Romans 5:12
Justification
“A murderer may stand at the bottom of a mine and you on the highest peak of the Rock Mountains, but you are as little able to touch the stars as he. You cannot reach the righteousness that God demands, no matter how far you climb. “Forgiveness is the removal of our unrighteousness, and unclothing or putting away of sin. Justification is the act of being clothed with the righteousness of God’s own providing. It is perfect. It depends upon something done outside of us, something done on the cross of Calvary.
“Justification takes care of all the sin and guilt upon us, buries all this sin and guilt in the grave of Jesus Christ, and then sets us in heavenly places with our Savior. None of us likes the idea of being called a sinner. But we must face what we are.
“Listen to what Paul says in Romans 5:12-21. We were born sinners. Adam, the head of our race, was not created that way. He deliberately sinned, and his sinful nature was passed on to us all. But over against Adam, the head of the natural race, we find Christ, the Head of a spiritual race. If one man’s sin made it possible for all the race to die, one Man’s righteousness made it possible for all the race to get out of this condition.”