It is only when a man breaks the moral law that his relationship to the Lawmaker is severed. The only way, then, that a man can be right with God according to the law is to never violate that law. This means that all are law breakers and under the penalty of the law. The only answer to the incurred penalty of the law is a pardon from the Lawmaker. This pardon is called justification in the Bible.
Justification consists in a governmental decree of pardon or amnesty.
It pardons by arresting and setting aside the execution of the incurred penalty of law. In justification God pardons and restores to favor those who have sinned. A Divine Pardon Justification is the act by which a sinner is freed through faith from the penalty of his past sin and is accepted by God as righteous or worthy of being saved. You must be pardoned before you can be saved. The court of heaven must pardon the sinner before it can treat that sinner as righteous.