2 Corinthians 5.17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
The Christian life is characterized by continuous growth, transformation, and change. This is life in focus. Indeed, if you are a follower of Jesus and you are not growing, then your life is out of focus.
It is a powerful reality: Jesus calls you to himself to transform you. The change that Jesus effects in your life has three parts:
- The Lord has changed you positionally.
- The Lord is changing you progressively.
- The Lord will change you perfectly.
Today let’s consider #1.
1) The Lord has changed you positionally. This is the doctrine of justification. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, your sins are forgiven and you are made positionally righteous before God. This is the doctrine of justification.
Justification refers to being vindicated before God such that we have a new legal standing with Him because He declares that we are no longer guilty as sinners. Not only is guilt and its condemnation removed, but God’s righteousness is imputed–credited, assigned–to us.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5.21)
Thus, justification is God’s legal act by which an unrighteous sinner who believes in Jesus Christ as Savior is declared righteous before God, because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to him.
The basis for our justification is God’s gracious gift of his Son for our sins. We obtain this grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Justification is not earned; it is a gift of grace that is received by faith.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3.23-25)
Justification is how the Lord imparts new life to us. It is transformation and change of the most radical kind: it moves us from death to life.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5.24)
More tomorrow …
