Disproving the So-called Forensic Gospel

Disproving the So-called Forensic Gospel

INTRODUCTION

1. The Bible tells us that any false gospel is a thing cursed by God. Galatians 1:6-9.

2. The false gospel makes us say Lord, Lord, but do not His Will, such people are lost. 

Matthew 7:21-23.

3. The false gospel is described as untempered mortar that cannot help. Ezekiel 13:9-16.

4. It also tells a person peace, peace, (which is given by Justification) when there is no peace. 

Romans 5:1; Jeremiah 8:10, 11.

5. However, the real Gospel is described as the power or science of God unto salvation 

because it makes the believer, live by Faith. Romans 1:16, 17.

6. The Bible clearly explains that the Gospel of God’s Grace teaches denying ungodliness, it 

teaches living righteously, it teaches that the purpose of the sacrifice of Christ was to 

redeem us from all iniquities, (not in them), and to purify a people who are preoccupied 

with performing good works. This is what we are to preach. Titus 2:11-15.

7. Jesus clearly tells us, that the order of salvation is inner cleansing first of all, then the 

reformation of outer works may proceed; there is no scripture that teaches assumed 

holiness in God’s sight, then actual inner and future holiness later. Matthew 23:25, 26.

A FALSE FORENSIC GOSPEL DESCRIBED AND 

REFUTED

8. Here is a brief description of a forensic “gospel”.

a. “The righteousness which is the basis of our acceptance with God lies outside the 

believer. Justifying righteousness is a righteousness which is forensic to the believer, an 

alien righteousness … justification means to be pronounced righteousness on the 

grounds of a righteousness which is outside the believer, in Jesus Christ.” Geoffrey 

J. Paxton, The Shaking of Adventism, p. 38. (Emphasis original).

b. “Reformationists are equally emphatic that justification must be understood as objective 

and forensic. J.H. Morrison is quoted as saying: ’The great Pauline doctrine of 

justification by faith … brings with it the aroma of law courts. It is suggestive of legal 

proceedings in some criminal case, with a judge on the bench and a prisoner at the bar 

anxiously awaiting sentence.’” A. Leroy Moore, The Theology Crisis, pp. 50-51.

9. Concerning 

“He does not pronounce the sinner subjectively righteous, which he is not, but forensically 

righteous, which he is, because Christ has satisfied the demands of justice on his behalf.” 

Carnell, quoted in Ibid, p. 51.

10. However, a forensic gospel is very impossible as we are told in these following quotations.

a. “The ground of judicial or forensic justification invariably is, and must be universal 

obedience to law … Gospel justification is the justification of sinners; it is therefore 

naturally impossible, and a most palpable contradiction that the justification of a sinner 

… is judicial or forensic justification.” Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Systematic 

Theology, p. 547.

b. “He further says ‘justification aims directly at character. It contemplates making the 

man himself right’. Coming to grips then with the issue noted above, Vincent makes 

this fine statement of the case. “Justification which does not actually remove the wrong 

condition in man which is at the root of his enmity to God, is no justification. In the 

absence, of this, a legal declaration that the man is right is a fiction’. God has provided 

more than a legal pardon. He imparts Christ to the one who believes. Then, and then 

only, can He recognize us as righteous.’ A. John Clifford and Russel R. Standard, 

Conflicting Concepts of Righteousness by Faith, p. 56.

SCRIPTURES DEBUNKING THE FORENSIC GOSPEL

11. The following quotation explains the false forensic gospel.

“The righteousness imputed to the believer in Jesus gives him a standing with God higher 

than the standing enjoyed by Adam in his sinless state. It gives him a higher standing than 

the angels. It raises him in the scale of moral value to equality with Jesus Christ. Such 

is the gift of God’s justifying righteousness, which comes by faith of Jesus Christ. Yet it is 

in heaven, not on earth; outside of us, never within the greatest saint; in Jesus Christ, 

and in no one but Jesus Christ.” Robert D. Brinsmead, Justification, pp. 34-35. 

(Emphasis supplied).

12. But first of all, Righteousness through Faith is the Righteousness of God. Philippians 3:9.

13. This Righteousness is YHWH, God Himself. Jeremiah 23:5, 6; Psalms 143:1.

14. The Righteousness of God imputed is the Righteousness of God imparted. (Romans 4:11; 

Romans 5:17).

15. The Righteousness of God is within the heart. Psalms 40:9, 10; Romans 3:22.

16. When we have Righteousness imputed, this means that the Righteousness is imparted or 

given actually to the believer by God as the gift of the Spirit in blessedness. (Romans 4:6-

9; Galatians 3:7-9, 14; Galatians 4:6). so-called forensic gospel we are told.

