What did Paul mean when he wrote that Christ was 'delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification' (Romans 4.25)?
Since the time of the Reformation at least, there has been general agreement among evangelical Christians that justification refers to the declaration by God that, by the sin-bearing death and life-giving resurrection of Christ, the sinner is no longer guilty in God's sight.
The great issue at the time of the Reformation in the 16th century was the claim by the Reformers that Christ took all our guilt, sin and punishment upon himself at the cross. The result was described in the language of the law court: the guilt of the sinner was passed to the account of Christ, and the Father counted his Son as the guilty one instead. In exchange, the righteousness of Christ was passed to the account of the sinner and thus the just anger of God against sin was satisfied. The word to describe this satisfying of the righteous judgement of God is 'propitiation' - which is found in 1 John 2.2. The German reformer in the 16th century, Martin Luther, called this 'the wonderful exchange'. Justification was seen as a legal term in which the guilty sinner is declared 'not guilty' by God on the basis of Christ's death in place of the sinner - a substitute.
