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Catechism #18



Q. What is justification?
A. Justification is the act of God’s free grace by which He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight.

Over the last few weeks we have seen that Christ is our Redeemer, but He is also our Justifier. The Bible speaks about our justification, which is the process by which God forgives our sins. Most people know Romans 3:23, but verse 24 is equally important:

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came through Christ Jesus.”

Romans 5:1 continues:

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

Justification comes from the word justify, and an easy way to remember the definition is God makes me “just if I” had never sinned. As the verses above show, justification is an act of God’s grace based on our faith; we cannot earn justification, which is why we needed a Redeemer. Jesus is both our Redeemer and Justifier.


Today as believers we are justified because of the great exchange that took place at Calvary. On that day Jesus took on our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21) and traded it for His righteousness. When God looked at Jesus He saw my sin, and when He looks at me He sees the righteousness of Jesus.
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