Lesson 12: Justified
 
 If you would go to court accused of a crime, there would be three judgments possible. You could be declared guilty and punished, or declared not guilty and set free, or declared innocent of all charges. To be declared not guilty would mean some people would think you probably did what you were charged with but you were set free on a legal technicality. They might still shun you, and you might lose the job you had because people would not trust you.

In God’s courtroom, when you accept His gift of salvation, He has judged you guilty but then accepts Jesus’ statement He has paid your debt in full. God then declares you innocent of all charges – this is what it means to be justified. You now stand before God, not as an accused and convicted sinner, even though you are guilty of all the charges – but you stand before Him just-as-if-you’d never sinned even once. As God promised in 1 John 1:9, not only has He forgiven all your sins, He has cleansed you from all unrighteousness, He has put on your shoulders His own robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61:10 – “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” See also Romans 4:1 – 5:1.