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Scripturally Based Answers For life's Questions
Answer—Justification
We naturally seek to justify ourselves. When we do something, or have done something that causes an offense and separates us from other, and more importantly from God, we automatically try to determine a way we could justify ourselves, or justify our actions in their sight. This is where we must trust God by faith, place ourselves before God as guilty, and trust Him for justification in Christ.
We cannot justify what we fail to do, by what we can do. For an example, I could claim that I do not have to share the gospel as I cross people in my daily business because I preach the gospel from the pulpit. What I do, does not justify what I don’t do. People often hope that they will stand before God just because of things they do, like going to church, helping the poor etc. or by not doing certain things like steal, kill or lie. Guilt is not cleared by actions. For example, if I hurt one person, and then go and do good to the next person, is my bad justified? No. We have to be condemned and justified by a judge.
Jesus, when faced to condemnation by the judge, supported by society would not justify Himself, even though in a perfect right to do so, for He was completely innocent, but did not for He was going to justify the rest of the human race. Had he justified Himself, he would have condemned all of us. When I either claim I did not do it, or I claim that I am justified because of my motives for doing it were right I actually condemn someone else, for every wrong motive and every wrong act has to be condemned, and there never is a wrong act with their not
being a wrong motive coming from somewhere.
When we declare ourselves innocent before God, even before people without having been justified by God, we proclaim that we have justified ourselves, or that we were never guilty. We either seek to blame others for what we have done, or try to deny the sin nature that is within us too by claiming ourselves innocent. To be justified by God, we must declare and confess our guilt. God will not condemn you when you acknowledge your sin before Him, not matter how great it is, but He will condemn you when you seek to deny it, or blame it on someone else, or some situation.
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There is a popular thinking that encourages people to declare themselves innocent. It is generally used by saying, “It is not your fault.” And we should not take blame that is not ours, but simply declaring oneself innocent does not remove guilt. Another one that is used, “You need to forgive yourself.” There are a couple of things to consider when it comes to forgiveness. Number one, there has to be guilt, for there to be forgiveness. To say, we need to forgive ourselves is acknowledging guilt. Secondly, the power ability has to be greater by the one forgiving than the one committing the guilt. If I commit the wrong, then I do not have the ability to forgive that. All forgiveness that has eternal value is always structurally rooted in God. Lastly, no one that declared himself innocent before God has or will receive forgiveness or justification. God is ready to justify, what He is waiting for is someone that is willing to declare themselves guilty.
It is God, and only He that justifies
We must acknowledge and confess our guilt
