According to the understanding of some believers, everyone for whom Christ died was “justified from Sin” when Christ died. This view is based on a certain interpretation of what Paul wrote in Romans 6:7 and 2 Corinthians 5:14. In this two-part study, I’m going to be arguing that a more accurate and contextually-informed understanding of what Paul wrote in Romans 6:7 (where we find the expression “justified from Sin” used) is not consistent with the view that all mankind have already been “justified from Sin.”
Before considering Paul’s words in Romans 6:7 (which I’ll be doing in part two of this study), I want to first review, and further elaborate on, some important points concerning the truth of justification as revealed in Paul’s letters. For, as I hope will become evident to the reader before the end of this study, the truth of being “justified from Sin” cannot really be understood or appreciated apart from an understanding of the foundational truth of justification (and what this status/condition means concerning the believer’s relation to Sin).
In Romans 4:6-8 it’s affirmed by Paul that, when God justifies sinners, he “reckons righteousness” to them (and that, in doing so, the status of those justified becomes such that God shall “by no means” be “reckoning sin” to them). And as demonstrated in my article “Justified by the Spirit of our God,” all who are members of the company of believers that Paul referred to in his letters as “the body of Christ” were justified by God when he gave us his spirit (hence Paul’s affirmation in 1 Cor. 6:11 that we’ve been “justified…by the spirit of our God”). This change in our status/condition occurred when, “on hearing the word of truth, the evangel of [our] salvation,” we believed and were consequently “sealed with the holy spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13-14; cf. Gal. 3:14; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5).
Moreover, when God gave us his spirit (and thereby justified us), he made us undeserving of death and qualified us for immortality. It’s in light of this fact that Paul wrote the following in Romans 8:11:
“Now if the spirit of Him Who rouses Jesus from among the dead is making its home in you, He Who rouses Christ Jesus from among the dead will also be vivifying your mortal bodies because of His spirit making its home in you.”
Because believers are the first among mankind in whom the spirit of God “is making its home,” we’re said to have received “the firstfruit of the spirit” (Rom. 8:23). Believers are, therefore, going to be vivified in Christ before the rest of mankind (who won’t be vivified until the future time that Paul referred to in 1 Cor. 15:24-28 as “the consummation,” when death is abolished and Christ delivers the kingdom up to God). But when the rest of humanity is vivified, it will be because they will have been justified at this future time.
In accord with this fact, Paul is clear in Romans 5:15-19 that the justification of all mankind is something that is certain to occur. Just as all mankind fell under condemnation because of the disobedience of Adam, so all mankind will ultimately become the recipients of the grace secured by Christ’s obedience unto death. And this means that all mankind – i.e., “the many” affected by the obedience of “the One” – “shall be constituted just.” Moreover, for all who have been “constituted sinners,” being “justified” by God and being “constituted just” by God are equivalent in meaning (see, for example, the scriptural meaning and use of the word translated “constituted” in v. 19: https://biblehub.com/greek/2525.htm; see especially Thayer's Lexicon, definition “c”). A sinner can’t be justified by God and not be regarded by God as just/righteous. God, of course, is the highest authority; thus, when it’s God who declares someone to be righteous/just, they are constituted what he declares them to be.
Thus, everyone who has been justified by God has, by virtue of this fact, been “constituted just” by him. And since we’re told that “the many” (i.e., all mankind) “shall be constituted just,” it follows that the justification of all mankind (i.e., “life’s justifying,” which is “for all mankind”) is a future outcome that was secured by Christ’s past obedience.
Now, because unbelievers haven’t yet been justified by God, they remain subject to the “just statute” referred to in Romans 1:32. According to this just statute, those who are guilty of “committing such things” as we find described in 1:26-32 are “deserving of death.” This means that, apart from the change in status that occurs when one is justified, those who’ve sinned must die (it also means that, after dying, they must either remain dead or – if restored to life – ultimately die again).
