Justification By Faith

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH & IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS


What is “imputed righteousness?” It is a doctrine that has been nearly forgotten and is seldom taught in today’s churches. Jay Wegter said the following about a well-known “Cross Preacher” in the early 1900’s named A.W. Tozer:

“Tozer understood the value of justification for daily living. He extolled the liberty God supplies in justification. He reminds us that when justification is appropriated, the believer is liberated from sterile legalism, from unavailing self-effort and from the paralyzing fear of condemnation. Tozer adds that the doctrine of justification in Christ is not simply a legal declaration, it is an ongoing revealer of the infinite riches of the Godhead.”

It partners with another doctrine that is rarely mentioned as well called Justification by Faith.” When either of these two titles is mentioned, there seems to be some sort of recognition of the latter, because we hear the words “justification” and “faith” spoken in churches. What do these terms mean?

Let’s discuss “justification by faith” briefly, because it lays the foundation for which we will need to explain, “imputed righteousness.” The doctrine of Justification by Faith seems to be taught far more than imputed righteousness, both are synonymous with each other but each can be explained in a slightly different manner.

Justification by faith can be generalized by these statements observations:

1. It says that there is a need for all of humanity to be justified (Eph 1:1-3; Rom 3:23; 5:12), since all are Adam’s sinful descendents. As Adam’s fallen offspring, the entire human race would be pronounced “condemned” or “guilty” before God on Judgment Day.


Mankind has absolutely no way to redeem himself, being there is nothing that a fallen creation can produce that God will accept. Imperfection cannot produce perfection, no matter how hard it tries.

2. This need was fulfilled in Christ Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. Upon our receiving Christ’s Finished Work on the Cross, we are able to attain that which we could not earn or merit on our own (Mk 16:16; Jn 3:36; Rom 5:16).

3. Justification is a verdict to those who believe in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:22-28). By this Heavenly Declaration of us being made “righteous” in Christ, we can now become a resident of Heaven by our identification and Oneness with Christ Jesus (Rom 5:18-19; 3:26; 4:5; 8:33; Phil 3:9).

4. Only those that relinquish claims to their own right standing in the sight of God are eligible candidates for justification by faith (Eph 2:8-9; Lk 5:32). Justification is a gift from God from the Father of all fathers, to all of mankind (Rom 4:5).

5. “God justifies us by FAITH alone (Gal. 2:15-21). God justifies the person who looks away from himself and trusts in CHRIST ALONE for righteousness (Titus 3:5-7; Rom. 4:4-5), “ (Jay Wegter).

6. That faith by which we receive can become a “work” if the believer is not totally aware of the fact that this justification that we receive is not by any work of our own, but by Christ’s Finished Work alone.

Arthur W. Pink states that “faith” is merely the instrument that God uses to hand us the gift of justification in His Sight. Faith is not to be viewed as though by some merit we are owed this gracious gift on God’s behalf.

Someone has given this perfect example when they described a man drowning alone in the ocean. This man had no life rafts, nothing to cling to, no floating devices, he is doomed and going to drown if someone doesn’t save him. Then a boat gloriously appeared and a hand reached down to rescue him from his pitiful condition.
This is how we should view our redemption by Christ’s substitution, and not by any merit of our own. We should never look at our salvation as though the proverbial hand that reached down to save us was because we were able to hold it well enough to pull ourselves out of the abyss.

7. By this unmerited favor that God has given us, we are gloriously given a righteousness that will last forever.

The only way that we can lose anything that Jesus died to give us, is if we renounce our faith in Christ forever. This means that only if we were to profess that we deny the Christian faith and the expiation of Christ will we burn eternally in hell.

And that in a nutshell is justification by faith. What is different about imputed righteousness is that through this teaching we learn that not only we given God’s righteousness back through Christ, but we were also alleviated of our sin. It is important that we understand this in detail because when we are empowered with this knowledge, it’s much easier to know where we stand in Christ.