Jacob,
At the risk of letting all the "you worship the Westminster Standards" people coming out, I would say that the Larger Catechism Q70 is the place to start:
Quote:
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Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.
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Why?
1. By speaking of an "act" (esp. as opposed to the "work" of sanctification) we get the "once for all" aspect of justification.
2. By speaking of "God's free grace" we forever remove all ideas of merit.
3. We have the idea of remission ("pardons all their sins") and also being made righteous ("accounts their persons righteous in his sight") - thus avoiding the common error today that justification is merely forgiveness of sins.
4. "not for any thing wrought in them" removes the idea of an infused righteousness
5. "or done by them" removes the idea of works
6. "only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ" (esp. in conjunction with WCF 11.1's "not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience, to them as their righteousness") removes the idea of one's faith as the
ground of justification, and makes sure that the ground is the merit of Christ
7. With "by God imputed to them" making clear that there is an imputation.
8. "received by faith alone" makes sure that we see faith as the necessary and
exclusive instrument of justification.
If I were to add to this by way of fuller explication, it would be to say: "but only for the perfect obedience
and perfectly holy life and full satisfaction
and death of Christ" in order to make explicit the active/passive obedience issue (which I think is implicit already).
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