“We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified."  Galatians 2:15-16

"The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus... Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law."  Romans 3:22-24, 27-28

"Those God effectually calls he also freely justifies. He does this, not by infusing righteousness into them but by pardoning their sins and accounting and accepting them as righteous. He does this for Christ’s sake alone and not for anything produced in them or done by them. He does not impute faith itself, the act of believing, or any other gospel obedience to them as their righteousness. Instead, He imputes Christ’s active obedience to the whole law and passive obedience in His death as their whole and only righteousness by faith. This faith is not self-generated; it is the gift of God."  1689 London Confession of Faith, (11.1.)

Q. What is Justification?

A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace by which He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, received by faith alone. Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 33 “Because of this article (of justification by faith) the church stands; if this article collapses, the church collapses.” Martin Luther "(Justification by faith alone) is the main hinge on which religion turns, so that we devote the greater attention and care to it. For unless you first of all grasp what your relationship to God is, and the nature of His judgment concerning you, you have neither a foundation on which to establish your salvation nor one on which to build piety, (faith/growth in Christ) toward God.”  John Calvin, The Institutes III-XI-1 

CONSIDERATIONS:

1. Justification battles doubt/despair.

"His soul was prepared for the work by much prayer and much study of the Word of God; by inward trail; by experience of the depth of corruption in his own heart and by (fresh) discoveries of the Savior’s fullness of grace.”  Andrew Bonar, The Life of Robert Murray McCheyne  

How is Mephibosheth a metaphorical picture of what the gospel of grace has done in our lives (2 Samuel 9:13)?

Why is adoption the culmination of the grand plan of the redemption by the grace of Christ?

The glory of the full gospel of grace (redeemed, adopted).

2. The strong defense against the flaming arrows of the devil.

"In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;"  Ephesians 6:16

"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."  Romans 8:32-34

3. Justification seeing as a life-defining reality in all we do…

"But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”  Galatians 2:11-14

4. Needed: shepherds who teach and agonize.

"My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you."  Galatians 4:19-20

“The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred proof Grace–bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the Gospel–after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps–suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…"  Robert Capon, Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace