Is Justification Permanent? Part Six

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

Next, I would like to answer a question about the purpose of the doctrine of justification. If justification is invisible (because we can't know perfectly this side of Christ's return whom God has justified), and if repentance and holy living are required of people for them to inherit eternal life, why even bother with the doctrine of justification? What's the purpose of having the righteousness of Christ permanently imputed to us if we still need to persevere to the end to be saved?

The question can firstly be answered by addressing its purposes for man, then by its purpose for God. The first purpose of the doctrine of justification is to provide hope for sinners, since the righteousness of Christ is sufficient righteousness for any sinner who will come to Christ in faith and repentance. For example, we can read in Luke 18:9-14, in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, how the tax collector knew he had no righteousness of his own, and prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" The righteousness of Christ was sufficient for him, so as the next verse says, he went down to his house justified, while the Pharisee (who trusted in his own righteousness) was not justified. And in 2 Corinthians 5:21, in describing how Christians are ambassadors for Christ to the world, he refers to justification ("For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God").

The doctrine of justification also provides hope for Christians who recognize that they are still sinners. For example, in 1 Timothy 1:15-16, Paul, even near the end of his life, after following Christ for close to 30 years, still recognizes that he is the foremost of sinners, and still looks to Christ for salvation, not to his 30 years of service to the Lord. And in 1 John 2:1, we read this: "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Our righteousness is always imperfect in this life, and we always have to deal with the presence of sin. That is why we, when we act unrighteous, still need our advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. And going back to Romans, it is immediately after chapter 7 (in which Paul laments the ongoing struggle between the flesh and the Spirit in a believer) that he proclaims that "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

The second purpose of the doctrine of justification is to completely demolish any grounds of boasting by Christians. For example, after presenting the doctrine of justification in Romans 3:21-26, Paul asks a question in verse 27: "Then what becomes of our boasting?" And his answer is, "It is excluded." Because we are justified by faith apart from works of the law, we have no grounds to boast of our own righteousness over another believer. I may be more righteous in my sanctification than other believers, and there may be other believers that are more righteous in their sanctification than I am, but that is no grounds for boasting because all of us have the same righteousness in Christ. Paul illustrates the same point in 1 Corinthians 1. In verse 10 and following, he appeals to the Corinthians to not be divided. He then discusses how the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the power of God, demonstrating in the following verses that the wisdom and power of God is greater than the wisdom and power of the world. In wrapping up his discussion about that, Paul points out (in a verse we saw earlier) to the Corinthian believers that God "is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption."

We may also speak about a purpose of the doctrine of justification for God. By permanently imputing the righteousness of Christ to believers, God satisfies his own perfect standard of righteousness. Our own righteousness, as I mentioned earlier (and the testimony of Paul demonstrates), is never enough to match up to God's perfect standard of righteousness, no matter how sanctified we are. And there's nothing in the Scriptures that indicate that there is a lesser standard of righteousness that we need to attain to if we're believers; instead, we are still called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And as Romans 3:20 says, "by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight." Therefore, by giving to Christ the wrath that we deserve and giving to us the eternal life that Christ deserves, God can "be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). It also can be noted that in 1 John 1:9 ("If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"), the attributes of God that account for his ongoing forgiveness of believers is his faithfulness and his justice (or righteousness, coming from the same root word in the Greek). Without the doctrine of justification, God would certainly appear to be unjust in his salvation of sinners.