Timing of Justification: Roughly two years ago, I was asked by a friend to share my view on the “timing” of justification, a subject that, at the time, seemed to be stirring no small controversy, and one which was being used as a battering ram to take out any with opposing views to their own. I declined! And then again, a different friend a few months ago asked the same question, and once again, I just answered with probably two sentences, as I attempted once again to avoid the topic. Not because I didn’t care or had nothing to say, but because I knew I wasn’t then, and I’m still not now, completely settled in my own mind. I’ve heard solid, scripture-based arguments from both sides of this question, and it’s made me want to tread cautiously.
For clarity, I will call the two positions under consideration eternal justification and justification exclusively at the cross. In short, eternal justification holds that before creation, God set His elect in Christ and, on that basis, reckoned them righteous, with the cross in time as the appointed moment when that eternal verdict was executed and revealed. Justification exclusively at the cross asserts that justification was accomplished at a definite moment in history, when Christ bore His people’s sins, satisfied divine justice, and was raised for their justification, making the cross the decisive point at which God declared them righteous.
Both views, when seen in the light of the gospel, leave no room for the third; namely “justification by faith” understood in the unscriptural sense that God’s act of justifying the sinner takes place when he or she believes. This makes faith not the God-given gift that bears witness to an already-secured righteousness, but the condition upon which God’s verdict depends, as though His acceptance were suspended until man performs the act of believing. Such thinking is simply arminian conditionalism dressed in theological double talk, making man’s response the decisive hinge instead of Christ’s finished work. It shifts the ground of justification from the cross to the sinner’s experience, thereby denying the once-for-all accomplishment of reconciliation when God, in Christ, reconciled His people to Himself through His obedience unto death, perfectly satisfying the law and securing righteousness on their behalf. Philippians 2:8. This is foreign to the gospel and must be refused outright. Ephesians 5:11.
Quite honestly, I’m not exactly sure what the “reformed” view even is in all its details, but as I understand it, they generally teach that a sinner is justified at the moment he believes, sola fide, with faith being the point at which righteousness is imputed to him. (Some gospel regenerationists in the “grace” camp also embrace a distorted form of this.) To my mind, this comes uncomfortably close to arminian thought, the only ‘calvinistic’ safeguard being that such faith they call “the gift of God.” In this way, grace remains in the vocabulary, yet the decisive hinge is still the sinner’s act of believing, rather than Christ’s completed work in time, which alone secured our righteousness before God. John 19:30.
In thinking about the “timing” of justification, we can say before anything else that our safety lies not in tracing that moment on a calendar, but in beholding the unchangeable CHRIST as “the LORD our righteousness.” Jeremiah 23:6. Whether one holds to an eternal decree or an exclusive cross-centered accomplishment in time, the heart of the matter for all who look to the LORD for salvation is that justification is in Christ alone, grounded in His work alone, and made known to us by the Spirit, who will never let us rest anywhere else. To lose sight of this is to lose sight of the gospel itself. I Corinthians 1:30-31.
With that foundation laid, the question naturally follows, if our justification rests entirely in Christ, when did God first regard His people as righteous in Him? This is where the distinction between eternal justification and justification at the cross comes into focus. Those who believe in eternal justification, rightly understood in the light of the gospel, also affirm justification at the cross. The issue is not the reality of justification at the cross, but the point, “according to God’s eternal purpose in Christ,” Romans 11:5, at which His people were first declared righteous in His sight. Eternal justification affirms that before the world began, God set His elect in Christ and beheld them clothed in His righteousness, Numbers 23:21, with that verdict grounded wholly on the certain accomplishment of His atoning death and resurrection in time. Revelation 13:8. “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” Ephesians 1:11.
In the light of God’s immutability and absoluteness, it’s a bit difficult to see how one who has an understanding of the gospel can deny that justification has an eternal aspect? God is eternal and unchanging. Hebrews 13:8. His purpose in Christ unshaken, His counsel unalterable, His will unthwarted from everlasting to everlasting. “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” Acts 15:18. Is it not the common confession of all believers that before the foundation of the world, God determined to glorify Himself through an elect seed given to His beloved Son, and in that eternal purpose secured for them all the blessings of grace? “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Ephesians 1:4. These blessings were first given to Christ as the Head and Representative of His elect, and thus to them in Him, so that their acceptance and righteousness were never apart from Him. Ephesians 1:3. Though they did not yet exist in time, they stood in Christ from everlasting, blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, and destined to be made manifest through His redeeming work in history. II Thessalonians 2:13. These are not speculative musings, but the plain testimony of Holy Scripture, which speaks with one accord on this glorious theme.
