Justification

This is a great debate that has gone on for centuries.  What can we achieve by our own devices?  Our culture of course says the possibilities are unlimited.  We can amass wealth, we can make discoveries, we can obtain power, we can try to keep our bodies healthy and pure, we can fight disease.  (Recall we have been reminded these past two days of the "vanity" of all of this by the "preacher.")

Can we therefore also make ourselves right in the eyes of God by our good works?  Saint Paul's letter to the Galatians is about justification.  He addresses the vanity, in a way, of attempting to become "justified" by our own merits (as in adhering to the canon of "law").  Can we achieve justification on our own, by our own efforts?  The word "justification" is an odd sounding word today.  Is it even used outside of theological discussion?  What could it possibly mean?  Sometimes I hear this word used in the sense that someone "felt" justified in such and such an action as if the person was "justifying" himself.

"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just [righteous] shall live by faith." (Galatians 3:11)

Of course if you do not have ears to hear and eyes to see the hand of the Lord, why would you want to be "justified?"  Justified with what? or to what?  Perhaps justification is a word that has more and more meaning as you "live by faith."