Personal or Subjective Justification
At the same moment a person comes to faith in Jesus or the gospel, that is, when the person trusts in the forgiveness earned by Christ and offered in the gospel, in that very same moment the person is justified before God through that faith. It is a confirmation that justification applies to that person specifically, that “the righteousness that counts before God” is his own personal possession. This is the so-called personal or subjective justification or reconciliation, as opposed to the so-called objective justification which exists before faith and which faith receives. 2 Corinthians 5:19 talks about the objective reconciliation or justification and the next verse (5:20) talks about its personal reception: “Be reconciled to God!”
It is necessary to carefully separate questions about whether faith is true and living and whether justification/reconciliation is true and certain. Justification’s certainty does not have its basis in my faith, but exclusively in Christ’s substitutionary life and death which prepared and completed justification for me and for all people. Faith is not a thing people need to offer to God in order to make the forgiveness of sins real. “In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14). The gospel is the message of the complete reconciliation and justification which has happened, not a set of instructions on how people will be able to make God fully gracious toward them.
Some people think that the gospel is dependent on a person’s faith, because it only benefits those who believe. So they make faith a part of the gospel. But this turns our gaze within ourselves, leading us to put our faith also in our faith, instead of on Christ alone. But the gospel is not influenced by our belief or unbelief any more than the son is influenced by people seeing it. Faith is the empty hand by which we receive God’s undeserved gift. It is God who works in us so that we extend the hand of faith. He works this through the gospel so that the good news itself, which tells us about the Savior, also gives us faith in Christ as our righteousness.
The gospel is always the same, whether it is met with unbelief or belief. Faith is God’s work in us, by which we personally receive the universal grace for our life and salvation.