1644 First London Confession of Faith of Seven Churches of Christ [Particular Baptist]
"XXVIII - THOSE that have union with Christ, are justified from all their sins by the blood of Christ, which justification is a gracious and full acquittance of a guilty sinner from all sin, by God, through the satisfaction that Christ hath made by His death for all their sins, and this applied (in manifestation of it) through faith."

1646 Westminster Confession of Faith
Chapter 11:
Para. 2 "Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; ..."
Para. 4 "God did, from all eternity, decree to justify the elect; and Christ did, in the fullness of time, die for their sins and rise again for their justification; nevertheless they are not justified until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them."

The 1644 Baptist Confession describes justification to be merited solely by the merit of Christ, and faith is the subjective manifestation of justification, not the means, merit or instrument of man to apply the justification itself. The 1644 Confession does not state the time of justification, but the manifestation of it in the consciousness of the elect.

Two years later the Westminster Confession describes faith as the "alone instrument of justification", and places the time of the elect's justification at the point when the person believes"

Jesus proclaimed the good news of God that the kingdom of God was near and said "repent, and believe in the good news". I believe as written in the 1644 Confession by scripture and experience. First, Paul wrote: "...but hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel," (2Tim 1:10 ASV) Being born into a Christian family where Jesus and God were spoken of in intimate terms, I cannot point to a date I began personally to believe, but in believing I became aware of my justification. Paul also wrote: Christ "..who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous. Having been declared righteous[at the resurrection], then, by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Rom 4:25-5:1 YLT)

An argument can be made about the placement of the commas in the YLT, but removing the comma, since the original did not have English punctuation, I still read it the same way. The scriptures speak of a "law of faith", and Jesus referred to faith as a "work" in John 6:29; to make faith what makes one justified, is to make a work, act of man to be what truly merits justification, instead of the merits of Christ. I do not know of any scripture that refers to faith as a "means" or an "instrument" of faith, and to make that the determining factor makes justification the result of man, instead of the merits of Christ. Avoiding the idea of faith being "merit" by using the terms means and instrument seems weak to me.

I see myself justified or declared righteous by God at the resurrection, a done act of God in the 1st century; then by my faith, I have peace knowing I've been reconciled or viewed in Christ as right with God. So, here my perspective is solely on God's grace in the work of Christ and my faith manifests the reality of my justification. I was not justified because of my initial act of faith, which I do not even have a consciousness of . Then if my name was written in the lambs book of life from before the creation, Rev. 13:8; if my name was then written in eternity, I see myself in one sense justified from eternity, as my election and the benefits of being in Christ comes from eternity, Eph. 1:4-6.

Jesus "who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works[work of faith], but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal," (2Tim 1:9 ASV)

While the words of scripture have only one meaning and can't be twisted around to suit a prior idea, the application or how it fits the life experience of each individual can vary. I lived most of my life in an area of the Bible-belt where statements such as follow are frequently heard from pulpits and on radio: "God has done his part for your salvation, now you must do your part by believing". Or, as I heard a fundamentalist Baptist preacher say, after laying out all the provision of salvation provided by Christ in detail, he made the following statement: "If you go to hell after all Jesus has done for you, you deserve to!" Of course that means that the Christian deserved heaven because of his belief, because Jesus has already done his part.

Does the "gift" of faith save, or is it the exercise of the gift of faith by the individual that brings justification? I believe that just as faith gives the first evidence of being born from above, faith also gives evidence of having been previously justified, therefore we have wonderful peace with God. I therefore see justification from three perspectives: as being from before the creation, as being fully provided at the death and resurrection of Christ, and as becoming evident, or manifesting in the individual elect's believing.

My understanding of justification is pretty close to the Primitive Baptist, Elder David Pyle's article:
http://www.pb.org/PBDocs/JustificationAndBaptists.pdf

The Primitive Baptists as represented by Grace Primitive Baptist Church are truly one of the few churches to truly adhere to the principle of "the regulative principle of worship", most noticeably the absence of musical instruments or Sunday Schools in their churches: http://www.pb.org/