Justification and Condemnation are antonyms or opposite terms:
- Justify = to make just, hold guiltless
- Condemnation = to judge against
A man who commits a murder is a murderer irrespective of whether he is caught or not. But he only faces the penalty of his crime if he is brought before a judge and condemned. It is at that point that he receives his sentence.
Adam in a like figure was a sinner when he transgressed God’s commandment: but he only faced the penalty of his transgression (‘dying thou shalt die’/bodily mortality leading to the grave) when he was sentenced by God. Adam sinned, was caught, and then sentenced (condemned).
Though wearing the condemned nature, Jesus (through sacrifice), was “justified in the spirit” (1Tim 3:16) when made subject to the “resurrection of life” (eternal). A very physical justification, when his natural body was converted into a physical spirit body. This is how he was freed from the ‘the law of sin and death’ because until then he was still under the ‘dominion of death’ (Rom 6:9).
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30)
This verse seems to indicate justification for the brethren in Christ occurs before glorification (ie the “resurrection of life” eternal John 5:29), after being called and before glorification. But clearly if it was when when Jesus was glorified that he was physically justified, then this verse cannot be talking of a physical justification. If we read verse 30, it is like following a timeline: we are predestinated, then we are called then we are justified, and then we are glorified. So this justification in verse 30 is speaking of when a believer is baptised: “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).
It was necessary for Christ to be raised (and justified physically) that those in Christ can be “counted” as justified – its all for their sakes, as it is written “…all things are for your sake, that … the thanksgiving of many redound to the Glory of God” (2 Cor. 4:15).
If there had been no Fall, and no race of men to redeem, then there would be no Jesus. God would not have raised up a saviour, in whom salvation could be found for the race of men. There would have been no race to redeem from the sentence (condemnation) passed upon Adam, no mortality leading to death and the grave.
If we are born under condemnation; irrespective of what we have done or committed, it would necessarily follow that we need justifying from that condemnation at some point. This condemnation which requires justification is not to do with transgression but rather constitutional sin, AKA “sin in the flesh” AKA “mortality”.
“And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification” (Rom. 5:16).
“Judgement was by one to condemnation”
So again Adam sinned and we have all received condemnation, but even though we have many transgressions we can be justified.
We cannot change the sentence which was passed upon mankind. The sentence, by God, was “Just”. But we see a:-
SHADOW JUSTIFICATION
Colossians 2:
“Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead” (vs 12)
“In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (vs 11)
Paul here is linking Christian baptism into Christ with circumcision in the Old Testament, of which:-
“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant” (Gen. 17:12, 14)”
All children circumcised on the 8th day. If not circumcised the 8th day, that child was as good as a Gentile, estranged from the precious promises unto Abraham and his seed. They couldn’t do acceptable service unto God such as serve at the temple, tabernacle etc. This shows how important it is to be in covenant relationship with God.
“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph 2:11-12).
Gentiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
Unless circumcised, the child was without hope, “alienated” from “the hope of Israel”. Therefore if circumcision was not performed, the child remained in the state with which it was born or constituted into. It was only after circumcision, ie in covenant relationship with God, that the child could render acceptable service in terms of works to God:
“This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised” (Gen. 17:10).
To be in covenant relationship with God, a man must be first circumcised – which as Paul says in Romans 4 was a sign of the righteousness by faith. Now clearly we don’t have to be circumcised today, so the way we get into a covenant relationship is through baptism. We have faith and we are baptised into that faith and then we are in covenant relationship with the Father.
Any who are born under Adamic condemnation are liable to die at any time: there is no injustice in this. Death reigns over all even those who have not sinned, like newborn babies. Gaining immortality comes through being in covenant relationship with God – therefore to die outside of covenant relationship with God is to imply that one cannot be made immortal. How can he bestow immortality to those outside of his household of his friends? He doesn’t.
Natural birth confers no ‘right’ to friendship with God, only by entering into covenant relationship that we can we get anything from him. This clearly shown by the Jewish system:
“But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend” (Isa. 41:8).
Abraham was called a Friend of God, can anyone be considered a friend of God unless justified (in reality or shadow) from all sin? Can God look upon anybody favourably unless free in a sense from sin? Can he be in fellowship with sin in any form?
Exodus 4:26
“So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision”.
Moses who had sufficient understanding to know that it was necessary to circumcise his son, delayed the procedure. The end result was that God sought to kill him, by judicial death because he avoided the way of putting his son under covenant relationship with God. Only the action of his wife, Zipporah, stopped this from happening. Perhaps this is a type of those who have sufficient knowledge and know that they should come under covenant relationship with God in the appointed manner by baptism into the saving name, but do not submit to the ordinance of water baptism – that they will be called to the judgement seat to suffer judicial death too. This is how God views those who have been privileged to receive the call but escape the burden of carrying the cross. Remember, we were predestined before being born to receive the call in our lifetime – in other words before we were even born, God selected us before birth and in due time in our mortal lives revealed His truth to us in the scriptures. Only a fraction of the Adamic race have been predestined, the same fraction called, an even smaller fraction justified and an even smaller fraction will be glorified. Truly just being a part of the first bigger fraction is a great blessing. And therefore such a blessing cannot be overlooked in God’s sight (summoned to Judgement seat).
Inanimate objects made from the ground (which had been cursed) similarly required atonement before they could be acceptably used:
“Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building” (Heb. 9:9-11).
