Jul 22 2008
∞
“ Justification is a purely mental act wherein God accounts, credits, or reckons a sinner to be righteous in Christ. It is something that takes place within the mind of God and is wholly outside of us. In other words, justification is an immanent act that has its complete essence in the mind of God and is entirely within Himself — it is not a transient act terminating on an external subject, producing any real or inherent change in us, as the acts of regeneration, sanctification and glorification are. Moreover, if justification is an immanent or internal act of God’s mind, then it must essentially be an eternal act of God’s mind, as God is not subject to a temporal succession of thoughts as we are. Thus, it is not correct to say that justification is one of the benefits of Christ “flowing from our personal and mystical [i.e., existential] union with Christ” in time.
