One of the major divides among Christians is their view of justification. Some understand justification as merely a declaration by God that we are just—regardless of our interior state of holiness. Others, like Catholics, view justification as being rooted in our interior state of holiness—I am declared righteous because I am truly holy— which God brings about within us.
Numerous Bible verses support this latter view of justification, including 1 Peter 2:24-25. In this passage St. Peter writes,
He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Notice that Peter equates our state of being “free from sin” with “living for [or to] righteousness.” This freedom from sin is not merely a state where we are no longer held accountable for our sin, as some Protestants claim. Rather, Peter is describing a present reality: we are free from sin and living for righteousness. Two things suggest this.
First, the Greek verb for “free,” agoginomai, means “to die.” So, Peter is describing the reality that we as Christians have died to sin. Paul teaches that this happens in baptism (Rom. 6:3-4). This implies that something has happened to us, which is why our status relative to God has changed.
Second, Peter equates this “death to [or freedom from] sin” with “being healed.” To speak of healing is to speak of something that happens to us—not simply a change in our relation to God.
Most significant is Peter’s connection of this inward healing and death to sin with a state of “living to [for] righteousness.” The Greek word for “righteousness” is dikaiosunē; this is the same word Paul uses throughout his letter to the Romans when he speaks about Abraham’s righteousness through faith, a righteousness that Paul equates with being “justified by faith” and thereby having “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1).
Thus, for Peter, our justification isn’t merely rooted in an extrinsic declaration by God that we are now righteous or justified. Rather, our justification is identified as an interior death to sin and inward healing—that’s to say, interior righteousness.