The Doctrine of Justification
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:28-32)
July 7, 2003 - We start our study on Justification with a simple (but much misunderstood and contorted) linear listing of chronological events. It is not possible that we can study Justification, until we have first looked at those elements that God tells us precede it…
1.) God’s Purpose
2.) Foreknowledge (prior affection)
3.) Predestination
4.) Calling (effectual)
5.) Justification
6.) Glorification
7.) Eternal Victory in God
We must start, of course, with God’s purpose, as the scripture says, “to them who are THE called according to his purpose”. God’s purpose always comes first, as we should well know. For a minute, let’s examine how purpose works in relation to a creator.
We will first examine purpose in relation to a human creator. We are very aware of the peril and danger in using analogy in relating God things to human thing, but our analogy will serve its immediate purpose, and it is allowed by the permission of the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 14 verse 28, so we will feel comfortable in using it.
FOCUS ON PURPOSE
All rational creators FIRST create in the unseen realms according to a PURPOSE. As an example, we see that with an architect or a builder the creation begins with an idea. What is it the builder desires to accomplish? A builder does not just randomly begin building a house or a structure with no purpose or end in mind. First he sees a need or desire that he chooses to meet. Let us say for example that the builder knows someone who desires a structure in which to live. Recognizing the need or desire, then, in the unseen realm of his mind, the builder sees what outcome or end he desires to bring forth. The builder now has a purpose. Because of the need or desire, the builder will say, “I will set out to build a HOUSE”. Then, in the unseen realm of the mind, the builder puts forth a plan or design to bring about the required end. THEN (and only then) the builder or architect writes down the plan that he knows ultimately accomplishes his purpose. A good builder will always count the cost, and he comes to an intimate understanding of all the means that he will need to finish his task. As Jesus said,
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Luke 14:28)
Once he has counted the cost and established the means, only THEN does the wise builder put his hands to the task of bringing to fruition that plan which he first began in the unseen realms of the mind.
Let us look at creation as it flows forward chronologically in time:
1) The creator starts with a foreseen end, or desire. (END)
2) The creator PURPOSES to bring about that end, and sees the end as finished in the unseen realm. (PURPOSE)
3) The creator determines and then utilizes the appropriate means to bring about the end. (MEANS)
4) The END is accomplished. (END)
This is the pattern used by every rational/logical creator. The END is always both first and last in the overall plan. No rational creator refuses to work according to a purposed plan, or refuses to count the cost. No powerful creator ever leaves the main elements of the plan up to the whim and will of those who are unable to accomplish or bring about the end.
How much more is this true of our Heavenly Father?
God existed before all of His creation. As Creator, He exists outside of His creation. As a rational, personal and perfect Creator, He does all things according to His PURPOSE. The Bible shows us a powerful, omniscient, triune God who took counsel within the Godhead before the foundations of the world about His ultimate purpose. God communicated in perfect harmony with Himself in the eternals, as the scripture says,
“Every purpose is established by counsel” (Proverbs 20:18)
So God took counsel within Himself (Gen. 1:26), and as a God of omnipotence, His purpose must perfectly and completely come to pass according to His sovereign decrees. There is no wavering or insecurity in God. His purpose WILL happen:
“The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand… This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (Isa 14:24-27)
God has declared to us His purpose regarding His “building”:
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:37-39)
Those who claim that God has chosen to “limit” His own sovereignty, His own omnipotence, His own power, in order to lift up one of His other characteristics (namely His LOVE), blaspheme God by doing so. God does not become greater by lessening His Godly attributes. He does not glorify part of Himself by becoming less than what He is. God has a finished, perfect Purpose in mind. His purpose stands eternal and it existed before the creation. His purpose will be perfectly fulfilled on earth, and NO ONE shall disannul it. Those ignorant men who claim that God purposed to save EVERYONE, but that some will disannul His purpose (and change the ultimate end) by refusing to be saved (or by falling away), have blasphemed and slandered God on two accounts: First, that they have called God a liar, and second, they have created and worshipped ANOTHER god, for the one they call God is not the God of the Bible. God’s ultimate and primary purpose is not to save men and bring them unto Himself. Saving men and bringing them to Himself is a secondary purpose, or a means to a bigger end. God’s primary purpose or intent in the salvation of men is this:
“To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph 3:10-11)
And so God’s purpose in the salvation of His elect is made plain. He purposed to show His Godly attributes (wisdom, mercy, justice, wrath, goodness, love, etc.) to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms, and He purposed to do so by choosing an elect group out of fallen man and by effectually calling them unto Himself, saving them, and uniting them with Himself.
