Training · The 1689 Baptist Confession
Justification
How a guilty person comes to be counted righteous, and what faith has to do with it.
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What is justification?
God's declaration about a person: their sins are pardoned and they are accepted as righteous in his sight, for Christ's sake alone, received by faith.
It is a verdict rather than a treatment. Nothing inside the person changes when it is pronounced - what changes is how God reckons them - which is why adoption and sanctification have to be added alongside it. Justification on its own would leave a person forgiven and otherwise unaltered.
But they're made right with God as a free gift, because of what Jesus the Messiah did to set them free.
Romans 3:24Confession 11.1
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Does justification make a person righteous, or count them righteous?
Counts them. God pardons their sins and accepts their persons as righteous - not by putting righteousness into them.
The distinction is the hinge of the whole chapter. Justification is a change in standing, not yet a change in character; the change in character is sanctification, which the confession keeps in a separate chapter on purpose so the two are never confused.
But they're made right with God as a free gift, because of what Jesus the Messiah did to set them free.
Romans 3:24Confession 11.1
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On what grounds does God accept a person as righteous?
For Christ's sake alone - not for anything worked in them or done by them.
The confession then goes further and closes a subtler door: not even faith itself, or the act of believing, is counted as the righteousness. Faith receives a righteousness that belongs to someone else; it is not a smaller work accepted in place of a larger one.
Confession 11.1
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What exactly is credited to the believer?
Christ's obedience to the whole law and his suffering in death - both together, as their whole and only righteousness.
Two things, not one. His death clears the debt; his life supplies the record. That is why the confession can say the believer is not merely forgiven, standing at zero, but accepted as righteous.
Because one person disobeyed, many were made sinners. In the same way, because one person obeyed, many will be made right with God.
Romans 5:19Confession 11.1
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Is a person's faith what God counts as their righteousness?
No. The confession says they are justified not by faith itself, nor by the act of believing, nor by any other obedience of the gospel, but by Christ's obedience and satisfaction - faith being how they receive and rest on it.
The distinction sounds fine and it decides everything. If faith were itself the righteousness accepted, it would be one more thing we contribute, only an easier one. The confession makes it the empty hand rather than the payment, and adds that even the faith is not the person's own - it is the gift of God.
Confession 11.1
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If justification is by faith alone, is that faith ever found alone?
Faith is the only instrument of justification, but it is never alone in the person justified.
This is the confession's answer to the charge that the doctrine licenses a careless life. Faith alone does the receiving; it always arrives with the other graces alongside it, and it is no dead faith but one that works by love.
When you're united with Jesus, it doesn't matter if you're circumcised or not. What matters is trusting God - faith that shows itself through love.
Galatians 5:6Confession 11.2
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If Christ paid in full, in what sense is justification free?
Free to us, because the Father gave him for them and accepted his obedience in their place - and both of those were freely done.
The confession refuses the false choice between a real payment and free grace. The debt was genuinely discharged; the arrangement by which someone else discharged it was pure gift.
Confession 11.3
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If God decreed to justify the elect from eternity, are they justified before they believe?
No. God decreed it from eternity and Christ died and rose in due time, but no one is personally justified until the Holy Spirit actually applies Christ to them.
The paragraph exists to block a real conclusion people had drawn from the rest of the chapter. Decreed, purchased and applied are three distinct moments, and only the third one changes anyone's standing.
He saved us - not because we did anything to earn it, but because he's merciful. He gave us new life through the Holy Spirit, washing away our old selves and making us new.
God poured out the Holy Spirit on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Because of his kindness, we're made right with God and given the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:5-7Confession 11.4
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Can a justified person fall out of that state by sinning?
No - but they can fall under God's fatherly displeasure, and stay there until they humble themselves, confess and ask for pardon.
The confession separates two things that get confused: a judge's verdict and a father's mood. The verdict does not get reopened. The relationship can be cold, and the confession says the way back is the ordinary one.
'Then I'll punish their rebellion with discipline and their wrongdoing with blows.'
'But I won't take my love away from him, and I won't break my promise.'
Psalm 89:32-33Confession 11.5
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Were Old Testament believers justified differently?
No. In every respect their justification was one and the same as ours.
One sentence, and it settles a question that recurs constantly. There has never been more than one way for a person to be accepted by God.
So everyone who trusts God, just like Abraham did, shares in the same blessing he received.
Galatians 3:9Confession 11.6