The Bible uses several terms to identify a person’s new position in Christ, and one of them is “justification.” It’s a legal term used to describe the position of the person who has received from Jesus the gift of “LIFE.” This person is said to have been “justified,” or brought into a “right” standing before God, a standing in which God declares the person to be “righteous.” Instead of standing in a position of alienation from God because of sin, justification brings a person into a new position in which there is “peace” with God. All of this is made possible because of the forgiveness of sins that Jesus provides. As the Apostle Paul writes,  

“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). 

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day always reckoned that justification came by keeping the works of the Law. Their problem was that they prided themselves in their Law-keeping, which only led to boasting in their “self-righteousness.” But Paul attacks this concept of “law-keeping” in order to gain a right standing before God by pointing us to this amazing argument,   

“If righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died in vain” (Gal. 2:21).  

How true this is! If we could be “justified by works” instead of by “faith,” then there was no reason for Christ to have died, no reason for the cross. Jesus could have just given His disciples a new set of rules and regulations and told them to tackle them as best they could, knowing all along that they would fail, just as others failed for generations in keeping the Old Testament Law. No, “righteousness” comes only by “faith” in Christ, as Paul states unequivocally, 

 “…a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, …since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. (Gal. 2:16).

If you recall, it is by faith that a person receives the gift of “LIFE.” It begins with repentance which drives a person to confession before God, seeking His forgiveness, and believing by faith that He will grant that forgiveness because of Christ’s shed blood on the cross. It is this same faith that results in our justification. The Apostle Paul combines this word with last week’s word, redemption, saying that, 

“…we are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

When a person receives the gift of “LIFE,” that person is not only redeemed from the penalty and power of sin, but is also “justified” and brought into a right standing before God. This legal word is a great word, one that you need to add to your vocabulary. If you are not yet “in Christ,” now would be a great time for that to happen. Know the word and what it means first, and then experience it, firsthand. No need to wait any longer.