Question 70. What is justification?
Question 70. What is justification?
Answer. Justification is an act of God's grace freely bestowed upon
sinners, whereby he forgives them all their sins, and accepts them as righteous
in his sight, not by anything they can do, nor by anything they have done, but
only by seeing the perfect obedience and complete atonement of Christ, and
imputing the righteousness of Christ to them, and receiving it by faith alone.
In order for believers to be justified by God, there must be
repentance. There is no salvation without repentance. Repentance is paying a
price. Repentance is confessing that one is destined to die to God and must die
on the cross with Jesus. Then, God forgives sins and recognizes righteousness.
This is the grace of God given to repentant sinners through faith.
To be united with Christ is to be united with his death and
resurrection on the cross. According to the doctrine, “only by
seeing the perfect obedience and complete atonement of Christ, the
righteousness of Christ is imputed to them and received only by faith.” Obedience
is not obedience to the law, but obedience to the death of the cross, and God
sees the redemption through that death.
Comments
Post a Comment