“Just As If I’d Never Sinned?"

Some have said that to be “justified” is to be “just as if I’d never sinned.” But the truth is justification deals completely with the fact that I HAVE sinned. God being just, His justification has to have a just basis. When Paul wrote in Romans 8, “It is God that justifies,” he immediately followed with “it is Christ that died.”


The death of a sinless Substitute for sin is necessary for God to justify a sinner. Justification is clearly an act of God. He declared all His people as having been “justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” All in Him are now without sin, but justification does not excuse sin or in any way diminish its vileness and offensiveness to God. No, justification declares the sinner righteous and also declares the Justifier as righteous.

—preacher Gary Shepard

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