FOREKNOWLEDGE
The word "foreknow" can mean two different things: It can mean PRE-COGNIZANT - which today means to "be aware of before" or to have mere "knowledge" of before. Or “foreknow” can alternatively mean to "know beforehand with affection”.
Let us examine this in relation to the Purpose of God that we have already discussed.
The ignorant and apostate say that God saved those who He saw from eternity would believe on Him. They say He foresaw faith in some, and so He only elected those who He knew beforehand would believe in the future. These people limit the definition of the term “KNOW” to mere “intelligent cognizance”. Those who say that God merely "pre-knew" or simply foresaw faith in those whom he elects have a huge problem. They must declare that there are those that God was not COGNIZANT of, or those that he did not have knowledge of before the judgment. This is to say that there are things or people that God does not know. This foolish notion destroys the Doctrine of God's omniscience, which claims that God knows everything, and that He is in possession of ALL knowledge and information. The devil loves all interpretations that slight or slander God. This is not a question of what God does or does not know in an informational sense. God knows everything and everyone.
Quite often the Bible uses the term "know" in a much different way.
“And Adam KNEW Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Gen 4:1).
Those who limit the definition of “KNOW” in the Bible to mere cognizance, must declare that before Genesis 4:1, Adam didn't even know he had a wife! But clearly this is not true. In this context, Adam "knew" his wife with affection, in that he became intimately familiar with her.
The New Testament concurs:
“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I KNOW not a man?” (Luke 1:34)
After that (and this one destroys the Catholic concept of Mary's perpetual virginity):
“And (Joseph) knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.” (Matthew 1:25)
So we can see where the word “KNOW”, or “KNEW”, has a more intimate, affectionate meaning in these cases. Also the Arminian is at risk of calling God a liar when he claims to KNOW those that he did not FOREKNOW, and those to whom He will later say, "Depart from me... I never KNEW you."
To unbelievers in the Gospel of John, the Bible says:
"But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because HE KNEW ALL MEN, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man." (John 2:24-25)
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“But I KNOW YOU, that ye have not the love of God in you.” (John 5:42)
If this is mere "cognizance", then why will the same Jesus later say to them in the Judgment, "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23)? It is evident that to “KNOW” in these verses does not mean mere cognizance. Clearly God knows everything and everyone. His omniscience demands it. The word "foreknow" and "foreknew" in the scripture means that he ORDAINED those who he had an AFFECTIONATE knowledge of. Those who were "IN HIM" from eternity, he foreknew - as God has perfect knowledge and affection and joy for Himself.
The Arminians (and even many who call themselves "Calvinists”) who say that God elected based upon foreseen faith in those whom He elected, baselessly slander God, and they throw a stumblingblock in the path of God's children. The Bible says that for those who do such, it would be better for them that a millstone be tied around their necks and for them to be thrown into a river than for them to continue to slight and slander God through ignorance or intent. When Jesus tells the reprobate, "Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also" (John 8:19). He is clearly identifying that these people have NO AFFECTION for God. God FOREKNEW who HE was going to save. He FOREKNEW with affection those upon who, in His infinite power and knowledge, He elected to show mercy . God FOREKNEW (ordained) those who He gave to the Son. God FOREKNEW with affection those who HE desired to utilize to bring about His sovereign purpose.
PREDESTINATION
Relating God’s actions again through His ultimate purpose, we find that He acted in the unseen realms to bring glorify both His judgment and His mercy by predestinating those whom He loved:
“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph 1:11)
God’s purpose flows through chronologically, for the Bible says “…whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate…” But to what end is predestination? In the believer, to what end does predestination serve? Predestination serves to set apart those who are..
“…to be conformed to the image of his Son”. (Romans 8:29b)
God’s purpose demanded that He predestinate everything that involves His elect. He wrote down in His book the very days of their lives, just as He formed their members in the wombs of their mothers (Psalm 139). God left nothing regarding His elect to that pagan God called “chance”. Remember that God’s decrees cannot be annulled. His sovereign will reigns over all that is created. God’s predestination is an element of the MEANS He uses to bring to fruition His purposed plan.
