God gave Himself to Us through His Spirit
By the participation of the Spirit we become communicants in the divine nature. For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are made holy. The first work of grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, bringing about justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt.4:17). Moved by grace, we turn toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from God. Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.
With Justification, Faith, Hope, and Love are poured into our hearts
Justification detaches us from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies our heart of sin. Justification follows upon God’s merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles us with God. It frees us from the enslavement to sin, and it heals our souls. Justification is the acceptance of righteousness from God through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness, or justice, means the rectitude coming from divine love. With justification, faith, hope and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is made possible for us. Justification has been merited for us by the passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all of us. Justification is initially conferred at Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is to enable us to give glory to God, and tp give us the gift of eternal life.
“But now the righteous of God has been manifested apart from the law, even though both law and the prophets bear witness to it, that righteousness of God that works through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. All men have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. All men are now undeservedly justified by the gift of God, through the redemption wrought in Christ Jesus. Through his blood, God made him the means of expiation for all who believe. He did so to manifest his own justice, for the sake of remitting sin committed in the past, to manifest his justice in the present, by way of forebearence, so that he might be just and might justify those who believe in Jesus.” (Rom.3:21-25)
Justification and Conversion
Justification is the result of cooperation between God’s grace and human freedom. On our part it requires the assent of faith to the word of God under the influence of God’s grace. We are thus invited to conversion through the prompting of the Holy Spirit who raises us up by supernatural love. When God touches our heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we are not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since we could reject it, and yet without God’s grace, one cannot by our own free will move ourself toward justice in God’s sight.
Justification is the most excellent work of God’s love, the love made known to us in Christ Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit. It is the opinion of Saint Augustine that justification of the wicked is a greater work than the creation of heaven and earth, because heaven and earth will pass away, but the salvation and justification of the elect will not pass away. He holds also that the justification of sinners surpasses the creation of the angels in justice, in that it bears witness to a greater mercy.
The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life.
By giving birth to the inner man, justification entails sanctification of his whole being.
“Just as formerly you enslaved your bodies to impurity and licentiousness for their degradation, make them now the servant of justice for their sanctification. But now that you are freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Rom.6:19, 22).
Grace, the Free and Undeserved Help God Gives Us
Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His Call to become children of God, adoptive children, partakers of the divine nature, and of eternal life.
