Justification

When it comes to justification, there may be preconceived notions about what it is and how one is justified. We are going to avoid any traditions or preconceived ideas about being justified and let Scriptures explain what it is and how it works. 

The word for justified in the Greek is the verb dikaioo and it means “to show or to declare one to be righteous”. We learned about righteousness last week in that it means to be in the right by someone. So to be justified is an action where God is the one declaring us righteous in his sight. To be justified is to be declared righteous.  The question still remains, and one that is answered in Scripture, is how one becomes justified. We know how one becomes righteous in faith in Jesus. So how does one become justified or declared righteous?

One becomes justified or declared righteous when they put their faith in Jesus. Romans 3:28 declares, “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” Righteousness and justification go hand in hand. Being righteous means that we are justified. If we have faith in Jesus, we are justified, meaning that we are declared righteous. Romans 5:9 also makes clear that this was made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus. We wouldn’t be able to be justified if Jesus had not gone to the cross. Praise God he did!

In Luke 16:15, Jesus warns the Pharisees about justifying themselves. What we learn from this is that God is the one who justifies us, we cannot justify ourselves. It is a dangerous path of pride and destruction to declare ourselves right with God for only God can do that. 

Later in Luke 18:14, Jesus is giving a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee is very prideful while the tax collector is humble and confesses his sin. Jesus says, “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.” The tax collector is justified before God because he was humble while the Pharisee already thought he was righteous and better. Jesus says in this story, he actually was not justified because of his pride. 

So in conclusion, to be justified means to be declared righteous. This happens because of our faith in Jesus and it is made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus. God is the one who justifies us and it cannot be done any other way than by faith in the resurrected Savior.