1. Justification is
- a. an act of God’s grace.
- b. a legal or judicial act of God.
- c. a progressive work of the Spirit.
- d. a and b.
- e. all of the above.
The correct answer is d: Justification is an act of God’s grace, and a legal or judicial act of God. It is not a progressive work of the Spirit.
First, Romans 3:24 says that sinners are "justified by his grace as a gift . . . ," so a is correct.
Second, the word justify (especially as used by Paul) means “to declare righteous.” This is one of the points on which the Reformers disagreed with the Roman Catholic church. The medieval church, following Augustine’s teaching on the subject, understood it to mean “to make righteous.” But according to the Reformers, justification is a judicial (or forensic) act: God declares guilty sinners to be righteous in Christ. In Christ, sinners have a new legal status. They came to this conclusion about the meaning of justify by looking at how the word is used in scripture. For instance, there are the places where justification is contrasted with condemnation, like Romans 8:33-34: “It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?” If to condemn means to declare someone guilty, not make them guilty, then to justify means to declare someone righteous, not make them righteous. If condemnation is a legal or judicial term (and it is), then so is justification. Answer b, then, is also correct.
Third, if justification is a legal declaration—if it means to “declare righteous” rather than “make righteous”—it isn't the progressive work of the Spirit. So answer c is wrong.
2. Justification includes
- a. the forgiveness of our sin.
- b. the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us.
- c. the declaration that we are righteous in God’s sight.
- d. a and c.
- e. all of the above.
The correct answer is e: Justification includes the forgiveness of our sin, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us, and the declaration that we are righteous in God’s sight.
First, in Romans 4:6-7, Paul quotes David who says, "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven." David, Paul writes, is speaking about "the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. In other words David is speaking about the person who is justified. The person who is justified, David says, has their lawless deeds—or sins forgiven. A, then, is correct.
The defense of b takes more than one text of scripture and more than a paragraph or two of explanation. The Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 70 says
Justification is an act … in which [God] … accounteth their persons righteous in his sight … for the perfect obedience … of Christ, by God imputed to them….
You'll find a more thorough scriptural defense of necessity of the imputed righteousness of Christ in our justification than I can give here in this old post from my personal blog.
Answer c hinges on the meaning of the word justification. If justify means to declare righteous (See the answer to question 1) then c is correct, too.
3. Justification changes
- a. our moral condition
- b. our natures.
- c. our legal status.
- d. b and c above.
- e. none of the above.
The correct answer is c. Justify doesn't mean "make righteous" but "declare righteous" (see explanation in answer to question 1). Justification, then, doesn't change our moral condition (a) or our natures (b), but only our legal status.
4. The grounds for our justification is/are
- a. The good works produced by the Spirit within us.
- b. Our faith.
- c. Christ’s righteous life and obedient death.
- d. b and c.
- e. all of the above.
The correct answer is c: The grounds for our justification is Christ’s righteous life and obedient death.
When theologians speak of grounds in regards to justification, they are using the word in the legal sense. Grounds are the basis upon which something is due, the merit (or demerit) that entitles someone to something. For instance, the grounds for a wage is the work that earns it, the work that is is the reason for the paycheck. The grounds for a criminal charge is the criminal activity that is the basis for the charge.
Nor is our faith the grounds of our justification (b). Faith is the instrument by which we recieve our justification. Faith is receptive; it is “self-emptying and has no merit in itself" (Question 61, Heidelberg Catechism).
Rather, it is “only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them” that sinners are justified (Question 70 of the Westminster Larger Catechism). Perfect obedience here refers to Christ’s righteous life, and full satisfaction to his obedient death. Christ’s perfect obedience and his full satisfaction are put on our account, and in this way, he merits our justification in our place (c ). His work is the grounds for our justification.
5. We are justified when we
- a. believe.
- b. are baptised.
- c. produce a certain level of good works.
- d. a and b.
- e. none of the above.
The correct answer is a. We are justified when we believe. Romans 3:24-25 says we are justified through the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, which is “received by faith.” That we are not justified when we are baptized (b) or when we do good works (c ) is the flip side of God requiring nothing of us for our justification but faith (see Question 71 of the Westminster Larger Catechism). Scriptural proof that neither of these things play a role in our justification can be found in Titus 3:5, where Paul says that God saves us “not because of works done by us in righteousness.”
6. Which of the statements below describes faith’s role in our justification?
- a. It produces the good works that are the basis for our justification.
- b. It receives Christ’s full satisfaction of the penalty for our sin and his perfect fulfillment of God’s law on our behalf.
- c. It is accepted by God as a form of righteousness upon which we can be justified.
- d. a and c.
- e. none of the above.
The correct answer is b. Faith’s role in our justification is that it receives Christ’s full satisfaction of the penalty for sin and perfect fulfillment of God’s precepts. Question 70 of the Westminster Larger Catechism says justification is grounded in "the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone."
Faith's role is not that it produces the good works upon which we can be justified (a). This does not mean that faith doesn’t produce good works. It simply means that faith produced works are not the grounds upon which we are justified. Romans 4:5-6 says justification is “to the one who does not work,” and “apart from works.”
Nor is faith accepted by God as a form of righteousness upon which we can be justified (c). This is just another way of saying that our faith is not grounds for our justification. See the explanation for the answer to question 4.
