dikaiosis

Dikaiosis may
also be rendered "acquittal. "6 I n one
instance "justification" is the translation
of dikaioma.' The verb "justify"
(also "justifies," "justified") is the
translation of the Greek verb dikaioo,
Some form of dikaioo is found most
frequently in Romans and Galatians.!
The usual meaning of the term, especially
as found in the writings of the
apostle Paul, is to "pronounce or declare
righteous. "9The striking feature about the word
"justification" (both in substantive and
verbal forms) is its declaratory aspect:
it does not mean to make righteous or
just but, as noted, to declare or pronounce
righteous.!v Hence, one who is
justified is one who is declared by God
to be righteous. It is not the justification
of the righteous but of the unrighteous!
Paul speaks of God as He 'who justifies the ungodly" (Rom. 4:5). There is nothing
in sinful man that merits God's
approbation. Accordingly, it is not the
righteous (there are none), but the unrighteous
whom God justifies.
1) There is no way by which man can
justify himself. I I Moreover, God being
holy and righteous cannot simply overlook
sin, nor can man do enough that is
good to make himself acceptable to
God. 12 Now what we are saying-or
better, the gospel proclaims-is that
God in an extraordinary manner declares
the sinner to be righteous!
2) Hear this: we do not have to prove
ourselves before God, we do not have
to be anxious about His final judgment
against US,13 we do not need to struggle to achieve something God will somehow
find acceptable. Rather, He declares
us to be righteous. In Him we are
righteous-not we who are godly, but
we who are ungodly; not we who have
climbed the mountain heights of righteous
living, but we who are struggling
on the plains, and sometimes in the
muck and mire, of unrighteous living.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, in
us-whether we be the most moral or
the most immoral of people-that
makes this possible. God pronounces us
righteous, though we are not: this is the
glory and wonder of the gospel message