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Justification by Faith

Justification by Faith

Scripture tells us that “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17 NKJV).

But who are the just? And how does one become just?

The just are those who have been justified—but what does it mean to be justified?

What law lens do you read this word through: human law—imposed rules that require external oversight and inflicted punishment, or design law—the protocols upon which our Creator built reality to operate (such as the laws of health and physics)?

Seeing God as Creator, we understand that His laws are the laws upon which reality is built and that violations of God’s law injure and destroy, ultimately resulting in death unless the Creator intervenes to heal and restore—that is, to set right, which is what justification actually means: setting right that which is not right.

But if one operates under the human definition of law—imposed rules, made-up mandates—then one thinks that justice requires the sovereign to use power to police and enforce the law through inflicted punishment. In this view, justification is not about healing, restoration, or setting hearts and minds right; it is about a legal adjustment.

Bad Assumption, Wrong Conclusion

Many theologians suggest that the word justification in Christianity refers to a legal process because the word itself is part of a set of legal words—it is legal language, they say.

Some problems with this view are:

  • The word justification does not exist in the original Bible text.
  • The Bible was not written in English or Latin.

Instead, justification was a word used by sincere but biased translators who, when they translated, did so from a Roman legal worldview. In other words, the translators, having come from a Roman background, had accepted the lie that God’s law functions no differently than human law.

In short, they artificially introduced legal language and ideas.

But even using the word justify, the idea that it has only a legal connotation is false. Justify also has non-legal meanings:

  • To justify the margins in your document is not a legal act; instead, it is a moving or setting what is not in-line to being in-line.
  • And justify can also mean to show, demonstrate, or prove an action, position, person, or claim to be right.

If one views the Bible through a human-law lens, then one assigns a legal definition to the word justification and, therefore, teaches that spiritual justification is being legally declared to be righteous even though one is not righteous. It creates a legal fiction in which God is portrayed as declaring something true that is, in fact, not true.

But when we reject the false human-law construct and embrace design law and return to worshiping God as Creator, we understand that justification in the Bible is both setting right that which is wrong (making sinners into saints) and demonstrating the righteousness of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Bible Demonstrates Justification

In Romans 3:25, 26, the apostle Paul describes both the demonstration aspect of justification and the putting right what is wrong aspect of justification:

God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus (GNT, emphasis mine).

Justification is part of the process of saving sinners from sin. Therefore, in order to accurately understand what justification is, we must accurately understand what the problem is. In other words, we must first diagnose what is actually wrong before trying to describe God’s treatment plan.

If we accept the lie that God’s law is like human law, then we believe that the problem created by Adam and Eve when they sinned was legal trouble—that they now stood under legal condemnation for breaking the law of God. And that God, being both perfectly holy and sovereign, was required by His law and holiness to inflict appropriate punishment for their sin. If God were to remit this punishment, it is claimed, then God is not just and His law is void. Thus, in the legal view, justice requires God to inflict the death penalty for sin. But, it is argued, there is good news: God sent His sinless Son and executed Him in our place (even though He was innocent) and we can now claim the blood of this sinless human sacrifice to be applied to our legal registry in heaven. In so doing, God is required by law to declare us to be legally righteous, even though we are still unrighteous in heart, mind, and character.

Not only does such a view misrepresent God’s law, but it also perverts the divine character as it would make God a liar—declaring humans to be righteous who are not—and would make God out to be the source of death. In such a warped view, God needs something done to Him (appeasement by sacrifice) so that He won’t use His power to kill us.

When we reject the lie that God’s law functions like human law and return to worshiping the Creator whose laws are the design protocols for life, we realize that when Adam and Eve sinned, they did not somehow remain loyal, faithful, trustworthy beings who were suddenly in legal trouble. Instead, we understand reality, that their sin changed them. Love and trust were displaced in their hearts by fear and selfishness, which became their new motives. They were damaged in their inmost beings and were now “dead in trespass and sin” (Ephesians 2:1). In other words, they had a terminal condition. As the Bible says, “sin when full grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). Without God intervening to cure this condition, all humans would die because all humans are “born in sin conceived in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5).

Understanding that sin changes the sinner—corrupts the mind, incites fear and selfishness, warps character, takes us out of harmony with God and the holiness of heaven—then what do sinners actually need in order to be right with God?

