“To be exalted from a relation fraught with guilt and wrath and fear and death, and to be brought at once, on the ground of another’s merit, into one of favor and peace and blessedness and eternal life–to have the angry frown of an incensed avenging judge turned away, and all replaced by the sweet smiles of a Father’s love–this, the fruit of the imputation of another’s righteousness, hiding all my sin, quenching all my fear, wondrously reversing all my fate, this is not only joyful but surprising–wonderful, the doing of the Lord and marvelous in our eyes!”

Theologians have often considered justification by faith alone to be “the heart of the Gospel” for the simple reason that justification is a legal declaration of pardon and righteousness–a once-for-all judicial act of God toward believers. Justification is judicial not transformative in nature. The justified believer has been acquitted before the divine tribunal and declared righteous “only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone (WSC 33).” Nevertheless, there is a real joy produced in the heart of the believer on account of the imputed righteousness of Christ. Just as Jesus experienced sorrow on account of the imputation of our sin, believers rejoice in the fact that God has clothed us in the righteousness of another. Hugh Martin, in his book The Shadow of Calvary, explained:

“The believer’s own unworthiness ought not to avail to impair His joy, because a true righteousness is imputed to Him, and he has the blessedness of Him to whom the Lord imputes not his sin. The Surety’s own unspotted holiness cannot avail to prevent His sorrow, because sin is imputed to Him and He has voluntarily therefore assumed what misery must belong to Him to whom the Lord imputes–not His holiness–to whom the Lord imputes nothing but sin.

“The fact that the righteousness which the believer rejoices in is not his own, not only does not diminish his joy, but on the contrary adds to it an element of wonder, a thrill of unexpected and surprising delight. To be exalted from a relation fraught with guilt and wrath and fear and death, and to be brought at once, on the ground of another’s merit, into one of favor and peace and blessedness and eternal life–to have the angry frown of an incensed avenging judge turned away, and all replaced by the sweet smiles of a Father’s love–this, the fruit of the imputation of another’s righteousness, hiding all my sin, quenching all my fear, wondrously reversing all my fate, this is not only joyful but surprising–wonderful, the doing of the Lord and marvelous in our eyes!

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