Neither the Heb. pis {Pi, and Hiph.) nor the Gr. diKciiouy mean to ma/;e righteous, but simply to put in a right relation. It is a question primarily of relationship, not of character or conduct ; though the relationship is conceived as conditioning l>oth character and conduct.
The fundamental meanlti^ of h*xioai is * to settle or reco|jrniz« 03 rij;ht.' In Clru^a. Lit. it means (1) to hold or deem ri^lit, Herod, i. 100; Eur. Supplic. 628; Thuc. i. 140. 2; ii. 41. 2, etc. ; (2) to do a man justice, i.e. in general, to judge or punish, Herod, iii. 29, and so frequently in later Greelt, especially Dio Cassius (cf. the Scots use of 'justify'), iixatc^i came to be a teohnicai term in ecclesiastical Greek in sense (1), used of the decree of councils, i}i«u'«rt* n myia xa'i fMyaktt riiroioe, Cau. 17, Cone. Nic.
In LXX (OT and Apoc.) It is used to translate the Piel and Hiph'U of pn:f (Qal = 3i3/«ai<w<rf«j), almost always with a personal object : so Ex 237. The root meaning everywhere seems to be, ' to set forth as righteous,' to justify, in a legal sense. This may signify either (1) to show one to be righteous, Ezk Ui*i' *2, Jer 3" ; or (2) to declare righteous, Dt •26', 1 K 83-. Similarly in the Pseudepigraphical Books, e g. Ps.-Sol ii. 16, ix. 3, where it means to justify God.
In NT the sense is determined largely by the usage of LXX. We have (1) to show one to be righteous, 1 Co 4'', Lk 735 ;
(2) to pronounce righteous, as a judicial act, Lk 161'* 72y ; (3) in Pauline usage iix^icu* denotes the judicial act of God whereby those who put faith in Christ are declared righteous in His eyes, free from guilt and punishment, Ro 4t», Gal 2i'» et passhn.
(3) is thus an expansion and Christian application of (2). In Ro 830 Itxatoij* is specifically mentioned as an element in the di\ine work of saving the individual. Cremer points out that while in Hebrew Uiph. presupposes Qal, — justification, the being just, — the converse ia true in Greek {hjuuiv* — Siiiwu**^
In general we may say that in Bibl. Lit. the word ijxtucuv is used always, or almost always, in the forensic sense, and that its proper meaning is to pronounce righteous. Of itself it does not affirm or deny the real righteousness of the person so declared, or treated as, righteous, and in so far as he is not really righteous it implies forgiveness. But it may be taken as certain that it cannot mean to rnaks righteous, not even io 1 Co 611. Verbs in -ea», derived from adjectives of moral mean- ing, never have this ejjicient signification. Godet (Com. on Rom. Eng. tr. i. 157) ;;oes as far as to say that there is not a single example in the whole of Class. Lit. where the word = to make righteous. And the usage of the NT is unmistakable. Ste esp. llorison, Crit. Ezpoi. 0/ the Third Chap, of the Ep. to the Rom. pp. 163-198.
A word may be added on two other terms, inutivtjut is the declaration or decision, either (1) that a thing is S/^ricf, or (2) that a person is iixunx. (1) gives us the common meaning of ' ordinance' or 'precept,' Lk l'-, Ro 84, He 91 ; (2) the technical Pauline sense in Ro 5I6- 18. itxaiuuM is the act of justifioation regarded as complete ; iiKa.Mne (a word occurring only tmce in NT, elsewhere replaced by the verb hiMo^evn) is the act as in process, which, therefore, when relating to BinDers=:the act ol acquittal, as is especially clear from Ro 5I8.
See also under Riqhtsodsnbss.
Put into a sentence, the point of view of this article may be stated as follows : — God has ever been seeking to establish normal personal relations between Himself and sinful men ; and so far as men have responded to the divine movement, as befitted that movement, on the one hand, and the stage of their personal and moral development to which the movement accommodated itself, on the other, such a normal relation was established. That relation yxas justification. The first step was thus taken to God's being to man that without which man could not be to God, still less in himself, what he was designed to be.
I. The act of justification may affect various relations.
1. A man's relation to himself. — A man may seek to set himself right with himself, in other words, to j"stify himself to himself. Something of this kind L iniplied in 1 Co 4'-* 'I judge not mine o>vn self. For 1 know nothing against myself ; yet am I not hereby justified : but He that judgeth me is tha Lord' ; and in 1 Jn S''-* ' Herebv shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him, whereinsoever our heart condemn us ;
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because God is jn'eater than our licart, and knowcth all things.' Such justilication is, of course, ex- clusively the vindication or clearing up of one's own innocence or rectitude before or to oneself. There U such a thin" as mistaken self-judgment : it may be either for the better or the worse.
2. A man's relation to his fellow-man. — Men set themselves right with their fellow-men, whether regarded individually or corporately. If a man have been vtisrepresented, to justify' himself is to clear or vindicate himself in the particular respect in which he has been misjudged ; if, on the other hand, he Ls giulty of wrony in thought or word or act, the wrong relation thence arising or tliereby constituted, lia-s to be rectified by some sort of expiation or good-making of the wrong. It may be by confession of fault, or an expression of regret, or the payment of a fine, or loss of liberty, or endurance of sulVering. In the legislation of Israel, as set forth in OI", prox-tsion was made both for the vindication of innocence (Nu o""-) and the making good of real wrong-doing (Ex 21'»-™ 22").