We go on to read in Romans 5:20-21 that, for those not yet justified, “Sin reigns in death.” Similarly, in Rom. 6:22 we read that “death” is “the consummation” of the things committed by those who are “slaves to Sin.” And in v. 23, we’re told that “the ration of Sin is death.” (that is, the “ration” that those who are “slaves to Sin” receive from Sin is death). What we read in these verses is in accord with Paul’s affirmation in 1 Cor. 15:56 that “the sting of Death is sin” (i.e., sin is what gives death its ability to injure mankind).
Paul likely had in mind the “just statute” to which he referred in Rom. 1:32 when he later referred to “the law of sin and death” in Romans 8:1-2. In these verses we read the following:
“Nothing, consequently, is now condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. Not according to flesh are they walking, but according to spirit, for the spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus frees you from the law of sin and death.”
It’s only “those in Christ Jesus” – i.e., those who’ve been justified by God, and who’ve thus been spiritually baptized into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13) – to whom “nothing…is now condemnation.” Those who aren’t “in Christ Jesus” – and who, therefore, haven’t yet been justified by God – remain subject to “the law of sin and death” (i.e., the established rule of action according to which sin makes one deserving of – and thus results in – death). But since we who are in Christ Jesus have been justified, we’re no longer deserving of death. According to the law to which we’re subject (i.e., “the spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus”), there is nothing we could do – or fail to do – that will prevent us from receiving “life in Christ Jesus.”
Now, as noted earlier, the nature of our justification is such that God shall “by no means” be reckoning our sins to us. But what does it mean for God to by no means be “reckoning sin” to someone? Answer: it means they’re not subject to condemnation. And since God shall by no means be reckoning our sin to us, it means that we – i.e., believers – are free from all condemnation. Thus we read in Romans 8:1 that “Nothing, consequently, is now condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.” There is nothing we can do that can result in our being condemned. This is in accord with the previously-noted fact that our justification is inseparable from our having been sealed with God’s spirit when we first believed the evangel of the grace of God. Since it was “by the hearing of faith” (and not “by works of law”) that we received the spirit (Gal. 3:2) – and since it’s by this spirit that we’re justified – our justification is necessarily “apart from acts” (Rom. 4:6), and is in no way based on any “works which are wrought in righteousness which we do” (Titus 3:4-7; cf. Eph. 2:8-9).
Now, it’s evident that one cannot be both justified by God and subject to condemnation at the same time. These two conditions are mutually exclusive. But what, exactly, is condemnation? That is, what does it mean to be condemned by God? Essentially, condemnation is an adverse judgment. To be condemned by God is to be judged adversely by him (or to receive an adverse sentence from him). And an adverse judgment from God is a judgment that manifests God’s “indignation” – i.e., God’s necessary disapproval of, and displeasure with, sin.
For example, one of the most notable examples of God’s indignation coming upon people in the past was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Concerning this historical judgment, Peter wrote that God “condemns the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to cinders by an overthrow, having placed them as an example for those about to be irreverent” (2 Pet. 2:6). Notice that God’s condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah is said to have been “placed…as an example for those about to be irreverent.” As Peter makes clear, there is a “day of judgment” coming that, like the condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah, will also involve the destruction of the ungodly (2 Peter 2:3, 12; 3:7).
When contrasting the saints to whom he wrote with “the world,” Paul said that the latter would be “condemned” (1 Cor. 11:32). According to what we read in this verse, the judgment of those to whom he was writing involved, and was an expression of, the Lord’s discipline (which is always beneficial, and involves correction and improvement). The implication of what Paul wrote in this verse is that, if their judgment didn’t involve discipline, then it would mean they were being “condemned with the world.” By “the world” here, Paul was referring to those “outside” the body of Christ (and of whom human society is primarily comprised; see, for example, 1 Cor. 2: 12; 5:9-13; 6:2; cf. Phil. 2:15; Col. 2:20). However, the fact that the saints to whom Paul wrote were “being disciplined by the Lord” whenever they were being judged was, for Paul, proof that their judgment didn’t involve condemnation (which is what divine judgment for “the world” involves).
