5.) “All the elect of God were justified in Christ, their Head and Representative, when he rose from the dead, and therefore they believe: Christ engaged as a Surety for all his people from eternity, had their sins imputed to him, and for which he made himself responsible; in the fulness of time he made satisfaction for them by his sufferings and death, and at his resurrection was acquitted and discharged: now as he suffered and died, not as a private, but as a public person, so he rose again, and was justified as such, even as the representative of his people; hence when he rose, they rose with him; and when he was justified, they were justified in him; for he was “delivered for their offences, and was raised again for their justification”,#Ro 4:25 1Ti 3:16 and this is the sense and judgment of many sound and learned divines; as, besides our Sandfords {8} and Dr. Goodwins {9}, the learned Amesius {10}, Hoornbeck {11}, Witsius {12}, and others.”
Dr. John Gill
18th century Baptist Theologian
That which was eternal and imminent to the mind of God found its full instantiation in time and space with the completed cross work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who was and is the surety of the elect from all eternity did in the fullness of time work out what was all decreed to happen in God’s eternal counsel. Note that Gill observes that the sins of the elect were imputed to Christ eternally and immanently in the mind of the Triune God. In the fullness of time the counsel and plan of God was incarnated so that what was set apart as accomplished in eternity was accomplished in time. The vindication of Jesus Christ as the righteous one as seen in the resurrection was the justification instantiation of God’s eternally justified people.
Note Gill’s appeal here to Romans 4:25 in this conversation about eternal Justification
Most bibles translate that passage
who (Christ) was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (ESV)
But the NASB & the NKJV gives the literal translation and so offers
who (Christ) was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
The debate is over the little Greek word dia which is a primary preposition denoting the channel of an act. Therefore it can be translated “for,” “by” “through,” “because of,” “on account of,” etc. Context will determine the meaning. Obviously there is debate in Romans 4:25 about how to exactly handle that preposition.
In what I am proposing, following Gill and others is that in Romans 4:25 “because of” is entirely accurate as a translation for the Greek “dia.” Christ was delivered up because of our offenses is clear enough. However, the idea that Christ was raised because of our Justification begins to point towards Justification from eternity. Christ was raised in the resurrection because the elect were justified from eternity in Christ. From eternity He was set apart to come accomplish the work for those justified from eternity. Jesus Christ was raised up because of their (already) Justification
So, reading the Peter (I Peter 1:18-19) and Paul as a whole we piece together the truth of Justification from eternity in the mind of God with the work of Jesus Christ where the truth of what the Father had determined for the elect from eternity was instantiatively accomplished in the work of Jesus Christ.
Then we keep in mind that all reality as determined in the mind of God was as certainly true as when it was instantiated in time and space and we can begin to understand how it is that Scripture can speak of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).
Slain from the foundation of the world? How So? Because in the mind of God it was ordained and as ordained it can be spoken of as a past event that lies yet in the future. The same is true of Justification. In the mind of God, we were Justified and because we were justified from eternity Christ was raised because of our objective Justification, and in space and time the Spirit then applies that ordained and accomplished justification to the consciousness of the Believer.
Hebrews 2:14 when read in light of this understanding underscores all this;
Hebrews 2:14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
In Christ, God’s elect one, Christ’s elect brothers and sisters were saved from the foundations of the earth.
Note here that the elect were considered children BEFORE they partook of flesh and blood. Being the God of all grace to His pre-incarnate elect children the elect Christ is incarnated that His elect own might be released from the devil and that way by a ordained and objectively accomplished Justification being applied to their consciousness.
It really is as simple as saying that upon the eternal decree to Justify the people of God (I Peter 1:2) it was as good as if all the mechanisms to that end had already happened. We were justified from eternity. Yes, the majestic and benevolent Lord Christ had to come to be raised because of that Justification (Romans 4:25) and the blessed and thrice honored Holy Spirit had to take from the Father’s ordination and the son’s accomplishment of Justification with His Cross work and apply it to the consciousness of the believer in space and time but all of that was a certitude upon the triune God deigning it to be so from eternity past. We were justified from all eternity, though in life we had to wait until the Spirit applied subjectively all that had been forever true in the mind of God.
Because we are time bound creatures we speak of being justified at a certain point in time in our own lives and there is a place for speaking of what we are calling “subjective justification,” but we need to lift our vision up and see the grandiose and magnificent character of the triune God who provided so great a justification. There it is … all before Him. So true that the Spirit can speak of the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. So true that even before we shared in Flesh and blood the Lord Christ had determined to share in flesh and blood to justify his children. So true that while we were still enemies in our dispositions Christ died for us.
What? Certainly it could never be the case that we might actually think that justification only happens upon our decision as if by our decision we make it all come to pass?
Abraham Kuyper put it this way,
“The sinner’s justification need not wait until he is converted, nor until he has become conscious, nor even until he is born. This could not be so if justification depended upon something within him. Then he could not be justified before he existed and had done something. But if justification is not bound to anything in him, then this whole limitation must disappear, and the Lord our God be sovereignly free to render this justification at any moment that He pleases. Hence the Sacred Scripture reveals justification as an eternal act of God, i.e., an act which is not limited by any moment in the human existence. It is for this reason that the child of God, seeking to penetrate into that glorious and delightful reality of his justification, does not feel himself limited to the moment of his conversion but feels that this blessedness flows to him from the eternal depths of the hidden life of God.
It should therefore openly be confessed, and without any abbreviation, that justification does not occur when we become conscious of it, but that, on the contrary, our justification was decided from eternity in the holy judgment-seat of our God.”
Habbakuk 2:4 literally teaches eternal Justification when it says “the just (status/esse) shall live by his faith (knowledge of status/esse).”
