I am, it surely goes without saying, talking about justification by faith. And when I ask is justification a fact or a feeling, the answer, of course, is that it is both. That is to say, God declares that the sinner who trusts Christ is, from that moment, perfectly righteous in his sight, and free of all condemnation. This is a glorious fact, a staggering statement which is true of every believer. But it is equally true that the believer, now that he is justified, ought to enjoy the felt-sense of his justification. After all, the Holy Spirit witnesses to the believer, reminding him of his free justification in Christ, and thus assuring him of his standing before God. This magnificent truth cannot be dismissed as a legal nicety, relegated to the role of a legal fact – true, but abstract and distant. Justification by faith is far too wonderful for that. What is more, the sense of his free justification in Christ is one of the main drivers in the believer’s progressive sanctification. Having dealt with these vital issues in several of my works, 1 in this short article I want to stress the ‘feeling-ness’ of free justification. I do so because I fear that for many believers justification has become rather a dry, theoretical term, one which gives them little real enjoyment. And this is a sad loss indeed. |