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I hope you enjoy reading and learning from this little exercise in doctrinal
words. For our final word, I have chosen to talk about Justification.
This word means to pronounce, accept and treat as just. In the Bible,
it means God's pardoning sinners and restoring them to a state of righteousness.
Mankind was righteous before God prior to man sinning in the Garden of Eden.
When sin entered man he became unjust in the sight of God. There would now have
to be a substitute to take upon himself this sin by the shedding of blood.
Jesus Christ became that substitute. Romans 5:9 "...we are justified by His
blood." Now, all who believe in him and the work he did on the cross of
Calvary would be declared just in the sight of God.
The ground for justification is not obedience to the law, but the death of
Christ Jesus. This was accomplished by God's love for sinners. We call this
grace and it was a gift from God to us humans. It only becomes a gift
when those who acknowledge that they are sinners receive it. It is the
responsibility of the individual to repent of their sin and in faith receive
Jesus Christ into their heart. God hears their prayer of repentance and
forgives them. They become Christians and their sins are forgiven. When this
is done, all believers who have made a genuine commitment are justified in the
sight of God.
The believer is now a child of God. They can look forward to spending
eternity in heaven. Our hope now is to see former friends, relatives and family
members who have taken that same step of faith.
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