“WHAT DOES THE WORD
“JUSTIFICATION” MEAN?
“WHAT DOES THE WORD
“JUSTIFICATION” MEAN?
Dear
Reader, we’ve all heard the one about the
teacher giving a History lesson to his very young primary school class.
Teacher: “Now boys
and girls, who tried to blow up the British Houses of Parliament … yes
Billy?”
Little
Billy:
Immediately
shooting up his hand … “It wasn’t me Sir!” … obviously used to
being
accused … falsely or otherwise … and with a ready ‘justifying’ defence
of
himself.
Here’s
another …
Judge to
motorist clocked at doing 180: “Mmmm! …
and your reason?”
Speeding
motorist to judge: “Well Your
Honour, a fellow sped past me driving dangerously at 120 … so
thinking him to be a danger to the general public, I took off after
him.”
Judge: “But
first,
you went to MacDonalds first for thirty minutes for a meal … is that
correct?
He would have been long gone and forty miles down the highway? And what
about
the tree you crashed into?”
Motorist: “Yes Your
Honour, but I was that hungry! I would have fainted immediately driving
after
him! And I didn’t run into the tree, it sort of jumped out in front of
me!” … trying
to justify himself before the accusation of the law i.e. “I’m righteous
… I’m
innocent!”
Here’s
another …
Unsaved
man to God: “But
there are worse sinners than me … I’m not as bad as some!” … trying
to justify himself before the accusation of the demands of God’s Ten
Commandments i.e. “I’m righteous … I’m innocent!”
DEFINITION:
Now to be justified
is to be made free
from any penalty of the law; to be declared free from guilt or
blame; to
be absolved; to be cleared; to be pardoned; to
be vindicated;
to be excused; to be declared not guilty before the law.
Now if a
criminal has been put to death for his
crimes, he is then declared to be free from the accusations of the
law,
and therefore, no longer subject to it.
That is … if
a man is dead, the law can no longer ‘touch’ him. I mean, how could you
drag a
dead man into court to then sentence him to death? It would be
laughable.
As another
article on the ABM website says that a
couple of centuries ago on a village noticeboard you could read
“Such-and-such
was justified by hanging by the neck till dead at 3pm
in the
Market Square”
That is …
with the death penalty carried out, a man
was said to be justified … free from the law.
For the
Christian? Justified
by being put into the death of Christ … and thereby freed
from the demands of God’s law (Romans 6:3).
Christ
died for our justification that we might be
justified in him.
Harley
Hitchcock
September 2024
This
website’s front page is:
www.
“WHAT
DOES
IT MEAN TO BE JUSTIFIED?”
