Justification by Faith
The scriptures teach three courtrooms in which the subject of justification applies: the courtroom of heaven; the courtroom of our minds and hearts; and the courtroom of men’s opinions. In our previous essay, we considered how we are justified in the courtroom of heaven by the grace of God through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ. In this essay, we will consider how we are justified by faith in the courtroom of our heart and mind.
When we are born of the Spirit, God establishes a courtroom in our heart and mind. According to Heb. 8:10; 10:16; and 2 Cor. 3:3 God writes his laws in our heart by the operation of the Holy Spirit directly into our heart and mind. In Heb. 10:22 we read where God sprinkles our heart from an evil conscience. Also, in 1 John 3:20, 21 we read where our heart serves as the judge to either condemn us or justify us. Rom. 2:15 brings the elements of a courtroom together showing us that God has written his laws in our heart, our conscience serves as the witness, our thoughts serving as both the prosecuting attorney and defense attorney and our heart as the judge: “Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.” Thus, all the elements of a courtroom are present in us once we are born of the Spirit.
The courtroom of heaven deals with our judicial standing before God. The courtroom of our heart and mind deals with how we view ourselves (condemned or justified) before a just and holy God. The judgment in this second courtroom (of heart and mind) does not affect the judgment of the first courtroom (of heaven). In other words, whether we view ourselves as either justified or condemned in our heart and mind does not alter our judicial standing before God. However, how we see ourselves in the courtroom of our heart and mind greatly affects our emotional and mental state.
The order of proceedings in the courtroom of our heart and mind is as follows:
1. We are first tried and condemned based on our sins. We are convicted of sin in similar fashion as the publican in Luke 18:13, “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner,” or Isaiah who wrote in Is. 6:5, “Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Being convicted of our sins we see ourselves under the condemnation of a just and holy God and worthy of everlasting judgment.
2. Next, we try to get right (judicially) with God. We are as Israel in Rom. 10:3, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish our own righteousness.” We try to establish our righteousness through the works of the law. However, “by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” We may try to establish our righteousness through good deeds and righteous works only to find that Isaiah wrote “all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” before God. We may even try to hide behind a cloak of religious exercises only to find them as the fig leaves that Adam and Eve tried to hide their nakedness. We find that we are laboring trying to establish our own righteousness while heavy laden with a burden of sin‑guiltiness. Nothing we attempt to do ever really gives us a feeling of true justification and consequent peace in our heart and mind.
3. It is only when we follow the Lord’s admonition in Matt. 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” that we begin to see ourselves justified in the courtroom of our heart and mind. When we by faith that God imparted unto us in the new birth believe in the finished work of redemption by Jesus Christ, for “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” then we see ourselves justified through the redemptive work of Christ. This principle is stated in Rom. 4:23‑25, “Now it is not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for (because of) our offences, and was raised again for (because of) our justification.” Thus when we believe that Jesus was delivered to redeem us from our sins and was raised from the dead because his work of justification was accepted of God, then God imputes righteousness into the courtroom of our heart and mind and we by faith in the finished work of Jesus declare ourselves just before God. We are justified by faith in the courtroom of our heart and mind, “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”