  • A new legal record?
  • A judicial ruling?
  • A blood payment to a punishing deity?
  • A legal declaration?
  • Or do they need a new heart and a right spirit?

Scripture is clear on what is needed:

  • “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 NIV84).
  • “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19 NIV84).
  • “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10 NIV84).
  • “A man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code” (Romans 2:29 NIV84).

All the descriptions of Scripture are the same: The plan of salvation is God’s work in sinners to transform their hearts and minds to set them right by restoring God’s law of love into them and eradicating fear and selfishness from their characters. As we find in Romans 2:29, it is a heart work not a legal (written code) work.

The Bible describes our sinful heart and mind as being hostile to God:

“The sinful mind is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7 NIV84).

Another version puts it this way: “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (NKJV).

We, in our unconverted, sinful state, distrust God and are hostile to Him. Our hearts are not in harmony with His. We don’t love what God loves. We don’t think how He designed us to think. We don’t function as God intends us to function. We are fearful and selfish. We need to be put right, set right, justified in heart, mind, attitude to trust God. This is what justification is—changing the heart of a being who distrusts into one who trusts, setting right the heart with God.

Justification Illustrated

Abraham, as the rest of us, was “born in sin and conceived in iniquity.” He was a sinner tempted by fear and selfishness and acted, on multiple occasions, to deceive others in such a manner as to put his wife in harm’s way, all in order to save himself. But Abraham experienced a change—not a legal change, but an actual change. He went from a person who didn’t trust God and did things his own way to a person who did trust God and followed God’s directions. In other words, Abraham experienced an actual change of heart motive; his heart was set right with God. This is justification.

And once Abraham trusted Him, God—who is the Creator God of reality and not fantasy—recognized the new state of being in Abraham, that he was justified, actually right in heart with God (Romans 4:1–3).

God did not declare Abraham righteous when Abraham still distrusted God, but He did recognize the reality that Abraham’s heart had changed from distrust to trust. And once a sinner genuinely trusts God, opening their hearts to Him, God heals and restores them, writing His law upon their heart and mind.

This is the justification of the individual sinner with God. But this justification—the setting of an individual heart and mind right with God—is possible only because Jesus first became our substitute, the second Adam, and overcame sin in our stead, setting the human species right with God.

When Adam sinned, not only was he as an individual out of harmony with God (at enmity with God), but the entire species was also out of harmony—because every human is descended from Adam and born infected with fear and selfishness. After Adam and before Jesus, there were no sinless human beings—none. Jesus became human to remedy that situation, to become the connecting link to heaven, the one human being in which God’s design law of life was perfectly lived out, thereby restoring harmony with God’s design law into the human family.

In so doing, Jesus became the new head of a renewed and cleansed humanity—our second Adam.

In the person of Jesus Christ, the species human was justified—set right, put right—with God. He became human and was tempted in all points just like we are, yet He was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). In the human life experience of Jesus, He accomplished something real, something no other human could, something objective: He developed with the use of only His human abilities a perfect, sinless human character, thereby restoring God’s design law of love back into the species human. In the person of Jesus, the human race was put right with God—we were justified.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him (Hebrews 5:8, 9 NIV84).

Wait … wasn’t Jesus always perfect?

He was always sinless, yes, but Bible perfection means maturity of character and character cannot be created, it must be developed by the choices of the sentient being. Jesus developed, as a human, a perfect, mature sinless character, restoring God’s law of love into the species human. In so doing, He as our substitute set the species human right with God; i.e., He justified the species and became our remedy to sin, the source of salvation for all who follow Him.

When we are won to trust, we open the heart and receive the indwelling Spirit, who takes the character of Christ and reproduces it in us, such that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20 NIV84). This is true biblical justification.

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV84).

Genuine justification is not a matter of legal forgiveness; it is the actual work of God through Christ to set us right in heart, mind, attitude, and character—to be united, at-one with God.

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Testimony 68

Your message of design law vs imperial law is so uplifting and makes so much sense- it is a game changer for me. The fact that Jesus’s death is not a big payment by an angry God is , quite frankly, a relief.

Laura G., London, Ontario, Canada

 

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I’m a youth leader in South Africa. We as a youth group are currently using a lot of the material on the Come and Reason site. Since we’ve started using the material, our youth group has grown.

