Made just or declared just?
Experiencing God's forgiveness
Ernest Hemingway tells the story of a Spanish father who decided to reconcile with his son, who had fled his house to Madrid after a misunderstanding. Remorsefully, the father took out an ad in the newspaper:
PACO, MEET ME AT THE MONTAÑA HOTEL ON TUESDAY AT NOON. ALL IS FORGIVEN. DAD.
Paco is a common name in Spain, so when the father went to the plaza, he found 800 youngsters named Paco waiting for their respective fathers. "All is forgiven," 800 responded. Forgiveness is the first step that must be taken so that there is a conversion in the heart.
What is forgiveness?
It is the loving response from the sincere heart of a person towards another or other people who have hurt him. To forgive is to tolerate the consequences of the evils of others and to set the offender free. To forgive is to give up claiming the one who has hurt us, and it includes freeing oneself from the emotional consequences of the offense. True forgiveness is the beautiful fragrance that the flower sheds on the foot of the one who crushes it.
However, forgiveness is not something that is human. By ourselves, we cannot forgive. Forgiveness is a gift from God; we must receive it from Him. "Him God has exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31). We see here that it is God who gives repentance and forgiveness of sins. "Repentance, as well as forgiveness, is the gift of God through Christ."
Forgiveness is something more than a judicial act of God where He pronounces us acquitted of sins. Some claim that forgiveness, or Justification, is a declaration from God regardless of the change that may take place in us. The following sentence succinctly expresses that position: "Justification is the forensic declaration that the Christian is righteous, rather than the process by which he or she is made righteous. It implies a change of status rather than nature. It has been concluded that this is the true Protestant position on Justification, while the Catholic position is to believe that Justification is to declare just and to make just.
A highly respected Christian author and publisher stated the following regarding the Christian understanding of Justification. "Since the Reformation, Lutherans, along with almost all Protestants, have insisted that Justification by faith is an act by which God declares us righteous... The Reformers taught that Justification was something God does for us. , not in us—a crucial distinction... We are justified only by what Christ did for us, apart from us, outside of us... Protestants understand 'the grace of justification' as a purely legal statement; because the Justification of Rome is a process of renewal, something that happens in us".
Declared Righteous or Made Righteous?
Since forgiveness or Justification is a gift from God, it is important to understand the power of forgiveness since "every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from on high, from the Father of lights, in whom there is no change, nor shadow." of variation" (James 1:17). God's gifts are perfect; God does nothing by halves. In Him, there is no variation or contradiction. God is not going to declare someone righteous without first making them righteous.
Let's go to the Bible, which is our only source of truth, which makes us "wise unto salvation" (2 Timothy 3:15). A classic quote on Justification is found in Romans 5:1. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The internal peace of heart is the fruit of Justification because now we are right with God. In Titus 3:5-7 we have a clear description of Justification. "He saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but by his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Notice that "the washing of regeneration" and "the renewal in the Holy Spirit" of the heart precede justification. This renewal process leads to Justification.
1 Corinthians 6:11 gives us a complete picture of salvation. "And these were some of you, but you have already been washed, you have already been sanctified, you have already been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." We may think that Paul got the order of salvation confused here. Many times in our Western logical mindset, we have created rigid sequences that do not always harmonize with Scripture. What Paul means here is that being washed, justified, and sanctified is the same process; we must not separate them. But the clearest evidence of all is David's repentance through which he achieved forgiveness. After confessing his sin, David implores God to wash away his sin (Psalm 51:2). More than the forgiveness of sins, David longed for a clean heart, a transformation in his life. "Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow… Create in me, O God, a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not before you, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Return to me the joy of your salvation, and a noble spirit sustain me" (verses 7, 10-12, emphasis added).
But forgiveness has a broader meaning than many suppose. When God promises that "he will be ample in forgiving," he adds, as if the scope of that promise were more than we could fathom: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:7-9. God's forgiveness is not just a judicial act by which he delivers from condemnation. It is not just forgiveness for sin. It is also a redemption from sin. It is the outpouring of redeeming love that transforms the heart. David had the true concept of forgiveness when he prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." He also said: "As far as the East is from the West, he has removed our transgressions from us." Psalms 51:10; 103:12.
To be forgiven in the way that Christ forgives is not only to be forgiven but also to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The Lord says: 'I will give you a new heart.'
Having made us righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ, God declares us righteous and treats us as such.
What did Martin Luther believe?
Going back to the aforementioned argument, is this a Catholic doctrine? The following quotes from Martin Luther, one of the greatest leaders of the Protestant Reformation, show that his understanding of Justification by faith is very much in harmony with the Biblical evidence already presented.
"...this movement of justification is the work of God in us." (Works of Luther, Concordia Publishing House, Saint Louis, 1963, vol. 34, p. 177 [1536])
"Therefore he draws us to himself and transforms us... So it is in Romans 5, 'We are justified by faith'" (LW, vol. 32, pp. 235-36 [1521]).
"Therefore, the Christ grasped by faith and who lives in the heart is the true Christian justice, by which God counts us as just and grants us eternal life." (LW, vol. 26, pp. 129-30 [1535])
"But as regards justification, Christ and I must be so united that He lives in me and I in Him... Faith must be taught correctly; that is, by it, you are so grounded in Christ that He and your they are like one person who cannot be separated... This faith unites us to Christ and me more intimately than a husband is united to his wife." (LW, vol. 26, pp. 167-68 [1535])
"Then what justifies...the Holy Spirit is the one who justifies." (LW, vol. 26, p. 208 [1535])
All of these statements tell us the same basic truth that the experience of Justification or forgiveness transforms us. When Christ dwells in our hearts, God considers us righteous. When we are forgiven, Christ dwells in me, and I in Him. How, then, can we continue to believe that God forgives someone who is not fair? If, through repentance, someone receives Christ into his heart by faith, that person is righteous and is declared righteous by God.
Conclusion
"You, too, are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins, and you cannot change your heart and become a saint. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe in that promise. You confess your sins and surrender to God. You want to serve him. As surely as you do this, God will keep his word to you. If you believe the promise, if you believe you are forgiven and cleansed, God supplies the fact; you are healed, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed he was healed. It is if you believe it."