I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, "The same yesterday, today, and forever."
– John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
I began to understand [that] the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which [the] merciful God justifies us by faith…Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.
– Martin Luther
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.The most beautiful doctrine in the Bible. Many doctrines may compete for this title, but one of the greatest candidates would be justification by faith. It has been highly favored by theologians and evangelists for centuries, and for good reason. It is the cornerstone of the Christian walk, the basis of our salvation. Justification by faith is the only reason we won't burn in Hell, but will instead enjoy the glories of God forever. Nevertheless, some people today attempt to rob much of the beauty from this doctrine by saying we can lose our salvation, and therefore they make this doctrine less than half of what it is. It is my intention to inspire rejoicing in the truth behind our justification by explaining it and explaining how it ensures our salvation without risk. There is no chance for it to be lost once gained.
– St. Paul, Romans 5:1-2
The Basics of Justification by Faith
In its simplest form, justification by faith is the reality that we are declared right by God when He, through our faith, gives us the grace of Christ's righteousness and nails our sin to the cross. From this truth, one can describe the entire Gospel. So, let's dissect this piece by piece to find the full truth in it."We are declared right by God"
This is the most important part. God looks at us and says, "You are innocent. No sin will be charged to your account." At this point, the penalty of Hell is gone. When we are justified, there is left no accusation or condemnation against us (Romans 8:33). One of the most beautiful expressions of this truth is actually from the Old Testament, from the Psalms.Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity…Paul quoted these verses in Romans 4:7-8 to make a point regarding justification. God forgives us our debts. We owe an infinite amount due to our transgression of the law of the infinite God, but He sweeps it away and delivers the verdict, "Innocent." This is what it means to be justified.
Psalm 32:1-2a
"He, through our faith, gives us the grace"
Now we come to the means of justification. This is how God delivers His verdict. "By grace you have been saved through faith," (Ephesians 2:8). First, God grants us faith to believe in the Gospel. Does this surprise you? It shouldn't. We are told in Romans 12:3 that God is the one who grants us however much faith we have. So, when He gives us faith in Jesus Christ, He then blesses us with His grace through that faith. This grace grants us all of the blessings that are available to a justified sinner, such as Heaven and the fruit of the Spirit."…gives us the grace of Christ's righteousness and nails our sin to the cross."
Finally, we arrive at the transaction. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, God gives us grace. What exactly happens here? Second Corinthians 5:21 is the key verse to explain how this works.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 grace given to us enacts the most beautiful process. God takes our sins, every single one of them, and places them on the cross of Christ. Note also that the time of our justification is irrelevant here. Jesus died in the first century AD. Obviously, time is not a factor, or else everyone who has sinned since John 19:30 would have no sacrifice for his sins. Therefore, since the God applies your sins to Christ's sacrifice even if you are justified after His death, then it would follow that God applies all of your sins to Christ's sacrifice when you are justified, even the ones you have yet to commit. Herein lies one of the most beautiful truths of the Gospel. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," (1 John 1:9). When we make our confession of sin at salvation, we are admitting not just that we have sinned, but that we are sinners. In that, we give every sin to God, those past and future, and He lays them all on Christ.
Simply removing our sin is only half of the story, however. Grace then gives us the greatest gift known to man, the righteousness of Christ. In this transaction, "we…become the righteousness of God." Because Jesus lived a perfect life, and we receive His sacrifice through faith, we also receive His good works credited to our account. The righteous obedience of Jesus Christ counts as if we obeyed the law ourselves (Romans 5:19)!
What This All Means
The implications here are absolutely enormous. For one, it means that we will never be charged with another sin for the rest of eternity. Starting at the moment of justification, we are one hundred percent innocent in God's courtroom as long as He lives (in case you didn't get the point, it means forever). We are not only innocent of all of our wrongdoings, but we are credited with submitting purely and wholly to the will of God the way Jesus did. After all, Paul said in Philippians 3:9 that he did not havea righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.This changes everything (and no, it's not the iPhone). Whenever we sin, God disciplines us, but He never puts it on anything like a permanent record. It's not written down to be brought back up at judgment time. It's already gone. It was paid for on the cross.
