as caleb points out, we have already been justified by Christ's finished work on the cross. indeed, 'we have now been justified by His blood' (Romans 5:9, NIV) and 'have now received reconciliation' (Romans 5:11, NIV).
it was only under the Old Covenant that 'justification by faith' took place before 'justification'. in other words, it was only before Christ died for our sins (ie. under the Old Covenant), that believing that Christ would die for our sins (ie. 'justification by faith') took place before Christ died for our sins (ie. 'justification').
under the New Covenant, 'justification by faith' takes place after 'justification'. this means that we no longer look forward to Christ finishing His work on the cross, but look back on Christ's finished work on the cross.
of course, we only know that we have already been justified by Christ's finished work on the cross insofar as we live by faith, insofar as we live according to the will of God.
*****
all things considered, it is admittedly misleading to say that 'justification' is the verdict which will be reaffirmed in the future, while 'justification by faith' is the anticipation in the present of the verdict which will be reaffirmed in the future ('faith' being the anticipation in the present).
this implies that 'justification' is a future verdict, when it is clear from Scripture that we have already been justified by Christ's finished work on the cross. this - that 'justification' is a future verdict - is not what i believe, and it is not what i believe n.t. wright believes either. at least, i hope not.
to eliminate any ambiguity, i would say that 'justification' is the [past] verdict which will be reaffirmed in the future [by the future verdict of 'glorification']. 'justification by faith', then, is the anticipation in the present of the future verdict of 'glorification', knowing that we have already been justified by Christ's finished work on the cross, and that 'those He justified, He also glorified' (Romans 8:30, NIV).
No comments:
Post a Comment