Prax, this is an excerpt from my post #130 dealing with forgiveness vs justification:
I didn't say one could be justified and not forgiven, I said one could be forgiven but not justified. All who are justified are forgiven, yet not all who are forgiven are justified.
These are two very separate and distinct works of God: One is a work of remission performed on the Cross when Christ died, and the other is a work of justification when we believe.
The difference is in imputation -
Remission/forgiveness is where Jesus bears our sins. It is where our sins are imputed to him. God counted our sins against Christ and no longer against us. God 'laid on him the iniquity of us all' (Isaiah 53:6). God thought of our sins as belonging to Christ and 'made him to be sin who knew no sin' (2Corinthians 5:21). This took place on the Cross.
Justification is where Jesus' righteousness is imputed to us. Christ who was not a sinner was counted as a sinner because our sin was reckoned to him. Conversely, we who are not righteous by nature are counted as righteous because Christ's righteousness is reckoned to us. This takes place after the Cross, when we believe.
Threaded Mode
