Posted on 07/12/2021 2:22:26 PM PDT by Old Yeller
The words justification and sanctification have largely fallen out of use in Western culture. Sadly, they are also fading from sight in the Christian church. One reason this decline is distressing is that the Bible uses the words justification and sanctification to express the saving work of Christ for sinners. That is to say, both terms lie at the heart of the biblical gospel. So, what does the Bible teach about justification and sanctification? How do they differ from one another? How do they help us understand better the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ?
Justification is as simple as A-B-C-D. Justification is an act of God. It does not describe the way that God inwardly renews and changes a person. It is, rather, a legal declaration in which God pardons the sinner of all his sins and accepts and accounts the sinner as righteous in His sight. God declares the sinner righteous at the very moment that the sinner puts his trust in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26, 5:16; 2 Cor. 5:21).
What is the basis of this legal verdict? God justifies the sinner solely on the basis of the obedience and death of His Son, our representative, Jesus Christ. Christ’s perfect obedience and full satisfaction for sin are the only ground upon which God declares the sinner righteous (Rom. 5:18-19; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; Phil. 2:8). We are not justified by our own works; we are justified solely on the basis of Christ’s work on our behalf. This righteousness is imputed to the sinner. In other words, in justification, God puts the righteousness of His Son onto the sinner’s account. Just as my sins were transferred to, or laid upon, Christ at the cross, so also His righteousness is reckoned to me (2 Cor. 5:21).
By what means is the sinner justified? Sinners are justified through faith alone when they confess their trust in Christ. We are not justified because of any good that we have done, are doing, or will do. Faith is the only instrument of justification. Faith adds nothing to what Christ has done for us in justification. Faith merely receives the righteousness of Jesus Christ offered in the gospel (Rom. 4:4-5).
Finally, saving faith must demonstrate itself to be the genuine article by producing good works. It is possible to profess saving faith but not possess saving faith (James 2:14-25). What distinguishes true faith from a mere claim to faith is the presence of good works (Gal. 5:6). We are in no way justified by our good works. But no one may consider himself to be a justified person unless he sees in his life the fruit and evidence of justifying faith; that is, good works.
Both justification and sanctification are graces of the gospel; they always accompany one another; and they deal with the sinner’s sin. But they differ in some important ways. First, whereas justification addresses the guilt of our sin, sanctification addresses the dominion and corruption of sin in our lives. Justification is God’s declaring the sinner righteous; sanctification is God’s renewing and transforming our whole persons—our minds, wills, affections, and behaviors. United to Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection and indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, we are dead to the reign of sin and alive to righteousness (Rom. 6:1-23; 8:1-11). We therefore are obligated to put sin to death and to present our “members to God as instruments for righteousness” (6:13; see 8:13).
Second, our justification is a complete and finished act. Justification means that every believer is completely and finally freed from condemnation and the wrath of God (Rom. 8:1, 33-34; Col. 2:13b-14). Sanctification, however, is an ongoing and progressive work in our lives. Although every believer is brought out once and for all from bondage to sin, we are not immediately made perfect. We will not be completely freed from sin until we receive our resurrection bodies at the last day.
Christ has won both justification and sanctification for His people. Both graces are the concern of faith in Jesus Christ, but in different ways. In justification, our faith results in our being forgiven, accepted, and accounted righteous in God’s sight. In sanctification, that same faith actively and eagerly takes up all the commands that Christ has given the believer. We dare not separate or conflate justification and sanctification. We do distinguish them. And, in both graces, we enter into the richness and joy of communion with Christ through faith in Him.
I think that I explained this to you already but here is more from your own church. As documented, while in Catholic theology man does not merit the grace by which process one is justified, yet the "the process of justification" means that it is on the basis of sanctification via baptism (by which one receives "sanctifying grace," having an "interior sanctifying quality") that one is justified by, "and confers the right to heavenly glory. Thus it is held that newly baptized Catholics would go directly in heavenly glory if they died at that time, before committing sin. But since such soon manifest imperfection, then this premise of salvation via actual sanctification leads to the need for Purgatory in order to become good enough to actually be with God.
