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God As The Great Justifier

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An essential part of the nature of deity is justness. God is absolutely just — never doing anything which would be in violation of His justness (cf. Isaiah 45:21-22; Acts 3:14). In contrast, man is a violator of law being worthy of condemnation and death.

In fact, man justly deserves to die (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23). God’s justness and man’s unrighteousness contained this dilemma — how could God maintain His perfect justness and save man? Could God merely overlook man’s sin and say that it was all right? If He did, He would not be absolutely just.

From the Scriptures, we understand that justness demands two things: (1) the rewarding of the obedient (Romans 2:7; Romans 2:10) and (2) the punishment of the disobedient (Romans 2:8-9). To assure man of God’s fairness in dealing with this matter, Paul said:

“who will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness — indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also of the Greek. For there is no partiality with God ” (Romans 2:6-11).

This affirmation is repeated in Colossians 3:24-25:

“Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for the wrong which he has done, and there is no partiality.“

We are thus assured, knowing God is absolutely fair in His dealing with the obedient and the disobedient! However, the justness of God also presents this problem: Since there are no just men because all men are sinners (Romans 3:23), what hope did man have?

The only way in which God could maintain His justness and make sinful man right in the sight of law was demonstrated in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. The death of a sinless Being satisfied the demands of justness and made possible the justifying of man. In simple terms, Jesus had to die in order that man might be made right in the sight of law.

But we ask, “How could unjust man be made right in the sight of law? How could God make man just, when man was a sinner?” God’s love could not set aside his justness. It was God’s love that prompted the sending of His Son to die for the sins of man (John 3:16). And it was Christ’s love that moved him unselfishly to die that we might not have to die. In this way God demonstrated Himself as not only just, but as the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

The answer to the above proposed questions can be summed up in one word — “forgiveness.” Some view man’s justification as a matter of bookwork — that is, that God did not really make man righteous, He only accounted man as righteous by substituting Christ’s personal righteousness for man’s deficiency. That is not what God says. When God speaks of forgiveness, He is affirming that man is treated as though he had never sinned (Romans 11:27; Hebrews 8:12; Hebrews 10:16-17).

Although Christ died for all men (Hebrews 2:9), not all men are forgiven. Why, we ask? Christ’s death is the basis for man’s being made righteous, but the efficiency of His death is not realized until the individual sinner is willing to accept God’s forgiveness on God’s conditions.

Paul frequently summarizes man’s necessary response to God as “faith.” In using the phrase, “by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 3:22 NASB), he means that man must trust in someone other than himself for salvation — man cannot save himself by his own merit (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5).

The letter to the Romans presents a contrast between two systems. One is a system of righteousness by perfect law keeping (i.e., Law of Moses). The opposite of that system is the system of faith or trust in Christ by one who realizes that he is a sinner and needs God’s forgiveness to be made right.

But let us not misunderstand “faith.” True saving faith cannot be separated from obedience (cf. Hebrews 5:8-9; James 2:14-26). Based upon Christ’s death, this kind of active faith makes men righteous, incorporating repentance, confession and baptism (note Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Romans 10:10; Romans 6:1-7).

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