“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1.

(Note “Romans 5:1” is a reference to the Bible, which is a collection of books. It means that the quotation above referred to as “Romans 5:1” is taken from the book of Romans in the Bible, the 5^th chapter, and the 1^st verse, where a chapter consists of numbered sections called verses.)

The Bible verse quoted above deals with the Bible doctrine of “justification” (Romans 4:25) which is one of the provisions of the gospel. In this post we will look at what is justification.

Humanity is Alienated From God

God made Adam and Eve, the first human pair, “holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4), or in other words, God made Adam and Eve sinless. “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and it is God’s character of love that defines what is true love. Therefore, Adam and Eve in their sinless state had a character of love identical to God’s own character.

Evil entered the world when Adam and Eve both sinned which is to say that they did wrong. By the great law of heredity, all humanity have inherited Adam and Eve’s sinful nature and so God says, “all have [humanity] sinned.” Romans 5:12. All of mankind are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) in that they “cannot cease from sin” (2 Peter 2:14) and “the wages of sin is [eternal] death.” Romans 6:23.

They “walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” Ephesians 4:17, 18. All mankind is born with a “carnal mind” (Romans 8:7) and “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7.

God says, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jeremiah 13:23. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” Job 14:4. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. Thus, humanity is incapable of themselves to keep God’s law of love and, hence, all mankind is destined for eternal death.

Christ, the Remedy for Sin

All of the above seems to spell doom and gloom for mankind. There seems to be no escape from eternal death. But thank God for the good news! “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23. How can this be? What does this mean?

The problem confronting humanity is their past, present, and future sins for they “cannot cease from sin.” 2 Peter 2:14. However, God has a remedy for the sin problem of mankind. From the time of Adam and Eve’s sin, “Christ…who is over all, God blessed for ever” (Romans 9:5) made a promise to humanity. Christ said to Satan, in the presence of Adam and Eve, “I will put enmity between thee [Satan] and the woman [Eve], and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15.

There is much meaning enfolded in Christ’s promise given in Genesis 3:15. When Christ said, “I will put enmity” (Genesis 3:15) He meant that from that time, Christ, who is God, will put a hatred in human hearts for sin and Satan. That is, God would cause individuals to have a change of heart from selfishness and evil to a heart that is “holy and without blame before him [God] in love.” Ephesians 1:4. The individual then would become sinless. This would cause them to cease from sin in their present and future life.

But what about the individual’s past sins for which they are already under the condemnation of God’s law of love and, therefore, they are condemned to eternal death? “Now to Abraham and his seed [descendant] were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds [descendants], as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed [descendant], which is Christ.” Galatians 3:16.

God’s promise to Adam and Eve to save humanity from eternal death was passed on from generation to generation until the time of a man named Abraham. For the history of the world from its creation to the time of Abraham see my previous post. God made a promise to Abraham that Christ when He was born into the world would be one of Abraham’s descendants. This prophecy was fulfilled when Christ was born in human flesh as a baby boy named Jesus approximately 2,000 years ago.

As One in whom the sinless divine nature was blended with the sinful nature of mankind in a mysterious way, Jesus Christ endured all the temptations that would assail humanity in single-handed conflict with Satan, “the tempter.” Matthew 4:3. Christ was a victor over Satan for He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15. Nevertheless, Satan caused Christ to be put to death and so “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3), He died “for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2.

What does the death of Jesus Christ have to do with humanity’s past sins? From the time of Adam and Eve up to the death of Christ, the sins of those who met the necessary conditions laid down by God were forgiven in anticipation of the death of Christ for all sins. For it was only the actual death of Christ that made the promises of the gospel sure. Ever since Christ’s death, the sins of those who meet God’s conditions have been forgiven based on the fact that the penalty for sins was exhausted by the death of Christ.

Thus, with the possibility of being forgiven of past sins, and being made holy such that they cease from sinning in the present and in the future, all humanity may stand “holy and without blame before him [God] in love.” Ephesians 1:4. This then is God’s remedy for sin and such individuals have made peace with God. “For the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 25:31) and, hence, they will reap eternal death.

How to Make Peace With God

God’s remedy for sin is made effective in an individual’s life by their reaching two milestones—“justification” (Romans 4:25) and “sanctification.” 1 Corinthians 1:30. To be justified is to come into a right standing before God and to be sanctified is to be proven secure against all temptations to sin. Only those who reach the milestone of being sanctified receive the “the gift of God [which] is eternal life.” Romans 6:23.

Our Bible verse of focus in this post, Romans 5:1, speaks of “being justified by faith.” Romans 5:1. What does this mean? Justification occurs instantaneously when we have “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21), while sanctification is a lifelong process. True repentance is deep remorse for one’s own sins.

Our justification is all due to God because first of all it is God who reveals to us our sins for “every way of a man is right in his own eyes.” Proverbs 21:2. Without God’s intervention we would continue in our sins, deaf to the speaking of God to our hearts about our wickedness, until the day we die. Thus, figuratively, “the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.” Proverbs 20:12.

When we do hear what God says and do not resist the Holy Spirit it is then that we are “granted repentance unto [eternal] life.” Acts 11:18. That is, we loathe our evil ways and wrongdoing and confess our sins to God and wholeheartedly purpose in our minds to turn away from all these evil ways and instead serve God. Then it is that God gives us “the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3) for “this is the work of God, that ye believe on him” (John 6:29), Jesus Christ. And when we exercise the faith received from God and, hence, believe God’s promise to save us from eternal death through Jesus Christ, God supplies the fact. In other words, it is a fact that we are forgiven and cleansed by God because we believe God.

Thus, when we have taken all these steps, it is true that we have received “the gift of righteousness” (Romans 5:17) from God so that we have a character of love identical to the character of God for “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1.

So, we see our justification is impossible without the working of God to lead us to repentance and the gifts of God, namely, faith and righteousness. Everyone receives the gift of faith from God but without repentance people have a superficial faith and not saving (correct) faith that takes proper hold of God’s truth by the working of the Holy Spirit. Now, there has ever been but one method of justification. Adam and Eve and their descendants up to the time of the death Christ, looked forward to the actual death of Christ by faith in God’s promise, while those who lived after Christ’s death looked backward by faith to the fulfilment of God’s promise.

After justification, next comes the lifelong process of sanctification when the individual is tested and tried by God so that as God says, “that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” Exodus 16:4. This means that even if we are justified, if we fail the process of sanctification, we “shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21) by receiving eternal life.

How This Blog Teaches Bible Study

My blog posts take one or more Bible verses and unpack what is often the hidden meaning in them, to help you to gain in your understanding of the Bible, and to receive insights into how to study it. For God says, “Study [the Bible] to shew [show] thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing [interpreting] the word of truth [the Bible].” 2 Timothy 2:15. There are new blog posts every two weeks on a Monday at 12:01 a.m. in timezone UTC-5 (GMT-5).

Further Reading

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