Justified: Living Free!

Justified: Living Free!

     The Grace Administration was ushered in on the day of Pentecost. Since that day, it has been available for men and women to become born-again sons of God. As sons of God, we have spiritual power that is released when we renew our minds according to God’s Word. Renewing our minds includes claiming our five sonship rights. These are redemption, justification, righteousness, sanctification, and the ministry of reconciliation. Claiming our sonship rights gives us the power to live with great freedom and confidence.
     I have the right to vote. This right gives me the power to help choose who will be the leader in my community, state, or country. I can talk about this right, talk about the person I will vote for, help an individual in their campaign, but until I actually vote, I have not exercised, or claimed, my right to vote. The same is true with our sonship rights. We can learn about them and talk about them, but until we claim them, we have not released the power associated with them.
     In order to claim the abundance and power available to us, it is necessary for us to understand our legal position as sons of God, which includes our sonship rights. Let’s focus here on the sonship right of justification to understand it better and learn how to claim it in our lives.
     First, let’s explore, what is our sonship right of justification? The sonship right of justification is a judicial decision by which God acquits born-again believers of guilt and sin and declares them to be acceptable to Him. Being justified, we are completely released from the penalty of sin. An easy way to remember “justification” is it’s “just as if I’d never sinned.” Our justification is so solid judicially that no devil spirit—and not even the adversary himself—can deny it. Our victory over the adversary is legally legal. Satan has no right to afflict any born-again believer in body, soul, or spirit. Justification allows us to live free—free from the bondage, the pressure, the stress, and the mental anguish of guilt, sin, and condemnation. Just think of the freedom this makes available as we build this reality in our minds. That is living free!
     Justification comes from God.
Romans 3:24:
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

     We were justified by God’s grace, which is His divine, unmerited favor. Through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of God’s only begotten Son, our justification and redemption have been accomplished. Jesus Christ always did his Father’s will; he always obeyed God. He was tempted in all points as we are tempted, yet he did not sin. Justification is not something we can earn. It does not matter how diligently we try to do everything right, we all fall short sometimes. It says so in Romans and Galatians.
Romans 3:23:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Galatians 3:11:
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident….
     We cannot earn justification; it is given to us by God. Jesus Christ paid the price for our justification. Jesus Christ lived his life free from sin so that you and I could be justified. Our justification releases us from the penalty of sin.
Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin
is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
     The wages of sin is death. It is not that we will never sin, but that we are released from the penalty of sin because Jesus Christ paid the price. Because of his accomplishments, we have been acquitted. We now have eternal life. We can live free from that penalty of sin.
     What does the sonship right of justification make available? Because justification releases us from sin, we have access to righteousness.
Romans 6:18:
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

     Righteousness is the God-given justification whereby a person stands in the presence of God without any consciousness of sin, guilt, or shortcomings. It is our justification—being acquitted of sin and made acceptable to God—which makes righteousness available. We are righteous before God because of our justification.
     Justification allows us to have peace with God.
Romans 5:1:
Therefore being justified by faith
[by believing what Jesus Christ did], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
     Justification enables us to be at peace with God. Peace can be defined as a state of undisturbed well-being. Think about that for a minute. Because of our justification, we can be in a state of undisturbed well-being with God! Other qualities of peace include freedom from fear, terror, anger, and anxiety. We can be in a state of tranquillity with God! Because we are at peace with God, we are free to believe God’s Word and thereby appropriate His promises. That is living free!…

This is an excerpt from the May/June 2009 issue of The Way Magazine.
Copyright© 2009 by The Way International. All rights reserved.
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