Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 0-222 (Theology)

Living Words of the New Testament, by Rev Dr Leon Morris

JUSTIFICATION

In the Bible justification is basically a legal term. It is used, for example, of the action in a law court when a dispute is settled by the judges, “acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty” (Deuteronomy 25:1). Those who wrote the books of the Bible loved legal imagery and often used it (you will see this in passages like Psalms 9:7, 8; Isaiah 3:13, 14; Jeremiah 25:31 and many others).

This affects the meaning of terms like “righteousness”. With us this is not a legal term at all, but among the Hebrews it meant first and foremost being in the right when brought to judgement, “right standing” in other words. The “righteous” man was the one who would get the verdict when tried in a law court. When Isaiah speaks of those who “take away the righteousness of the righteous” (that is the meaning of the Hebrew in Isaiah 5:23) he means that they will take away the person’s “right standing”; of course they cannot take away his moral character.

But we are all sinners and guilty before God (see the dreadful accusation in Romans 3:10-20). There is no way we can put away our sins and the prospect for sinners in eternity is a grim one. But Jesus came and died for us on the cross; he suffered that death that is “the wages of sin” (Romans 6:23) and now all those who trust in him find their sins forgiven. More. They are given a new status, a “right standing” before God, what Paul calls “the righteousness from God” (read Philippians 3:9).

The New Testament makes it clear that we do not get this “right standing” before God on account of anything that we do. It comes because Christ died for us and we receive it only by faith. Have you confessed to God that you are a sinner and have you put your trust in Christ to bring you salvation? That is the way to be “justified”; and justification is the name we give to the process whereby we who are by nature sinners receive “right standing” before God as a free gift, a free gift we accept in faith.

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Rev Dr Leon Morris is an internationally recognised New Testament scholar, theologian and author, from Melbourne Australia.

This feature series of ‘Living Words of the New Testament’ appeared in ‘Daily Notes’, published by Scripture Union.