“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
For many, John 3:16 was the very first Bible verse you memorized in Sunday school. From the start, you were taught Jesus died on the cross to take away your sins and those who believe in him as their savior will go to heaven. As you grew older, you learned the concept had an intellectual title—”justification by faith”—and it was furhter backed by verses like these:
For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Romans 3:28
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 2:16
Sounds nice, right? But what exactly is justification by faith? How do you explain it in a way that really drives it home for someone in, say, high school or college?
To do that, follow me to the classroom.
Hi, I’m Lauren Thell, author of Christian YA fiction and blogger for teens who are ready to exceed the world’s expectations.
In This Article
Justification by Works: Beat the Competition, Make the Cut
As valedictorian of my graduating high school class, I got pretty good grades. My fellow students, however, figured this out long before I earned the privilege to speak at our commencement ceremony. I think it was in the sixth grade that it first became a fun game to “beat Lauren’s test score.” If I earned a 95% on my science exam and a friend earned a 96%, that was cause for bragging.
It was annoying. But in the end, I still came out on top. No need to score 100% on all my tests to do it, either. All I had to do was beat the second-best person in our class (ironically, my best friend).
Justification by Faith: The Ultimate Test
What if God gave each of us an overall score based on the sum total of all our good deeds and thoughts minus all the bad ones? How would you score?
Good table manners + consistently getting my homework done on time – 12 incidents of lusting after my cute classmate = 72%
Working at the soup kitchen on Thanksgiving + stellar church attendance – fighting with my brother – 1 case of road rage = 80%
Picking up roadside trash + buying lunch for a homeless man – 1 incident of shoplifting cosmetics from Wal-Mart = 63%
That’s still passing…right? And, hey, it’s still better than the murderer (who couldn’t have score higher than 21%), the rapist (definitely no more than 13%), and the neighbor’s son who stole a car and left it burned out on the side of the road (probably about 48%). Right?
God doesn’t use a complicated algorithm to figure out each person’s “grade.” Anything less than 100% is failing.
Here’s the clincher. God doesn’t use a complicated algorithm to figure out each person’s “grade” and determine whether or not you are allowed into heaven. It wouldn’t matter if you could achieve a 99.99999% (which I can assure you, no human could).
Anything less than 100% is failing.
That’s right. If you can’t ace this test, if you can’t get every answer correct—if your thoughts and actions in life are not 100% pure 100% of the time—you fail. You’re looking at an eternity in hell.
The Good Teacher
What if that teacher gave you the option of letting someone who was capable of perfection take the test for you? That changes everything.
In our human experience, this seems unfair. No one wants a teacher who expects perfection all the time and won’t even let you make it up with an “extra credit” good deed. We want Santa’s system of naughty vs. nice instead of God’s all-or-nothing stance. (See The Difference Between God And Santa.)
But what if that teacher gave you the option of letting someone who was capable of perfection take the test for you?
That changes everything.
The Star Student
God is the good teacher who allows us to have his star student, Jesus, take our place in the test of life. Jesus doesn’t need our help. His perfection cannot be enhanced by our comparatively pitiful attempts at goodness. But the choice is yours: Tell God to write your score or Jesus’s score into the gradebook.
You can’t have both, so which will you choose?
Sadly, too many will choose to cling to their useless grade, and thus fail:
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
Romans 3:10-11
Don’t bother pulling an all-nighter studying for this test. You’re going to fail no matter what you do.
But…
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24
The choice is yours: Tell God to write your score or Jesus’s score into the gradebook?
God, whom we were just about to declare a cruel teacher for giving us a test with such impossible standards, has done something no other teacher could ever do.
He gave the test to someone else, and anyone who believes in that Star Student gets to use his passing grade! This is what justification by faith alone means. You can do nothing more to earn your way into heaven. It’s already been done.
Spread the word!
Further Reflection on Justification by Faith Alone and All That it Implies
You don’t have to have all the answers.
But, hey, why not?
Bring me your questions about faith, life, God, the Bible… and I’ll help you find the answers.
- If salvation comes through faith alone, why we be good at all? See The Most Important Reason to Obey God.
- Still troubled by that whole all-or-nothing approach? Check out What is the Hardest Thing to Believe About Christianity?
- For Christian teens wondering how to apply this to their lives: What is the Christian Life Supposed to Look Like? (article from 412Teens)