"Justification in the narrow sense refers strictly to God's forensic declaration. But the complex of justification in the wider sense involves other elements. This is important lest we fall into the antinomian error of assuming that God justifies people who are and remained unchanged. All who are justified possess faith. Faith abides as a necessary condition for justification. All who have faith are regenerate. Reformed theology sees regeneration as a necessary condition for faith. All who are regenerated are changed in their natures.
It is not the change in our nature wrought by regeneration or our faith that flows from it that is the ground of our justification. That remains solely the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. But that righteousness is not imputed to unbelieving or unregenerate persons. The change from the state of unregenerate to regenerate is a real and vital change in the nature of the person. The change from unbelief to belief is a result of a crucial change in the believer."
It is not the change in our nature wrought by regeneration or our faith that flows from it that is the ground of our justification. That remains solely the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. But that righteousness is not imputed to unbelieving or unregenerate persons. The change from the state of unregenerate to regenerate is a real and vital change in the nature of the person. The change from unbelief to belief is a result of a crucial change in the believer."
R.C. Sproul
The Forensic Nature of Justification,
in Justification by Faith ALONE, pp. 44-45
SDG Publications 1995
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