Westminster Confession, Chapter 11
Of Justification
Those whom God effectually calleth he also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous: not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.
Scripture references for paragraph 1
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Romans 3:2424and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:3030And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
Acts 10:4444While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard his message.
Acts 13:38-3938Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
39Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
Galatians 2:1616know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Ephesians 2:7-87in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Philippians 3:99and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.
Jeremiah 23:66In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
Romans 3:2222And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction,
Romans 3:24-2524and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
25God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.
Romans 3:27-2827Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith.
28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Romans 4:5-85However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
6And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7“Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
8Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
Romans 5:17-1917For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
18So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men.
19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
1 Corinthians 1:30-3130It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 5:1919that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:2121God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 1:77In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
Titus 3:55He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Titus 3:77so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.
Scripture references for paragraph 2
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
John 1:1212But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—
Romans 3:2828For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Romans 5:11Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Galatians 5:66For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.
James 2:1717So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead.
James 2:2222You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did.
James 2:2626As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to his Father's justice in their behalf. Yet inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them, their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.
Scripture references for paragraph 3
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Isaiah 53:4-64Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted.
5But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
6We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:10-1210Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Daniel 9:2424Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
Daniel 9:2626Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
Romans 5:8-108But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!
10For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!
Romans 5:1919For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
1 Timothy 2:5-65For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time.
Hebrews 10:1010And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:1414because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.
Matthew 3:1717And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”
2 Corinthians 5:2121God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 5:22and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
Romans 8:3232He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
Romans 3:2626He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
Ephesians 2:77in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:2424and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 1:77In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect, and Christ did, in the fulness of time, die for their sins, and rise again for their justification: nevertheless, they are not justified until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them.
Scripture references for paragraph 4
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Romans 8:3030And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
Galatians 3:88The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
1 Peter 1:22according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
1 Peter 1:19-2019but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot.
20He was known before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake.
Galatians 2:1616know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Colossians 1:21-2221Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds.
22But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—
Titus 3:4-74But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
5He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
6This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
Romans 4:2525He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.
Galatians 4:44But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
1 Timothy 2:66who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time.
God doth continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified; and although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may by their sins fall under God's fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of his countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance.
Scripture references for paragraph 5
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Matthew 6:1212And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 2:1-21My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Psalms 32:55Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
Psalms 51:7-127Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
9Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Psalms 89:31-3331if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments,
32I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes.
33But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him, nor ever betray My faithfulness.
Matthew 26:7575Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Luke 1:2020And now you will be silent and unable to speak until the day this comes to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.”
1 Corinthians 11:3030That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 11:3232But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.
Luke 22:3232But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
John 10:2828I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
Hebrews 10:1414because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.
The justification of believers under the Old Testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the New Testament.
Scripture references for paragraph 6
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Romans 4:22-2422This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
23Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham,
24but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Galatians 3:99So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Galatians 3:13-1413Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
14He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Hebrews 13:88Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
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