How and When

It is no idle debate but one that hits the very heart of the Gospel, not only HOW God justifies sinners but WHEN He justified sinners. This is one of the earliest questions in the Bible as recorded in Job 9:2: “I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?”

There are those who will say that it doesn't matter 'when' so long as we agree on ‘how’ but the Scriptures make ‘WHEN’ the issue as much as ‘HOW’. Hebrews 1:3 states: “…when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”When were the sins of God’s elect purged? The tense there is once for all. It is clearly at the cross, Hebrews 10:10. When it says that Christ sat down, that means the work is complete. To make our righteousness before God to be established, accomplished, or fulfilled anywhere or anytime else is to proclaim an unfinished work of Christ. Even to say that Christ ‘secured’ the salvation of God’s elect at the cross isn’t even what the Bible declares. He didn’t just secure the salvation of His elect, He saved them at the cross! [John 17:4]