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Testimony 57

You have helped make sense of thirty two years of confusion. The material you freely provide reorganized so much of my life into such a beautiful pattern that has always been hinted at from within, but misguided with my training and what I was experiencing externally. My filipno parents, who were converted from Catholicism to SDA, were sincere and did their best to raise me the right way and I have deep respect for them. However, being immigrants and not understanding the language made for a difficult transition as I was growing up, which also applied to my spiritual growth as I learned the patterns of religion. I have been listening to as many bible study classes and reading blog posts as my time in a work truck will allow, searching for the practical applications of where spirituality and reality meet, and I thank you for helping me find that. You have helped me reach a point in which I can truly say that I love God, that I believe He loves me, and, like David, I delight in His law. God bless.

Emmanuel V., Calgary, AB Canada

Testimony 6

I got the book “Could It Be This Simple?” a few months ago and the reading was wonderful and I was fascinated. I lent the book to a friend at work. She is having a difficult time and the book is helping her to find Jesus and I found this very exciting. She has asked me questions and I can see her life changing.

H. S., Australia

 

Testimony 10

I personally download and listen to each of Come And Reason Ministries Bible study class lessons and PDF study notes to use when teaching my class. Really appreciate the class especially when Dr. Jennings is teaching. Thank God there are persons like him doing His work and traveling to share His beliefs.

B. L.M., North Plains, OR, USA

 

Testimony 29

Thank you for all of your work to correct misconceptions about God’s character. So many people that my husband and I have talked to seem to be against the natural law construct and view it as “errant” and “dangerous.” Having learned more about it through your blogs and lessons, I don’t really understand why they view it that way, except that it means they have to relearn theology they have known for their entire lives. But I’m so excited to relearn this. For the past few years I have been questioning how I could trust a God who punishes arbitrarily and is full of wrath for those who don’t obey His commands. That view made me afraid to “mess up” or “not be good enough,” even within my relationship with God. I really appreciated the point you bring out about God not wanting us to serve Him because we are afraid, but because we love Him.

Melissa H., IN, USA

 

Testimony 37

Hearing Dr. Jennings’ presentations in person came at a pivotal moment in my spiritual journey that began about nine months ago, when the fault lines inherent in my belief system began to crack under questions that most reasonable people end up asking about God and His nature. These were questions I couldn’t find answers to, and they shook my faith. I was unable let it go any longer and be satisfied. My Christian experience became distant. I was afraid; the fear in me rose like thorns, pushing me away from Jesus. And then someone heard my questions and introduced me to this ministry, and my life has totally changed.

I can tell you that this new, “present truth” message is far grander and life-changing than when I shifted from being an agnostic and then a nominal Christian. It has radically altered my worldview, because it reveals a God that makes sense. It is a revolution. I believe that Dr. Jennings’ message is the final message that must go to the world. If any message could be called “righteousness by faith,” as abused as that term is by the right and the left, this is that message, because Jennings’ biblical message identifies a God who is different, whose character isn’t an impossible contradiction.

I walk this path now without fear. I see people differently, and the Holy Spirit burns in my heart. Many call Dr. Jennings’ message false and compromising, but it isn’t false, because I’ve seen the fruits within my mind and body. It is not compromising, because in this message is the only road to holiness that makes any sense. No longer do I behold a pagan god who is always angry and suspicious. Instead, I behold a God who is freeing and loving, always working for our good, and giving me every reason to love my enemy even to my own death, just as Jesus pleads with us. God is good.

Anthony L., CA, USA

 

Testimony 51

I Love This Ministry!!!!!!! I see first hand how this message is desperately needed, how erroneous beliefs about God and His Character negatively affect humanity at every level. I thank God for your ministry, as I was searching on my own and was discovering some of your same beliefs and was blown away when I found your ministry. I know you hear it all the time, but it is truly life changing. May God continue to reveal His Will to you and Bless you!

Eric S., Sanford, FL, USA

 

Testimony 36

Thank you and may God continue to bless you as you share with others the intricacies of how we are all “fearfully and wonderfully made”. I must share that you have opened a whole new world to me, and I have found tremendous healing through what you have shared in two of your books, “Could It Be This Simple?” and “The God Shaped Brain.” I praise God for what you shared, what I have learned, and how I have grown and healed! My prayer is that My Precious Jesus will be seen by others in the way I live, act, talk, etc. and they may be encouraged to know He is truly a GREAT God of LOVE, desiring that no one should perish! God Bless you in your continued endeavors to present Him as He really is!

