Justified by Grace (Titus 3:7)

Today’s scripture: Titus 3:7

Seekers often comment about all the difficult terms in the Bible: salvation, redemption, sanctification, justification … And yes, it can be confusing.

Today’s verse says we’re “justified by His grace …”

Justified. Justification.

What does it all mean? From my meager understanding (and as I’ve said before, I am not a theologian), justification means that God declares us as righteous and holy. Only He can justify. When we accept the gift of salvation through belief in and acceptance of Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection, we are redeemed and justified.

These are one-time events. Sanctification is an on-going process by which we become more and more like Christ Himself.

And it all comes through the incredible grace given by our Lord God.

Justified (Galatians 2:15-18)

Today’s scripture: Galatians 2:15-18

We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ. And it’s more than just believing that Jesus lived. It’s believing that He’s part of the triune God, that He came to earth and took on flesh, and that He died to pay the penalty for sin.

When we have that faith, that confidence in God’s grace, then we are justified.

There’s nothing we can do to gain salvation on our own. We can’t do enough good things. We can’t memorize enough scriptures. We can’t serve in enough soup kitchens.

It is only by grace—God’s unmerited favor—that we can be assured of salvation and of our spending eternity with our Lord God.

And when we’re justified, when we’re saved by God’s grace, we will seek to live as sinless as we possibility can. For Jesus is not a “minister of sin. In fact, even in flesh, He remained without sin. And it’s because of His perfection that He could pay the penalty for our sin.

That’s grace. That’s justification. And it’s ours if we sincerely accept Jesus Christ’s gift of salvation and commit our lives to Him.