What this is means is that "by the grace of God" man, via the act of baptism - which produces its effects ex opere operato=by the act itself - (The Catholic Encyclopedia>Sacraments), the soul receives "sanctifying grace which renders men the adopted sons of God and confers the right to heavenly glory" (Catholic Encyclopedia > baptism) being actually made just and pleasing to God."
While this magic act is appealing, and is set in contrast to a misleading characterization of sola fide (as if that simply meant believers were merely white-washed sinners), what it means is that souls are imagined to be actually good enough to be with God. Thus the innocence of baptism is not enough, but regeneration, yet while the latter does create a new heart rendering man a "new creature," (2Co. 5:17) yet his sinful nature remains, as the new convert will quickly realize.
Under sola fide, effectual heart-purifying regenerating faith, (Acts 15:7-9) the faith which effects the obedience of baptism (Acts 10:43-47) is imputed for righteousness, rendering the convert "accepted in the Beloved" and positionally seated with Him in Heaven on His account, and by His sinless shed blood has immediate access into the holy of holies in Heaven, (Heb. 10:19) as one washed, sanctified and justified (1 Co. 6:11) - which positional status he this seeks to actualize (Col. 3) - and will immediately go to be with Him at death or His return. (Phil 1:23; 2Cor. 5:8 [“we”]; Heb, 12:22,23; 1Cor. 15:51ff'; 1Thess. 4:17)
And with the only suffering after this life for true believers being that of the loss of rewards (and the Lord's disapproval at that time) at the judgment seat of Christ, which one is saved despite the loss of, and which does not occur until the Lord's return and believers resurrection. (1Cor. 3:8ff; 4:5; 2Tim. 4:1,8; Rev.11:18; Mt. 25:31-46; 1Pt. 1:7; 5:4) And which resurrection being the only transformative the believer looks forward to after this life (Rm. 8:23; 2Co. 5:1-4; Phil 3:20,21; 1Jn. 3:2) — not purgatory, which suffering commences at death in order to enable souls to enter Heaven.
In contrast, a Catholic, having begun the salvation process under the premise of actually being made good enough to be with God, yet soon realizing the uprising of his wicked fallen nature, then either the convert must attain to the status of perfection in this life and die in it, or spend an indeterminate period in RC purgatory until he atones for sins he did not suffer enough for on earth, and attain to perfection of character.
The Catholic Encyclopedia states, “whosoever comes into God's presence must be perfectly pure for in the strictest sense His "eyes are too pure, to behold evil" (Habakkuk 1:13).
Besides Scripture only teaching that after the resurrection of Christ believers go to Heaven wherever it manifestly describes their location after this life, among other problems salvation via moral perfection ("by God's grace") means that since the so-called "good thief" of Luke 23 went to be with Christ in Paradise that day (Lk. 23:43 [cf. 2Cor. 12:4) then somehow he attained to moral perfection in just a few hours on a cross. And that since Paul confessed that he was imperfect yet would be with the Lord once absent from his earthly body (Phil 1:23; cf. 2 Cor. 5:8) then he neglected to mention his processing time in Purgatory. Likewise in telling the Thessalonians that if the Lord returned in their lifetime then all believers would henceforth with the Lord. (1 Ths. 4:17)
And while Catholics charge sola fide with fostering a lax attitude toward sin, this is not consistent with the manner of faith that sola fide refers to, and those who most strongly esteem Scripture as the accurate and wholly God-inspired supreme authority testify to being far more unified in basic beliefs than those who Rome manifestly considers members in life and in death. For in contrast to unchanging Scripture, when the leadership of a church that exalts men "above that which is written" (1 Co. 4:6) goes South, then so do those who trust them. Or they essentially become as Bible Christians in subjecting the veracity of church teaching to their judgment of what historical teaching is and means. Except for us that is Scripture.