The fact that Paul contrasted disciplinary judgment from God with condemnation in 1 Cor. 11:32 indicates that, for Paul, condemnation does not necessarily (or inherently) involve “being disciplined by the Lord.” Rather than being for the purpose of improving/correcting human behavior, the condemnation of which Paul wrote here concerns what sinners justly deserve because of their sins/offenses. It is an expression of God’s displeasure toward/disapproval of sin. Thus, it is condemnation from which those who have been justified have been freed.
It should be emphasized that, even though God’s condemnation of sinners is perfectly consistent with their future salvation and ultimate well-being (for those who will be condemned will still be saved at a later time), it’s also not intended to directly benefit those who undergo it (i.e., by leading them to repentance and thereby promoting their happiness at that time). Instead, its purpose is to make manifest God’s disapproval of sin (and, in some cases, to deliver and/or vindicate those being harmed by the sins of those condemned). As verses such as Revelation 16:4-7 make clear, the adverse judgments from God that manifest his indignation are not meant to “reform sinners”; rather, they’re in accord with what sinners deserve (hence the words of the messenger of the waters after the third bowl is poured out: “..and Thou does give them blood to drink, even what they are deserving!”).
Now, since condemnation from God necessarily involves the manifestation of his indignation, it means that it’s impossible for those who’ve been justified by God to suffer, or be exposed to, God’s indignation. Thus we read the following in Romans 5:9 and 1 Thess. 5:9:
“Much rather, then, being now justified in His blood, we shall be saved from indignation, through Him.”
“…for God did not appoint us to indignation, but to the procuring of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ...”
Whereas believers haven’t been appointed to the indignation of God (and are thus assured salvation from it), we read in Romans 1:18 that “God's indignation is being revealed from heaven on all the irreverence and injustice of men who are retaining the truth in injustice.” We’re further told that unbelievers are storing up for themselves “indignation in the day of indignation and revelation of the just judgment of God” (Rom. 2:5, 8; cf. 9:22). Unjustified sinners are thus referred to as being, “in [their] nature, children of indignation” on whom “the indignation of God is coming” (Eph. 2:3; 5:6; Col. 3:6). It should be noted that when Paul referred to unbelievers as being in their “nature, children of indignation,” he wasn’t saying that it’s the nature of humans to sin; rather, he was expressing the fact that it’s the nature of those who behave themselves “in the lusts of the flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the comprehension” to be deserving of divine indignation.
Since all who are “now justified in [Christ’s] blood” will be saved from God’s indignation – and since unbelievers aren’t going to be saved from indignation – it logically follows that they haven’t yet been justified in Christ’s blood. Instead, unbelievers are still subject to condemnation.
In accord with this fact, we read in John 8:21-24 that Christ told a group of unbelieving Pharisees that, if they remained in unbelief concerning the truth of his Messianic identity, they would be “dying in [their] sins.” To die in one’s sins means that one dies in a state of being deserving of death, and subject to condemnation (thus, in John 3:16 and elsewhere, the eonian fate of unbelievers is referred to as “perishing” – i.e., perishing for the eon; cf. John 10:27-28; 11:26). This fact concerning the status of unbelievers is also implied by what Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:17-18. In these verses we read the following:
“Now, if Christ has not been roused, vain is your faith -- you are still in your sins! Consequently those also, who are put to repose in Christ, perished.”
The implication of Paul’s argument here is that unbelievers – i.e., those who haven’t been given faith to believe the evangel of which Christ's resurrection is an essential element – are still in their sins. It’s also implied that those who’ve died in unbelief – and who have thus died “in their sins” – have “perished” (i.e., perished for the eon). In other words, that which isn’t true for believers – i.e., being “still in [our] sins” – is true for unbelievers. But can we know for certain that it’s because of their sins that unbelievers are subject to condemnation, and will thus suffer God’s indignation? Yes.
