Justification

Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.

¹⁵ We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile “sinners”

¹⁶ know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷ But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not!

² If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴ Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation.

⁵ However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

⁶ And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

²⁰ Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

²¹ But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets.

²² And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction,

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

²⁴ and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

²⁶ He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith.

²⁸ For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

²⁹ Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,

³⁰ since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

⁸ More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

⁶ So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁷ Understand, then, that those who have faith are sons of Abraham.

⁸ The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

²² This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

²³ Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham,

²⁴ but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.

¹⁶ Again, the gift is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment that followed one sin brought condemnation, but the gift that followed many trespasses brought justification.

¹⁷ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

¹⁸ So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men.

¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

³ Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

⁴ For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.

⁶ This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

⁷ so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified by her actions when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route?