Romans - Are All Currently Justified? (Justification Series, Part III)

   Part III: Our Justification, Confirmed

It sounds a bit… weird, doesn’t it? All are now justified. Come on. Considering this practically, are we to say, now, that because God is justifying the sinner, that He must, in effect, be justifying all sinners?

May it not be coming to that!

Good Lord, could you imagine? Imagine Judgment Day, where God just… exonerates Hitler! Well, He did wrong, but I’ve justified Him, despite the fact that He started a war! How about the pedophiles? The murderers? The wife abusers? These folk are victims to sin, yes, but by no means does this justify their actions! They were reprehensible and should be dealt with accordingly. Horrific trauma stems from the lord operating through them!

And yet, because God is in control of them, as we read in Romans 1:22-32, the presumption is that He, in good faith, must have justified all of us the moment His Son died. There’s this internal voice in the unbeliever that proclaims, “God may just be stupid enough to do so” (1 Cor. 1:18, 22-23,) and in the believer that proclaims, “God may just be gracious enough to do so.” 

This paragraph is only my opinion, on how I personally prefer to herald, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to hit someone right out of the gate with, “God saved everyone at the cross.” If you tell this to an unbeliever, they usually look to the Hitlers or the Mussolinis of the world and go, “Oh, well, what about those guys? I still wanna see those guys cook!” This is why Paul began Romans with “God is in Christ, and here’s the proof, through man’s fault, deserved death, hypocrisy, and finally, believers are justified anyway.” This chain of events is all we’ve read so far on how God is operating in Christ. To jump ahead of God, either logically or Scripturally, would be foolhardy of us, then, because “God saved everyone” is a mature belief that takes time to cultivate (this is not to say, of course, that no believer has ever heard or read “God is the Savior of all mankind” and became a believer through it; I just don’t think it’s the first thing you should share with an unbeliever, lest you face a much longer line of questioning, and lose their attention on God. It’s happened to me many, many times now, haha.)

This is a case where I would believe with the narcissistic unbeliever, and not the optimistic believer. Let’s not remove ourselves from the reality around us, in being called justified; sin still exists, and it’s currently snared most of the world. God has stated, explicitly that belief, through Christ’s faith being instilled in an individual, is what justifies them. Nothing more. Clearly, we cannot look at the world today and proclaim all to be believers, or in the body of Christ, considering most do not believe these words. 

No, not the atheist, and no, not the Christian, either. The atheist literally doesn’t believe these words, but the Christian changes these words to account for their personal beliefs, of which we’ve not read at all. We haven’t read of an eternal torture chamber, nor will we (and we won’t whenever we get to the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, either. The word “hell” in most popular versions is a mistranslation of three separate words.) We haven’t read that we are free to make our own decisions, but that God gives us over, to do that which is unfulfilling, to perform the acts of an unqualified mind, and, most importantly, He is choosing who is given Christ’s faith. Moreover, He has not called Himself “Christ” at all, which throws that Trinitarian idea out the window. If that changes, we’ll accommodate and reread these verses with that idea in mind, but as it stands, Jesus Christ (the Man) and God Himself (the Elohim, the “Subjector,”) are two separate Beings.

I do hear the criticism from many believers, however: how is God the Savior of all mankind without justifying the unbeliever as well?

Good question. Another verse which speaks of this justification, Romans 5:19, states the following:

For even as, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners, thus also, through the obedience of the One, the many shall be constituted just.

The many (being the bulk of humanity) shall be constituted just. The word “shall” denotes a future expectation. All shall (not may, but shall) be constituted “just.” It follows, then, that everyone shall have Christ’s faith planted in them. This is not an immediate event accomplished at the cross, but a process that God is effecting. This process will be elaborated on in future verses. Here is a sneak peek, in 1 Cor. 15:22-24:

For even as, in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified. Yet each in his own class: the Firstfruit, Christ; thereupon those who are Christ's in His presence; thereafter the consummation, whenever He may be giving up the kingdom to His God and Father, whenever He should be nullifying all sovereignty and all authority and power.

There’s that phrase again: shall all be vivified. Clearly, death still exists on the planet, and is working in us all. Justification does not erase death, but nullifies, or renders it ineffective to Christ’s power. The process is thus:

1)    The Firstfruit, Christ, are vivified, or “made alive.” This is you and me. We are, thanks to Christ’s faith justifying us now, being “made alive” before the rest of the world (2 Cor. 5:14-17.)

2)    Those who are Christ’s in His presence are vivified. This is Israel. This pertains to the “former resurrection,” laid out in Revelation 20. This is so that they can enjoy the 1,000 year kingdom that God promised them.

3)    Those at the “consummation” are vivified. What is the consummation? “Consummation” is “completion.” At the consummation of the eons, the times God has allotted to tell His story. At this time, all are made just, per Romans 5:19.

   See the process? It’s sound. It ends with good. Unbelievers must exist at this point in time, or we would have no way of being “called out” from among the crowd! How to tell if we are the “Firstfruit” if all carry the glory of the Firstfruit?? Indeed, the question above is clarified by yet another verse. Observe 2 Cor. 6:14:

Do not become diversely yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what communion has light with darkness? Now what agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what part a believer with an unbeliever?

Obviously, we aren’t being told “not to speak to unbelievers.” Where’s the peace and love in this? We are asked not to become “diversely yoked,” or “spiritually joined” with them, because their lord is not Christ at this point in time, but “Belial,” or, a demon. Don’t laugh – the world is inherently spiritual, and some of the nicest people you could meet are unfortunately subject to disagreeing with Scripture, though Scripture contains some of the greatest kindness and spiritual blessing imaginable. They will be vivified and brought into an understanding, but they must be humbled first (Ecc. 1:13.)

I have one final objection, from the “absolute sovereignty” crowd. These folk are those in Christ that understand that God is willing all to occur. Their argument follows: well, this is true, but if God already planned everything, isn’t everyone technically justified already?

To this I would say, show me one verse where this is the case. Does the fact that God is in absolute control over the story He is telling render each point of the story useless? If this were the case, why would God go to great lengths to conceal Himself to the world, and reveal Himself only to His chosen at this time? Or better yet, why would He bother telling the story at all, if the present is fruitless and doesn’t truly matter?

“Absolute” does not mean the relative is a pish-posh of nothingness, or that it is pointless. “Absolute” is superior, yes – but it is through the relative that the absolute is made known to us at all. We are told very little on the subject of the “absolute” perspective; we are told, later in this epistle, that God wills all (Rom. 9:16-24,) and that all is out of Him (Rom. 11:32-36.) This is all we need to know about the absolute. Yet, in these same passages, the absolute is used to contextualize the relative (in Romans 9, God is making it clear that He is not finished with Israel, and Romans 11:36 is quickly followed by the beginning of Romans 12, where He requests a certain behavior from us in the relative.) We are told of His sovereignty; we are not asked to live recklessly or fatalistically in effect. To do so would be, intentionally or not, to presume that we are being made absolute in effect. Life isn’t The Truman Show; it’s closer to Good Will Hunting.

Our justification by faith is an intimate message. It’s a quiet secret (Rom. 16:25.) We are given a behind-the-scenes look at how God is operating. We are asked to have faith-obedience in effect, and should live as such. Most on earth do not have this right now, and in fact when we are taken away to be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:13-18,) much of what we are reading now will not be necessary for us, as our faith and expectation will not be necessary (1 Cor. 13:13-14:1a.) Let us realize the deep love that Christ has for His body (us, in being justified) now, that we may appreciate the secret that we truly are.

- GerudoKing