Have You Been Justified?
(February 2, 2026)
Sometimes Christians use peculiar words that unbelievers find difficult to
comprehend and so the tendency of some believers is to shy away from using
these words. I think that is a mistake. Instead of throwing away the words that
God gave us to describe His dealings with His people, why not just explain them to
those who don’t understand and pray that God will open their eyes?
One of those words is “justified” or “justification.” The truth is many believers do
not even know what these words mean, so we will address it here and prayerfully
God will help us to understand better this wonderful doctrine.
Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have
peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” To be justified through faith
means that when we place our faith in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross to save us
from our sins, forsaking our own self-righteousness, God declares us righteous in
His sight, even though we still sin at times. It is our faith that saves us, not our
self-righteous works.
This means that we now have peace with God because we have, according to
John 6:29, “done the one ‘work’ God requires, to believe on the One He has sent.”
This faith in Christ enables God to declare us righteous. In other words, He gives
us Christ’s righteousness in place of our own unrighteousness and thereby ends
the hostility between God and us because of our unbelief.
John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever
does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the
name of God’s one and only Son.” It’s like the man who has terminal cancer, but a
miracle drug will cure him. If the man dies it is only because he won’t believe the
drug will cure him and save his life, so he doesn’t take the cure.
Friend, have you been justified through faith in Jesus Christ to save you from your
sins? If you do not have peace that this is true of you, you need to turn away from
your sins, turn to Christ and believe that what He did on the cross was to pay for
your sins and believe, commit your life to Him.