21 October | Teens
«Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.» Romans 5: 1,2
Think of a time when you disobeyed your parents or did something wrong at school, and when you met them you started telling them your side of the story. That's trying to justify what you've done. There's a saying I like to tell my son when he starts justifying himself: “Explain, but don't justify.”
Justification may seem like a complicated term, but it's an incredible concept that helps us to better understand what Jesus has done for us. Being justified is as if God looked at us and said: “You are free from all guilt.” It's being declared righteous before God; that is, without any sin, without any error! But this doesn't happen because of what we do, but because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
We cannot be righteous before God on our own. We all make mistakes, we do wrong things and we need someone to justify us. And that's where Jesus comes in! He lived a perfect, sinless life and died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. When we believe in Jesus and accept what He has done for us, God sees us through Jesus and declares us righteous.
That's wonderful! It means that we don't have to be perfect to be loved by God. He already loves us and accepts us because of Jesus. And because of this justification, we have peace with God. We can live knowing that we are at peace with Him, not because we are good enough, but because Jesus is good enough.
Take Action
The next time you do something wrong, try not to justify yourself, just confess the mistake and notice the difference!