Joel M Bradshaw

16yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.–Galatians 2

WHAT IS BIBLICAL JUSTIFICATION? In a legal sense, this is God moving someone from a guilty position to one that is not guilty. In a personal sense, this is God moving someone from being His enemy to not being His enemy. From the sins condemning a person to sins no longer condemning a person.

HOW CAN A CONDEMNED, GUILTY SINNER AND ENEMY OF GOD EVER BE JUSTIFIED? The two big choices in the book of Galatians are FLESH and SPIRIT. Either I can do enough good things in my flesh to earn justification or God has accomplished my justification on His own.

We trust in faith that God accomplished that justification in and through Jesus. I never could pay the legal penalty for my sins, but on the cross Jesus did. In faith, I trust Jesus and not myself. My life is now one that is guided spiritually by God and no longer by my own flesh. I cannot trust my own works, but I trust the work of Jesus on the cross on my behalf.–JMB