Justification vs. Sanctification

If you have faith as I described previously, many transactions have already taken place in your life.  Let’s talk about these huge words justification and sanctification.  First, as I humbly see it justification is how God sees you.  Justification is basically being made just as if you never sinned.  Through our faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God will see us as perfect and holy.  This is an unbelievable transaction that happens as a result of our faith.  When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, your Justification is a done deal. 

Sanctification on the other hand is how we, as people, see ourselves.  This is a life-long process.  It is the process of becoming more Christ-like, and we will be working on it as long as we are on this earth.  No one can say, “I have arrived, I am now exactly like Christ.”  However, I have had a few older saints in my life that were much closer to Christ-likeness than I am.  This is our goal.    

Let’s look closely at justification.  God will see you as if you have never sinned, Read Romans 4:24-5:2, “²⁴ but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵ He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. ¹ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

What happens to us once we believe according to these verses?

It is through justification that we have peace with God.  You see, if God could still saw our sinfulness, we would still be enemies of His and could not enjoy a relationship with Him.  Read Romans 5:10, “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

How were we reconciled to God?  (Reconciled means to have a right relationship with)

So, do you now understand justification?  What is it?

Next time we will look more closely at Sanctification..