John Calvin's Justification Essay

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"It is entirely by the intervention of Christ's righteousness that we obtain justification before God. This is equivalent to saying that man is not just in himself, but that the righteousness of Christ is communicated to him by imputation, while he is strictly deserving of punishment (Christian Quotes)." Great words spoken by John Calvin, a celebrated sixteenth century French Theologian. Here Calvin extols the virtues of Jesus and what he did for us on Calvary. He speaks to the fact that man cannot justify himself before God. God reserved man’s justification for Himself. This week’s assignment is to write an essay on the Doctrine of Justification. Through my reading and study for this course, I found a suitable definition for this …show more content…
Through our faith in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection we are covered by Jesus’ sacrificial blood, thus covering the stain sin leaves behind and makes us acceptable to God. I do not know who to give credit for this statement, but I have heard it mentioned by preachers since I was a little boy, “God’s justification makes my sin go away, ‘just if I’d never sinned’.” However, as a result of this course I see a little deeper into the matter. I feel that because of Jesus’ obedience to the cross, what He did is imputed to us as righteousness; therefore, I say God’s justification makes me without sin, “just if I’d been obedient.” If there is no sin, there is no need for punishment. I really like this quote from the textbook, “Justification means that despite the things that are not right in our inner lives and our personal relationships, God forgives and accepts us. Therefore, there is no need for our compulsive, anxious, defensive, attempts to make things right ourselves or to give to in despair because we cannot do so (Guthrie 319).” I contend that justification by grace is action taken on God's part that generates completely from within Himself. Justification is like the bow wrapped around God’s gift of
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