Justification as status and verdict

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

via Passage: Romans 5 (ESV Bible Online).

Daniel 7 describes a justification that takes place in history. The saints are under the tyranny of beastly powers and then God will act from heaven to give them the kingdom. This will be, in Daniel’s vision, a verdict, a judicial sentence. It is an act in history on behalf of a corporate group.

So in the above portion of Romans 5, in the second paragraph Paul speaks of being justified by and when Christ died and rose. All of Romans 1.18ff is summed up, with its downward spiral into apostasy, as “while we were still sinners,” and “while we were enemies.”

Paul can refer to the justified status as something one had by faith both in the OT and now in the Gospel age. But it is also a transition that occurred in history. Before Christ died, we were all sinners and enemies. Now we’re not.

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