So much material exists in the Bible regarding justification that one lesson can only introduce the concept. Strong bonds exist between "righteousness," "being just," and "being justified in God's sight." God's act of justifying us begins with his own nature.
Basic understandings each students should have: (1) Justification is a large [not small] study. (2) It is interrelated with all God did in Jesus' death. (3) It involves God's nature as well as God's acts. (4) It includes considerations involving righteousness and justice. (5) Forgiveness can occur because justification occurred.
Jesus referred to God as "Righteous Father" (John 17:25). Paul said Jesus died to enable God to be just as He justified. Jesus' death permitted God to be true to His righteous nature (Romans 3:26). Paul also referred to God as the "Righteous Judge" (2 Timothy 4:8). John declared to Christians if they confessed their sins to God, He in His faithfulness and righteousness would cleanse them from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9). Revelation 16:5 refers to the Holy One as being righteous.
Note the concepts of (1) God's righteousness and (2) God being just are companion concepts. It is impossible to be righteous without being just. The concept of being just in the common American human perspective centers in retribution: "You will get what you deserve!" The concept of being just in God's divine perspective centers in fairness. The defenseless [such as the widow and the orphan in the ancient world] are not exploited. They receive fair treatment. The proper treatment of the defenseless is not subverted by bribery or by exercising power. To view the concept, examine scriptures such as Isaiah 1:17; 58:6,7; Jeremiah 7:5-7; 21:12; 22:3; Micah 6:8; Zechariah 7:8-10; 8:16,17; and Matthew 23:23,24.
God is just. He is fair. He does what is right. Even when providing people forgiveness for their sins, God is just. He can justify because He acted justly. Even when He judges, he is just, fair. His judgments are consistent with what is right. The Christian depends on God's promises. When a Christian through confession [to God] brings his or her failures before God, He is faithful [He keeps His promise to forgive]. He is righteous or just when He forgives. The combination of God's faithfulness [promise keeping] and righteousness [being just or fair] guarantees a penitent Christian he or she is cleansed of all unrighteousness.
God is just [fair] in His every act, His every thought, and His every motive. In His promises and treatment of others, He gives no advantage to people we consider successful, powerful, or important over people we consider disadvantaged. Those we classify as failures have equal access to God's kindness, compassion, and blessings. God as certainly keeps His promises to the weak as He does to the strong. God as quickly forgives the disadvantaged as He forgives the advantaged. The humble Christian whose heart constantly is ready to repent can be certain the just [fair] God keeps His promise to forgive.
The problem: no person is just before God. How can a just God Who is repulsed by evil associate with any human? How can the Just One enter a relationship with unjust [evil] people? The solution: Jesus' death enabled the just God to enter a relationship with people [people are incapable of being just]. Through Jesus' death God paid the ransom price to release people from their slavery to sin. Through Jesus' death God appeased divine wrath, and that enabled God to be merciful. The merciful God who paid the price to release us from evil forgives us. His forgiveness destroys our sinfulness.
In the sense that God is just, no human can be just. While God is fair to all, virtually every human shows partiality to someone and gives preferential treatment to someone. Since God despises every form of evil [remember evil is His enemy dedicated to destroying His influence], how can He associate with people when all of us are guilty of evil in some form? God [not we] resolved the problem by letting His righteous son die for our evil failures (see 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:20,21; Galatians 3:27 [clothed in Christ]). Every person who lives in God's acceptance is sinless by virtue of God's continual forgiveness, not by virtue of his or her righteousness. We cannot be accepted by God on the basis of our own merit. We can be accepted by God because we permitted God to clothe us in Christ.
We understand we are just before God when we arise from our immersion into Christ. Yet, no Christian is sinless. How can God continue to see us as sinless when we all are guilty of evil?
This is the problem God's justification resolved.
This is the essential understanding: we are just before God because God uses Jesus' death to justify us. We do not and cannot justify ourselves before God. No human act can justify us before the just God. The act of divine forgiveness is God's act of making us righteous by justifying us in Jesus' blood. Even in forgiving us, our merciful God is just.
This fact cannot be overemphasized: it is impossible for any person to make himself or herself just before God. Only what God accomplished in Jesus' death can make us just before God.
This is not a hard concept to see, but it is a hard concept to trust. Americans are independent people who despise being in anyone's debt. We are committed to the "pulled myself up by my own boot straps" philosophy of self-sufficiency. If someone tells us how indebted we are to another's helpfulness and kindness, inwardly we feel compelled to "set the record straight" by emphasizing what we did. Americans are convinced that no one gets something for nothing. In fact, we feel very uncomfortable with the idea of receiving kindness we do not deserve. Religiously, we too often associate obedience with "deserving" God's mercy and kindness.
The American Christian finds it especially difficult to trust this concept. Too many of us are fiercely independent. In our independence we want to be self-reliant in the sense that we are no one's dependent. "We earn our way!" The thought of being 100% dependent on God's justification, kindness, and compassion terrifies us. In a human context, we never before knew anyone that dependable! Placing that level of trust in God defies human experience! Quickly the concept of justification becomes a faith issue, a "trust in God" issue.
