![[ Go To Top Of This Page ]](../../../graphics//top_of_page_16x21.gif){kind=small}
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. They demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and they take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And they will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
Part 1 of this essay appeared in the September 1996 issue of The Trinity Review. It stated in part: "Sanctification is what God does in the believer; it is not the good works of the believer. Important as they are, neither sanctifica- tion nor good works is the basis of salvation or thefoun- dation of the Christian's hope. Unless sanctification is rooted in justification, and justification in election, it can- not escape the poisons of subjectivism, moralism, or Pharisaism. "
What is the testimony of God's Word? Simply that Christ, by his perfect righteousness, has won for us the gift of God's Spirit. The Spirit has been given to this one Man (Acts 2:32, 33), and all who receive this one Man are forgiven and receive the Holy Spirit without measure (Acts 10:43, 44; John 7:38, 39).
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? . . . For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: For it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "The just shall live by faith." And the law is not of faith; but "The man that does them shall live in them." Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:1, 2,10-14).
The way of justification by faith alone is the only way of receiving the Spirit of God. To be justified means to be declared righteous. It means that God not only regards us as righteous, but can proceed to treat us as righteous. How does he treat the forgiven sinner as righteous? By giving him the gift of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more and nothing less than perfect righteousness is necessary for the outpouring of God's Spirit. As every believer has this perfect righteousness imputed to him, he may on this one infallible basis have the Holy Spirit imparted to him.
When the doctrine of justification by faith alone is allowed to languish, there is no Holy Spirit and, of course, no true sanctification--even though people spend all their time talking about getting ready for the outpouring of God's Spirit. When justification by faith alone is revived, it is because the Spirit breathes new life into the church, and God's people run the way of sanctification with great joy and zeal.
These two gifts belong together--"the gift of righteousness" (Romans 5:17), which is imputed, and the gift of the Spirit, which is imparted ("shed abroad in our hearts") (see Romans 5:1, 5). we must distinguish these two blessings in thought so that we may know where to repose in hope of salvation. But to separate justification and the gift of the Holy Spirit in time is a great mischief. It divides the Trinity and divides the church.
Upon being united to Christ by faith, we are justified, for "if the root be holy, so are the branches" (Romans 11:16). And if we are "in Christ," joined to Christ as the branch is united to the vine, it is inevitable that we will be "partakers of his holiness." Union with Christ through belief therefore secures the two benefits. The legal benefit is justification, and the moral benefit is sanctification. It is impossible to secure one without the other. As Calvin wrote:
Christ cannot be torn into parts, so these two which we perceive in him together and conjointly are inseparable-namely, righteousness and sanctification. Whomever, therefore, God receives into grace, on them he at the same time bestows the spirit of adoption [Romans 8:15], by whose power he remakes them to his own image.... Yet Scripture, even though it joins them, still lists them separately in order that God's manifold grace may better appear to us.Why, then, are we justified by faith? Because by faith we grasp Christ's righteousness, by which alone we are reconciled to God. Yet you could not grasp this without at the same time grasping sanctification also. For he is "given unto us for righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Therefore Christ justifies no one whom he does not atJhe same time sanctify. These benefits are joined together by an everlasting and indissoluble bond, so that those whom he illuminates by his wisdom, he redeems; those whom he redeems, he justifies; those whom he justifies, he sanctifies.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul exhorts them, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the Earth" (Colossians 3:5). The apostle has just finished telling the Colossians, "For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
This illustrates the Biblical relationship between the indicative (you are) and the imperative (you ought). First the believers are reminded that they are dead. (Through faith they have been united to Christ. God considers that when Christ died, they died.) Then they are told, "Put to death your members which are upon the Earth." As if to say, "God counts you as dead men, for that is what you really are in Christ. Now this gives you the right and responsibility to act like men who are dead to sin." We are not commanded to put to death our sinful desires in order to become dead, but because we are already dead. Being is not the result of doing, but doing is the result of being.
Further on Paul adds to the Colossians, "Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds" (Colossians 3:9). Every human religion reverses that order. The best it can tell us is to stop lying and thereby put away the old man and his deeds. But the way of the Gospel is utterly con- trary to human devisings. It says, You are already dead; now act like dead men. you are pure; now act like you are pure. you are perfect; now act like you are perfect. You already are; therefore act that way. The New Testament doctrine of sanctification is to get us to realize our legal position and standing, and to act accordingly.
Here is another example of how the Biblical command to live in holiness is undergirded by justification:
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1).This illustrates how we must grasp the promise of justification before we can obey the command of sanctification. We cannot "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness" unless we believe that we are already washed in the blood of the Lamb (1 John 1:9). we cannot engage in the process of perfecting holiness unless we realize that "by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).
Consider this apostolic command: "speak evil of no man" (Titus 3:2). Is there any commandment of God's Word that we so easily transgress? Who can endure this straight edge of the law? For we are not only commanded to refrain from speaking evil of good men, but we are forbidden to speak evil of any man. And what a blessed, innocent, and holy congregation a pastor would have if the members carried this out. yet if the pastor merely exhorts his congregation to live this sort of life, it is only an exercise in moralism or legalism. Obedience to this imperative is possible only as the congregation is reminded and keeps grasping the message of justification by faith alone. When Paul says, "speak evil of no man," he adds:
For [for this reason, in view of this] we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7).The publican who in the parable of Christ went down to his house justified had prayed, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" (Luke 18:13). This man was blessed because he was really poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). He saw himself not only as a sinner, but as the sinner. He felt that no one could be a sinner like him. He stood before God as if he were all the world's sin. This is the man whom God counts righteous. Now when a congregation grasps this kind of justification before God, how can they speak evil of any man?
