What is justification?What does it mean to be Justified?Simply put, to justify is to make one right with God.  Justification is God’s declaring those who receive Christ to be righteous, based on Christ’s righteousness being imputed to the accounts of those who receive Christ.  And our placing faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.  His sacrifice covers our sin, allowing God to see us as perfect and unblemished.  God see’s Christ righteousness when He looks at us.  This meets God’s demands for perfection.  He justifies us.

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Paul starts out chapter 4 by saying in verses 1-3 “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?  For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.  For what saith the scripture?  Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”   If Abraham was justified by his works, he might boast of his own merits.  But Abraham has no ground of boasting before God, because he was not justified by works.  Paul will prove that Abraham was justified by faith before he was circumcised; and that even his circumcision was in consequence of his being justified by faith.  Paul refers to the Scripture which says in Genesis 15:5-6 “And he (God) brought him (Abraham) forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.  And he (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and he (God) counted it to him (Abraham) for righteousness.”  This was incredible faith in that Abraham was old and his aged wife’s womb was dead.  Yet, he believed Jehovah’s promise.  Faith is a gift of God, extended to all, through the very existence of His Word to Man – we choose to either receive it or reject it.  Abraham accepted it.  It is God who will do the work.  And so, by us accepting God’s promises and believing them to be true – God is pleased.  We trust God’s Word that says, My sins are forgiven and God will remember them no more – that I am saved by faith and not by my works.   Next, 4:4 “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.”   In other words, if a man were justified by his works, it would mean salvation was due or owed to him – he or she had earned it by working for it.  Works, Paul is saying, produces debt – not a gift.  When we work, we place the person we are working for in our debt.  And we expect payment for our labor.  When talking about salvation the question then becomes: Can any human being ever put God in debt to them?  How does Man ever place the Creator of all things – Almighty God – in our debt?  As Paul says, it’s impossible.  Let me quote from Spencer W. Kimball, President of the LDS Church, who wrote in his book Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 206 “one of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is  saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation.”  So far in Romans, Paul is presenting the exact opposite doctrine of the Mormon leader.  Verse 5 “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”  I mean it can’t get any clearer than that.  And yet people of works-based, high performance-based religions can’t understand it.  They have somehow allowed their arrogant selves to believe that what they do justifies them – not so.   Listen carefully to these next verses.  Romans 4:14-15 “For if they which are of the law (those who seek justification by obedience to the law) be heirs (are saved), faith is made void ( or, neutralized) and the promise made of none effect (meaning, no more promise of salvation by grace through faith can be appealed to by those seeking to justify themselves by obedience to the Law): Because the law