To achieve Christian perfection, one must first receive the grace of justification. Justification refers to a sinner being declared righteous by God. It signifies the forgiveness and pardon of sins. As it is written:

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:22-26, ESV).

What does this mean? Since everyone has sinned, all are destined for death. This is God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness cannot be compromised. However, there is another aspect of God’s righteousness: if someone takes my place and pays the price for my sins, then I am spared from death. But for someone to take my place, they must be like me—a human—and without sin. Moreover, they must be able to bear the sins of all people. Only the Creator God could fulfill this role. Jesus is the Creator and the sinless One. He was born as a man through the power of the Holy Spirit, by the virgin Mary. He shed His blood on the cross and died in place of all humanity. This is entirely by God’s grace. For those who believe this, God sees their faith and declares them righteous. This is God’s righteousness. Through this righteousness, no matter what sins we have committed, our iniquities are forgiven, our sins are covered, and the Lord does not count our sins against us (Romans 4:7-8). The condition is faith in the One who justifies the ungodly. The real issue is whether you have acknowledged that you are ungodly and wicked enough to long for the grace of justification.

For God’s righteousness to be understood and applied to me, I must recognize what the glory of the Lord is. Concerning the glory of the Lord, Luke 24:26 says, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” When Judas went out to betray Jesus, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (John 13:31). Jesus also declared, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32-33). He said this to indicate the kind of death He was going to die. Therefore, the glory of the Lord cannot be spoken of without reference to His death on the cross.

Continuing with the text, after the Lord had performed many signs, there were still those who did not believe in Him. This, the Scripture says, was to fulfill the word of the prophet Isaiah:

“Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.’ Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (John 12:39-41, ESV).

Isaiah’s Vision of the Glory of the Lord is found in Isaiah chapter 6:

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple… And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’ And He said, ‘Go, and say to this people: Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’”

Isaiah was a scribe and a prophet, someone who recorded history accurately and without personal bias. He feared God and lived according to the Law, which made him a man of righteousness in the eyes of others. He had access to both the temple and the royal palace and was regarded as someone who lived uprightly. By all appearances, Isaiah could be considered a righteous man, free from evil. Yet, when he saw the glory of the Lord, he cried, “Woe is me! I am ruined!” Why did Isaiah say this? Because the wages of sin is death. Isaiah, in seeing the glory of the Lord, became acutely aware of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. He confessed that he was a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips. This was a clear expression of repentance.

God’s response to Isaiah is significant: “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” This indicates that Isaiah, despite his external righteousness, still had sin and guilt. What was this sin and evil?

Applying Jesus’ words from Matthew 12:34-35, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil,” we can understand Isaiah’s confession of being a man of unclean lips. He thought he had been storing up good through his religious life, but in reality, he had been storing up evil. Instead of speaking words that give life, he had only spoken correct words under the Law. According to Jesus, this is evil.

Thus, the result of Isaiah’s faith up until the moment he saw the glory of the Lord was death. It was only after he saw the glory of the Lord that his sin was dealt with, and he was truly able to serve God.

Before Isaiah beheld the glory of the Lord, he did not realize that his own righteousness was like filthy rags and was, in fact, evil. However, after encountering the glory of God, he declared, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6, ESV). Through this revelation, Isaiah came to understand that it was his own self-righteousness that caused the Lord to suffer and die on the cross. This understanding led him to proclaim, “This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men” (Isaiah 29:13). Jesus Himself also cited this verse.

The apostle Paul, similarly, lived a life of strict adherence to the Law, walking blamelessly according to it. He could not overlook anything that was wrong; he could not cover it up. Yet, because he had seen the risen Lord lifted high—just as Isaiah had seen the glory of the Lord—he was able to say, “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:2-3). This, Paul realized, was pride before God and therefore evil. Hence, he confessed, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which comes through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:7-9, ESV). In other words, Paul regarded his self-righteousness—that which had driven him to speak “correct” words to others, to be angered when he was not heard, and to persecute those who disagreed—as nothing but garbage.