17. Our Righteousness is Christ who is within the human temple, not millions of miles away. 

(1 Corinthians 1:30; Galatians 2:20, 21).

18. Righteousness without means that the person is without God (who is Christ), and without 

Christ (who is our Righteousness) in this world; such a person is in a lost state. (1 John 

5:20; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 2:12).

19. Righteousness rains down on the earth in the gift of the Spirit of God who is our 

Righteousness, and which Spirit dwells within us. (Hosea 6:3; Hosea 10:12; 2 Corinthians 

3:17; 1 Corinthians 3:16).

20. The Holy Spirit is given in the heart as Justification. (Galatians 3:7-9, 14; Galatians 4:6).

21. If a person does not have the Spirit of Christ within him (which is given in Justification), 

he does not belong to Him. Romans 8:9, 11. 

22. Here is another account of the false forensic gospel.

ANOTHER QUOTATION DEBUNKED

“When God set forth Christ to be a propitiation for our sins … He actually dealt with our 

sins. Our sins were punished in Christ and put away by Christ. Then, in Jesus’ 

resurrection, God caused His acquitting verdict to be proclaimed openly, declaring that 

those who believe are justified—that is, they stand innocent and free from sin in the 

eyes of the Judge. It is therefore not possible for God to find any sin in the man who 

confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believes in his heart that God has raised 

Him from the dead.” Ibid, pp. 68-69. (Emphasis supplied).

23. But the provisions for the putting away of sins were revealed or manifested at the cross. 

This is Christ’s sufferings and gift of Life. (1 Peter 4:1; 1 Peter 3:18; John 10:10, 11; 1 

Peter 1:18-20).

24. However, they were done from the foundation of the world when the Lamb was slain. (2 

Timothy 1:9; Romans 13:8).

25. Sins condemned on the cross in the death of Christ only means sins put away in the 

believer by God removing the mind of sin at justification and also replacing it with the 

mind of Christ or Righteousness. (Ephesians 4:22-24; Romans 6:6, 7).

26. In other word, what makes the difference in the believer is not the cross event itself which 

he believes, but the present work of God upon the heart when he believes. This is a 

work of metamorphosis or a removing of the old and a replacing of it with the new heart. 

Romans 12:2; Ezekiel 11:19-20; Philippians 2:5. 

27. In another way of putting it; the idol-values are removed, and God takes the place as the mind’s supreme ideal. (Ezekiel 36:25-27; 1 John 4:12).

28. It is this new birth, the work of God when the man repents and believes, that makes him 

sinless in a real sense at that time. 1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:18.

ANOTHER QUOTATION DEBUNKED

29. Here is another quotation of the false forensic gospel.

“Calvary not only enables God to do something with sin, but Calvary did something with 

sin. The death of Christ was God’s judicial atonement whereby sin was both judged and 

purged by Him.” Ibid, p. 69.

30. But the cross of Christ nowhere purged sin from, or rather away from man. The cross of 

Christ cleansed or purified our sins in the sense of manifesting the blood or Life of Christ 

which is the purifying agent. (Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 9:14; 1 John 1:7; Colossians 1:14, 

20). Hebrews 12:24.

31. The word translated “purged” in Hebrews 1:3 is “Katharismos””, and it is better translated 

“purged” or “cleansed”.

“Katharismos … cleansing, purification.” Cleon L. Rogers Jr. and Cleon L. Rogers 111, 

The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament, p. 516.

32. The blood which is the purifying agent justifies us only when applied to us. (Romans 5:9, 

10, 18; Leviticus 17:11, 14; Hebrews 13:20, 21).

33. The blood is the purifying agent that washes us from sins within. (Revelation 1:5; 1 

Corinthians 6:9-11; Titus 3:5-7).

34. Purifying by the purifying agent—the blood—only occurs to or in the believer when he 

believes and repents. (Revelation 7:14; 1 John 1:7).

ANOTHER QUOTATION DEBUNKED

35. Here is another quotation of the false forensic gospel.

“This means that the entire community of believers has already been perfected in Christ … 

God has already judged and acquitted the world in Jesus Christ. He has already purged and 

put away sin, and has perfected humanity in His redemptive act in Jesus.” Robert D. 

Brinsmead, Justification, pp. 69, 70.

36. But, first of all, perfection in the Bible means sinless perfection. Matthew 5:20, 48; 

Ezekiel 28:15).

37. The entire community of believers could not have been perfected in Christ, because Christ provided or made available manifestly the Grace or merits to make man sinlessly perfect. 

(2 Timothy 1:9, 10; Titus 2:11-14).