Whether Paul is appealing for humility (as in Philippians 2), a forgiving spirit (as in Ephesians 4) or dedicated service (as in Romans 12), he always does so on the basis of the Gospel. Christian existence is Gospel existence. Sanctification is a consequence of justification. Good works are a consequence of sanctification.
Perhaps the most striking illustration of how justification and sanctification undergird all ethical action is found in the Old Testament--right in God's own preface to the Ten Commandments: "I am the Lord your God, who has brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. lTherefore] you shall have no other gods before me. you shall not. ... You shall not .... You shall not ...," etc. (Exodus 20:2-17). God's redemptive acts back in Egypt (which are an illustration of his liberating acts in Christ and justification by faith) made the new life of obedience a right as well as a responsibility for the redeemed people. Appeals to live the good life which are not based on the truth of justification by faith alone can only lead to moralism and legalism. But justification makes the yoke of sanctification easy and the burden of holiness light.
This is why Luther called justification the article of the standing or falling church. He confessed that his whole soul and ministry were saturated with the truth of justification. This is why he bitterly complained against the "evangelical" radicals who regarded sanctification, or the "new life in the Spirit," as the higher stage in the soteriological process. The man who thinks he can get beyond justification by grace falls from grace (Galatians 5:4).
In fact, one major aspect of sanctification is a growing appreciation of our need of God's justification through Jesus Christ. Growing toward Christian maturity does not mean being weaned from our dependence on imputed righteousness. The man who is strong in faith is strong in the doctrine of grace. He becomes more and more overwhelmed and bowed down with the sense of God's mercy and increasingly attached to justification by the merits of Christ alone.
If in our zeal for sanctification we fail to keep the pre-eminence of justification before us, we will get lost in a minute concern with our inner life and behavior. Our only safety is a constant return to the objective truth of salvation by the outside-of-me righteousness of Christ.
Therefore, we must affirm that the essence of sanctification is knowledge and remembrance. Sanctification is remembering what God has done and what has been given to us. It is amazing how often this point is emphasized both in the Old and New Testament. Israel's ethical action was to be constantly undergirded and inspired by her remembrance of what had happened and what had been given to her (see Deuteronomy 5:15). As long as Israel remembered God's redemptive acts in the beginning of her history, she would persevere in the way of holiness. If she forgot what had happened and lost sight of what was given her, she was sure to swerve from the way of holiness. Sanctification is remembering God's grace.
Our fathers understood not your wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of your mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies: There was not one of them left. Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel.... They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea.... Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his Word. . . (Psalm 106:7-13, 21, 22, 24).
When the prophets exhorted Israel to put away her sins and to live in holy obedience, they based their appeals to ethical conduct on the fact that God had delivered Israel from Egypt. Israel's future depended upon remembering her past.
The New Testament church is also founded on a concrete, historical act of deliverance. The deliverance from Egypt serves as a type of God's real act of salvation from sin in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ has died and has risen again, and by faith the church has become a participant, or sharer, in all that Christ has done. By the work of Jesus Christ on her behalf, she is freed from sin and justified in the sight of God. Yet she must remember what has happened and what has been given to her. As Christ himself broke the bread and divided the cup, he said, "this do in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24). God's people have nothing to fear for the future unless they forget what has happened in the past.
The triumph of Christ is complete, irreversible, immutable. This is where Paul rests his case in his triumphant Romans 8 passage. He entertains no. fears for "things present, nor things to come" (verse 38), because he remembers what has happened in the past (verse 34). And when he had occasion to exhort the immature Christian communities whom he found lapsing into such "fleshly" things as quarreling, lying, or sloth, he saluted them as saints (1 Corinthians 1:2). With words fresh from glory, he took them by the ears and reminded them what had happened in the Gospel and that by faith they were sharers in all that Christ had done and suffered. Yes, he told these faulty, fumbling, stumbling believers that they were dead (Colossians 3:3; Romans 6:6), risen (Ephesians 2:1-6) and free (Romans 7:4). Having shown them what they were, he showed how their unchristlike behavior was inconsistent with their privileged position. The factious Corinthians had to be reminded of the Gospel. The apostle wrote to them:
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:1, 2).The epistles of Paul were written to encourage spiritual growth (sanctification) in people who were already believers. This point is very significant. Yet how did the apostle go about to promote such growth in grace? Every epistle was a mighty call to remember the Gospel and how believers are justified through faith alone in God's redemptive action in Jesus Christ. Every Pauline epistle, therefore, is an immutable testimony that the church can make progress in sanctification only in proportion to its grasp of justification. Each epistle is a call to remember. The church is never led away from the first blessing to look for a "second blessing." Christ earned all the benefits of salvation for his people, and the first and greatest of these is justification. Revised and adaptedfrom Present Truth, a defunct Publication
This article reprinted by permission of the author.
Go to Trinity Foundation Website