Whether one beholds the Lord’s glory in a vision, through a dream, by faith, or through a revelation, the Lord grants this experience to those who humbly seek the truth. What matters most is that the result is always the same: when we see the glory of the Lord, we come to realize that our own righteousness is evil, leading us to repent and confess our sins. It is our self-righteousness that caused the Lord to be lifted up on the cross. But until we behold the Lord’s glory, we remain under the Law, clinging to our own righteousness. The evidence of this is a life spent condemning others. To condemn others is a form of pride, as it assumes that one occupies the place of God. As James 4:11-12 says, “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a doer of the Law but a judge. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” This helps us understand why Jesus condemned the Pharisees and scribes, calling them “hypocrites” (Matthew 23:27). Until they saw the glory of the Lord, they were utterly unaware that His words applied to them. Jesus said of them, “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them” (Isaiah 6:9-10; Matthew 13:14-15).

But what happens if we do not condemn the unrighteous? Should we fear that the world will descend into chaos? There is no need to worry. God uses those who are “of the flesh”—those who are spiritually dead. These people often pride themselves on their own righteousness, and thus they are naturally inclined to condemn others. This is how they are used. We, however, must discern the meaning of Jesus’ words: “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60, NIV). When it comes to dealing with the unrighteous, the courts of the world will judge them.

When, like Isaiah, we finally acknowledge that we are people of unclean lips, the Lord will declare, “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” This is when we experience the joy and wonder of justification by grace. This is where the true value of Christianity lies—not in human righteousness, but in the righteousness of God, granted through the atonement of our sins.

When we ignore the Lord’s command to “love one another,” as He says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35, ESV), and instead fight against those we deem unrighteous, seeking to assert our own rightness, we turn our backs on the grace of justification. On the day of judgment, the Lord will say, “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23, ESV).

The value of justification lies in the death of Christ. For this reason, it is worth more than all the treasures of the world. Justification is far superior to the righteousness held by the Pharisees and the scribes. Yet, there are those who cheapen Christ’s death by treating justification as if it were easily obtained. Some claim to be justified and saved simply because they repent before God and believe in Christ’s atoning grace, despite the fact that they have harmed others through murder, sexual assault, fraud, or other sins, leaving their victims to continue suffering. This is a lie. Such faith does not even surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees or scribes. Christ’s grace of forgiveness is only extended to the offender when the victim, like Stephen, offers forgiveness. God will accept the offender only under this condition. Therefore, if the offender does not seek genuine reconciliation and restitution from the victim, what awaits them is the fire of hell.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:20-24, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” This means that someone who has committed a sin, such as murder, must first seek reconciliation with the victim before offering worship to God. It is only after this process that the grace of justification can be applied.

One of the greatest problems in modern Christianity is that, while many understand the doctrine of atonement in theory, they have no real experience of the grace of atonement. The awe of atonement must be connected to the cross. However, we cannot witness the scene of the crucifixion with our physical eyes. Yet, in Galatians 3:1, Paul says, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” It is unlikely that the Galatians had seen Jesus crucified with their own eyes, as Galatia was located in central modern-day Turkey, over 800 miles from Jerusalem. Therefore, the Galatians were not physically present at the cross, just as we were not. Despite this, Paul declares that “Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified before your eyes.” This statement applies to us as well. While the crucifixion is a past event in time, in the realm of the Spirit, it is a present reality. The spiritual realm transcends time and space. Thus, we must come to the realization that we ourselves crucified Jesus.

Why do we say that we crucified Jesus? To reiterate: if we do not cover the sins of our brothers and instead condemn them, we are breaking the greatest law of love, which is to love one another. Furthermore, if a brother has committed no sin, but we listen to false accusations against him, fail to discern the truth, and join in slandering and condemning him, we are guilty of murder. Therefore, when we condemn or criticize others, we are the ones who crucify Jesus. Jesus taught that whatever we do to our brothers, we do to Him (Matthew 25:40). When we sincerely repent of such sins, we will come to realize that we should have been crucified on the cross for our own sins. We will then see that it was our sins that nailed Jesus to the cross. This is the mystery of experiencing the grace of atonement. Once we understand this, we will earnestly seek the Holy Spirit’s help to avoid sinning again and stay awake in prayer. At this point, we will recognize the evidence of being born again by the Holy Spirit.

From now on, we must convey the grace of justification correctly. Our responsibility is to encourage fellow Christians to participate in spiritual disciplines that foster an understanding of Christian perfection, particularly the call to love one another for the sake of saving souls. As this spiritual training spreads and becomes a movement, I believe the church will finally have hope of saving the world.

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