38. Perfection is a gift of the new birth. 1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:18.

39. The new birth is done by the Holy Spirit. John 3:5-8.

40. And since the Holy Spirit is the gift that Justification gives, then the new birth is 

Justification. Galatians 3:7-9, 14.

41. Justification is what makes the believer sinlessly perfect. Romans 6:6, 7.

ANOTHER QUOTATION DEBUNKED

42. Here is another quotation showing the false forensic gospel.

“All who believes are pure and righteous before God. That is, in God’s estimation—

which is the only estimation that matters—they are free from sin. They are judged 

righteous, pure, perfect, and they sit at His own right hand in heavenly places. We must 

further insist that this work of God has gloriously triumphed whether man believes it 

or not. Man’s unbelief cannot make the faith of God of none effect … Humanity has 

already been rescued and made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ assuredly as this 

representative Man is at God’s right hand. We say this because some people assume that 

Calvary has accomplished nothing without their marvelous power of choice or exercise of 

faith. They talk as if God’s acts were lifeless and ineffective until this human contribution 

brought everything to life and saving efficacy … God has made our humanity pure and 

righteous in Jesus Christ, and therefore everyone who believes is truly righteous with God. 

This is righteousness by faith. God will not, cannot find any sin in any man who 

believes this gospel. But this life of faith is not without severe trial. The man who lives 

nearest to God knows only too well that the viper of sin still lives in his own bosom. The 

more holy his life, the more sensitively he feels the power of indwelling sin and realizes 

that even his most pious works bear the taint of inbred corruption. At times he is severely 

tempted to doubt that he has a righteousness which is valid with God. Yet God sends His 

Spirit to sustain the Christian’s faith and to strengthen him so that in the midst of conflict 

his remaining sin does not become reigning sin. In this way God marvelously causes 

indwelling sin to be a great blessing to the believer.” Ibid, pp. 70, 72-73. (Emphasis 

supplied).

43. But the sinfreeness of Jesus Christ does not make a believer sinless without God actually 

transforming him when he believes. It is the transforming Faith of Christ as the Spirit of 

Truth given to the believer at Justification that makes him sinless. (Galatians 3:7-9, 14; 

John 3:3-8; 1 John 5:18).

44. When God estimates a man to be sinless, it is His active estimation that actually makes the 

man sinless. That means, only when God first removes the sinful values from the heart, 

and esteems His Righteousness as the person’s new holiness, that the person is actually holy. (Romans 4:5-9; Psalms 32:1, 2, 10; Psalms 36:10; Romans 3:22).

45. To say that a person is actually holy or sinless, is to say that their present consciousness 

of God as God, or as the highest ideal in their mental values, constitute sinfreeness actually. 

(Jeremiah 23:5, 6; 1 Corinthians 15:34; 2 Corinthians 4:6, 7).

46. To be sinless “in Christ” in God’s estimation while sin remains within the believer makes 

God overlook sin and estimate a “good and evil” state of the believer as sinless. This is 

folly because God expects the person who is justified to be righteous and to do 

righteousness only. (1 John 3:5-10; Galatians 5:16, 17; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).

47. If God accepts righteousness and sinfulness together, calling the man who has this 

experience righteous in His sight or estimation, then God is saying that good and evil are 

acceptable together. This would mean that Lucifer who is evil, is on the same level with 

God, thus he is God as God is God. This is the original claims of Lucifer in his rebellion 

and in Eden. (Isaiah 14:12-14; Galatians 3:1-5).

48. But good and evil together is not accepted to God, He cannot even look on evil, and evil 

has no part in His scheme. Matthew 1:21; John 8:10, 11; John 5:14; Psalms 5:4; Habakkuk 

1:13).

ANOTHER QUOTATION DEBUNKED

49. Here is another quotation of the false forensic gospel.

“… some souls are in excessive haste to become pure and sinless saints in their existential 

situation. They are not content with the righteousness of faith. They want an existential 

salvation in which they know and feel no sin at all. When they find that God does not 

cooperate with their excessive zeal, they are in danger of sinking into discouragement. The 

flesh wants to live by a “righteousness of sight.” To the flesh it appears that a God who 

does not exterminate indwelling sin is a weak or an unwilling God … That a believer in 

the midst of his sinfulness of nature can be pure and righteous before God is more an 

exhibition of God’s power, grace and wisdom than the final transformation from mortal 

sinfulness to immortal sinfreeness.” Ibid, p. 73. (Emphasis supplied).

50. But the Bible does tell us to expect an existential sinfreeness after Justification. We must 

even act as if this is really so, because it is so. Romans 6:7, 11-14, 17-22.

51. God does exterminate sin from within. The new birth or Justification shows this, the man 

is made sinless according to Scripture. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 John 3:9. 

