We affirm that justification is a single, indivisible act, not gradual or successive as sanctification is. Justification is a legal declaration—God’s judicial act of absolving the sinner from all guilt and condemnation, past, present, and future—based solely on the imputed righteousness of Christ, received by faith. Scripture never presents pardon as partial or progressive, as if believers were only half-washed or partially freed from wrath.
Paul declares: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). Thus, a justified person is never again received from a state of condemnation, as if they fell out of grace and needed to be justified again. Justification is never revoked.
However, we still affirm that sins are daily pardoned. Not in the sense of a new justification, but in the application and renewed experience of the once-for-all atonement. The believer receives continual assurance and comfort as the Spirit brings fresh application of Christ’s sacrifice. We do not teach that faith is a cause or condition of Christ’s atonement itself, but that believers are continually brought to rest in Christ’s completed work through faith.
Moreover, God forgives sins in another sense—when He removes temporal chastisements and fatherly discipline. To “bear our sins” often refers in Scripture to bearing their consequences (Mic. 7:8–9). When Nathan told David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die (2 Sam. 12:13), it referred primarily to sparing David from temporal death, though the temporal rod still remained in his house.
We do not, like the Papists, claim that God forgives guilt but leaves punishment to be satisfied through purgatory or temporal suffering. Christ alone satisfied divine justice. Still, God's ongoing fatherly discipline is distinct from eternal wrath, and His forgiveness often includes removal of temporal affliction.
Justification, then, is not to be confused with these repeated pardons. Justification is a once-for-all, forensic act by which God, in the court of heaven, declares the sinner righteous for Christ’s sake. It is a translation from the state of wrath into the state of grace, a new legal status that is never reversed.
David, at the time Nathan declared his sin forgiven, was already justified—freed from eternal condemnation. Yet he still experienced ongoing pardon, not as justification, but as a fresh application of grace in response to new transgressions.
Thus, though justification is not repeated, God’s fatherly forgiveness is daily. The distinction must be maintained: justification is a once-for-all act of being received into God’s favor; daily pardon is God’s ongoing cleansing, renewing fellowship, and applying the merits of Christ to the believer's conscience.
Source: A Modest Survey of the Secrets of Antinomianism by Samuel Rutherford
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COMMENT
Here is a passage that would echo this idea....
“But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
— 1 Corinthians 11:31–32 (ESV)
In justification, God declares the believer righteous once for all, solely on the basis of Christ’s obedience and sacrifice. This legal verdict cannot be overturned (Romans 8:1, 33–34). Yet this secure standing does not mean the Christian life is free from correction. Paul distinguishes here between condemnation (which believers will never face) and discipline (which believers often need).
Paul exhorts the Corinthians to “judge themselves”—that is, to examine their lives, repent of sin, and walk in humility before God. This aligns with the call to daily repentance found throughout Scripture. Though we are fully forgiven, we continue to fall short and are called to confess our sins, not to regain justification, but to maintain fellowship with God and grow in grace (1 John 1:9).
Self-judgment is a fruit of the Spirit’s sanctifying work. It’s not morbid introspection but a grace-enabled awareness of sin that leads us back to the cross again and again. Those who truly belong to Christ are not indifferent to sin—they grieve it, confess it, and seek renewal.
God’s fatherly discipline is never punitive in the legal sense; it is corrective, preservative, and protective. As Paul says, “so that we may not be condemned with the world.” In other words, God lovingly trains His children through discipline to keep them from drifting into the judgment that awaits the unrepentant.