When Paul talks about justification by faith, he normally contrasts it with justification by works. But elsewhere in Paul, “by faith” is contrasted with “by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul is speaking of two different “walks,” but can the same contrast apply to justification? Does it make sense to say that we are justified by faith rather than by sight?

It would seem so. Justification by sight would be something like this: God makes it publicly evident that some individual stands in the right before Him. That public justification will occur at the last day, and so the future justification is a justification “by sight” - just as we will see face to face in the eschaton.

For now, though, our standing with God is not public and obvious. When Jesus stood before Pilate, it was not obvious that He stood righteous before the Father. When Jesus hung on a Roman cross, it was not evident that He was in the right with the Creator. So too, when we share in His sufferings, there is no indisputable proof that we have been declared right in God’s court. The world might be excused for thinking the opposite, that, if there is a God, He cannot be the Father and Savior of a people so beleaguered. And we ourselves are tempted to doubt our right standing.

Justification by faith means knowing that God favors us, counts us as righteous covenant partners, even when all the empirical symptoms indicate the opposite.