The print industry has undergone an almost incredible revolution in recent years. It has rocketed forwarded from hot type to cold type and from negatives and plates to electronic pre-press. Nevertheless, some of the old typesetting terms remain. “Justified “ is one of them. The term refers to copy that is aligned as opposed to “ragged” copy that is not aligned.
Undoubtedly printers picked up the term “justified” from its biblical meaning. To be justified with God, as the Bible indicates, is to be properly aligned with God. It could be argued from a theological standpoint that our lives are either justified or ragged.
Romans 4:25 presents both the grounds of the believer’s justification and the proof of his or her justification. The first part of the first cites the grounds of justification. Jesus was “delivered for our offences.” In other words, God offered Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins. When He shed His blood on the cross—and that’s what Good Friday is all about—Jesus paid the penalty of our sins. The second part of the verse presents the proof of the believer’s justification. Jesus “was raised for [on account of] our justification.” Early Sunday morning Jesus arose from the dead as living proof that God accepted the payment He had made for our sins on the cross.
Romans 5:9 declares that we are justified [properly aligned] with God “by his blood.”
Another Good Friday and Easter Sunday have passed, but our gratitude for what Jesus did to justify us should never fade away.
