JUSTIFICATION
Due to the effects of sin and the fall, Humanity finds itself guilty before God, the righteous judge. One of the works of salvation is to declare those called by God righteous in his sight. Millard Erickson, Distinguished Professor of Theology at Western Seminary, states that “justification is God’s declarative act by which, on the basis of the sufficiency of Christ’s atoning death, he pronounces believers to have fulfilled all of the requirements of the law that pertain to them.”
A current debate in the Christian community is over whether justification means that God makes the believer righteous or declares them to be just. At the center of this debate on the doctrine of justification stand N.T Wright, the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and John Piper, Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Mn. Wright holds that justification is a court of law term that states that God as our judge has declared the believer in right standing with God while Piper maintains that justification is about God crediting the believer with the moral, rather than forensic, righteousness of Christ.
Wright, in his book Paul: In Fresh Perspective, makes some controversial statements that led Piper to write his own book The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright. N.T. Wright then wrote another book, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision in response to Piper’s book.
In his book, Paul: In Fresh Perspective, Wright states “the whole point about ‘justification by faith’ is that it is something which happens in the present time (Romans 3:26) as a proper anticipation of the eventual judgement which will be announced, on the basis of the whole life led, in the future (Romans 2:1-16).” Wright believes that justification is God declaring that we are currently in right standing with Him and that at the end of all things our faithful life will show us worthy to receive this right standing. This is one particular point where Piper finds fault with Wright. Piper believes that such talk will lead people down a path of works based righteousness. Piper states “I think the best way to bring together the various threads of Paul’s teaching on justification by faith apart from works is to treat the necessity of obedience not as any part or the basis of our justification, but strictly as the evidence and confirmation of our faith in Christ whose blood and righteousness is the sole basis for our justification.”
Wright believes that, in general, the writings of Paul and specifically Paul’s view on justification have been lifted out of their first century Jewish context. Wright states that we must see justification in an eschatological and covenantal framework to fully understand Paul’s writings. Wright also does not believe that justification has anything to do with “getting saved.” He states this about Romans 3, one of the classic justification passages: “Romans 3 works far better if we see the the meaning of the word justified, not as a statement about how someone becomes a Christian, but as a statement about who belongs to the people of God, and how you can tell that in the present.” Wright states that “the word justification, despite centuries of Christian misuse, is used by Paul to denote that which happens immediately after the call: ‘those God called, he also justified’ (Romans 8:30).” Wright believes that salvation is tied to that fact God is working to fulfill his covenant promise to Abraham and that justification means God declaring that person a member of his covenant family. Piper states that he believes that Wright has things backward by stating that covenant membership comes before justification. Piper believes instead that, “justification is not a declaration that one has become a covenant member by virtue of God’s prior call. Rather, together with the call, justification is an essentially saving act.”
In his book Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, Wright reasserts that his critics and indeed most theologians have either ignored or are unaware of Paul’s theme that covenant is intimately tied to salvation. He writes “God had a single plan all along through which he intended to rescue the world and the human race, and that this single plan was centered upon the call of Israel, a call which Paul saw coming to fruition in Israel’s representative, the Messiah.”
Millard Erickson seems to agree with Wright that justification does not mean that God gives his righteousness to the believer. In his influential work, Christian Theology, Erickson lays out his case by looking at three things. First, he explains that the concept of righteousness is a matter of formal standing before the law. Second, he contrasts the words justify and condemn in passages like Romans 8:33-34. Finally, he explores the greek root words of some of the main justification scripture passages. He states “we conclude from the preceding data that justification is a forensic or declarative action of God, like that of a judge in acquitting the accused.”
R.T. Kendall, author of Understanding Theology: The Means of Developing a Healthy Church in the 21st Century, also believes that justification is a matter of declaration but offers some practical thoughts on the topic: “Because justification by faith is forensic there is nothing necessarily that we may feel. But although we may not feel righteous- we are; although we may not feel forgiven-we are. Justified is the way God sees us, not the way we see ourselves.” Once a believer has passed from death to life and is declared justified, they may or may not feel the dramatic change of position that has happened as they are no longer enemies of God but are now counted as children of God.
As noted above, for many Christians today in the Western World, salvation is only about forgiveness of sins and thereby being allowed to go to heaven when they die. Frank E. Gaebelein, former editor of Christianity Today and style editor for the NIV translation, writes: “Though justification has much in common with forgiveness, the two terms ought not to be regarded as interchangeable, because even though forgiveness of sins can be stated in comprehensive fashion its continuing aspect, related to confession, sets it somewhat apart from justification, which is a once-for-all declaration of God on behalf of the believing sinner.” Justification is a one time event where the one who has been called by God is declared to be in right standing with God and their sins are forgiven. What follows after justification is the process of becoming that which the called has been declared to be. Perfection is not achieved at conversion and therefore forgiveness will continue to be offered until the believer is finally made holy at the end of all things.
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