If we are to appreciate that which is central in the gospel, if the
jubilee trumpet is to find its echo again in our hearts, our thinking
must be revolutionized by the realism of the wrath of God, of the
reality and gravity of our guilt, and of the divine condemnation.
That justification does not mean to make holy or upright should be
apparent from common use. When we justify a person we do not make that
person good or upright. When a judge justifies an accused person he does
not make that person an upright person. He simply declares that in his
judgement the person is not guilty of the accusation but is upright in
terms of the law relevant to the case. In a word, justification is
simply a declaration or pronouncement respecting the relation of the
person to the law which he, the judge, is required to administer.
This is what is meant when we insist that justification is forensic.
It has to do with a judgement given, declared, pronounced; it is
judicial or juridical or forensic. The main point of such terms is to
distinguish between the kind of action which justification involves and
the kind of action involved in regeneration. Continue at Peter Cockrell
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