“At every college and university, students study hard to get an “A” at the end of the course. When I was a student, I did the same thing. But I had one class that was different. It was a senior level course taken only by physics and chemistry majors, and there were only four or five students in the class. The first day of lectures, our teacher surprised us with the following announcement: “You don’t have to worry about your grade in this course—you all have an ‘A.’ Now we can just settle down and enjoy the material.”

Now, this is exactly what God does in justification. God gives us an “A” at the beginning of the Christian life! We do not labor to merit eternal life at the end of our course; we have eternal life.”

–Charles Leiter, Justification and Regeneration

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come…For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  (2 Corinthians 5:17, 21)

Isn’t it a great feeling to know that Christ took our old report card and God credited us with Christ’s perfect card of straight-A righteousness?  Now we can get to work for God BECAUSE he has justified us not in order to be justified.  We aren’t saved by good works, but salvation RESULTS in good works, which God created beforehand for us to walk in.