How can I become a new person?
Justification is God’s provision of salvation for guilty and lost sinners. Because of Christ’s redeeming work, His death on the cross, we no longer stand before God as sinners, unrighteous or guilty, but as holy, righteous and not guilty. We are declared righteous because of our faith in Christ (Romans 4:5). We become righteous the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. At that moment, we are considered born again and our old self dies and a new spiritual man arises. This new man is freed from the stain of sin in the eyes of God. This doesn’t mean that he won’t sin anymore, because he doesn’t become sinless, he is forgiven and seen in the eyes of God as sinless. The term justification means that the believer is in right standing before God. It speaks of a courtroom scene in which the accused is acquitted and pronounced “not guilty.” To help us remember what is meant by justified, it is sometimes broken up in the following manner: just – if – ied never sinned or “just as if I’d never sinned.”
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:23-26).
