Legal and Personal- How Justification makes us Forgiven
Forgiveness as it relates to Justification and Union with Christ is both a Legal (positional) reality and a interpersonal experience. Because of Christ’s offering of his life and the “gracious transaction” of his righteousness for our sin, enables God to as a Just Judge to act with mercy and righteousness in saving us.
But, our redemption is more than a legal transaction with some abstract status that bears no real influence on our lives. Redemptive language in the Bible is intensely personal. The Just and Holy Judge is also, by grace, our loving Father. This experience of mercy and cleansing from our sin in our union with Christ is the experience of forgiveness.
While the doctrine of forgiveness is rarely treated as an individual aspect of our salvation, it is immensely biblical. The Bible portrays sin as the great act of treason – a highly personal offense. This is especially true in the parable of the Prodigal Son, better named as the parable of the Forgiving Father (Luke 15).
Objective and SubjectiveAnother way to speak about the problem of our Redemption is the tension between the objective reality that is true of God’s provision for sin in the death of his Son, and the human experience of forgiveness in the act of confession. The question will arise, “how does God forgive sin and on what basis does He forgive?”
Forgiveness as it Relates to GodRomans 3:25-26 (ESV)
(Jesus) whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. [26] It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
“Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin”
Remission means the total removal of sin and its consequences. True remission of sin was not affected by the O.T. sacrificial system, this was a picture of what was to come. Only God could be both the Just and the Justifier of his redeemed people by the giving of his own Son, the fullness of deity, in an act of unfathomable love.
The Basis for all forgiveness is the blood of Christ - 2 Cor. 5:14, 15. Someone has to pay a price. Infinite transgression requires an infinite cost, which only the infinite Son of God could pay.
It is applied to the believer both:
Positionally - Col.2:13; Rom.8:1 – We are in Christ and a New Creation.
Subjectively – 1 John 1:5-9 - we will walk in truth and in the light of Christ’s forgiveness.
Forgiveness as a Part of SalvationThe Reformed view of the “Ordu Salutis” - a description of the process of salvation.
Effectual calling - The Spirit helps us to really hear the Gospel and effectively respond to it.
Saving faith- While this appears to be the part where we are active in the process of our salvation, the trusting belief we express is also a gift from God.
Repentance –True faith is always experienced with genuine repentance. Which comes first is sometime hard to distinguish in our lives, but it is biblically tied together like two sides of the same coin.
Justification – God declares us righteous on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness. The great and gracious transfer of our sins for his righteousness,and he becomes our unrighteousness bearing them to the Cross.
Adoption – Because of God’s promise to Jesus, he adopts us as his children firmly establishing us as a part of his family.
Sanctification – Salvation is not just getting our ticket punched for the pearly gates. It involves the transformation of the believer. True justification will always led to a growth in holiness.
Good Works – Grace leads to gratitude and the best way to show God how much you love Him, is by loving others.
Perseverance – We don’t grow, keep believing and stay on track in this race, by our own power. Christ is in us by the presence of the Holy Spirit. What God starts he always finishes.
Assurance of Salvation- The evidence of everything that God is doing in giving us faith, trust, a new desire and the promises of His electing grace confirms in our heart that we truly belong to Him.
Glorification – Someday when Christ returns for his church or we meet him after our passing from this mortal life, we will perfectly reflect his image and lay aside all dead, powerless nature of our sin, that we’ve battled against for so long and for once know what it is to be truly human and enjoying our Creator.
Justification and Union with ChristThe Westminster Confession understood the priority of the act of judicial declaration of our imputation of Christ’s righteousness is our basis of union with Christ. In this way, we can also speak about the benefits of our union with Christ as being fully “forgiven” and restored as child of God.
“In Christ, God took the penalty of sin on his own self to abolish the cause of enmity existing between himself and sinners. Nothing unethical or unjust is implied, as Christ freely accepted this role as mediator. Consent and free choice characterize his actions for sinners. Penal substitution through sacrifice implies that he accepted to stand as the innocent one in the place of the guilty, accepts the judgment for their guilt, and assumes and abolishes it by his vicarious death. This is condescension to the highest degree imaginable and grace to the fullest extent possible.” (Paul Wells, Cross Words, pg. 149).
Forgiveness in Human ExperienceGustaf Aulen (Swedish Lutheran theologian)
“Forgiveness is not an act that occurs only once, at a certain time, and establishes once and for all the basis on which the Christian life exists. On the contrary, forgiveness belongs to the whole of Christian life, since this life depends on the fact that ‘the grace of God is new every morning.’” (The Faith of the Christian Church, pg. 292)
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