"just-as-if-i'd" never sinned

Imagine how our lives would be different if the concept of justification truly became a part of our daily lifestyle.' What?' you say:  'I know justification has everything to do with the fact that I'm saved but how does it have anything to do with my every-day life:  How I shop, how I parent, how I drive and how I love?'  Pastor and author John Stott writes 'Justification is a legal term...[that means] the exact opposite of condemnation.  To condemn is to declare somebody guilty; to justify is to declare him righteous.'  The best description of what it means to be justified I think is found in simply stretching out the word itself:  To be justified means to be made "just-as-if-i'd" never sinned.  Wow!  Right now, in God's eyes, I am "just-as-if-i'd" never sinned.  And so are you! 

So, if this is true (and it is!), then what does it's application look like on a daily basis?  Well, this is what you do.  You say to yourself:  Because I've been made "just-as-if-i'd" never sinned, I can:

• have a different level of patience with my neighbor knowing that God has that same kind of patience with me...
• cease fighting for my rights at work knowing that Jesus gave up His rights so that I could be saved...
• find it in my heart to forgive that person who said those hurtful things to me knowing that Jesus forgave me of all my sin before I was even born...
• "love on" my unlovable spouse knowing that in spite of all my misdeeds, Jesus loves me unconditionally...

Yes, when the concept of justification is applied to daily living, it becomes so much more than one of the big, doctrinal cornerstones of our faith.  It magnifies our standing in God because of what Christ did for us so that, because of our standing, we act and think in a transformed way.