NOTE: in using the ESV as a pony for these searches, I realized that I had left out words about vindication. That is now corrected.

If you want to research Calvin’s reasoning on why “justification” is a judicial act rather than a transformation of character, here’s a way to start. Of course, the concept opens up in more than one word. A look at all the things saying about how God “judges” are also relevant.

• Genesis 20:16  (Genesis 20)

  To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.”

• Deuteronomy 32:36  (Deuteronomy 32)

  For the Lord will vindicate his people

  and have compassion on his servants,

  when he sees that their power is gone

  and there is none remaining, bond or free.

• Job 6:29  (Job 6)

  Please turn; let no injustice be done.

  Turn now; my vindication is at stake.

• Job 32:2  (Job 32)

  Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.

• Job 33:32  (Job 33)

  If you have any words, answer me;

  speak, for I desire to justify you.

• Psalm 17:2  (Psalm 17)

  From your presence let my vindication come!

  Let your eyes behold the right!

• Psalm 26:1  (Psalm 26)

  Of David.

  Vindicate me, O Lord,

  for I have walked in my integrity,

  and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.

• Psalm 35:23  (Psalm 35)

  Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication,

  for my cause, my God and my Lord!

• Psalm 35:24  (Psalm 35)

  Vindicate me, O Lord, my God,

  according to your righteousness,

  and let them not rejoice over me!

• Psalm 43:1  (Psalm 43)

  Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause

  against an ungodly people,

  from the deceitful and unjust man

  deliver me!

• Psalm 51:4  (Psalm 51)

  Against you, you only, have I sinned

  and done what is evil in your sight,

  so that you may be justified in your words

  and blameless in your judgment.

• Psalm 54:1  (Psalm 54)

  To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A MaskilO God, save me by your name,

  and vindicate me by your might.

• Psalm 135:14  (Psalm 135)

  For the Lord will vindicate his people

  and have compassion on his servants.

• Proverbs 17:15  (Proverbs 17)

  He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous

  are both alike an abomination to the Lord.

• Isaiah 45:25  (Isaiah 45)

  In the Lord all the offspring of Israel

  shall be justified and shall glory.”

• Isaiah 50:8  (Isaiah 50)

  He who vindicates me is near.

  Who will contend with me?

  Let us stand up together.

  Who is my adversary?

  Let him come near to me.

• Isaiah 54:17  (Isaiah 54)

  no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,

  and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord

  and their vindication [or righteousness] from me, declares the Lord.”

• Jeremiah 51:10  (Jeremiah 51)

  The Lord has brought about our vindication;

  come, let us declare in Zion

  the work of the Lord our God.

• Ezekiel 36:23  (Ezekiel 36)

  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

• Ezekiel 38:16  (Ezekiel 38)

  You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

• Ezekiel 39:27  (Ezekiel 39)

  when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations.

• Joel 2:23  (Joel 2)

  “Be glad, O children of Zion,

  and rejoice in the Lord your God,

  for he has given the early rain for your vindication;

  he has poured down for you abundant rain,

  the early and the latter rain, as before.

• Micah 7:9  (Micah 7)

  I will bear the indignation of the Lord

  because I have sinned against him,

  until he pleads my cause

  and executes judgment for me.

  He will bring me out to the light;

  I shall look upon his vindication.

• Matthew 11:19  (Matthew 11)

  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

• Luke 7:35  (Luke 7)

  Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

• Luke 10:29  (Luke 10)

  But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

• Luke 16:15  (Luke 16)

  And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

• Luke 18:14  (Luke 18)

  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

• Acts 19:40  (Acts 19)

  For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.”

• Romans 2:13  (Romans 2)

  For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

• Romans 3:4  (Romans 3)

  By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,

  “That you may be justified in your words,

  and prevail when you are judged.”

• Romans 3:20  (Romans 3)

  For by works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

• Romans 3:30  (Romans 3)

  since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

• Romans 4:5  (Romans 4)

  And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith [i.e. trust] is counted as righteousness,

• Romans 4:25  (Romans 4)

  who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

• Romans 5:16  (Romans 5)

  And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

• Romans 5:18  (Romans 5)

  Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

• Romans 8:33  (Romans 8)

  Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

• Galatians 3:8  (Galatians 3)

  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

• 1 Timothy 3:16  (1 Timothy 3)

  Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

  He was manifested in the flesh,

  vindicated by the Spirit,

  seen by angels,

  proclaimed among the nations,

  believed on in the world,

  taken up in glory.