John Bunyan describes his justification

One day as I was passing into the field . . . this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And methought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he wants [=lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, "The same yesterday, today, and forever." Heb. 13:8. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God [about the unforgivable sin] left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God."

Sunday nights I am leading a small group through a study called "Being the Christian that you say you have become." This Sunday we are going to study Romans 4 in depth. I believe that this testimony of John Bunyan will help us to understand the true nature of our justification.

A key phrase that we must understand and study is listed 4 times in Romans 4 which says "Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness." My key question for our Sunday night group will be - what does faith credited as righteousness mean?