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Justification is one of those big “church-y” words we often hear talked about pertaining to salvation. I’ve been using the word for many years, but when it came to simply explaining what it is, that’s pretty difficult! The best place I could think of to turn to was the Scriptures, particularly the book of Romans. In this blog I’ll share some passages from Romans, and use those to attempt to explain this concept.

First, I’ll attempt a somewhat simple definition of a very complex word. Justification is God’s declaration that a sinful person is now made justified, or righteous, because of Jesus Christ. It’s the principle that an individual receives salvation by God’s grace through faith, not by any of their own works.

Romans 3:22-26 sets the stage for justification. It says:

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood —to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

To summarize that passage, we’ve all messed up and separated ourselves from God by our sin. But, everyone has access to faith in Jesus. When we have that faith, God demonstrates His goodness and declares us to be good or righteous as well, therefore justifying us because of Jesus.

What good does it do us to be justified, or made right in God’s eyes? It gives us God’s peace, as it says in Romans 5:1-2:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

How does justification work? Check out Romans 5:16-21 for more insight on that:

Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Justification is the fact that we deserve to be condemned because of the sin in all of our lives, but because of the life of Jesus, we may be considered righteous instead! That’s God’s grace in action - getting what we don’t deserve. We are by no means righteous, but we may be seen as such in God’s eyes because of our faith in Jesus’ saving death and resurrection for us.