![]() ![]() Those acquitted on the day of judgment are spoken of as "the righteous" ( Matt25:37 they go into "eternal life, " v. We see this, for example, in the words of Jesus who speaks of people giving account on the day of judgment: "by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned" ( Matt 12:37 the word NIV translates "acquitted" is the one Paul normally uses for"justified" ). When we turn to the New Testament we must be clear that the righteousness and justification terminology is to be understood in the light of its Hebrew background, not in terms of contemporary Greek ideas. Again Phinehas took decisive action so that the plague was checked and "This was credited to him as righteousness" ( Psalm 106:31 Phinehas is described in the words, "as zealous as I am for my honor among them," Num 25:11 ).And the prophet can say, "He who vindicates (or justifies) me is near" ( Isa 50:8 ). He did this to Abraham, who believed God "and he credited it to him as righteousness" ( Gen 15:6 ). Sometimes we find the thought that God imputes righteousness to people. And for the second point, "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness" ( Psalm 130:3-4 ).The end of Micah's prophecy emphasizes that God is a God "who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance" and that he"delights to show mercy" ( 7:18-20 ). For the first point, "All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt there is no one who does good, not even one" ( Psalm 14:3 ).And when God looks down from heaven he sees that "they have together become corrupt there is no one who does good, not even one" ( Psalm 53:2-3 ).Many such passages could be cited. Thus it is made clear that sin is universal, but that God provides forgiveness. We do not find the full New Testament doctrine of justification by faith in the Old Testament, but we do find teachings that agree with it and that in due course were taken up into that doctrine. The law that mattered was, of course, the law of God, so that righteousness signified conformity to the law of God. And in Scripture it is not too much to say that righteousness is basically a legal term. Justification ( dikaiosis ) is connected linguistically with righteousness ( dikaiosune ) in the first century it is clear that all the words with this root were concerned with conformity to a standard of right. The legal force of the terminology is clear when Job exclaims, "Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated" ( Job 13:18 ). In both the Old Testament and the New the question receives a good deal of attention and in both it is clear that people cannot bring about their justification by their own efforts. Justification points to the acquittal of one who is tried before God. That is rather the content of sanctification. That person should be an upright and good person, but justification does not point to qualities like these. The basic question in all religion is, "How can sinful people be just (i.e., be justified) before the holy God?" Justification is a legal term with a meaning like"acquittal" in religion it points to the process whereby a person is declared to be right before God. The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people" ( Isa 3:13-14 ).Over and over the punishment of evil is put in legal terms ( Exod 6:6 7:4 ) and specifically Israel's sin is brought out with the use of legal imagery ( Micah 6:1-2 ).Īccordingly it is not surprising that salvation is often viewed in legal terms. "The Lord takes his place in court he rises to judge the people. God can be relied on to act in perfect justice and without giving preference to the wealthy and the highly placed in our human societies. It mattered to the biblical writers that God is a God is a God of perfect justice, a truth expressed in Abraham's question, "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" ( Gen18:25 ). Throughout the Bible justice is a category of fundamental importance. Nobody expected strict justice in human tribunals but the biblical writers were sure that God is a God of justice. But if the victim was a vassal it sufficed to pay a small fine. ![]() Indeed this was sometimes written into the statutes and, for example, in the ancient Code of Hammurabi it is laid down that if a citizen knocked out the tooth of another citizen his own tooth should be knocked out. In their day it was axiomatic that a wealthy and important citizen would not be treated in a law court in the same way as an insignificant person. We should be clear that our hesitation was not shared by the biblical writers. We tend to distrust legalism and thus we dismiss anything that savors of a legalistic approach. It is a legal term signifying acquittal, a fact that makes it unpalatable to many in our day. Justification is the declaring of a person to be just or righteous.
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