Earlier, it was noted that, “in the day of indignation and revelation of the just judgment of God,” God “will be paying each one in accord with his acts” (Rom. 2:5-6). Some people on this day will receive from God “indignation and fury, affliction and distress” (vv. 8-9). But who? According to Paul, it will be “every human soul which is effecting evil, both of the Jew first and of the Greek.” But what did Paul mean by “effecting evil?” Paul tells us in verses 11-12:
“For there is no partiality with God, for whoever sinned without the law, without law also shall perish, and whoever sinned in law, through law will be judged.”
Here Paul equates the evil acts referred to in v. 9 – i.e., the acts because of which some will be condemned and suffer God’s indignation in the “day of indignation” – with sins. We can therefore conclude that all who are subject to condemnation and will be suffering God’s indignation at this future time will be doing so because God will be reckoning their sins to them (for, again, it’s only those who have been justified by God to whom God shall “by no means” be “reckoning sin”).
In accord with this fact, Paul went on to declare in v. 19 that “both Jews and Greeks” are “all under sin,” and are “subject to the just verdict of God.” Since Paul had in view those who haven’t yet been “justified gratuitously in [God’s] grace” (Rom. 3:24), the “just verdict of God” to which Paul was referring here is condemnation (and thus divine indignation).
That God will be reckoning sin to those on whom his indignation is coming is further evident from what we read in 1 Thess. 2:14-16. In these verses, the “indignation” that Paul said “outstrips to them [unbelieving Israel] to a consummation” is referred to as if it were a judicial consequence of their sins being “filled up.”
Similarly, in Hebrews 10:26-30, it’s clear that the “judging and fiery jealousy” that will be “eating the hostile” (and which is later referred to as “punishment” and divine “vengeance”) will be the result of God taking into account the sins of those among his covenant people who apostatize, and who are “shrinking back to destruction.” In other words, the manifestation of divine indignation of which we read in these verses (and elsewhere in this letter) will be due to the fact that God will be reckoning sin to those on whom his indignation is coming. In contrast, God promises that he will “under no circumstances still be reminded” of the sins and lawless acts of those who, by “obeying [Christ]” and ”displaying the same diligence toward the assurance of the expectation until the consummation,” will be “enjoying the allotment of salvation.” But the very fact that only some (but not all) Israelites will obtain this eonian salvation proves that the sins and lawless deeds of those Israelites who don’t obtain it will be reckoned to them by God.
Another example of a future divine judgment that is clearly based on the sins of those who are going to be judged is the judgment of “Babylon the great.” In Revelation 18:4-8 we read the following:
And I hear another voice out of heaven, saying, “Come out of her, My people, lest you should be joint participants in her sins, and lest you should be getting of her calamities, for her sins were piled up to heaven, and God remembers her injuries.
“Pay her as she also pays, and double the doubles, in accord with her acts. In her cup in which she blends, blend double for her...Therefore in one day shall her calamities be arriving; death and mourning and famine. And she shall be burned up with fire, for strong is the Lord God Who judges her.”
Based on what’s said here, we can conclude that God is going to be reckoning the sins of the people of this city to them at this future time. What we read in these verses would simply make no sense if this weren’t the case. We have just as much reason to believe that the divine judgment being described here is going to be based on the sins committed by the citizens of this city as we have reason to believe that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was based on the sins of the citizens of these cities.
This means that God is going to be reckoning the sins of those who will be facing this adverse judgment to them. In other words, the very fact that some will be facing this adverse judgment (which will involve God’s indignation) means that they haven’t yet been justified by God. Thus, apart from a change in their condemned status – that is, apart from being declared righteous by God – everyone to whom God will be reckoning sins (and who are thus considered “deserving of death”) will, after dying, remain deserving of death until they are “justified gratuitously in His grace.”
For part two, click here: https://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2024/05/why-only-believers-are-presently_15.html
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