This article is the twenty-fourth installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith." Find the whole series here.
Everyone wants to be happy. That isn’t always obvious. We tend to pursue whatever vision of the good life captures our heart, and some people’s quest for the good life leads them down destructive roads. Even so, we were made to flourish, to lead a good, happy, satisfying life.
Scripture—God’s unfailing word—tells us how to be happy. It doesn’t prescribe a formula that will make us perpetually cheerful in this present life, but there is a way, and only one way, for people broken by sin to be happy. David puts it like this: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven” (Ps. 32:1). His word for blessed is sometimes rightly translated happy (e.g. 2 Chron. 9:7). To be happy your sins must be forgiven.
Scripture’s doctrine of justification tells us how forgiveness is possible and how it changes our lives.
What Is Justification?
In ordinary use, justification shows something to be right. A review might prove that a police officer was justified in his use of force (or not). An auditor might seek justification for an expense report submitted by a traveling salesperson. Justification depends on the rightness of an action. Theologically, justification has to do with how a person is made right with God.
But in relation to God, we cannot justify ourselves. No human action can validate our claim that God should accept us. The opposite is true. If God judged us on even our best actions we would fall under his condemnation. And we know it. After becoming a sinner, Adam fled from God. That impulse accurately depicts our natural alienation from God and inclination to hate him and our neighbor. “Our sins rise up against us” like a prosecutor’s witnesses. We must be justified in some way other than proving that our actions are upright.
The doctrine of justification by grace gets to the heart of the gospel: “We believe that our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus Christ and that in it our righteousness before God is contained” and that “The obedience of Christ crucified … is ours when we believe in him” (BC 23). Christ’s perfect purity, which we receive by faith, is “enough to cover all our sins.” In this way, Noah, a sinner, “became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Heb.11:7). And David could call “that man blessed to whom God grants righteousness apart from work” (Rom. 4:6; cf. Ps. 32:1).
Put negatively, justification is the removal of the guilt and penalty of sin. Positively, it is the gift of a revived, holy friendship with God.
What Are the Fruits of Justification?
Justification is not merely a theological concept. The gift of Christ’s righteousness changes everything about us. Here are just three examples of how it does that.
Justification Humbles Us
The gospel of grace gives all glory to God. By faith we “[recognize] ourselves as we are; not claiming a thing for ourselves or our merits.” The believer admits: “Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God … Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin.” Justifying faith continually says, “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10).
Justification Emboldens Us
You don’t have to do “what our first father, Adam did, who trembled as he tried to cover himself with fig leaves” (see Gen 3:7). Justification replaces “fear, dread, and terror” with courage, hope, and peace. On his deathbed, theologian J. Gresham Machen sent a final telegram to his friend John Murray: “I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” He’s right. But with Christ’s righteousness believers enter boldly into God’s presence (Heb. 10:20).
Justification Cheers Us
Even David the murderer can sing, “As the heavens are high above us, great His love to us has proved; far as east from west is distant, He has all our sins removed.” Every justified person can sing, “My sin—O the bliss of this glorious thought!—my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more; praise the Lord, praise the lord, O my soul!”
Justification by faith alone is the most beautiful news sinners can hear. But it isn’t a message that we may simply hear or even affirm. We must act upon it.
What Does Justification Call Us to Do?
Article 23 ends with a pointed application. It sounds like Paul, imploring his readers to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20). The confession quotes Psalm 143:2. “Everyone must say with David: ‘Lord, do not enter into judgment with your servants, for before you no living person shall be justified.’” Here is David’s logic: If the righteous God entered into judgment with defectors like us, we should be condemned to death. We cannot sustain the scrutiny of God’s judgment. But we can pray, like David, “in your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness” (Ps. 143:1). David believed that God would send a righteous savior to take away his sin. And he has. Jesus came to earth to stand in our place and bear our terrible punishment. That’s why Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane sounds like David’s: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me” (Luke 22:42). He trembled at the thought of God entering into judgment against him for our sins. Though he knew no sin, Christ became sin for our sake (2 Cor. 5:21). He felt abandoned by God (Matt. 27:46). For our sins he became condemned to death.
But death couldn’t swallow him. He passed God’s judgment and has become the advocate for everyone who trusts in him. The doctrine of justification by faith alone requires us to trust in Jesus as our righteousness. Only then will we sustain God’s judgment and be justified—declared righteous. No decision you could ever make is more important.
Theologian R.C. Sproul once met with influential evangelical leaders on the theme of justification. “At one point [Sproul] became so passionate in making his argument that he literally climbed on the table, making the plea on his hands and knees from the tabletop until each person on the other side of the table had made direct eye contact with him.” He begged his friends to not compromise gracious justification. That’s how the confession closes this article on “The Justification of Sinners.” It pleads with you to not rest until you receive Jesus’ righteousness by a simple, childlike trust. You must admit that God has every right to send you to hell but that you are hiding in the life of Christ, your advocate (1 John 2:1), whom God judged for your salvation. If you do, as promised, God will graciously forgive your sins and make you like the psalmist: blessed.
Footnotes
In some translations of the Belgic Confession the quotation from Psalm 32:1 renders blessedness as happiness, e.g. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/publication-online/belgic-confession.
Heidelberg Catechism, Q/A 5.
Metrical rendering of Psalm 65:3 in “Praise Waits for Thee in Zion, Trinity Psalter Hymnal, 65C.
Horatius Bonar, “Not What My Hands Have Done,” Trinity Psalter Hymnal, 435.
Metrical rendering of Psalm 103:11, 12 in “O My Soul, Bless Thou Jehovah,” Psalter Hymnal, 201.
Horatio Spafford, “It Is Well with My Soul,” Trinity Psalter Hymnal, 476.
John MacArthur, “R.C. Sproul,” Grace to You. December 14, 2017. https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B171214.
