15. Legal justification does not come through the law, nor through faith, but through judicial grace alone. And grace is given freely. It is "in" Christ. It cannot be separated from Him. God gave Him to the fallen race. And "in" Christ, this gift of God, came the gift of legal justification. It is a unilateral justification. In this justification there is no change of character. Character change comes with faith in the fact of Christ's righteous act on the cross. To summarize the literal meaning of Romans 3:23, 24 we learn that:

"All"

•  sinned (3 pers. pl. aor. 2, ind.)
• come short by themselves (3 pers. pl. pres. ind. mid.)
• are being justified (nom. pl. masc. part. pass.)

Since all are being (legally) justified, why then are not all saved? Because many, if not most, refuse to believe. If everyone would keep what God gave them, in Christ, all would be saved. The majority spurn the gifts of God. One day will be revealed the fact that God gave to all men everywhere Christ, grace, justification, and faith, but that mankind in general rejected God and His gifts.

To illustrate. Pardon is an equivalent term for justification as used today in our legal system. It can be obtained without a change of disposition or character within the one guilty of a crime. To pardon means to release a convicted person from punishment for a crime committed by him. Usually a pardon is given by the governor of a state. The offense is let pass without full punishment. It is by the authority of the executor of the laws that the act of pardoning a convicted person from the penalties of an offense or a crime comes. Unilateral pardon is a reality in the present legal system of man. It is performed or undertaken by only one side—the administrator of the law.

Can this pardon either be rejected or taken advantage of? Yes. Doubtless it has been. But that does not negate the fact that it was given by the executive administrator of the law. If the pardon is believed and accepted, the lawbreaker walks free. Is there not a risk on the part of the governor who releases the guilty one? Yes. It is a calculated risk. The pardoned person may return to his formal criminal activity. There are law-abiding citizens who get very nervous over unilateral pardons. An anxious question asked is: once the convict is released, will he return to his criminal activities? If he truly appreciates the pardon and the person who gave it to him, he will not return to his former unlawful practices. His energies will be newly directed to obedience to the system of government that both convicted and pardoned him.

So it is with God's legal pardon or justification. The world of humanity is as a convicted criminal, but released from the penalty of the second death. This pardon was given to the race apart from a change of disposition or of character. The offense was passed over without punishment. There are law-abiding Christians who get nervous over the concept of the divine unilateral legal justification or pardon. This is because many feel that justification means only to make righteous. These depend on the Latin definition instead of Greek and Hebrew usage. However, when a person truly appreciates the goodness of God because of His gift of Christ and pardon in Him, he will be justified by faith, born again, and changed. He will not return to his former ways. His energies are motivated by God's love and he will be obedient to God's law by the power of Christ within. God's pardon is free but it is not the teaching of cheap grace. It is of grace and it is terribly expensive. Its cost is infinite. Once this is appreciated in the heart of the recipient, it will be extremely hard to turn away from God.

In Romans 3:24, the word translated "freely" (accusative of the adverb) is a legal term. It denotes a formal endowment. It means gratis, gratuitously, freely, unreservedly, and without cause. It is used in John 15:25 concerning the attitude of Christ's enemies toward Himself. "They hated me," said Jesus, "without a cause."

Legal justification is a gift and not merely a disposition. It is bestowed freely and not as a mere provision. Jesus is God's gift given unilaterally to humanity, i.e., He is given to every man, without cause. Forensic justification is God's gift in Christ. It is universally given. This is so because it is embodied in the person, Christ Jesus. And as Christ is given to every man, so is God's justification.

Christ, the gift of God, was hated without cause by those who refused Him. Likewise, universal, legal, justification is freely given without cause. This too is hated, without cause, by those who refuse it. Notwithstanding the hatred against it, forensic justification is freely given to everyone. There is no more cause as to why legal justification is hated than there is as to why Jesus was hated. [return to text]

16. Emancipation Proclamation—To illustrate, consider the emancipation proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln and its ratification by the United States Legislature.
    