52. The converted man is even instructed to keep himself sinless from the time of conversion 

by obedience to the faith. Ephesians 2:10; Galatians 5:16, 17, 24, 25; Philippians 3:14, 15; 

James 1:27.

53. We cannot continue in sin and remain in the grace which makes us sinless. (Romans 6:1, 2; Romans 8:1, 2).

54. We are never sinful in nature while we are sinless in God’s estimation only. God must 

first remove the old sinful garments and then cover us with sinfreeness, it is only then we 

are sinless in fact, and as God truly approves. (Zechariah 3:1-5; Romans 8:4).

55. Sinfreeness is the work of God now upon penitent sinners, not in the time when Christians 

are glorified at the second coming of Jesus. At that time, those who have sin will remain 

sinful, and those who have Righteousness will remain righteous. John 8:11, 12; John 5:14; 

Revelation 22:11.

56. It is Righteousness within that finally determines Christians receiving the verdict￾declaration as being righteous forever in the Judgment. This is presented in different ways. 

Revelation 19:7, 8; Galatians 5:5, 6; Revelation 3:5; Romans 3:24, 25.

57. It is Righteousness within that ensures that passing over of all past sins in the Judgment. 

Romans 3:24, 25.

CONCLUSION

58. Here are some very true statements that condemns a forensic gospel or justification.

“That gospel justification is not to be regarded as a forensic or judicial proceeding … Now 

it is certainly nonsense to affirm, that a sinner can be pronounced just in the eye of law; that 

he can be justified by deeds of law, or by the law at all. The law condemns him. But to be 

justified judicially or forensically, is to be pronounced just in the judgment of law. This 

certainly is an impossibility in respect to sinners.” Charles Finney, Finney’s Systematic 

Theology, pp. 318,319.

“The whole system of sacrifices taught the doctrine of pardon upon the conditions of 

atonement, repentance, and faith. This, under the old dispensation, is constantly 

represented as a merciful acceptance of the penitents, and never as a forensic or judicial 

acquittal or justification of them … for sinners to be forensically pronounced just, is 

impossible and absurd.” Ibid, p. 320.

59. The following chart is a point-summary of the differences between the false forensic

gospel and the true transformative Gospel. This relates only to Justification.

60. The false forensic gospel entails other points that follow a systematic pattern. Here it is:

a. At the fall of Adam all his descendants got original sin. Sinful flesh is sin.

b. Christ incarnated in sinless flesh.

c. Christ lived holy fulfilling the Law for all men in their actual place.

2; Romans 8:1, 2).

54. We are never sinful in nature while we are sinless in God’s estimation only. God must 

first remove the old sinful garments and then cover us with sinfreeness, it is only then we 

are sinless in fact, and as God truly approves. (Zechariah 3:1-5; Romans 8:4).

55. Sinfreeness is the work of God now upon penitent sinners, not in the time when Christians 

are glorified at the second coming of Jesus. At that time, those who have sin will remain 

sinful, and those who have Righteousness will remain righteous. John 8:11, 12; John 5:14; 

Revelation 22:11.

56. It is Righteousness within that finally determines Christians receiving the verdict￾declaration as being righteous forever in the Judgment. This is presented in different ways. 

Revelation 19:7, 8; Galatians 5:5, 6; Revelation 3:5; Romans 3:24, 25.

57. It is Righteousness within that ensures that passing over of all past sins in the Judgment. 

Romans 3:24, 25.

CONCLUSION

58. Here are some very true statements that condemns a forensic gospel or justification.

“That gospel justification is not to be regarded as a forensic or judicial proceeding … Now 

it is certainly nonsense to affirm, that a sinner can be pronounced just in the eye of law; that 

he can be justified by deeds of law, or by the law at all. The law condemns him. But to be 

justified judicially or forensically, is to be pronounced just in the judgment of law. This 

certainly is an impossibility in respect to sinners.” Charles Finney, Finney’s Systematic 

Theology, pp. 318,319.

“The whole system of sacrifices taught the doctrine of pardon upon the conditions of 

atonement, repentance, and faith. This, under the old dispensation, is constantly 

represented as a merciful acceptance of the penitents, and never as a forensic or judicial 

acquittal or justification of them … for sinners to be forensically pronounced just, is 

impossible and absurd.” Ibid, p. 320.

59. The following chart is a point-summary of the differences between the false forensic

gospel and the true transformative Gospel. This relates only to Justification.

60. The false forensic gospel entails other points that follow a systematic pattern. Here it is:

a. At the fall of Adam all his descendants got original sin. Sinful flesh is sin.

b. Christ incarnated in sinless flesh.

c. Christ lived holy fulfilling the Law for all men in their actual place.