The Apostle Paul writes that Jesus was “justified by the Spirit” (First Timothy 3.16), an obvious reference to his resurrection (Romans 1.3, 4; 8.1ff).

Does this mean that Paul regarded Jesus as unrighteous before that point in time? Of course not.

“Righteous” is a relational concept. The OT saints were justified before God, yet their access was deliberately restricted. Paul can both contrast the justification we have today with that of the OT saints and yet use Abraham as an example of what we have in justification by faith. While the saints were righteous in God’s sight before and after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the ending of restrictions from God’s presence was a real justification–a bestowal of a new status with new rights and privileges.

Biblically speaking, a person can be justified when he is already justified. So, to say some event is a justification, a declaration that one is in the right, is not necessarily to say that the person was unjustified previous to that point.

(Remember, the Westminster documents give a definition of justification that is only meant to apply to certain cases. If you applied that definition to First Timothy 3.16 you would end up blaspheming Jesus.)

This is why heated reactions to baptismal justification or final justification are premised on faulty logic—a false antithesis that says in such cases one must have not be justified in any real sense prior to the event.

The positions may still be wrong, but one cannot dismiss them on this basis. One will have to argue from the Bible.