Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he accounts and declares a man righteous by imputing to him the righteousness of Christ, which the sinner receives by faith.1 In the justification of sinners, God manifests his righteousness and the honour of his law as well as his grace and mercy; inasmuch as he justifies them ‘through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.’2 The righteousness of Christ, whereby sinners are justified, is called ‘the righteousness which is of God by faith.’3 It is not befitting to ascribe to faith the merit that belongs only to the righteousness of Christ : that would be to confound the sun with the window that transmits the light. Justification contains in itself pardon of all the sinner’s transgressions, that he perish not because of them;4 the acceptance of his person in the sight of God,5 and the giving him a lawful claim to the enjoyment of eternal happiness. It is called ‘justification of life,’6 and the transgressor is thereby made the ‘heir of eternal life.’7
1 Isa. 45:25; 54:17; Jer. 23:6; Phil. 3:9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 3:22, 24-25; 4:5; 5:1, 19; Acts 13:38- 39; Dan. 9:24; Eph. 2:8. 2 Rom. 3:24-26; 4:25; 5:8, 19; 10:4; Isa. 53:11; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 5:2; Titus 3:7. 3 Phil. 3:9; Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:28; 5:1. 4 Psa. 32:1-2; Rom. 4:3-9. 5 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 5:1; Isa. 32:17. 6 Rom. 5:2, 18. 7 Titus 3:7; Rom 8:30.
