Transformation: God, Our Just Justifier
Part 2: Transformed Into A Spiritual Christian
Sub-Title: God, Our Just Justifier
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Romans 3:26 NKJV to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Introduction:
Self-justification is the opposite of letting God justify us. There is a gulf of difference between one who justifies himself and the one who is justified by God.
A spiritual Christian is committed to sanctification, the process by which God makes us become like Him.
One of the subtle behaviors which impede our spiritual transformation into Christlikeness is self-justification.
We do not hear a lot about it, yet it is widely practiced. Perhaps that is because the Bible does not call it a sin, so many of us just ignore its practice in our own lives, but we can easily spot it in other people.
The Bible records a few instances about people trying to justify themselves. First, we see the case of lawyer who came to ask Jesus a question about salvation, and Jesus answered him. The Bible said, seeking to justify himself, he asked Jesus a follow-up question. Jesus' reply, as always, was masterful.
Luke 10:25-29NKJV And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" [26] He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" [27] So he answered and said, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'" [28] And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." [29] But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Jesus responded to this question with the parable of the Good Samaritan. At the end of the parable, Jesus asked him a simple yet telling question:
Luke 10:36-37 NKJV [36] So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" [37] And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
The other example we get from Luke 16, when Jesus gave the parable of the dishonest steward.
At the end of the parable, Jesus clarified the point of the story.
Luke 16:13-15 NKJV "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." [14] Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. [15] And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Self-justification:
It is the attempt to always explain and defend ourselves so we can sleep at night and so we can look good before people.
It starts with our inner self talk, a way of resolving our cognitive dissonance. Sometimes, our conscience brings up a shortcoming we have and we don’t feel quite right within ourselves, so we begin to justify in our own minds; we rationalize and say we aren’t that bad after all; we look around and find somebody whose behavior is worse than ours and we compare ourselves favorably against them.
As powerful as our consciences are, even they did not escape the corruption that came with the fall. When man fell, his heart became corrupted, and his conscience was polluted. So when our conscience tells us we are okay, we can't completely trust it because our consciences can be trained by our culture, the culture we grew up in. Some things which God proscribes are acceptable in our culture, and so our conscience is trained to say it's okay.
Romans 2:14-15 ESV For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. [15] They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.
If we practice self-justification for long enough, we will convince ourselves that we are “good people,” regardless of all empirical evidence to the contrary. Whenever a complaint is made about us, we deny and defend even before all the facts are presented. We are so convinced of our own goodness that the complainer must be wrong and does not even deserve an audience. What they deserve is a counter-attack, so we resort to the classic defence of, “No one is perfect,” “Don’t judge me” and whataboutism,
Not everybody responds this way. People with a more gentle disposition will go quiet, disengage, or even act offended and cry. “How could you think that of me?” “ I will never say or do that to you.”
These responses and the like are what we offer when we practise self-justification.
What Self-justification Reveals About Us
It reveals what is going on in our hearts. It reveals that we have been deceived by our own hearts, we do not trust God as we ought to, and we are walking in pride.
Deception:
We are deceived by our heart of its own wickedness.
Jeremiah 17:9-10
The heart is deceitful above all things
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
[10] I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his deeds.
We have become convinced of our own righteousness, we cannot see our shortcomings, and we find it difficult to accept them whenever they are brought to our attention.
People say, “I know myself,” or “I know my own heart.” No, you don't. The Bible says the heart of man is wicked. Desperately wicked, who can know it? When you claim you know yourself, then you are asking us to choose who is telling the truth and who is a liar between you and God. That is a very easy choice for me to make. I’ll let God be true and all men liars. Maybe you are not lying consciously, but you are undoubtedly deceived.
Self-justification is an outward manifestation of self-righteousness.
We want to feel good about ourselves, so we resort to self-righteousness.
We want to look good before men so we employ self-justification.
Feeling good and looking good are not wrong in themselves, but they become dangerous when they prevent us from actually becoming good.
So we have three measuring rods: looking good, feeling good and becoming good.
Looking Good:
A person can look good on the outside, but may actually be very corrupt or even evil.
1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Feeling Good:
A person may feel healthy and not realize they have an advanced-stage cancer.
Psalm 19:12-13 NKJV Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. [13] Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression
Becoming Good:
A spiritual Christian is committed to sanctification, the process by which God makes us become like Him. An unspiritual Christian is satisfied with a sanctimonious appearance, which is a form of godliness that denies the power thereof. The one is interested in substance, while the other is satisfied with a mere form.
Psalm 139:23-24 NKJV Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; [24] And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
