Can the forensic justication doctrine be characterized as false justification contrary to fact and truth?

It is contrary to human reason for the Judge of all the Earth to exact legal (forensic) punishment on one who volunteered to be punished in the stead of many criminals. Especially as that volunteer was the very Son of God, utterly sinless in and of himself.

There is legal punishment for crimes. That is one thing.

There is righteousness manifested in carrying that punishment out so that all the crimes to be dealt with are dealt with at a stroke. That is a related thing.

There is a legal declaration of justification on those whose deserved punishment has been carried out so that there is no longer any case to answer. That is the concluding thing.

There is a logical as well as a legal (forensic) progression.

"There is no-one righteous, no not one... there is none that does good, no not one" says the Old Testament and the New (Ps.14:1-3; Isa.51:1-3; Rom.3:9-12). "Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom.3:20).

There we have God's righteous verdict on all sin, and (obviously) on all sinners. That is the condemnatory verdict of the righteous Judge. So, punishment must be exacted. How it is exacted is shown in the mind-blowing righteousness of God demonstrated to the whole world (whether or not they will see it) at Golgotha and then the empty tomb.

Unmitigated punishment was poured out from heaven upon the sinless one who bore in his body, on the tree, the immensity of sin. Christ yielded himself up to this demonstration of the righteousness of God. Here, and nowhere else is seen the righteousness of God as it was accomplished at Golgotha.

This is declared in the gospel. We did not have to be physically present to see with our own eyes how God dealt, once and for all, with sin. The gospel of grace tells us. We either believe and accept it, or we disbelieve and reject it. Those who reject it will have to bear their own punishment for their own sins on the Day of Resurrection and Judgment. Nobody gets off free with God, as if he 'overlooks justice' for any individual. Either they are punished personally for their own sins, or they accept God's just decree at Golgotha, that his righteousness was demonstrated to a sinful world in the way he dealt with his sinless Son.

Both Old Covenant prophet and New Testament apostle depict God as consuming fire. If one shall not be purged with God's holy fire, one shall be consumed by it. The purging fire fell at Golgotha. Come under that cleansing provision and be cleansed of all the dross of your sin. Disagree with it and be consumed by the burning wrath of God on the Day of Resurrection and Judgment. "Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Isa. 33:14 with Rev. 20:10)

So, never mind modern-day evangelicals. Go back and discover in the Bible the utter justice and righteousness of God in dealing with sin and with us sinners which Luther began to explain. Avail yourself of the mercy shown to us at Golgotha even while the Son of God willingly bore total punishment for becoming sin, for us (2 Cor.5:21).

Answer: God's legally just righteousness in punishing sin the way he did at Golgotha is not a false justification, but those who try to justify themselves by their own works will discover they are only justified in their own eyes.

In other words, a person is declared righteous despite being a sinner, and remain an ungodly sinner, but God overlooks justice for him and let him go. Is it acceptable if we characterize this as a false justification or forged justification - contrary to fact? As if a forged document of righteousness is given by God?

No, the Protestant doctrine of forensic justification should not be thought of in this way.

In this view, justification is a speech act, an act of speech which changes reality. Here are some other examples of speech acts:

• "I now pronounce you husband and wife"
• "You're fired"
• "I promise to ..."
• "I find you guilty and sentence you to ..."
• "You are pardoned"

Each of these are declarations of a state which did not exist before. You are in one state before the declaration, and a different state afterwards: from unmarried to married, employed to unemployed, unbound by a promise to bound, free to a prisoner, guilty to pardoned.

The pardon of a king or president is the closest analogy to the justifying declaration of God, for in both the guilt of the guilty is set aside, and the guilty person becomes, in the eyes of the judicial system, innocent. And in both, this declaration doesn't change the nature of the individual: the criminal still committed their crime (aside for pardons for wrongful convictions) and the community still knows they did it, while the justified sinner is still afflicted by sin, still blinded by sin, still tempted by sin, still in a habit of sin.

But there is a great difference between the pardon of a king and the justification of God: a king's pardon probably can't change your heart, but the justification of God is only one part the multi-faceted salvation of the Gospel. Because God does not justify anyone through legal declaration who he does not also

• give spiritual life
• give the righteousness of Christ
• unite to Christ
• send the Spirit to indwell
• adopt as his child
• begin the lifelong sanctification process
• promise to complete the sanctification process in the resurrection

All of these either take place or are initiated in an instant, at the moment when God saves a person.

I think the best image of salvation comes from Ephesians 2:

Ephesians 2:1-10 (NIV): As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In sin we were dead. Just as a dead body cannot make itself alive, cannot breathe air into its lungs, cannot pump its heart to take blood to its extremities, so too can the spiritually dead not make itself spiritually alive, it cannot breath in the things of God, it cannot order its muscles to perform acts of righteousness. Dead is just dead. Dead remains dead unless God performs the miraculous, to breathe life into dead flesh, bringing it to life. And those God has made alive now cannot help but live, just as we cannot hold our breaths forever. Those who God has brought to life do not just hobble along in a state of necrosis relishing in new sins, but instead we are forever learning to cherish God more, to think the thoughts of God, to love with the overflows of God's own love. And this is why justification is not a forgery or contrary to fact: God's declaration that we are righteous becomes reality as he purifies us and conforms us to the image of Christ his Son.