Sanctification

Ralph Erskine (1685-1752)

Hence we see that justification is the root of sanctification, and justifying faith the root of a holy life, and is necessary, in order of nature before it; seeing, as there is no conformity to the law, as a rule of holiness, till once the person get freedom from the law, as a covenant, which, to the transgressor, is the strength of sin; so, in justification, the believer being no more reputed a breaker, or transgressor, but a perfect fulfiller of the law of works, it ceases to be any more the strength of sin unto him: whereupon the removal of the strength of sin, lays a foundation for a life of holiness, both habitual and actual; habitual, consisting in the immediate principles of action, in contradistinction from the remote principle infused in regeneration; and actual sanctification whether privatively, in the mortifying or killing of sin; or positively, in the quickening of the soul to a newness of life; and that both internal, in the exercise of grace; and external, in the performance of duty. And hence as justifying faith is said to have a purifying virtue, Acts xv. 9; so the whole life of the believer is said to be by faith in the justifying righteousness of God, revealed in the gospel, Rom. i. 17. On which account, the gospel is said to be “the power of God to salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith;” that is, faith in this righteousness of God. No man, therefore, can live a holy life, or walk abroad in the duties of the law, as a rule, in a course of sanctification, till once his feet be loosed from the fetters, and his soul liberated from the prison of the law, as a covenant, through justification by faith; and then, and not till then, is he in case to live a holy life by faith: yea, were he ever so just and righteous, in respect of personal imparted righteousness; yet he cannot live, but by the faith of this imputed righteousness of God: renewed acts of faith thereupon tend to quicken his soul from time to time. The just, even the just, shall live by this faith; for, without it, all his own justness, righteousness, and personal holiness, would languish, and die, and give up the ghost. What makes the obedience of a multitude of professors vain and unacceptable; yea, and all their duties sinful and hurtful? Why, they begin to yield obedience to the precepts of the law, by doing and working out a righteousness of their own, before they be delivered from the curse of the law, by believing and laying hold on the righteousness of Christ; and hence, the strength of sin being a grand part of the curse of the law, and they not being delivered from that curse, all they can do is cursed of God, because the strength of sin remains. But, say you, may not this discourage professors from obedience? No: it only directs them to the right and acceptable obedience, and not to dream that they shall ever yield any acceptable obedience to the precept of the law, as a rule, till they be delivered from the curse of the law, as a covenant; and consequently, that their first duty is to come to Christ, as the end of the law for righteousness; and then, being delivered from the strength of sin, they shall be in case to perform duties of obedience acceptably.

(From: “The Beauties of the Rev. Ralph Erskine”)

Ashbel Green (1762-1848)

The matter of justification is the righteousness of Christ; but the matter of sanctification is grace imparted from the fulness of Christ. “Of his fulness have we all received, and grace for grace.” Justification changes a man’s state in relation to God; sanctification changes his own personal state, changes his heart and life. Justification is effected by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us; sanctification by the implantation of his grace in us. Justification is complete and perfect at first; but sanctification is carried on gradually, from less to more, till the soul be ripe for glory. The righteousness of justification is strictly and properly meritorious, being the righteousness of God, whereby the law is not only fulfilled but magnified; but the righteousness of sanctification is not meritorious, being only the righteousness of a sinful creature, imperfect in degree. Justification is equal in all believers; but all believers are very far from being equally sanctified. Sanctification is implanted in the believer as new nature; whereas his justifying righteousness is not in him as a nature, but on him as a robe, and hence it is said to be “UPON all them that believe.” Justification has relation to the law as a covenant, and frees the soul from it; sanctification respects the law as a rule, and makes the soul breathe after conformity to it, and to delight in it after the inward man. Hence justification is a judicial sentence, absolving us from the condemnation of the law; but sanctification is a spiritual change, fitting and disposing us to obey the law. Justification springs from, and is grounded on, the priestly office of Christ, whereby he satisfied law and justice as our surety; but sanctification proceeds from the kingly office of Christ, whereby he subdues us to a sweet obedience to himself, and writes his law in our hearts. Justification gives a title to heaven and eternal life; sanctification gives a meetness for it. Justification is God’s act, pronouncing our persons righteous in Christ, and taking away the guilt of sin; sanctification is the Spirit’s work, cleansing our nature and taking away the filth of sin: by the former we are instated into the favour of God, and by the latter we are adorned with his image, and made to bear a measure of his likeness.

