Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

IX. Justification
A. THE SCRIPTURAL TERMS FOR JUSTIFICATION AND THEIR
MEANING.
1. THE OLD TESTAMENT TERM. The Hebrew term for “to justify” is hitsdik, which in
the great majority of cases means “to declare judicially that one’s state is in harmony
with the demands of the law, Ex. 23:7; Deut. 25:1; Prov. 17:15; Isa. 5:23. The piel tsiddek
occasionally has the same meaning, Jer. 3:11; Ezek. 16:50,51. The meaning of these words
is therefore strictly forensic or legal. Since Roman Catholics, such representatives of the
moral influence theory of the atonement as John Young of Edinburgh and Horace
Bushnell, and also the Unitarians and modern liberal theologians, deny the legal
meaning of the term “to justify,” and ascribe to it the moral sense of “to make just or
righteous,” it becomes important to take careful notice of the considerations that may be
urged in favor of the legal meaning. That this is the proper denotation of the word
appears (a) from the terms placed in contrast with it, as, for instance “condemnation,”
Deut. 25:1; Prov. 17:15; Isa. 5:23; (b) from the correlative terms placed in juxtaposition
with it and which often imply a process of judgment, Gen. 18:25; Ps. 143:2; (c) from the
equivalent expressions that are sometimes used, Gen. 15:6; Ps. 32:1,2; and (d) from the
fact that a passage like Prov. 17:15 would yield an impossible sense, if the word meant
“to make just.” The meaning would then be: He who morally improves the life of the
wicked is an abomination to the Lord. There are a couple of passages, however, in
which the word means more than simply “to declare righteous,” namely, Isa. 53:11; Dan.
12:3. But even in these cases the sense is not “to make good or holy,” but rather “to alter
the condition so that man can be considered righteous.”
2. THE NEW TESTAMENT TERMS AND THEIR USE. Here we have:
a. The verb dikaio-o. This verb means in general “to declare a person to be just.
Occasionally it refers to a personal declaration that one’s moral character is in
conformity with the law, Matt. 12:37; Luke 7:29; Rom. 3:4. In the Epistles of Paul the
soteriological meaning of the term is clearly in the foreground. It is “to declare
forensically that the demands of the law as a condition of life are fully satisfied with
regard to a person, Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1,9; 8:30-33; I Cor. 6:11; Gal. 2:16; 3:11. In the case
of this word, just as in that of hitsdik, the forensic meaning of the term is proved by the
following facts: (a) in many instances it can bear no other sense, Rom. 3:20-28; 4:5-7; 5:1;
Gal. 2:16; 3:11; 5:4; (b) it is placed in antithetic relation to “condemnation” in Rom.
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