Joleen H. GA, USA

 

Testimony 71

When I was 9 years old, I remember setting at our devotional table with a hunger and thirst for God that wanted more, deeper, BETTER. I can remember literally crying and pounding on the table, “I know these teachers didn’t mean to give us error. They taught what THEY had been TAUGHT, but didn’t ANYBODY READ THE BOOK?!?!?” It mattered to me then. It mattered to me as a teenager. It matters now as I teach bible classes. It didn’t have to be so hard as I watched so many give up and lay God’s great plan and gift of salvation aside as being “impossible.” Then, a friend sent me a link to Come And Reason’s website. I grew excited. YES! FINALLY! Then another friend told me to stay away, saying her son had just broken up with a girl because she was involved with Come And Reason and that “Tim Jennings preaches a false gospel.” But, AFTER many years of developing an authentic and, dare I say FUN relationship with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit I see this message has been around a LONG time, since the apostle Paul, Ellen White, Graham Maxwell, Ray Foucher, and yourself (though I admit, you’ve made me back up, rewind and replay the clips, and get out my well-worn Bible on a few things.) I’m so thankful I have found LIGHT during these DARK days. I am not alone.

Vicki DiNitto

Testimony 52

Your unique way in spreading the truth is what we all need today. Most of us don’t recognize the contamination coming from all the lies and selfishness in the world. Because of our fear of death, we forgot how to live. Lies left and right. I was losing hope and faith, because of so many ideas that are always contradicting each other – so many questions answered by other, more complicated, questions – until I found your channel on YouTube.

You did not just give me answers, you also taught me how to answer new questions that arise in my mind. Now I see things differently. I see God’s mercy, grace, and Love everywhere, in spite of all the chaos that we all have done as humans. I don’t fear death anymore. Accepting the Truth and Love about God is truly a genuine Freedom from all the confusions, sufferings, selfishness, pain, and death.

I just wanted to say, thank you, sooooo much for revealing the real Remedy for our infected life. I have a new hope and now see the world in a different perspective!

Wheinny P., University Place, WA, USA

 

Testimony 17

The blessings of clarity and understanding you and your class inspire me to take from the word of God have impressed upon me so greatly the true, loving character of our Creator. I have found amazing freedom and joy through building a stronger, more intentional relationship with Him. What is new is that this is now a relationship built on love, reverence and respect rather than fear and obligation, and as such my eyes have been slammed OPEN as I am continually impressed by the manifestations of God’s true character in His provisions for fallen man.

T.E.H., Salt Lake City, UT, USA

 

Testimony 32

The message [of Come And Reason Ministries is] for all Christians (and those who may become Christians) and not just Adventists or any other group. It is difficult to imagine why any [anyone] with intellectual and spiritual honesty could find fault with the way you explained the healing substitution concepts and the truth about God’s character, though I know some will reject and criticize. On behalf of those in our group near Tacoma, WA, thank you and your staff for all of the hard work and for sharing the Gospel in this manner. God’s message of healing love will be carried to the whole world and then Jesus will come – He promised it.

Terry U., Tacoma, WA, USA

 

Testimony 60

Just watched watched lesson 10 in the 1st quarter 2021 bible study classs on Isaiah. I want to thank you for your intellectual spirituality; it’s not an oxymoron! From the point of view of a teacher I also enjoy seeing how much personal pleasure you clearly take in not just tasting, but feasting on God’s word – it reminds me of Jeremiah not being able to hold it in! It makes me smile that your cup is so full and overflowing that you make it to Tuesday’s lesson (on a good day). It just goes to show the richness of God’s Word.

God bless the Come and Reason Team from our church here in Great Britain.

Andrew H., Great Britain

 

Testimony 38

Since November 2015, when I started studying Gods word from this God Is Love point of view, my life has been transformed. My troubled marriage of 15 years has been healed and my husband and I are truly happy for the first time in 15 years. Now When I read the word of God I understand it so much better and I can’t help but see Gods love radiating through the pages to humanity. Gods word is living and active and I am blessed beyond measure to be having this amazing experience. God has given me a beautiful understanding of Jn 3:16 that amazes me more and more each day. Thank you again for your ministry.

Helen D., London, England