Justified By Faith

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

The gospel, which is the announcement of what God has once for all done in Christ to reconcile all the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19), is what we are called to believe. “Trust the good news of God’s kingdom” is what Jesus preached. That kingdom, the reign which he said had come near, is the dominion of love, mercy, and grace that comes through his ministry.

When Paul speaks of being “justified by faith”, his point is that trusting God’s gracious work is what God counts as righteousness, just as Abraham’s faith was “credited” to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3). In other words, to trust God is what “doing right” is all about.

Paul was adamant that righteousness cannot be found in keeping the law (Romans 3:28), and we are correct to guard against any idea of righteousness coming through our actions, even if they are good. To trust what God does and has done is not to “do” anything ourselves, but to recognize his “doing” on our behalf.

However, too often Paul’s “justified by faith” has become “justified by belief” in contemporary Christian thinking and discourse, where “belief” is about adhering to correct doctrines. Holding to particular ideas about God can subtly take the place of trust in the gospel, doctrinal belief replacing faith in God’s saving work.

Obviously, good beliefs can be very beneficial, and so can good works, but neither makes us righteous before God. We are not righteous if we act morally and avoid sin, nor are we righteous if we believe that God is Father, Son, and Spirit, that Jesus was born of Mary when she was a virgin, or even that Jesus died and was resurrected.

Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. Romans 3:23-25a

The gift of grace given through the death of Jesus, the ultimate manifestation of God’s selfless love, is what justifies us. We trust the cross for the gift it is, even though none of us understand or “believe” adequately in the cross.

But let us be careful, because I am setting out a belief, that is, the teaching which I think is what Paul taught. However, none of us are justified by belief in the truth of what Paul teaches about justification by grace through faith. We simply “attempt” to trust in God and accept what we’ve been told.

We don’t need faith in our beliefs, but faith in God. In fact, we are typically justified before we understand the doctrine of justification. We simply hear the good news that we are loved by God and that he has done all that is needed to bring us to himself, and we trust what we have heard. Later, we may begin to understand more fully what all this means, and come to better understandings of justification.

Paul is explaining the shape of better beliefs, the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, to Christians in Rome who had already been justified by grace through faith before they ever read his letter. A simple faith in the message that “God has saved you in Christ” is what God considers righteousness.