A Catechism for Girls and Boys
Monday, September 10, 2012 at 8:34PM I give my opinion of the answer to this question in the first comment. Tell me what you think.
Part III: Questions about Salvation
92. Q. What is justification?
A. It is God’s regarding sinners as if they had never sinned and granting them righteousness.
(Click through to read scriptural proof.)
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Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by.
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…and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…
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For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
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Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
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For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- Hebrews 8:12
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.” - Philippians 3:9
…and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith….
Reader Comments (4)
I thought last week's definition of election was excellent, but I'm not crazy about this answer on justification, especially the bit about "granting" them righteousness. "Granting" makes it sound like God makes sinners righteous as the grounds of justification. Better wording would be to say that God "regards" or "counts" sinners to be righteous.
What do you think?
Rebecca, I don't like it either.
What do you think of this? "Just as if I have never sinned, just as if I had always obeyed." I heard this a couple months ago and it's starting to grow on me. At first I was very uncomfortable with the "Just as if" part, now I'm not so sure. One thing I do like about it is the imputed righteousness clause at the end: "just as if I had always obeyed."
Wouldn't it be more accurate to say he grants forgiveness and looks on us as if we had never sinned? This is where the word "imputed" comes in handy. I think one of the meanings of impute it to ascribe. So, God, ascribes righteousness to it.
Luma,
I quite like "just as if I had always obeyed." I think I would like something in the answer about it being base on Christ's "always obeying."
Kim,
Yes, it would be better to use "grants" in relation to forgiveness rather than righteousness. The way it is worded makes is seem as if we are not actually forgiven, but just regarded as forgiven.