Offerings under the law could not perfect the conscience of those in covenant relationship: proof of this is that the sacrifices had to be continually offered, day of atonement once a year etc. But did the offerings under the law ‘purify the flesh’ in some way? Not physically, but so that those ‘in the flesh’ could render acceptable service to God, I think we can say they were counted as clean in some way.
“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:13-14).
Ashes of an heifer for example were to do with laws for purification of sin (Numbers 19:2). The Sacrifice of Christ not only purifies the flesh (in a sense) but also can purge our conscience from the guilt of transgressions. If there were sacrifices to the purifying of the flesh (in a sense) under the law, then the sacrifice of Christ must at least be able to also purify the flesh. Can’t be that the law sacrifices could purify the flesh, and the Sacrifice of Christ cannot.
JUSTIFIED IN CHRIST
Read Romans 4:25, 5:1, 5:9, 3:24, 5:16, 5:18
We have already established that we need justifying from the one condemnation all men have inherited from Adam.
- Romans 4:25, 5:1 – justification now
- Romans 5:9 – justification now
- Romans 3:24 – justification now
- Romans 5:16, 18 – justification now
If we have received grace, then we have received justification.
When a believer rises out of the water of Baptism, he puts on the immortal Christ and therefore partakes of the justification which Christ received when he was ‘justified in the spirit’ (1 Tim 3:16). It was only at this point that Christ was truly free from the condemnation brought into the world through Adam. Up until he was glorified, death had a hold upon him, whether he was a living, breathing creature for 33.5 years or when he was a dead soul in the tomb for 3 days. It was only through his shed blood that he was later ‘ justified in the spirit’ (Hebrews 13:20), another way of saying this is that he was ‘justified in the spirit’ because of his shed blood (or rather what it represented, ie. The Condemnation of Sin in the Flesh.
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).
Are we washed? Yes.
Are we sanctified? Yes.
Are we justified? Yes.
Paul immediately after this verse, in the remainder of the chapter says that ‘the believer’s body is a temple, should be holy’ and that the reason we should do good work and glorify God in our body is because our bodies and minds have been ‘washed, sanctified and justified’. Is not his body something holy? Is not this body destined to be saved and glorified? Surely if it is washed, sanctified and justified it is to be considered clean. Not literally of course as we still have sin in the flesh, but in God’s sight it is counted clean: we are in fellowship with the divine nature now so we must be from his perspective considered clean in a sense.
Before entering baptism we are considered dead, yet after baptism we are considered alive:
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. 2:13)
The word quickened means made alive, this is talking about the believers – but 1Peter 3:18 is talking about Christ:
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18).
Christ’s quickening was when he was ‘justified’/immortalised. But for us our quickening in a sense happens at Baptism.
What is the reason we are dead prior to baptism, if it is not sin in the flesh, the Bible devil who holds the power of death? Therefore if we are considered dead one minute and considered alive the next after passing through the waters, there must be a sense in which sin in the flesh is nullified or rendered null (which we know happened to Christ when immortalised). Not in reality since we are both considered dead and physically dead prior to baptism but afterwards considered alive yet still in a physically dying body. In using the word ‘considered’ because there has been controversy regarding the terms ‘legal’ or ‘ceremonially’ or ‘relationship-wise’ in the past. There’s a reason why the saints are only considered to be sleeping despite being literally dead. Sleeping creatures are alive, not dead. God now looks at us as sons of God, heirs, and in fellowship. So there must be a sense in which God is overlooking our sinful, mortal state for us to be considered ‘quickened’ or ‘alive’ in Christ Jesus.
The power of the immortal Christ who was previously sacrificed in blood shedding is so much greater than what was brought into the world through Adam
“And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification” (Rom. 5:16).
Divine displeasure upon the race as a result of one transgression (manifest in us as sin in the flesh) yet now fellowship and friendship now with whose who have many transgressions, in addition to sin in the flesh, showing that the magnitude of goodness of having a ‘quickening spirit’ as a federal head far supersedes the magnitude of badness incurred as having Adam as a federal head.
Justification from sin in the flesh in baptism is not immediately accompanied by its destruction, but its destruction is guaranteed providing justification is maintained (by abiding in saving name by walking according to the spirit).
Now in Christ, there is no condemnation:
“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Rom. 8:33)
There is no charge against us because we have been justified. We are free of our sins prior to baptism, they will not be used against us in the judgement. We are free from our relationship to the first Adam, the constitution of sin, which will not be used against us in the judgement seat (unlike those called but unbaptised) and we are free of committed sins in probation as long as we are walking in spirit: because as Rom 8:34 says, Christ is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us as a priest of the order of Melchizedek.
CONCLUSION
When Adam transgressed in Eden he became counted as a sinner in God’s eyes and a physical sinner when condemned. We are physical sinners by birth. When we are baptised, although we remain physical sinners, we become counted righteous. Being counted righteous is superior to being a physical sinner because the results of being and remaining counted righteous will result in physical righteousness in the immortalisation process. The end result of those counted sinners (Adam, Eve) was death and the same is for physical sinners (Adam, Eve, all their posterity) but the end result of a small subset of Adam’s race who become counted righteous is immortality. Truly then a baptised and faithful believer can say “I am free from the law of sin and death because I ‘only sleep’ and will get the victory when I wake up”. The same cannot be said for those who remain constituted sinners or physical sinners.
Lee Murtagh