The basic issue is this: can any human make himself or herself righteous? The clear Bible answer is "no"! God makes us righteous, but we cannot make ourselves righteous. God makes us righteous through the act of justification. God's mercy, not human deservedness, makes us righteous.
Absolute understanding: only God can make us righteous. We are incapable of making ourselves righteous. When we allow God to justify us, we accept the responsibility to mature in ways consistent with what God made us, and to live in ways consistent with what God made us. While we may seek to live righteously in the "now," no "now" behavior makes us righteous [in the sense that God is righteous]. If "now" behavior were perfect [which it cannot be], perfect "now" behavior is powerless to justify imperfect "past" behavior. We seek righteous behavior, thoughts, emotions, and motives "now" to express profound appreciation for the fact that God makes us righteous in Jesus Christ.
Long before Paul's conversion to Christ he was a devoutly religious Jew (Acts 22:3; 26:4,5). He was perhaps the most promising student of Judaism in his generation (Galatians 1:14). He was committed to making himself righteous by "doing all the right things and observing all the right traditions" (Philippians 3:4-6). He was absolutely convinced he could make himself righteous before God by his human efforts. Then he met the resurrected Jesus Christ and was confronted with the ignorance of his past commitment and determination (1 Timothy 1:12-16).
Paul is an excellent New Testament example of a person who, through determined/committed study and behavior, tried to make himself righteous apart from God's actions in Jesus' death.
Scripture has no clearer picture of "before understanding Jesus Christ" and "after understanding Jesus Christ" than is presented by Paul in Philippians 3:7-11. Before he understood God's accomplishments in Jesus Christ, Paul was convinced he could make himself righteous through human effort. If he did enough of the "right things" God would view him as "righteous." Then he understood what God did in Jesus Christ. Those matters that he regarded as invaluable steps to making himself righteous became trash. He sacrificed all of them for the privilege of knowing, gaining, and being found in Christ.
When Paul understood God's achievements in Jesus' death, he realized his efforts to make himself righteous were trash.
Why? He did not want a righteousness dependent on his attempts to keep the Law. He wanted the righteousness God provides when a person places confidence in God's accomplishments in Christ. The end result of the righteousness God provides through faith in Christ is (1) knowledge of Christ, (2) the power of resurrection [in this life], (3) fellowship with Christ's sufferings, (4) conformity to Christ's death, (5) and eternal resurrection (Philippians 3:9-11).
What Paul wanted was the righteousness that only God can give through Jesus Christ.
Paul wanted the justification God provides the Christian through faith in Christ. He did not want the inferior, inadequate human attempt to be justified by human efforts.
Paul knew only God can justify.
The justification God provides in Christ allows God to look at us differently. Consider Galatians 3:23-29. What God accomplished in Jesus allows Him to justify us by faith. Unjust people cannot be just, but they can trust God's accomplishments in Jesus. It is confidence in what God did in Jesus Christ that allows us to be God's children. God does something to us at the moment we express our confidence in Jesus by being immersed into Christ. God is responsible for what occurs. We are not. When we are immersed into Christ, God clothes us in Christ.
When God "looks" at the person clothed in Christ, He does not "see" all his or her evil. He "sees" Jesus Christ's perfect righteousness because He clothed that person with Christ. The key for us is trusting God to keep His promise. He did it. Do we trust what He did?
When Jesus died on the cross, God looked at him and saw our wickedness. Jesus' body was clothed in our sins as he died (1 Peter 2:24). God made Jesus to be sin when he died (2 Corinthians 5:20,21). Because God made Jesus to be sin by placing our sins on his body, God justly can make us righteous. In the same manner God placed our sins on Jesus when he died, God places Jesus' righteousness on us when we are immersed into Christ. Just as God looked at the dying Jesus and saw sin, God looks at the person in Christ and sees righteousness. God does not see righteousness when He looks at us because we have no evil in us. He looks at the person in Christ and sees righteousness because he or she is clothed in Christ.
To help people understand the concept of justification, begin by emphasizing the fact that God clothed Jesus' body in our sins when Jesus died. [To many, this is a familiar, accepted, unquestioned understanding.] In the same manner, God clothes us in Christ when we are immersed into Christ. In fact, 2 Corinthians 5:21 states God is able to make us His righteousness because He made Jesus to be sin.
That is the essence of justification. When God looks at the person in Christ, it is as though the person is not and never has been guilty of anything evil. As someone said of the Christian, "It is just as if I never sinned."
Because, in Christ, God looks at us differently, we must humbly look at ourselves differently. We verify the fact that we see ourselves as God clothed us when we responsibly commit ourselves to live differently.
This lesson has no questions. Discussing and understanding the key concepts in the passages given as texts should fill (profitably) the role of the questions.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 5