BSERC

I read Simon Cozens post about justification. His “now-common questions” for Justification by Faith are not all questions I have heard of yet, but then again I haven’t been dabbling much into views of justification. However, there are a couple questions which he listed that I have thought about as well, but without much success in answering:

• Why do we equate salvation and justification, failing to take note of the wider sense in which salvation is used in the Bible?
• If righteousness is imputed (ie. counted, considered) to us, is justification by faith anything more than a legal fiction where God pretends we’re righteous even when He knows full well that we are not? If not, and righteousness is imparted to us, is righteousness a kind of physical thing that it makes sense to pass around?
• Why did Jesus bother teaching? If Jesus came to save us and that salvation is reduced to the cross as substitution, what was the purpose of His teaching and commandments?

Being raised with this doctrine, I have never really tried to analyze its truthfulness (or “truthiness”, for that matter), so I’m sorta at a loss for where to begin. He presents a couple other views, and the one which he (seemingly) favors sounds quite reasonable to me (despite its name). I’m curious tho’, where have y’all found guidance in understanding the doctrine of justification you believe? I’m looking for reading material/resources.