Are Forgiveness & Justification Synonymous?
The following is a transcription of our podcast by the same name.
"Some, in their attempt to deny that forgiveness happened on the cross. They say forgiveness and justification are synonymous. Well, they're not. And today we'll be rightly dividing them.
Being forgiven is being forgiven of my sins.
Being justified is just if I'd never sinned.
Big difference.
Forgiven of my sins, or just if I'd never sinned. It's important to get the distinction.
When you're forgiven, you're forgiven from what you've done. When you're justified, it's as if you never did it. -Nothing to be forgiven for.
Justification clears the guilty, meaning you're not guilty of ever sinning in the first place. Because God sees you as he sees Christ. And he doesn't see Christ forgiven because Christ never sinned.
You see, many understand terms according to how men have defined them, not Scripture. Justification is much deeper than forgiveness.
And when you develop an understanding of this, you'll no longer conflate these two. You'll no longer believe they occurred at the same time. You'll be able to rightly divide them.
One occurred at the cross and was for the entire world. The other occurs at the moment of belief and is for the believer.
God has an order and the order has never changed.
Just as we discussed in the Understanding Terminology series, we're hearing from many who are receiving clarity by studying each part of the series and going to the Scriptures for themselves.
Now concerning justification, there are many benefits that the believer receives when they're justified. -Benefits that the forgiven world doesn't have. Many benefits from being justified in Christ, but forgiveness is not one of them.
Stop believing that false teaching that says, "hey, you receive forgiveness when you get in Christ." -As if Christ was forgiven.
When we're put in Christ, we receive what he has, right? Well, just when did he ever receive forgiveness?
Correct. -Never.
The limited forgivers failed to think this one through. Jesus never received forgiveness for anything. So, no one receives forgiveness when they're placed in him.
When we're placed in him, the old man is crucified. In Christ, we're seen as having a spiritual baptism. In Christ, God sees us as he sees his son, a new creature.
Christ is no longer seen as he was in the flesh, but as the risen glorified Christ. And that's how God sees us.
Those in Christ are sanctified, made righteous, his workmanship created in him unto good works. In Christ, just as he was, we've been raised to sit in heavenly places and possess all spiritual blessings. Those in Christ have been buried with him and have risen with him. In Christ, we have an inheritance.
Christ is the son of God, and in him, we are the children of God. In Christ, we're sealed with the spirit and justified. These are the things Christ has, and in him, so do we. We have what he has.
But Jesus doesn't have forgiveness. He never had it. He never needed it. Because he never sinned.
It's fallacy to say that you get forgiveness in Christ, as if it's one of the benefits of being in him. It is not.
In Christ, we're seen as he's seen, and he's never been seen as forgiven, period. In Christ, we're not seen as forgiven.
We're seen as never having sinned. Sin-free. Justified. Just if I'd, never sinned.
He doesn't have forgiveness, and it's blasphemous to say he does. But that's what the limited forgivers are saying, if you follow their logic to its conclusion. Truth is, we were forgiven at the cross and justified when we were placed in him who never sinned.
What they missed is, while Christ's death on the cross brought forgiveness, it did not clear the guilty. Forgiveness has never cleared the guilty. Never.
It doesn't clear guilt, justification does. Missing this makes it extremely difficult to understand reconciliation.
Let's look at Numbers chapter 14, verse 18.
The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty.
You see that? Look again. This is important.
The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty.
When God was in Christ on the cross, he forgave the world, but that by no means cleared us of guilt.
Forgiveness and justification are different, and this is made clear for any Bible believer. But we have teachers who spent their time in front of a computer taking online Bible courses that missed it.
Hey, they not only missed it, but now that it's brought to their attention, their pride still won't allow them to admit their error so that they can start teaching this right. They believe their teacher over the Bible. -A sad state of affairs.
Justification is to be made righteous, declared innocent. Forgiveness happened on the cross, but eternal life is in him and in him only.
When a human being forgives you, they don't forget what you've done. But with God, all things are possible.
Forgiveness says, you're forgiven of your sins.
Justification says, what sins?
Just if I'd never sinned.
Once you're seen in Christ, the only one who never sinned, you're seen as if you never sinned. Not a day in your life. No sin. How is that possible? Because God no longer sees your life. And I know this because I believe my Bible.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God, Colossians 3:3.
Don't do as the limited forgiver does here and just blow through the verse. Let it sink in so you can truly recognize and enjoy who you are in Christ, a saint of the Most High.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
These aren't just words. These words have life. This is life-changing truth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
This speaks of those who are both forgiven and justified, not to those who are only forgiven. -Their life isn't hidden.
Forgiveness at the cross is one thing. Justified through faith is another.
Saints, justification allows us to live and enjoy a Colossians 3:3 hidden life with Christ in God, spiritually living off the grid, so to speak. Christ is our life, which makes it impossible for Satan to affect our position and what we have in Jesus. -Oh no.
In Christ, we've been sanctified, set apart, and given the Romans 5:18 justification of life.
There is no greater assurance of life eternal than that, than being justified in Christ Jesus.
All credit-all credit is His and His alone. As one old hymn goes, and I don't agree with all the lyrics, but one part says, if I remember correctly:
I stand upon His merit; I know no safer stand.
Not even where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land.
I stand upon His merit; I know no safer stand.