Another reason I'm not Catholic.
Looks like I'd NEVER get out!!
The spirit and soul are separated when we are born again. So the osul which is an habitual sinner no longer taints the new born spirit where God is abiding forever more. (’The Word of God is sharper than any two-edges sword, able to searate soul and spirit’). ‘Faith (saving faith) comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’.
Did I read accurately that you believe the sin remains it is just covered until some future point?
God justified me when I truly believed in Whom God sent for my salvation. God did that not me. Thereafter my alive with Him abiding in my spirit is separate from my behavior mechanism, thus the sanctification process is a soulish endeavor, where my soul which is in the habit of sinning is slowly corrected to align with the nature of the Christ, and in the process we fail often but have a great High Priest. Not even one success or failure during the sanctification phase will add to or detract from what only God could do in Justifying me.
The state of your duplicitous mental tangle will say 'yes, but'. You will agree only God can justify me then your cathoilic deceived mind will add from Trent that works done by the grace of God are necessary for me to eventually obtain salvation. And the indoctrination of catholicism clouds your mind so thoroughly that you cannot see the duplicity.
If Luther taught that, it is he who is/was wrong. Thank you for correcting my faulty recollection. Luther was a catholic priest, wasn’t he? He retained a few errors when he split from catholicism. But he did get ‘by faith alone in Christ alone’ right.
That instant is finished, as Jesus proclaimed from the Cross: he had paid the penalty for/of what I deserve.That moment is a spiritual marker that has no extra moments in order to be timelessly recorded in God's 'book'. And it is an irrevocable moment of God's Promise in action.
Your religion has added mythical moments to that God ordained moment... as an empowerment scheme for a priestly ORG or a brilliant means by which Satan can manipulkate men's SOULS intyo not participating in what God ordains for each of us if we shall ONLY believe. In believing I humble affirm that He can accomplish what He promises, for in the moment I was born again there was and is nothing needed to be added for my Justification. Using double-talk to add 'graces for fealty to an ORG's sacramental requirements exposes origins of your religion's dogms, not requirements from God.
Justification stands without ANY addition. There is nothing in the next phase -the saving from the power of sin- that effects in any way what only God can do and that is justify me before the Holy God of my Salvation. Yes, catholicism is a works based religion. Your mind is duplicitous when you try to re define the additions your religion rtequires to have wht Only God can provide on the spiritual plane of relity. You do not Obtain eternal life, as if there is some work needed to receive the Grace of God in Christ. That myth steals from The Glory due only to Christ Jesus, my Redeemer..
AMEN to your post 51. Well done!
I just do not understand why some have no peace in Christ’s finished work for them it is done. Always on edge, not sure, it’s like they do not believe or trust God’s word on salvation. He said Christ’s death for our sins was enough. The price was paid on the wages of our sins. He paid it once and it was for all time.
And people doubt that. That’s calling God a liar. He said it’s enough and they say that cannot possibly be true, then we would be able to sin freely.So they go back to chasing every thought, action, feed,
Actually it might be interesting to observe these people who say they are strengthening themselves physically and mentally to be able go through God’s wrath being poured out on an unbelieving world, hoping to endure until the end, so they can be saved. Finally.
What good was Christ’s death on the Cross if in the it was enduring to the end that saved a person.
What a sham is being played out on lazy people who read a couple of Scriptures they like, never study God’s word the way He told us to study it. And think they are impressing God when they place a bible on their coffee table, never bothering to open it: probably because they are afraid if they come across some scripture that they cannot follow, they will be damned for an eternity. Ignorance is bliss to those who refuse to study God’s word the way He gave us to study it.
You started your query with acts performed, baptized, believed the creeds ... I can only respond with what I am aware of, that as Abraham I believed God, God's Promise FIRST. His Promise is 'Believe on Whom He sent for your salvation and you shall be saved.'
