sanctified by faith (part 1b)Justification (cont.)

In my last post, I left pondering if justification, like sanctification could be thought of as a continuous process. In hindsight, that may seem like a silly question. First of all, and this is something that I always find I'm asking myself, why does it matter? Maybe the original question deserves some clarification. I was wondering that since sanctification is the continual process of becoming like God - does justification also fall into this same continual process? Are we justified daily? I don't see how that can make much sense - either we are justified, or we are not justified - there isn't really a "justification" process.
I just got done reading a chapter from The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges and appropriately enough he answers this question (kind of cool when a question raised in one book "randomly" gets answered in another). Chapter 9, Right Standing With God, peers into the doctrine of justification. Towards the end of the chapter, Bridges describes it as "A Point-In-Time Event".

"Justification is a point-in-time experience that occurs the moment a person trusts in Christ as Savior... [justification] is a point-in-time event that has eternal ongoing benefit for us... There was a point in time when we trusted in Christ and were by faith united in Him so that His death became our death, His obedience our obedience, His righteousness our righteousness."

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I'm finding that one time justification is an important concept to grasp hold of (my english teacher's would love that sentence). We (christians) need to realize that by our faith in Christ we are justified - apart from "the law" - which basically means apart from anything that we have merited or earned. God's word is pretty clear on what we have earned.