Question 60: How can I be justified before God?

Question 60: How can I be justified before God?

Answer: Only through true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me of having broken all God's commandments, of having failed to keep any of them, and of still being inclined to sin, yet God, though unworthy of me, through true faith in Christ, treats me as if I had never sinned, and as if I had obeyed the obedience of Christ for me, imputing to me the perfect atoning righteousness and holiness of Christ. All I have to do is receive this gift of God with a believing heart.

When a believer becomes righteous before God by believing that his physical body died with Jesus on the cross and was resurrected with Jesus, God gives him a holy spiritual body.

It's not that I have faith in Jesus Christ, but I must enter into the faith of Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:16 says, "Knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified."

The subject of faith is Christ. It must be Christ's faith. To have Christ's faith, one must have the faith to die and rise with Christ. I am not justified by my own faith. I am justified by Jesus Christ. I am justified not by works of the law, but by faith in Christ.

Romans 6:7 says, "For whoever has died has been set free from sin and has been justified." It's not through my own faith, but through union with Jesus and faith in Jesus that I am justified. Only by dying with Jesus can Jesus become my Lord, and through faith in Jesus Christ, I receive resurrection life and am justified.


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