jesus deserve? The justification: a declaration of having obeyed perfectly and, consequently, all the heavenly blessings, because he is worthy of them. Jesus shares this status and blessings with many people (Rom. 4:1-8, 23-25; 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:7-9).
The role of faith
Now, not everyone enjoys this privilege. Who are those whom God justifies? They are those who believe, those who have faith:
“We also have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law. Since by works of the law no one will be justified”, Galatians 2:16.
Faith is an attitude of receptivity, dependence, and trust. God does not justify us by what we do, by our efforts, or by our obedience (“works of the law”), but by what Jesus did. Faith trusts in Jesus and his work as sufficient to receive God’s justification (Rom. 3:28; 4:23-25; Eph. 2:8-10).
What role exactly does faith play in justification? Could it be that faith itself makes us worthy of justification? No, because faith, by definition, is not a work. It is precisely the only human attitude that says to God: “I can’t; I need you to save me” (see Lk. 18:9-14). Faith looks outside itself, focuses on its object, and embraces it, entrusting its destiny to Him and clinging to its ability to save.
Faith, in this sense, is like the empty hand of the beggar who receives alms. Extending your hand does not make you worthy of receiving the gift, but rather it is given purely out of the kindness of the giver. The only thing the hand does is receive. And the hand is precisely empty, not with a bill in the palm.
What about James chapter 2?
One objection against the description of justification given here is that the Bible says that justification It is not by faith alone. James 2:24 says:
“You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”
Did the reformers 500 years ago and evangelicals ever since miss this verse? Could it be that they go against the explicit teaching of the Bible?
You have to read the texts in their contexts. Santiago is not dealing with the same problem as Pablo. On the one hand, Paul argues with people who think they have to contribute something to effect their justification. On the other hand, Santiago is arguing with people who think they are saved by a mere profession of faith in words.
The true believer is a person who says they have faith and shows it by what they do.
James begins the passage by saying: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says they have faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him? (James 2:14). What was the problem Santiago faced? There were people who they were saying who had faith in Jesus but whose lives did not reflect this faith in any way. This kind of faith, a faith that is not life-changing, that is not backed up by facts, is a faith that is worthless.
Instead, the true believer is a person who says they have faith and shows it by what they do. The faith that he saves is not just words. The heart willing to trust Christ is also willing to obey him.
Protestants have always said that works are not the basis of justification. That is, God does not justify us because our works deserve it. However, works are the evidence of true faith. If faith is real, there will be works that will prove it. In this sense, justification is by faith alone, but not by faith alone. Paul himself also affirms this in Galatians 5:6.
The key to the Christian life
Why is faith not found alone in the life of a justified person? One reason is that justification by faith, properly understood, enables obedience. It is counterintuitive, because it seems that justification without works should give rise to licentiousness and disobedience. However, justification by faith alone turns out to be the key, the only lasting source of motivation, and the pattern to follow in living the Christian life.
Justification by faith is the key to the Christian life because it gives the believer the…