In a manual published for the 1947 adult Gospel Doctrine study of the New Testament, Russel Swensen wrote the following about the nature of justification. Note how, for Swensen, justification is only incidentally forensic; instead, it is predominately transformative, and instead of being largely a legal declaration by a judge, it is, instead, more familial—the adoption as sons/daughters of God into a covenant, not a legal contract:
One of the most essential results of this faith in Christ is the justification of the soul before God. This term is a Latin legal term and means an acquittal from guilt. This phrase was used by Luther to define his conception of salvation in which God’s anger had been turned to mercy through His acquittal of those souls who had faith. Paul does not have this legalistic concept so much in mind as he does to express the newly found joy and exuberance of soul which he experienced when he had such a dynamic spiritual communion with Christ. The joy of an accused prisoner who had been released from a legal charge, that of a slave who had been redeemed (that is, emancipated), of a debtor who had been forgiven a huge debt of a despised person of low estate who had been adopted by a great personage, all these terms are used to illustrate the spiritual exaltation of one who has found God through faith. Thus, justification, redemption, remission of a debt, and adoption are illustrative terms to describe the reconciliation, fellowship, and joy which this experience of faith brings to the soul of the believer. They are ordinary legal terms used in the Roman court in those enactments where a person passes from a state of lowliness, bondage, or guilt, into a free and privileged existence. This explains one basic aspect of Christ’s atonement wherein God brings His believers into a state of reconciliation.
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that of God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespass unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” (II Cor. 5:18, 19.) . . . He who has experienced genuine faith in Christ is also reborn with a new nature. It is not a complete change of the old Adam into the new Christ-nature, as Paul testifies of his own temptation, but an essential victory over the “flesh” is a characteristic of this spiritual rebirth. The fruits of the spirit are held up to those who think that salvation in Christ allows them to do anything. Such people, like the Gentile converts in the pagan cults, thought that salvation was entirely sacramental, that is, mediated through the supernatural power of sacred ordinances. Paul, therefore, had to impress upon them that an upright moral life was the best and most important result of a Christ-like faith.
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another . . . This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other. So that ye cannot do the things that ye would . . . But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.” (Galatians 5:13, 16, 17, 22-25.)
Because of the moral regeneration effected by faith, the power and dominion of the Law is abolished for Christians. The Law was designed to curb those whose hearts are still dominated by the “flesh.” Though it has righteous purposes in seeking to control sin, yet it sets up high standards without giving the soul the motivating strength to attain them. The “works” of the Law, therefore, are the result of a mechanical obedience to its requirements. They are not the spontaneous achievements of a heart that has been touched by faith in Christ (Rom. 7.) (Russel B. Swensen, The New Testament: The Acts and the Epistles [Salt Lake City: Deseret Sunday School Union Board, 1946], 151-53, emphasis in bold added)