Conversely, whenever we fail to match up with God's standards, we are counted as successful because we have the righteousness of Christ. We are counted as having followed the whole Law, obeying all of the commandments so we may inherit eternal life. This, again, is timeless, because Christ lived the righteous life two millennia ago! We receive all of His righteousness when we are justified, and there is no method by which the obedience of Christ can be deducted from our accounts. If you seek to say there is, I invite you to find proof somewhere in the Bible. You will not.
Perseverance of the Saints
One of the core parts of the doctrines of grace is the final point of TULIP, the perseverance of the saints. Essentially, this doctrine states that, by the sovereignty of God, all who are justified will persevere to the end, thus fulfilling the multiple commands in Scripture to endure to the end to be saved. This is known in non-Calvinist circles primarily as "eternal security," or, as a most derided term, "once saved, always saved."Despite the negative connotations that this doctrine sometimes carries, it is the only reasonable conclusion to draw from the core doctrine of justification by faith. The logic is simple: if our sin has been placed on the cross, and Christ's righteousness has been placed on us, there is no longer any room for condemnation. Indeed, the Scriptural evidence for this concept is incredibly abundant. Let's look at just a few texts.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.What else needs be said? There is no condemnation for those who have been justified in Jesus. None. It does not exist. One cannot somehow "lose their salvation," because there is no longer any condemnation for them to enter. One might argue, "What if someone was in Christ Jesus, but left?" First, you must assume that can happen. Evidence says it can't. Regardless, though, what would be the point of this verse if that were what Paul meant? "You won't be condemned if you've been justified in Christ, unless you try to leave Him, in which case there is condemnation despite the fact that you've already been justified." That doesn't even make the smallest amount of sense! In fact, context says that Paul must be referring to eternal security, because the verse is immediately preceded by Paul's mourning over the sin that comes from his flesh, further preceded by his statement of liberation from the Law, and generally preceded by his explanation of justification by faith. He is saying, "Yes, I sin. Yes, my flesh hates God and would leave Him. But I am not condemned, because I have been justified through faith in Jesus Christ. Even if I tried to leave Him, I'd find myself back in His arms."
Romans 8:1
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.This passage is the most concrete proof of eternal security in the Bible. First, look at his language regarding those who God justified. He says, "and those whom he justified he also glorified." Now, I'm not an English professor (or, more relevantly, a Koine Greek scholar), but I think it is plain that the justified are the same as the glorified. The people justified by God are the exact same people glorified by God. When does glorification happen? It happens at the Second Coming, at the resurrection. It is the process described in 1 Corinthians 15:40-49. So, if we are justified when we are first saved (and to say otherwise is tantamount to heresy on the issue), and we are glorified when we are resurrected, and the same exact group of people experience both, then no one loses their salvation.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Romans 8:30-34
Also to note here is that no one can bring an accusation or condemnation against God's elect. This makes for simple reasoning. If nobody can accuse us of sin before God, and no one can condemn us but the God who listens to Christ who died for us, then there is no room for us to be declared guilty again in God's courtroom after we have been justified.
But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.This is probably one of the best verses for the Reformed view of perseverance of the saints. It is also one of the most beautiful assurances of our salvation in the Bible. The greatest reason that we don't have to worry about losing our salvation is that Jesus is the One who guards it in us. What has been entrusted to us? Well, if you look at the Greek, you find that it is probably the deposit mentioned in Ephesians 1:14. This deposit is the Holy Spirit. The beauty here is then apparent: Jesus is able to keep the Spirit within us until Judgment Day. One might object, "Yes, He can keep Him there, but He'll let Him out if we want Him to." While this may first sound convincing, the question must be asked, from whom or what is Jesus guarding the deposit of the Holy Spirit in us? It's not Satan or his demons, for Satan can do nothing without God's permission. It's not other people, for no man is capable of removing the Spirit from us in anyway. Jesus is guarding the deposit of the Spirit in us from ourselves, from our own flesh. We can't evict the Spirit from our hearts because Jesus is guarding Him from us! If we can't lose the Spirit, we can't lose our salvation.