CALLING
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9)
God called his particular elect, not with the general call to the gospel that has evidently gone out to the whole world, but with a particular, separate, holy calling, according to His own purpose. To the whole world there is a general command that they
a) believe the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ
b) repent of their sin
c) throw themselves on Christ for mercy from the wrath that is certainly to come.
This general call (or command) is not what is in view in this verse, because the scripture calls this a HOLY calling. Holy means SEPARATE or SET APART. This is a separate calling that is made to God’s elect alone. It is irresistible and efficacious. Many receive the first calling, but few are chosen to receive the second. Think about this in your own life. If you are truly regenerated, then you know that there was a moment in your life where God’s calling became specific to you, when you could no longer throw up ramparts against it, when it become so overwhelming that Satan’s defenses could not stand against it. If you are truly regenerated, then you know that the Holy Spirit seized you, not according to your works, but according to God’s eternal purpose for your life. We have seen that that purpose existed in God before the physical realm was created. God’s purpose for you, His foreknowledge and affection for you, His calling of you, became REAL to you through the efficacious grace bestowed upon you by HIM. So God’s purpose concerning you was not left in your hands, so that you might disannul it through the hardness of your heart. God FIRST gave you a new heart (Eze. 36:26), so that His purpose concerning you could not be thwarted.
JUSTIFICATION
Having examined all those elements that God uses to bring about His purposed end, NOW we can safely examine our main topic of Justification. Let us examine how some great Christian thinkers have described Justification:
"We simply explain justification to be an acceptance by which God receives us into His favour and esteems us as righteous persons; and we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. . . Justification, therefore, is no other than an acquittal from guilt of him who was accused, as though his innocence has been proved. Since God, therefore, justifies us through the mediation of Christ, He acquits us, not by an admission of our personal innocence, but by an imputation of righteousness; so that we, who are unrighteous in ourselves, are considered as righteous in Christ" (John Calvin, 1559).
"What is justification? Answer: Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which He pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in His sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone" (Westminster Catechism, 1643).
"We thus define the Gospel justification of a sinner: It is a judicial, but gracious act of God, whereby the elect and believing sinner is absolved from the guilt of his sins, and hath a right to eternal life adjudged to him, on account of the obedience of Christ, received by faith" (H. Witsius, 1693).
"A person is said to be justified when he is approved of God as free from the guilt of sin and its deserved punishment; and as having that righteousness belonging to him that entitles to the reward of life" (Jonathan Edwards, 1750).
In this important doctrine lies a major, fundamental difference between TRUE Christianity and papist apostasy. We use the term “papist” to show both the root and fountainhead of the apostasy, AND to show that all those who claim to be Christians, but who hold to the papist understanding of Justification, are themselves papists and apostates by default. Here is how A.W. Pink described the differences:
“Between Protestants and Romanists there is a wide difference of opinion as to the meaning of the term "justify": they affirming that to justify is to make inherently righteous and holy; we insisting that to justify signifies only to formally pronounce just or legally declare righteous. Popery includes under justification the renovation of man’s moral nature or deliverance from depravity, thereby confounding justification with regeneration and sanctification. On the other hand, all representative Protestants have shown that justification refers not to a change of moral character, but to a change of legal status; though allowing, yea, insisting, that a radical change of character invariably accompanies it. It is a legal change from a state of guilt and condemnation to a state of forgiveness and acceptance; and this change is owing solely to a gratuitous act of God, founded upon the righteousness of Christ (they having none of their own) being imputed to His people.” (A.W. Pink - The Doctrine of Justification)
True Christianity holds that because Original Sin came upon all men by imputation, so Justification was necessary by imputation in order that fallen man may be reconciled to God. We believe that Justification is a change in legal status, declared outside of man, and relates to a permanent change in the heavenly account of the one Justified. The Papist, the Arminian and the Apostate believe that Justification is bestowed upon an applicant once they have met the minimum requirements set by God. Since the Papist argument requires that man participate in his own salvation through works (homegrown belief, faith, obedience, etc.), they surmise that God, seeing this move of “faith” on behalf of the applicant, subsequently grants unto that person a wholesale change in moral character, so that they may then meet His further requirements in order to maintain his new position.
