What is justification as a judicial act?
Justification as a judicial act is God's legal declaration that the believer, through faith in Christ's shed blood, is now just as if they had never sinned. It is a spiritual declaration, not a physical change, applied by faith to the sinner's need.
Les explains that justification is being declared by a judicial act of God that we are now just as if we have never sinned. He connects this to being justified by Christ's blood through faith, not by drinking literal blood, but by faith applying the power of His shed blood to our need. He illustrates with Dr. M. R. D. Hahn's statement about God's chemistry: in the physical realm, something placed in blood comes out blood red or dark brown, but in God's chemistry, what is placed in the blood of Christ comes out white as new fallen snow. Les emphasizes this is a spiritual reality, not physical, and asks us to consider when we are just as if we never sinned—like Adam before he fell, not physically.