Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

8:33,34; (c) equivalent and interchangeable expressions convey a judicial or legal idea,
John 3:18; 5:24; Rom. 4:6,7; II Cor. 5:19; and (d) if it does not bear this meaning, there is
no distinction between justification and sanctification.
b. The word dikaios. This word, connected with the verb just discussed, is peculiar in
that it never expresses what a thing is in itself, but always what it is in relation to
something else, to some standard outside of it, to which it ought to correspond. In that
respect it differs from agathos. In classical Greek, for instance, dikaios is applied to a
wagon, a horse, or something else to indicate that it is fit for its intended use. Agathos
expresses the idea that a thing in itself answers to the ideal. In Scripture a man is called
dikaios when, in the judgment of God, his relation to the law is what it ought to be, or
when his life is such as is required by his judicial relation to God. This may include the
idea that he is good, but only from a certain point of view, namely, that of his judicial
relation to God.
c. The noun dikaiosis, justification. This is found in only two places in the New
Testament, namely, Rom. 4:25; 5:18. It denotes the act of God’s declaring men free from
guilt and acceptable to Him. The resulting state is denoted by the word dikaiosune.
3. The resulting idea of justification. Our word justification (from the Latin justificare,
composed of justus and facere, and therefore meaning “to make righteous”), just as the
Holland rechtvaardigmaking, is apt to give the impression that justification denotes a
change that is brought about in man, which is not the case. In the use of the English
word the danger is not so great, because the people in general do not understand its
derivation, and in the Holland language the danger may be averted by employing the
related words rechtvaardigen and rechtvaardiging. “To justify” in the Scriptural sense of
the word, is to effect an objective relation, the state of righteousness, by a judicial
sentence. This can be done in a twofold way: (a) by bringing into account the actual
subjective condition of a person (to justify the just or the righteous), Jas. 2:21; or (b) by
imputing to a person the righteousness of another, that is, by accounting him righteous
though he is inwardly unrighteous. The latter is the usual sense of justification in the
New Testament.
B. THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION IN HISTORY.
The doctrine of justification by faith was not always clearly understood. In fact, it
did not find its classical expression until the days of the Reformation. We shall briefly
consider:
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