    On January 1, 1863, Lincoln declared free all slaves residing in territory rebelling against the Federal government. Slavery was to be terminated by local action. This declaration showed that the civil war was then being fought to end slavery. It became a war goal and a virtual certainty. The end of slavery in America was achieved finally by passage of the 13th amendment to the Constitution on December 18, 1865.
    
    The moment the Proclamation of Emancipation document was signed and enacted, every slave was set free legally. But every slave was not set free experientially. The legal act took but a moment. But before the experiential aspect was set in motion several things had to occur:
    1. The slave must hear the good news. Knowledge of the legal act of freedom was essential, not his feelings.
    2. The slave must believe the good news.
    3. The slave must reckon on the good news as true in his case.
    4. The slave must refuse to remain in subjection as a slave.
    5. He must assert his freedom from his former master.
    6. The slave was to count on the authority and power of the legislature of the United States of America to stand behind him as he refused further bond-service.

Even so it is with the fallen human race! Christ signed our emancipation papers with His own blood.

1. We need to hear that good news. Knowledge of the legal act of emancipation is essential, not our feelings.
2. We need to believe that good news.
3. We are to reckon on the good news as true in our case.
4. We are to refuse to remain in subjection as a slave.
5. We are to assert our God-given freedom from our former slave master.
6. We are to count on the authority and power of the government of God to stand behind us, and in front of us, and with us as we refuse further bondage to the enemy of freedom.

Ellen White understood the analogy. "With His own blood He has signed the emancipation papers of the race"—MH 90

In both the illustration and in the gospel reality the condition of being emancipated follows the legal act of emancipating. While being part of the whole there are separate, distinct, and distinguishable aspects of emancipation. One is the root; the other is the fruit. One initiates, the other participates. The order here is vital. It is not the participation that comes first. Neither does the fruit first grow and then the root.

The legal aspect of justification on Calvary demonstrates sufficient judicatory reason for action taken by God to change the sinner when he accepts Christ by faith. In this plan it is Christ's righteousness all the way. [return to text]

17. Waggoner put it this way: "Faith does not make facts. It only lays hold of them. There is not a single soul that is bowed down with the weight of sin which Satan has bound on him, whom Christ does not lift up. Freedom is his. He has only to make use of it. Let the message be sounded far and wide. Let every soul hear it, that Christ has given deliverance to every captive. Thousands will rejoice at the news." The Glad Tidings, p. 107 [emphasis his].
    
    A young man, in answering questions about legal justification at the cross wrote: "To the extent that we don't believe the objective universal truth, to that same extent we insist on making faith our Saviour, i.e. our faith makes true what was not before, instead of accepting what is universally true without any merit of mine. Truth is universal. The provisional [relates to the] question: Will I believe it, have faith in it, and allow it to change my whole life? If faith makes something truth, then any fairy tale that is believed in strongly enough becomes truth. Since we have generally presented the Gospel as only provisional, maybe this is why the world regards it as a fairy tale"—Lee Greer III, "JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE FOR ALL—Can it Really Be True?" July, 1994. [return to text]

18. Justification is a fact of history that is brought to bear upon the soul wholly from without—by the Holy Spirit—to be received by faith. A believer's justification is a fact brought into the present experience from the past. When one believes the fact of Christ crucified and submits to His Lordship, he becomes justified subjectively.
    
    Christ's death was a justifying death for the lost race. In the very act of Christ's tasting death for everyone, everyone was legally justified. This justification means a legal acquittal from God and more. It means restoration to favor with God. Ellen White recognized this: "By His wonderful work of giving His life, He restored the whole race of men to favor with God'—1SM 343. [return to text]

19. The last phrase of verse 12, beginning with the preposition and pronoun literally means "in which" or "in whom." Since the grammar at the beginning of the verse demands a contrast involved with the first Adam and sin, we are warranted to conclude that the contrast must be involved with the second Adam and justification or acquittal. That is precisely what we find in verse 18. Adam sinned and we were condemned in him, but "much more" than that, Christ's righteous act justified and acquitted us. [return to text]