In my sermon on justification, in an attempt to exalt God and his act of free grace in justifying us, “only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us,” as the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, I probably downplay the final clause, which is that this act of free grace is “received by faith alone.” Observed exclusively from the side of God, it can seem like an individual is eternally justified, since justification logically flows from election to glorification in an unbroken chain in the eternal decree of God. Such a perspective, however, is unbalanced because it does not take into consideration the outworking of God’s eternal decree in time. A more balanced way of thinking about justification is that it is worked out in three moments. First, it is fair to say that the justification of God’s elect is decreed from all eternity. As Joel Beeke points out, the Scriptures speak of salvation “before the ages began” (2 Tim 1:9 ESV). Beeke also references Rev 13:8, which either speaks of Christ as “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world (NIV) or refers to the book of life “written before the foundation of the world” (ESV). Either way, the point is that justification is wrapped up in eternity.[1]
However, we recognize, as the children’s catechism says, that sinners were saved before Christ came by “believing in the promised Messiah.” This reminds us that there is a second, historical, moment in justification, namely the accomplishment of it by Christ through his earthly ministry.[2] When Paul says in Romans 4 that Jesus Christ was raised for our justification, he points out that the actual accomplishment of it required that Christ live and die as the perfect substitute for our sins. Without the ministry of Jesus in time, there is no justification for anyone, for justification is not an intangible, abstract idea. Rather, it is a very real matter that had to include the offering up of the flesh and blood of the Son of Man in order to be accomplished. So, then, while justification is wrapped up in eternity, it must also be worked out in the historical moment of Christ’s earthly ministry.
But that still does not completely fill out the picture of justification. The third and final moment is the realization of justification in a particular believer when he or she believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.[3] Until a person repents and believes, this person remains under the wrath and curse of God, existentially and actually. This third moment in justification preserves the reality of our individual experience in life and also connects the Old Testaments saints with the New Testaments saints in our shared realization of God’s act of free grace in our very selves, especially in our consciences.
This third, inward moment that completes the picture of justification helps to preserve the integrity of the doctrine against unhelpful innovations. For example, because all three moments must hold together and possess exactly the same referents, universalism, hypothetical or otherwise, is ruled out as a possibility.[4] No one may be justified in time who is not justified according to the divine decree or its accomplishment in Christ. No one who is justified according to the divine decree or its accomplishment in Christ will fail to be justified in time. To suggest otherwise is to inject inconsistency into the order of salvation or to subject God’s sovereignty to a human will.
To give another example, because the objective and subjective aspects of justification are balanced according to the above scheme, covenantal nomism or ecclesiological justification are also ruled out of order. Justification cannot be externalized such that church membership becomes the determining factor in being made right with God. So, also, justification cannot be so objectified that only outward participation in the covenant, e.g. going to church and partaking of the sacraments, counts for being made right with God. Church membership is important, and Christ’s objective offering of himself is critical, but a full-orbed doctrine of justification takes into consideration the subjective side, the existential realization of being made right with God in time through the Holy Spirit’s application of Christ to the believer.[5]
[1] Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019), 3:521.
[2] Beeke and Smalley, 3:522.
[3] Beeke and Smalley, 5:523.
[4] Beeke and Smalley, 5:567.
[5] Beeke and Smalley, 3:568-572.
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