day no. 16,265: justification said and done or but for the moment

"There are only two possible bases of justification— one is the blood of Christ which frees us from accusation, and the other is relative superiority to somebody else, which only and always binds us to accusation." -- Douglas Wilson, All the Condemnation in the World

Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, condemnation is inescapable and because condemnation is uncomfortable, justification is inescapable. But the condemned cannot tolerate that state of affairs for very long and search for a way to find themselves cleared of all charges.

One way to do this is to confess your sins in the broad of day and throw your lot in with the Son of God who saves (1 John 1:8-10). The other way is to confess the sins of others in order to be comparatively more justifiable. The one is justification said and done, once for all and fully delivered; the other is justification maybe, it depends, and if at all, only for the moment. 

In order to be justified, we will be forced to confess our sins or forced to confess the sins of others. The former is accompanied by sincere repentance and eternal salvation whereas the latter is accompanied by manufactured guilt and constant condemnation.

Only Jesus can set one free. Justification will be sought because sin is real. We are not cleansed of our sins by the sins of others. We can, perhaps, justify our bad behavior by pointing to the worse behavior of others, but that won't fly if the standard is good behavior... and it is.

Romans 3:10

There is none righteous, no, not one.

Our only hope to measure up is righteousness applied, not achieved. In other words, we need the righteousness of someone else given to us where we could not grab it for ourselves or from someone else. Our only hope for our missed marks is the substitutionary atonement of someone else receiving the marks.

Isaiah 53:5

He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

We need to be something we can't become and we need someone to take away what is too heavy for us to bear. So, Christ did.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.