The Most

Scandalous
Verdict
H O W J AM E S P R E P A R E S U S F O R
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

The late R.C. Sproul preached a memorable message on Luke 13:1–5 and the
misplaced “locus of astonishment.” Those who approached Jesus to ask about
the Galileans whom Pilate slaughtered should have been less amazed that
their countrymen were dead, and more amazed that they themselves,
equally sinful, had been spared.
Perhaps we might say something similar with the common questions about
James on justification. Are we wrongly amazed (and concerned) by what
James says, when we really should marvel (with profound gratitude) at the
peculiar claims of Paul?

The real scandal over justification in the New Testament is not what James
teaches, but Paul.

Taking two thousand years of Christian truth for granted, we might assume,
for good reason, that what Paul teaches is typical and obvious enough, and
James is the oddball who needs special treatment and careful explanation.
For five hundred years, Protestants have been providing helpful, persuasive
treatments of the doctrine of justification that begin with Paul, and then move
to James as a possible objection. It’s understandable. We have much more
content from Paul in the New Testament, and (fittingly) our theological
categories have taken their cues from Paul’s language, not James.
But we may be missing something precious when we always work from Paul
to James, and never James to Paul. We may miss how normal and
unsurprising it is that James says what he does about justification — and
how wonderfully shocking, then, is the grace God extends us in the gospel of
his Son through the words of Paul.
What Is Justification?
Come with me into the courtroom. Here is where we get the ancient and
enduring concept and language of “justification,” and where we can
understand the normalcy of James (and Matthew), and then the special
project and vision of Paul.

The word justify pairs with condemn as the legal pronouncement or definitive
declaration in a court of law (Proverbs 17:15; Romans 5:16, 18; 8:33–34). The
judge renders a verdict about a defendant’s actions (or inaction) based on
the expressed standard of the law. First, the law exists. Then someone acts
contrary to, or questionably regarding, the law and is accused formally by a
plaintiff. In court, the plaintiff and defendant present and refute arguments
and evidence. Finally, a judge (or jury) declares a verdict — guilty or
innocent, condemned or justified — by comparing his sense of the person’s
conduct, based on the evidence, to the expressed law.
We might call this “ordinary justification.” This is how we normally use the
language of justification in the world today, as humans have for millennia.
The verdict is based on the defendant’s action (or inaction) related to
established law. This ordinary use, then, appears in the Bible in reference to
God’s coming judgment. He is the Judge of the universe, and at the end of
the age, he will render his verdicts based on evidence, not make-believe
(Acts 17:31; Romans 3:6).
We see this ordinary sense of justification in Matthew 11:19: “wisdom is
justified by her deeds.” And Matthew 12:37: “by your words you will be
justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Also in Luke (7:29, 35;
10:29; 16:14–15). And in Romans 2:13, Paul himself expresses this principle
of normal or ordinary justification: “the doers of the law . . . will be
justified.”
James 2:20–26, of course, memorably expresses this normal sense of
justification. James writes that “a person is justified by works and not by
faith alone” (James 2:24), and he makes clear in his two preceding
statements that he has the final judgment in view:
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs
over judgment. (James 2:12–13)
Simply put, James uses the word justify in the ordinary way, like Matthew,
and like Romans 2:13. And though his word-choice is different from what we
will find in Paul, James teaches a vital truth well-represented in Paul: those
whom God declares righteous in the end will have more to their name than
just faith (for instance, Galatians 5:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; Romans 3:31; 8:4).
True faith in Christ will be accompanied by acts of love for others because
true faith (produced by God’s Spirit, who “gives life,” John 6:63) produces
love in us for others.
When talking about final judgment, as we’ll see, Paul indeed agrees with
James that “faith apart from works is useless” (James 2:20), that “faith apart
from works is dead” (James 2:26). At the final judgment, “the day of wrath
when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed,” Paul writes, God will
“render to each one according to his works” (Romans 2:5–6). (The apostle
John also uses the language of “according to works” for the final
judgment, Revelation 2:23.)
The human courtroom, in all its pomp and circumstance, anticipates the
great final judgment, with God himself as Judge, coming at the end of the
age. That much is clear and simple: justification, then, will be according
to (not contrary to) words spoken and deeds performed in the world. But
what will be the “basis” or ground of God’s final declaration?

