WCF 11: Of Justification

By William Boekestein - Posted at Place for Truth:

Those whom God “predestined he also called” (Rom. 8:30). The Father will draw to himself all those he has eternally given to the Son as his reward (John 6:37, 44). In the effectual call God changes sinners by giving them genuinely holy interests. Regenerated sinners truly know and love the Lord. We now want to live for his glory.

But what about our existing relationship to God and his law? If we only had changed minds, hearts, and wills we would still lie under the law’s curse (Gal. 3:10). To be reconciled to God we must gain a new, upright status before him. We must be justified. Thankfully, “those whom he called he also justified” (Rom. 8:30). Justification was the doctrine at the heart of the reformation controversy. It also speaks to the personal destinies of sinners like us.

The Doctrine of Justification

By nature, because of original sin and our actual sins we have a righteousness problem. God is righteous; we are not. Our sins separate us from our holy God (Is. 59:2). He is right to condemn the unrighteous (Prov. 17:15). And that is everyone—“No one is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks after God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10–12). And God has “fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness” by the crucified and resurrected Christ (Acts 17:31). The unrighteous “will go away into eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:46). To be reconciled to God we must be vindicated from the law that testifies against us (Col. 2:14).

Continue here.