Justification (to declare to be “right” or in good standing) is a judicial term and it regards the declaration of a righteous judge:
“If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked” (Deut. 25:1).
In order for God to a) maintain his own righteous character, and b) bring to pass his own decreed end, it is necessary that He deal with man according to the full and complete measure of his own law.
“He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD” (Prov. 17:15)
In order for God, according to His own word, to justify any man, the righteous demands of the law must be met. First, imputation of Christ’s righteousness must be made totally free from any merit “deserved” by the one justified. God’s determination that His judgment will be passed according to the merits of the High Priest, means that ONLY the works of the High Priest will be considered in the legal judgment. The sentence of guilt was passed upon ALL MEN because of the transgression of Adam (the High Priest of all those who were “in him” at his transgression). Although all men sin, and are guilty in their own right, the Bible teaches that all men are fallen (and possess fallen natures from their birth) because of God’s judgment upon their human High Priest. (Please see the Doctrine of Original Sin for more details on this)
Jesus Christ was declared the High Priest over a particular and separate body of people, as he is declared by the Father to be “… an high priest over the house of God…” (Heb. 10:21). To those whom He first KNEW, PREDESTINATED, and CALLED, he has now become a Great High Priest (Heb. 4:14), so that He might bear the iniquity of His congregation (Lev. 10:17), be bruised for their iniquity (Isa. 53:5), and be stricken for their transgressions (Isa. 53:8). He bore their punishment, so that the full measure of the law was meted out upon Him in the stead of those whom He first predestinated and called. The Father’s judgment that the sacrifice of the Great High Priest was sufficient judicially brought about a declaration of JUSTIFICATION upon all those who were IN the High Priest. All those represented by the High Priest were declared RIGHT, and their heavenly accounts now reflect this eternal work. No act of man or angel can now change that eternal judgment. The declaration was made outside of time at the Judgment seat of the Most High God.
JUSTIFIED
God has pronounced that those who He had prior affection for, He called effectually to His Son. He predestinated them so that they would be “conformed to the image” of His Son. He declared them NOT GUILTY, so that He, His Church, and His characteristics would be glorified in the heavenly realms. This is both the eternal mystery, and the eternal victory! For who now can hold any charge against God’s elect? If God be with us, who can be against us? For God has made known to us the mystery of His will. There are two types of people on this planet, those to whom the mystery has been made known for the glory of God’s perfect Grace, and those who have been blinded from this knowledge for the glory of God’s perfect justice. God has…
“…made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:9-11)
So we can see how God both starts and finishes with the perfect END. It brings about His divine purpose, and it is perfectly accomplished for His eternal glory. His purpose is accomplished by the use of MEANS, and the END is brought about exactly according to His will.
Off with these apostates and their Papist/Arminian theology. Out with their blasphemies and slanders. To Hell with their pride and insolence. They say that we deny choice, but we do not. In fact, the Bible offers them one right now. They are left with the choice of legitimate REPENTANCE or eternal torment. Repentance will show their fellowship in the mystery, and their inheritance in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who is our Great High Priest. Refusing the gift of repentance shows that God never knew them, and they will stand for judgment in their High Priest, the fallen Adam.
The Doctrine of Justification is central to our understanding of God’s sovereign works. It stands as a measuring stick between what is the true and right doctrine of God’s real Church, and what is the false and apostate doctrine of Antichrist. God has declared that His elect are Justified and therefore freed from the penalty of the law. We are in communion with Him because we are restored to His righteous favor. We have our existence in and through our Great High Priest, our deliverer and redeemer. Those who declare any other Justification exist in and through their father, the devil, and they will rightly be judged and condemned with him. Predestination is not a silly theological debate with no eternal consequences. God has inextricably intertwined the Doctrine of Predestination with His divine Justification. When Predestination is shunned, avoided or denied - Justification is bastardized as a result. For those who continue to slight God’s Holy word, I leave you with this admonition: Throw down the weapons of your warfare. Repent and believe the True Gospel. Throw yourself on His mercy and He has promised that you will not be cast out. For those who have glorified God by believing His full counsel, the scripture saith unto you, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phi. 4:4), because, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Tit. 3:5-7). Amen.