2 Timothy 2:12b
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.This is a simple cause/effect statement. We have been justified, so we will be saved from God's wrath. That leaves no room for loss of salvation. You can't become unjustified. Just as in our courts, God's courtroom doesn't have double jeopardy. Once God justifies us through faith in salvation, our salvation is both present and inevitable. This is not the only such statement in Scripture. The New Testament is filled with statements that are almost identical to this one. These are since/then, cause/effect, because/will statements. There is no room for uncertainty. Certainly, if one could lose his salvation, then the authors of the New Testament wouldn't have placed so many unqualified statements like this one! At some point, there would be something to the effect of, "Since we have been justified, we will be saved unless we turn away." Yet this is absent. Instead, there are many statements with past tense justification and future tense glorification inseparably linked. To say that you could lose you salvation, but the NT writers made all of these statements without saying so would be tantamount to saying they were trying to deceive us.
Romans 5:9
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.Personally, I think this verse alone is sufficient proof for eternal security. The vast majority of the arguments for someone losing his salvation are based on observations and experiences of seemingly real Christians who fell into apostasy at some point in their life. However, this verse proves that losing salvation is not the explanation. It explicitly states that when people fall away, it is simply demonstrating that they were never part of the body of Christ. When someone who professes to be a Christian suddenly changes and abandons Christianity, God is showing to the Church that he was never really saved to begin with.
1 John 2:19
Justification and Sanctification as the Basis for Perseverance
When someone who believes that Christians can lose their salvation is presented with all of the Biblical evidence against the concept, they usually find themselves with many more questions about salvation. My intention now is to explain how the beautiful reality of justification by faith explains how we persevere to the end to be saved.When God justifies us through faith, we are saved. We are not simply headed for Heaven instead of Hell, but our inevitable destination is Heaven instead of Hell. Salvation is a single unit made up of many parts, and justification is merely the first phase. Yet it initiates the second phase, sanctification, and it is the basis for this phase. Sanctification, like justification, has two aspects. In one way, sanctification happens at salvation when God sets us apart (the meaning of "sanctify") for Himself. However, the primary usage of the term is the realized part, where we are progressively transformed into the image of Jesus Christ in our earthly lives. We grow in the Spirit and shrink in the flesh.
Here is my point. Once we are justified, we are acceptable in God's sight to have the Holy Spirit, so He sends Him to us. Once we have the Holy Spirit, He begins transforming us. He seals us for salvation, and begins turning our earthly lives into the same new creation made within us at salvation. This sanctification is key to perseverance. Justification necessarily produces sanctification, just as faith necessarily produces works (see James 2). As we become sanctified, our lives becoming more holy, we find that we cannot forsake God. It's simply not possible. We might try at some point, but ultimately our resistance will be overcome. After all, if we are trying to flee from God, and the Holy Spirit is trying to bring us to God (which He is always doing), then who will win? Are we stronger than the Spirit is? No. Will the Spirit give up on us simply because we want Him to? That is absurd! Since Paul used marriage as an analogy for our relationship with Christ, let's do the same. A woman can't get a divorce without her husband's consent unless he has wronged her in one or more specific ways. The judge would have to hear her case for why she needs a divorce, and then he would have to decide whether or not to grant her one based on whether or not her husband is guilty of the accusations. So, if we wanted to divorce Christ, how would we do so? He hasn't wronged us, so we'd have to take our case before the judge, who is God. Now, will God grant a divorce to the bride of His Son when His Son has done her no wrong? Of course not!