Justification by Faith
Then Paul — especially in his letters to the Romans and Galatians — turns
over the bench to teach a shocking and wonderful truth about those who are
in Christ: by virtue of being in Christ, we already have God’s final verdict.
Already now, in Christ, we are vindicated in the courtroom of heaven. We
are justified by faith. This in no way unseats the coming final judgment
according to works — and does not make for two justifications (present and
final) but two vantage points of our one justification in Christ. And it does
not undermine what James, or Matthew, or Paul himself in Romans 2:13,
teaches — but it surprises and delights those of us who are in Christ with the
glory of what is already true of us by faith.
Joined to Jesus now, by faith, we already share
in his verdict: Righteous. Justified. As surely as we are in Christ, we not only
will receive his verdict before his Father, but we already now have it. “There
is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
This, then, is what we might call “extraordinary justification,” or “special
justification,” based not on what we did or didn’t do, but on the actions of
Jesus. (Stephen Westerholm refers to “ordinary” and “extraordinary”
righteousness and notes, “Paul undoubtedly employed [this] terminology in
ways that went beyond the limits of normal Greek usage.”) Though
righteous, Jesus stood condemned in our place. He took the curse we
deserved and settled it in his body at the cross (Galatians 3:13), and we,
being joined to him by faith, are justified in him and share in the blessing
for his righteousness (Romans 5:19; Philippians 3:9). What’s “special” about
this justification is not mainly its timing (already now) but its basis (in
Christ and his righteousness). Proverbs 17:15 is the ordinary sense: “He who
justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an
abomination to the Lord.” Romans 4:5 is extraordinary: In Christ, God
“justifies the ungodly.”
Note well, this “great exchange” happens only in true and ongoing union
with him — not between two separate parties, but two distinct parties united
as one — as when a rich man marries a woman in debt. As husband and wife
are formally and legally united, his great provisions cover her debt, and she
comes to enjoy the bounty of his resources.

Why We Need It
Perhaps our need is clear enough already, but we should make it explicit.
The reason we need this “special justification” in Jesus is because we “all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In our sin, we
have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling
mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:23). Our
instinct may be to try to make it up to God, to try to cover our
unrighteousness with our own righteousness. But in a human court, the
amount of good we’ve done is no defense against compelling evidence of
particular wrongdoing. And besides, from God’s perspective, we’re actually
unable to do genuine righteousness, despite what we may think (Romans
8:7–8).
We might suspect, Well, if there is any good I could do that would count with
God, it would be abiding by his own law. The best works in all the world would
be “works of the law,” obedience to the standards God himself has revealed.
However, as Paul repeats over and over, this special justification is “apart
from works of the law” (Romans 3:28). “By works of the law no one will be
justified” (Galatians 2:16). God saves us “not because of works done by us in
righteousness” (Titus 3:5). “By works of the law no human being will be
justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20).
God’s law is righteous (Romans 7:12; 8:4), but he never intended his law
to provide our righteousness. The law is a standard, not a supplier.
Righteousness, Paul makes plain again and again, does not come through
the law (Romans 3:21; 4:13; 10:5; Galatians 2:21; 3:11; 3:21; Philippians 3:9).
James and Matthew would not disagree.

How It Happens
How, then, is a sinful, undeserving human, destined for coming
condemnation and divine curse, able to hear the Judge of the universe
declare some of the sweetest possible words, “You are righteous”?

In Romans and Galatians, as Paul lays out his case for this hope-giving, life-
changing, extraordinary justification, he makes it abundantly clear that
such justification before God comes through Christ by faith. In Christ all who
believe are justified (Acts 13:39). “The righteousness of God” for our
justification comes “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe”
(Romans 3:22). We are “justified . . . through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus . . . to be received by faith” (Romans 3:24–25). Time and again, it’s two
realities: Christand faith. Theologians have come to call these the
ground and the instrument of justification.

