This word [justification] has two senses which should be clearly distinguished:
In the first sense our Lord alone is justified. The spirit of Christ in Isaiah said: “The Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me?” (Isaiah 50:7, 8). And Jesus himself afterwards put it to the Jews: “Which of you convicteth ME of sin?” (John 8:46). And though they adjudged him “a sinner” (John 9:24), and with the Romans put him to death as such, God raised him from the dead to eternal life and thus “justified” him in the sense of vindicated him; openly declaring him before all men to be “the only begotten Son of God” in whom the Father was well pleased (Romans 1:4).
In the second sense of “justification” the adopted sons and daughters of God are all absolved, acquitted, forgiven, reconciled to God by His grace through faith and repentance, and (after the sacrifice of Christ) by baptism into the name of Jesus Christ, and by “good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). The spirit of Christ in Isaiah had likewise spoken of this, saying, “By his knowledge shall my Righteous Servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).
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Author: C. C. Walker
Keywords: Justifiy, justified, justification, vindication, absolution, forgiveness, reconciled, reconciliation
Bible reference(s): Isa. 50:8, Isa. 53:11, Acts 13:39, Rom 1:4, Romans 2:13, Romans 3:4, Romans 3:20, Romans 3:24, Romans 3:26, Romans 3:28, Romans 3:30, Romans 4:2, Romans 4:5, Romans 4:25, Romans 5:1, Romans 5:9, Romans 5:16, Romans 5:18, Romans 8:30, Romans 8:33, 1 Corinthians 4:4, 1 Corinthians 6:11, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 2:17, Galatians 3:8, Galatians 3:11, Galatians 3:24, Galatians 5:4, 1 Timothy 3:16, Titus 3:7
Source: “Justification,” The Christadelphian, Vol. 67, No. 788, 1930.
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