(From: “Lectures on the Shorter Catechism of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America addressed to youth”)

Thomas Halyburton (1674-1712)

Christ’s death is the power of God to sanctification. This must be cleared in an instance or two, especially as to mortification.

1. Christ’s death is a satisfaction for sin, for the guilt of all their sins, that are partakers of it, and hereby sin loses its claim to their service. It is the power of God, to disable the foundation of sin’s dominion. Sin has no right that prejudges God’s, but sin and Satan both have a sort of lawful dominion over us by our own consent, according to the rule, Rom. 6:16; but as soon as we are partakers of Christ’s sufferings and death, Phil. 3:10, and so dead with him, Rom. 6:4, 5; 2 Cor. 5:14, who died for our sins, if sin pretend to reign, and say, we have yielded ourselves servants to obey it, we may now answer, we are dead, 2 Cor. 5:14, and so are no longer bound; for the law binds a man no longer than he lives, Rom. 7:1. Again, our consent is declared null, our surety has suffered for it among the rest of our sins, and so it is dead, binds no more. Finally, sin, thou art condemned as a traitor, when we were, or our surety, was condemned for our submitting to thee, judgement was thereby given against thee; our old man is crucified with Christ, Rom. 6:6, no service is due to a dead master, one legally dead. Thus we see the meaning of Rom. 6:7, ‘he that is dead is freed,’ or, as the Greek has it, ‘justified from sin,’ he is powerfully secured against any right that sin claimed to his service.

2. Christ’s death, as the price of our redemption from the power of sin, has powerfully purchased, that is, effectually, or really merited the communication of the Holy Spirit, who actually breaks the power of sin, by planting, actuating, supporting, strengthening, reviving the opposite principle of grace, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, whereby we are freed from the law of sin, and sin is mortified, Rom. 8:2, 13. Now, Christ’s death, as a price, purchased this, Gal. 3:13, 14, and through him it is shed on us abundantly, Tit. 3:6. Christ crucified is the power of God in a meritorious and real sense, to our salvation from the power of sin.

3. Christ’s death, as an atonement, secures the acceptance of our service, and so removes discouragements, and affords the most effectual arguments to enforce holiness. Our labour is not in vain in the Lord, 1 Cor. 15:58, but acceptable through him, 1 Pet. 2:5; see 2 Cor. 5:14, 15. Thus it is morally the power of God to sanctification.

4. Christ’s death, as held forth in the gospel, is the mean made use of to make us holy, and so it, instrumentally, as it were, is the power of God to sanctification, 2 Cor. 3:18. It is a principal part of that glory that changes us when we see it: we might allege many other instances of its influence in sanctification, as the patron of the destruction of the old man, Rom. 6:4-6, and the like. No wonder souls that desire to be holy join with the apostle’s desire, Phil. 3:10.

(From: “Works”)

Alexander Paterson (1803-1828)

In Scripture, the word sanctification is used in various acceptations. It imports a setting apart of persons or things to holy uses,–Isa. xiii. 3; a purification from ceremonial defilement, or freedom from gross idolatry, or error, or wickedness,–Heb. ix. 13; 1 Cor. vii. 14; and a deliverance from the guilt of sin,–John xvii. 19. But most commonly and most properly is denotes what is expressed above, namely, “A work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man, after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness.”

Although sanctification is ascribed both to God the Father, and to God the Son,–Jude 1; Eph. v. 26,–yet it is the peculiar work of God the Holy Ghost. See Ezek. xxxvi. 27; Rom. v. 5; 1 Cor. vi. 11; Tit. iii. 5, 6; 2 Thess. ii. 13; 1 Pet. i. 2, 22.

Sanctification is called a work, because it is progressive or carried on by degrees, and not completed till death. Justification and adoption are acts of God’s free grace, perfected at once; but sanctification is a work, always carrying on while the saint is in this world. This is evident from its being called “a pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus;” “a warfare;” “a running a race;” “a working out salvation with fear and trembling,” &c.

Sanctification is called a work of God’s free grace, because that which moves God to it, is his own free grace and good pleasure.–Phil. ii. 13. All the children of men are by nature wholly polluted with sin, and it is wholly of God’s free grace that any of them are sanctified. It may be here remarked, that the meritorious cause, or the price of our sanctification, is the surety-righteousness of Jesus Christ.–1 John iii. 5; 1 Pet. 1. 18, 19.

