Justification through Faith

Romans 3: 21-25

21 But now, irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ* for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement* by his blood, effective through faith.

The early Christians were committed to the belief that God was revealed in His Story recorded in scripture. The God of the bible is a ‘God of Virtue’ and He reveals His ethics for life through the life, death and resurrection of His Son. Right knowledge of God is demonstrated in right action revealed by God in His son and this produces right hope in God.  The early Christians knew the story of Jesus began long before the New Testament story and that the restoration of the whole of creation rested on this story. The glory of God in humanity had been sullied by humanity meeting its needs in any way it chose other than God’s way. The result was disaster; right living being replaced with self-centred personal gain. Cooperative human relationships were replaced with the survival of the fittest or at least the fittest to oppress and dominate. All this runs contrary to God’s plan and purpose for productive human life based on caring and nurturing of each other and God’s good creation. However humanity has hope of restoration and justification and this can be achieved by accepting the Story of God as revealed in scripture and our place as humanity within it. This is a crucial point; we have to accept our part in how it’s all gone wrong. We have all met our needs our own way and denied God’s way. This heartfelt conviction that the responsibility for what’s wrong centres on how we as human beings have abandoned God and  have misused the resources of creation for our own gain and at the expense of the physical, social, psychological, environmental wellbeing of each other and the environment. But this recognition and acceptance is the potential turning point towards God and His way of life. The turning point towards God is the ‘here and now’. God’s provision for our restoration is on offer in the present; it is revealed in Jesus; He is God’s provision for our restoration and for our re-occupying our proper role in the story of creation and new creation as ‘made in the image of God’. God’s way of saving humanity is through accepting our responsibility on how things have gone wrong, turning towards God and accepting His free gift provision in Jesus; this accepting of Jesus must include both His words and deeds. We must put the words of Jesus into practice in our own lives and communities. This is what is called by theologians ‘Justification by Faith’.  Accepting what the God states the problem of our life is, that is, meeting our needs our own way (sin) and turning to God, accepting His undeserved provision of His Son’s life, death and resurrection as the pattern of provision for satisfying our need for a restored relationship with God and each other. This surely must result in ethical living. Both the love of God and our neighbour are required evidences of Justification; they are inseparable parts of the one authentic Justification by Faith.