There are three 'tenses' to salvation. First saved from the penalty for sin; justification issued by the Supreme Judge, an action ONLY God can perform for it is against His Holy Righteousness that our sin places us and Only the One offended can give exoneration.
The second tense is being saved from the power of sin, the habituation of sinning. This tense, this phase is a cooperative effort, whereby we new borns sense God;s abiding Spirit in our alive human spirit and follow His urgings to resist the temptations that before we fell for. when we were born again, in that instant His taking up residence in our spirit generates a sensitivity to what offends HIM, and our will which has been redirected then feels that offending and desires to not be an offense. We literally have a sensitivity to what our soul (not our spirit, our behavior mechanism soul of mind, will, and emotion) is tempted by. That sensitivity must originate from what became our reality when GOD Justified us.
Allow me as a man of 75 years, forty plus of which have been post Justification. When I was in my twenties I was drawn to pornographic anything. I felt no guilt at oogling the nudity or the sexual 'implications'. After I was Born Again I immediately had a negative reaction to female nudity and or 'implications'. I did not sex was bad, I sensed that I was allowing something to pull me into temptation which The Spirit in my Spirit deemed 'restricted, not wholesome for my baby status in Christ. It has been a rough and sometimes sad process to grow in Grace and Knowledge, but He has not left me or foresaken me once I began conforming in tiny ways to the Character of The Christ, to the finction of His character in me always seeking tovercome the temptation power of my soul's uncharacteristic behavior for a member of God's family. Has the temptation power of porn disappeared? No, but it cannot overpower me because I do not 'ping' to nudity, it is just nudity.
A further example: my son visited me a couple of months ago and we found a series available from Amazon Prime network which looked promising, a series based on the Tom Clancy character of Jack Ryan. We started the first episode and in the episode a woman is displayed from the right and behind, nude and about to involve with her Muslim husband. I was very uncomfortable with that but it passed quickly. An other episode had a sudden scene of nudity and implied sexial interaction. My sensitivity to porn was activated immediately and I would not allow my eyes to look at the TV and I turned off the episode. Do not want to be exposed to such coming into my behavior mechanism through my eyegate.
Before you jump to dismissing the reaction to my son being present, as if I would not look away and click the episode off if my son was not there, too, I can assure you that the Presence of His spirit in my spirit also guides me to stay away from such stuff now because it offends HIM in me. I cannot sin without sensing that offense to His Presence in me.
The third tense of salvation is a future being saved from the Presence of The man of Sin coming with the wrath of the Lamb ... yes, I am referring to the Rapture, which removes the Body of Christ Believers from the Earth where the man of sin will be in power over all the Earth for a seven tear season.
One caveat: ONLY God and perhaps the angels know the state of the human spirit. Angels rejoice when a human comes to be reborn, so perhaps thy who exist in a coordinate system greater than our present configuration do sense the psirit of a human being. satan sure seems to focus more heavily on those who are born again, so perhaps he senses the escapee’s spirit.
The sin I have done since being reborn in Him has been a soulish action, not a spiritual action. The second tense is being saved from the power of sin and temptation, as I have gradually :LEARNED to liten to the Holy Spirit in my spirit so that my actions are not directed by the part of me that IS an habitual sinner. No success or failure of that new guidance process effects the first tense. I was saved from the penalty of sin and God's spark of Holy Spirit life has abided in my spirit ever since. I was not saved in or by baptism. I was saved from the penalty of sin by believing in God's Grace in Christ alone. Nothing happening in the second tense of salvation adds or subtracts from what God did in the first tense.
The third tense of my salvation awaits what only God can do when Jesus comes to the first Heaven to gather The Body of Christ to Himself and return to the third Heaven with the Body of Christ Believers transformed int he twinkling of an eye ... ALL the Body of Christ -living or dead- transformed into new bodies and behavior mechanisms.
To be continued ... must pause to interact with my house guests.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not just the tree of the knowledge of evil.
When you chose one, you do not chose the other.
How is this reconciled then?
Now how does God define love?
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