Nuggets from "An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith" by Dave Hunt - Who Is Just?

“The just shall live by faith” – Habakkuk:2:4Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
See All...; Romans:1:17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
See All...; Galatians:3:11But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
See All...; Hebrews:10:38Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
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Surely a phrase that is repeated four times in the Bible must contain one of God’s most important teachings. The life God gives is only for the just—but who is just? The Bible leaves no doubt as to the answer: “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes:7:20For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
See All...); “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans:3:23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
See All...). God’s law demands “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself” (Luke:10:27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
See All...). By that standard we have all broken God’s law repeatedly and are condemned.

Nor is there any way that we, as sinners, could become just. Living a perfect life in the future (even if that were possible) could never merit forgiveness for sins already committed nor deliver from the judgment that God’s justice righteously demands. Saving a million lives in the future for example, could never atone for having taken just one life in the past. Only God could declare a sinner to be “just” – but how could He, when His irrevocable law condemns us? For God simply to forgive the sinner would violate His own law and in itself would be unjust.

Paul, inspired of the Holy Spirit, explains how God can justly justify sinners: “Being justified freely by his [God’s] grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood…for the remission of sins…that he [God] might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans:3:24-26 [24] Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [25] Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; [26] To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
See All...). Forgiving the sinner and declaring him just comes only on the basis of Christ having paid the full penalty demanded by God’s justice against sin, and the sinner having personally accepted that payment by Christ. Forgiveness cannot come about through good deeds, church attendance, sacraments, baptism, scapulars or medals, prayers, tears, promises, charitable gifts – or anything else that the pastor, priest, church, or Mary could do. Only the infinite God Himself, coming as a sinless man through the virgin birth, could bear, in our place, the infinite penalty we deserved.