Before the beginning of time, God’s immutable decree placed His elect in Christ, clothing them in His righteousness, with the cross fixed as the appointed hour when that righteousness would be openly declared. Thus the “cross” is no mere token of an eternal decree; it is the place where salvation was accomplished, guilt was once-for-all removed, and righteousness was secured for all time. I Peter 2:24. That is where redemption was purchased, not only manifested but judicially secured, and where God’s eternal plan was carried out in history. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” I Corinthians 15:3. With this in the forefront of our thoughts in ascribing “greatness unto the Lord,” Deuteronomy 32:3, the witness of scripture makes it additionally plain that God has always viewed His people in Christ and never apart from the merits of His death on the cross, accomplished in time.
Grounded in the absoluteness of God’s purpose, Isaiah 46:10, this truth declares that Christ’s suretyship did not begin at the cross but from eternity, when He pledged Himself to fulfill all righteousness on the behalf of his people. “By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament,” Hebrews 7:22, which same chapter reminds us that Christ’s priesthood is “unchangeable,” 7:24, grounded in “the power of an endless life.” Hebrews 7:16. Such a priesthood admits no alteration, for the Surety who undertook the cause of His people from everlasting is the same, Hebrews 13:8, who in time secured their redemption, and who now ever lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25. “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” II Timothy 1:9. From eternity, God’s elect were counted righteous in Christ, not apart from the cross but because of it, the eternal decree and the finished work in history forming one indivisible foundation, secured by the atoning work that Christ would unfailingly accomplish in time. “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” I Peter 1:19-20.
The timing of justification, seen in the light of God’s eternal purpose, sweeps from everlasting to everlasting. In God’s decree, it is eternal; at the cross, it was accomplished; by faith, it is received and enjoyed. From beginning to end, it is grounded not in man’s work or will, but in Christ alone. This is the gospel, “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” II Corinthians 5:19. To deny its eternal aspect is to confine God’s purpose to the unfolding of time; to confess it is to rejoice in the immutability of the grace of Christ, and in the unbreakable link between God’s everlasting decree and the perfect sacrifice that consummated our eternal redemption, Hebrews 9:12, “declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isaiah 46:10. This unbroken harmony between God’s eternal counsel and Christ’s work in time naturally leads us to see that what some frame as two distinct doctrines are, in truth, one undivided reality in the gospel. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Mark 10:9.
Eternal justification and justification at the cross are not competing doctrines when understood in the light of the gospel; they are two sides of the same unbreakable truth. Those who hold to eternal justification in a Christ-centered way do not deny justification at the cross. One speaks of God’s eternal counsel in Christ; the other of His finished work in history. Our ‘eyes’ look back to that moment at the cross, (the legal ground of justification,) because there, in that appointed hour, God’s eternal decree was executed in history. This is when justice was satisfied, guilt was removed, and everlasting righteousness was brought in. “But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,” Hebrews 9:26, “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness.” Daniel 9:24.
Let me be so bold as to speak on behalf of all the Lord’s people, whatever differences may exist in how they describe the “timing” of justification, every one of God’s elect is united in this, we are justified at the cross. Isaiah 53:11. There, and there alone, Christ bore our sins, satisfied divine justice, took away our iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness for His people. Daniel 9:24. This is not a side doctrine nor a mere point for debate; it is the very heart of the gospel. Whether one delights in the eternal decree or speaks chiefly of the finished work in history, we are of one voice in declaring that our righteousness is Christ crucified and risen, and our standing before God rests on His blood and obedience alone. II Corinthians 5:21.
There is so much more that could be said on this, and perhaps in time I’ll return to it, as a few more considerations still press on my mind. For now, I will simply close by saying that if in any way I have misrepresented the truth, misunderstood others, or clouded rather than clarified the gospel, I ask your forgiveness. May it please the LORD to mercifully correct and keep us all in the simplicity that is in Christ. “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” Titus 1:2. MPJ