Proposition 2

The apostolic converts were addressed by their teachers as justified persons.

We know that only innocent persons can be legally justified; but it is not in the forensic sense that this term is used by the Apostles. Among the Jews, it meant no more than pardoned; and when applied to Christians, it meant that they were acquitted from guilt — released from condemnation, and regarded as righteous persons in the sight of God.

Paul, in Antioch in Pisidia, assured the Jews that in or by Jesus all who believed were justified from all things, (certainly here it is equivalent to pardoned from all sins,) from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. The disciples are said to be justified by faith.¹⁰ By favor or grace.¹¹ In or by the blood of Christ.¹² By the name of the Lord Jesus.¹³ By works.¹⁴ It is God who justifies.¹⁵

Christians are said to be justified by God, by Christ, by favor, by faith, by the blood of Jesus, by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God — also by works. Pardon and acquittal are the main ideas in every use of the term. God is the justifier. Jesus also, as his Messiah, justifies, and the Spirit declares it. As an act of favor it is done, by the blood of Jesus as the rightful and effective cause — by the faith as the instrumental cause — by the name of Jesus the Lord as the immediate and connecting cause, and by works, as the demonstrative and conclusive cause. Nothing is clearer from the above testimonies than that all Christians are declared to be justified under the reign of Jesus Christ.