Christ Alone, Faith Alone

The ground of justification is Christ. And not Christ plus anything else.
Nowhere does Paul hint that Christ has any company as ground or basis. So,
it is fitting to say Christ alone is the ground of our justification. He sacrificed
his own life, and so we are “justified by his blood” (Romans 5:9). His
righteousness is the ground of God declaring us, in him, to be righteous
(Romans 5:16–19; Philippians 3:9). We are “justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 6:11). In no way do our own efforts serve as the
ground of our justification. But we are justified in Christ “as a gift” (Romans
3:24; 4:4; 5:15–17; 6:23), “justified by his grace” (Romans
3:24; 5:2, 15, 17, 20–21; 11:6).
What instrument, then, corresponds to Christ alone as the ground of
justification? Faith. Justification “depends on faith, in order that the
promise may rest on grace” (Romans 4:16). We receive his grace, from
outside us, and the channel of this reception is what we call “belief” or
“trust” or “faith.” Christ, for justification, is “to be received by faith”
(Romans 3:25). This already-now justification in Christ is for “the one who
has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).
The instrument of justification is faith. And not faith plus anything else.
Nowhere does Paul hint that faith has any company as the instrument. So, it
is fitting to say faith alone is the means that connects us to Christ for
justification. And even though Paul teaches something extraordinary,
different than the typical concept of justification in the world, don’t think
the Old Testament didn’t anticipate this.
As far back as Genesis 15, in one of the foundational stories of the Jewish
people, Father Abraham is said, in essence, to have been justified by faith.
“He believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis
15:6). Here God embeds in holy Scripture a remarkable placeholder for, and
pointer to, the full-orbed reality of justification by faith that he would unveil
in the gospel for his church primarily through Paul. How was
Abraham counted righteous? Not in the ordinary way. Not on the basis of his
actions. Rather, “he believed the Lord” (Genesis 15:6) — and anticipated all
those who, like him, because of Christ, would be “justified by faith” (Romans
5:1).
Our Works: Evidential and Essential
Paul labors to make plain that God offers us this special, already-now
justification on the sole grounds of Christ and his work, through the sole
instrument of faith. What, then, comes of our doing, our works, our efforts
and actions, our living? Does it matter what we do, and don’t do, if our
ultimate standing with God isn’t based on our doing?
As we’ve seen, a final judgment is coming. In that courtroom, as James
makes plain, “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James
2:24). And on that final day, those whom God has declared righteous in his
Son by faith will have more to their name than just faith. True faith in Christ
will be accompanied by love for others because true faith (supplied by God’s
Spirit) produces love in us for others.
Actions matter in the Christian life. Good works matter. Before the Judge of
the universe, in his public courtroom, Spirit-produced good deeds will serve
as precious evidence to the world that God united us to his Son, and in him
(alone) we have been justified by faith (alone). Evidence is not optional in a
righteous courtroom. And that includes the courtroom of heaven.

What Kind of Faith?

But before we assume that the role of our works at the final judgment spoils
the gift of grace that is already-now justification in Christ by faith, we
should keep two vital realities in view: the kind of faith that justifies and the
power of the Person who produces it.

Justifying faith is not mere mental assent. The kind of faith that justifies is
“faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Love for others is not the
instrument of justification; rather, the kind of faith that is real, and
therefore justifies, is the kind of faith that inevitably produces love.
But what can we say about how justifying faith produces good
works? Romans 10:9–10 clarifies that true faith is not mere belief in the head
that leaves the heart and life untouched, but belief in the heart. “With the
heart one believes.” Such belief in the heart requires a new heart, with new
desires, and new delights. As John Piper asks, and answers,
What is this experience of receiving Christ really like? Is it like receiving a blow?
Is it like receiving a gift you need, but don’t want? Is it like receiving desired help
from someone you dislike? Is it like receiving a package from the postman you
scarcely know or care to know? . . .
Receiving Christ in a saving way means preferring Christ over all other persons
and things. It means desiring him — not only what he can do. His deeds on our
behalf are meant to make it possible to know and enjoy him forever. We do not
receive him savingly when we receive him as a ticket out of hell or into heaven. He
is not a ticket. He is a treasure — the greatest Treasure. He is what makes
heaven heaven. If we want a pain-free heaven without him there, we do not receive
him; we use him.
Therefore . . . it is helpful to insist that justifying faith means receiving, welcoming,
embracing Jesus for all that God is for us in him.
Such faith in Jesus not only justifies but also will make us progressively holy
in him (what we call “sanctification”) as it severs the root of sin in sinful
desires.

And beyond the nature of justifying faith as the glad receiving of Christ, we’re
also not left with our faith hanging on its own. A divine Person always
stands behind it and works in and through it. God himself, by his Spirit, not
only creates justifying faith in us, but sustains it. He who began a good work
in us will complete it (Philippians 1:6). Already-now justification always
happens “by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11), and never apart from
“the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom [God]
poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5–6).
We will do well to ask about our “locus of astonishment,” in Sproul’s words,
when we come to ponder and teach and herald our doctrine of justification.
When we see that James 2 (and Matthew 11–12) says what we should expect
to hear from any century about the final judgment, then we may see with
greater clarity, and experience an even greater joy over, what Paul so plainly
and shockingly teaches: in Christ, through faith, not our deeds, we sinners
are received as fully righteous before the infinitely glorious God. This is the
real scandal of justification.