In the Old Testament,
(1) in what did justification consist?
(2) what was the instrumental cause of justification, or
(3) did justification even have an instrumental cause?
(4) who could be justified?
(5) how was a person justified?
Any books, articles, etc. also welcome.
The Old Covenant was one where obedience to the commandments made one holy or just. We are still to obey the commandments now but commandments-or the Law-were revealed by Jesus to be spiritual,
while we are not. And abiding by the Spirit, meaning to cooperate with God working in us by His grace, is the only way we can be truly and sufficiently in obedience (rather than trying to be righteous under our own steam, so to speak- on our own merits apart from God). Otherwise we can be hypocritical like some Pharisees, who were clean on the outside but still dirty on the inside. This is not because the Law is wrong, but because the letter of the Law kills.
**“He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”**2 Cor 3:6
In other words, what man needs to learn is not
how to be righteous first of all, but that *he needs God *first of all-a concept Adam & Eve rejected for all practical purposes by their sin against Him.
The New covenant was prophesied in Jeremiah 31 which was quoted in Hebrews:
**“The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
"when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to [d] them, [e] "
declares the LORD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.” **
So the law is still in effect. But the key is
how it’s fulfilled. Will we be authentically just or merely outwardly so? The Law is summed up by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, that we are to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. When we finally come to this point, we are fully justified because:
"…love is the fulfillment of the law." Rom 13:10