That brings peace to me. His merit. That's what some miss. His merit, not my own.
And you want so badly for others to understand this, because you know how it changed things for you.
The calm, the calmness that it brought to your mind, to your entire inner being. -Oh, the power of God's grace.
You want them to see it, but many have allowed their minds to be blinded by the God of this world, therefore forfeiting this peace, this peace and joy and comfort that comes with surrendering their forgiveness to Him, understanding that you can't do anything for it.
It's a wonderful place to be when your mind is freed from having to depend on something you do.
But pride won't allow some to get to this point, to the point of realizing that forgiveness is out of their control. They want to be in charge of their forgiveness.
But Paul, he throws a low blow to their ego by giving them nothing to do with getting their sins forgiven. We get no credit, no merit. It all goes to the Lord. It's His alone, just let Him have it. Thank you, Jesus.
Hey, listen, we talk about the gospel, but sometimes, myself included, we don't express the importance of the burial. The importance of the burial. When speaking of the gospel, the burial is just as important as anything else, as any other component. How so?
Well, that's where God performed surgery. He cut away the flesh of Jesus, and when He arose, there was no sin attached to Him. The world's sins that were placed upon Him were gone. That's why God is no longer imputing sins.
Try to picture this. God the Son, who knew no sin, had to have God the Father to perform an operation to cut away sin.
Well, wait a minute. If He knew no sin, why would God have to cut away sin? Because of His sinful flesh.
Jesus who knew no sin, never sinned a day in His 33-year life, was polluted with the sins of the world. They covered His flesh.
2 Corinthians 5:21, For He, God, hath made Him, Jesus, to be sin for us.
Therefore, it was in the tomb where God had to cut away the sinful flesh that Jesus was buried with. This is real talk, folks. The kind the limited forgiver avoids. It's where their argument falls apart.
Think of it this way. If He was buried, your sins were buried. Now that's grace. And anyone who disagrees is saying Jesus came out of the tomb with sins on Him.
Oh no, not a chance. Jesus arose, but the world's sins did not. This is the best news ever. It doesn't rely on your confessing for forgiveness. Your sins were buried and never arose.
It doesn't rely on your water baptism or sinner's prayer for forgiveness. Your sins were buried and never arose. Do you believe? It doesn't matter if you do or not. Your sins were buried and never arose.
The world's sins were placed on His flesh. He took them to His grave. And when He made His exit, they did not. The sins that once stood between God and humanity never left the tomb. They were nowhere in sight.
It was in the tomb where the operation of God occurred. He cut away the flesh of Christ that bore the sins of the world. Now that's amazing news.
Here at Truth Time, over the years, we've come to understand that in the marketplace of ideas, there's a real need for the preaching of the Word of Reconciliation. It's most often overlooked because of the freedom that comes from understanding it. It's disruptive to many. It affects pew numbers and bank accounts.
Knowing it delivers people. They come into the knowledge of not needing a Catholic priest or a confessional booth. Not needing an altar down at the corner Baptist church. No longer needing the Church of Christ Baptistry. They're free from that.
These things are no longer needed once you understand what God did with the world's sins, died for them, and left them in the tomb.
So there's a real need for the preaching of the overlooked Word of Reconciliation. The gospel. The best news ever.
What is the gospel?
2 Corinthians 5:15, and that he died for all, and they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again.
Romans 4:25, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
1 Corinthians 15:3 and 4, Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.
Paul's my gospel is in Paul's my epistles. We have worldwide physical hunger, but we also have worldwide spiritual hunger. What the world needs is peace.
There's a hunger, a real hunger, a real cry for peace, and only God's grace is capable of keeping and sustaining us through all of this.
But we have to allow the God of hope to fill us with all joy and peace and believing that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. To discover these wonderful riches, we have to think independently.
Truth Time has been trying to teach others to do so since the birth of this ministry. To not be like those that take a headlong rush to false doctrine. Watch out for the man-following sheeple out there. They line up in droves and believe almost anything if they respect the person who said it.
To us, it's unimaginable to base truth on what we see or hear without investigating first. So sad.
For some of us, the old group-think-herd mentality just don't cut it. But we're here to provide help to free those who have been held hostage in their mind.
Saints, we have to constantly remind ourselves that not everyone wakes up at the same time. So just keep being the alarm clock.
Keep proclaiming that at the cross, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
He stopped charging sins there because Christ died for them all.
He was buried but the grave couldn't contain him.
He arose on the third day, hallelujah.
That's the God I serve.
The one who rose the third day to justify all who will believe on him for eternal life.
Now listen to me.
If you're here today and you haven't done that, do it now. Free your mind and surrender your forgiveness to him. Sin stood in the way, but Jesus cleared the path.
And he did it without anything from you.
Now to be saved, there is something he needs from you. Your belief.
There's nothing to do for forgiveness but there's something to do for salvation.
What must I do?
What must I do to be saved?
The Bible says, believe on him.
Believe on him and never worry about your salvation again.
Don't do anything for forgiveness but believe on him for salvation.
And you can finally have that peace you've been searching for, and you can rest."
To listen to this Podcast:
Youtube version- https://youtu.be/mwtMjDFGAio?si=qhzRB3rR70yiwXFt
Youtube playlist (entire series)- https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBqHPdT-s8SDS5Q_KYDS8sLLKwv_98afk
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