Is Justification Permanent? Part Five

I here continue my response to the objection about the permanence of justification:

So if it is clear that those whom God justifies he also sanctifies, and if is also clear that it is only genuine persevering faith that justifies, not imitation faith (whether hypocritical or temporary), then the objections to the permanence of justification based on the demands in the New Testament for holy living are gone. And in fact, if addressing justification in its New Testament usage, it is clear from several passages that it is permanent. There are no passages, though, that deny its permanence (one needs to make the assumption that the false teachers and temporary believers were justified in the first place to come to that conclusion).

Romans 5:9-10 - "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life."

Who is the "we" and "us" in this passage? The context answers that. In Romans 4:24-25 Paul is explicit that it is "us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." And a verse later he points out that "since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." So if you have certain individuals who have been justified by Christ's blood, as Romans 5:9 indicates, and these certain individuals are believers who now (because of that justification) have peace with God, will God then pour out his wrath on those who are no longer his enemies but are now his friends? If so, then Paul was dead wrong here. It is clear from these two verses that those who are justified by Christ's blood are reconciled to God and will be saved from the wrath of God.

Romans 8:31-39 contain a series of rhetorical questions that would be rendered meaningless and hopeless if God were to condemn those whom he has justified. But on the contrary, Paul is certain that believers will not be condemned, as it is God who justifies, and Christ Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us. And as Paul eloquently states it in Romans 8, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The writer of Hebrews, whoever he was, uses certain words with a slightly different technical nuance than Paul does sometimes. So we can see the same concept in Hebrews 10:10-14 - "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being
sanctified." Even though the term "justification" isn't used, we can see the same permanent effect ("for all time") resulting from Christ's work on our behalf.

It is helpful, when examining whether or not justification is permanent, to look at the definitions of those two words. Now, justification means "to declare righteous," and permanent means
"lasting or remaining without essential change" or "not expected to change in status, condition, or place." (fuller definitions of justification can be find in bible dictionaries). Now, what is the opposite of "to declare righteous"? That would be "to declare unrighteous," of course. There's a New Testament word for that, too - condemnation (to see them used in parallel in the Old Testament, see Proverbs 17:15). So if we grant from the evidence in the Scriptures that there are certain individuals who are justified, and we see other Scriptures that state they will not be condemned, then their justification is... (drum roll, please)... permanent.

For Scriptures that explicitly state that certain individuals will not be condemned, we only have two (but when searching for something that specific, a small number is to be expected). In 1 Corinthians 11:32, Paul says that "we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." But the most explicit statement of all is back in Romans (where Paul is talking at length about justification). What does Paul say is a result of all that he has said in chapters 1-7? "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). One could try to make an exception and say that there is condemnation for some who are in Christ Jesus, but Paul isn't talking about them here. But twisting verses around that wildly would result in a loss of meaning to any verse in the Bible. For example, Peter said that "there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Could we believe that there is another name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved, but Peter just wasn't talking about it here? Of course not! And as one more point on Romans 8:1, note that in 8:4 Paul identifies those who are in Christ Jesus as "us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Three verses after affirming the permanence of justification, Paul affirms the necessity of holy living. Maybe all those Protestant confessions were onto something after all.