Justification

Christians are not automatically forgiven

"My general perception of our religious world right now is there's a lot more self-justification than there is real genuine justification. By self-justification I mean those obnoxious bumper stickers that say, 'Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven.' This is really silly when you think about it, because nowhere in scripture does it say Christians are forgiven. If you look at the scriptures very carefully it says, EVERYONE is forgiven. The big matter is whether we receive that forgiveness. Christians are supposed to be making a effort to prepare themselves to RECEIVE that forgiveness that is freely given by God." -- Fr. George Aquaro, PresbyterGeorge Orthodox Christianity Basics channel on YouTube.

Justification of Life

Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. - Rom 5:18,19 NRSV

"The act of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden was one of selfishness. They acted in a selfish manner. Our Lord Jesus Christ acts in a selfless manner. He gives himself to us and to the world. He offers himself up to the Father as a final sacrifice for all of our sins as a completion of God's forgiveness, that He was promising from the very beginning. Nowhere in the Old Testament do we see a lack of God's forgiveness. Everywhere he's calling Israel, he's calling his people to return back to Him. So Christ's moment on the cross and his experience of death was not that he was trying to appease God and somehow repair [God's] offended anger. Instead he's doing something much more marvelous. That is, he is finally putting to death death itself. By dying, not having deserved to die, he then could no longer be held captive by death That sacrifice made it possible for a new life, a new humanity, a new creation. That's what that 'justification of life' is all about." -- Fr. George Aquaro

We are offered a journey towards justification

"The Bible is not a legal document. It is a warning, but it is a warning that comes with great hope. And that hope is that we will learn that God loves us and that he cares for us and that we are offered a journey towards him to receive his humanity. This is the true justification. Not that we get an excuse for our sins, but rather that when we do forget God, and stumble and fall, that there is a hope for us, and that hope is through Jesus Christ, who shares his very body and blood and who he is with us, that we can become one with him, and have that oneness restored with the Father." -- Fr. George Aquaro