We have been looking at our position in Christ, that in Him we have no condemnation.
On the positive side, we can say that in Christ we are justified. Both the word “justified” and the word “condemn” are judicial terms.  One stands before the judge accused of a wrong and the judge makes a determination of guilty or not guilty. These words both hold the same meaning from two different perspectives.  It’s like saying “you are acquitted” and then saying “you are not guilty.”
 
Unlike our court, being declared “not guilty” based upon having shown evidence to the judge of our innocence cannot happen. Because, in fact, we stand before the eternal Judge as completely guilty sinners. 
 
God, our Judge, does not declare us as justified based upon our own merit.  Instead, He declares us justified and therefore not condemned based upon the merit of Christ.  Since we are guilty sinners, the consequences of our sins requires punishment.  That’s where Jesus comes to the rescue.  Jesus Himself pays for our sins upon the cross. Therefore, the Judge declares us justified based upon what Christ has done for us.
 
A common definition of justification is this: “The act of God in bringing sinners into a new covenant relationship with himself through the forgiveness of sins. It is a declarative act of God by which he establishes persons as righteous—that is, in right and true relationship to himself.”
 Walter A. Elwell and Philip Wesley Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Tyndale Reference Library (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 764.
 
Paul summed it up quite clearly in…
Romans 3:23–24 (ESV)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
 
My way of defining “justified” is more simplistic: in Christ, God now looks at me just-if-I’d never sinned.
 
What must we do to be justified? 
Romans 10:9–10 (ESV)
9 …if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
 
What must we do?  Our justification comes only through the medium of our faith.  Faith should always be pictured as a cessation. We acknowledge Jesus to be our Lord, our controller, thereby ceasing to exercise our own authority over our lives. The Jesus we acknowledge must be recognized as alive from the dead. This brings us salvation, that is forgiveness of our sins. Verse 10 explains the process. When we trust in Jesus, by ceasing to trust in ourselves, justification is applied to our lives by God in Christ.  Our only activity is to confess with our mouth. 
 
What a beautiful word “justified” is.