The effect of the work of the Spirit of God in sanctification, is the renewal of the whole man. This expression is very comprehensive, and shows the necessity of a universal change being wrought on the whole man, both soul and body; for such a one can alone be called a new creature. See 1 Thess. v. 23. The soul must be renewed in all its powers, and faculties, and affections,–not that the very substance is changed, but new qualities must appear in the whole soul; and all the members of the body must become instruments of righteousness to work holiness. In a word, the whole man must be devoted to God, and an unreserved surrender made to him; which alone is a reasonable service, and which alone can constitute a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him through Jesus Christ,–Rom. xii. 1.

The sinner must be renewed after the image of God. This consists in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and every other spiritual grace.–1 Cor. xv. 49; Col. 111. 10. But there can be no likeness to God, without studying conformity to his Son Jesus Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God,” to whom we must be conformed in his life, and death, and resurrection.

(From: “A Concise System of Theology”)

Francis Turretin (1623-1687)

XIV. Although sanctification depends upon the same cause as justification (to wit, the blood and death of Christ), they ought not be the same on that account. The cause does not produce it in the same manner. For it is related materially to justification, inasmuch as it is the material and foundation of our justification drawing that immediately after itself; but with respect to sanctification, only efficiently and mediately, inasmuch as it is the external impelling cause by which God is moved to give unto us the Holy Spirit, the author of sanctification. Thus in baptism each benefit is sealed to us, but each according to its own fashion (schesin). There we put on Christ as righteousness and sanctification (Gal. 3:27): righteousness, which takes away the guilt of sin and covers; sanctification, which every day removes and washes away that pollution. The blood of Christ (of which the water is the symbol) has a twofold power–to purge the guilt before God (inasmuch as it is a ransom [lytron] or price of redemption) and to purge the pollution in us (inasmuch as it is a bath or laver [loutron] of sanctification by the Spirit).

XV. Although we think that these two benefits should be distinguished and never confounded, still they are to connected from the order of God and the nature of the thing that they should never be torn asunder. This is clearly evident from this–that they are often set forth in one and the same word as when they are designated by the words “cleansing” and “purging” and “taking away,” not only in different places, but also in the same context (as Jn. 1:29, when “the Lamb of God” is said “to take away the sin of the world,” i.e., both by taking away its guilt and punishment by the merit of his blood and by taking away its pollution and taint by the efficacy of the Spirit; and in Rev. 1:5, Christ is said “to wash us from our sins,” both as to justification and as to sanctification; in which sense “the robes of believers” are said “to have been made white in the blood of Christ” [Rev. 7:14] because having been shed upon the cross it produced remission of sins, which was accomplished under the law by the shedding of blood, and because being sprinkled upon the heart it purges the conscience from the dead works of sin).

XVI. Now the necessity and truth of this connection is gathered on the part of God justifying, of Christ redeeming, of the Spirit regenerating and of justification and the faith by which we are justified. (1) God joined these two benefits in the covenant of grace, since he promises that he will not remember our sins and that he will write his law in our hearts (Jer. 31:33, 34). Nor does the nature of God suffer this to be done otherwise. For since by justification we have a right to life (nor can anyone be admitted to communion with God without sanctification), it is necessary that he whom God justifies is also sanctified by him so as to be made fit for the possession of glory. Nay, he does not take away guilt by justification except to renew his own image in us by sanctification because holiness is the end of the covenant and of all its blessings (Lk. 1:68-75; Eph. 1:4).

XVII. (2) Christ sustains a twofold relation (schesin)–that of a surety and of a head. As a surety, he justifies us and as a head, he sanctifies us. By reason of the former, his death is the meritorious cause of justification; by reason of the latter, it is the exemplary cause of sanctification (Rom. 6:4, 5; 8:29; 1 Pet. 2:21). Therefore, as Christ is given to no one for a surety to whom he is not given for a head, so no one is justified by the merit of the surety (Christ) who is not sanctified by the efficacy of Christ (the head) after his image. It is not sufficient that Christ died and lives for us, unless he also mortifies the old man in us after the likeness of his own death and vivifies the new man, so that what was done in the head is done in the members. Besides from the death (by which we are justified), not only is the Spirit acquired, but also the principal motives to sanctification are derived. These are: (a) the foulness of sin, which can be washed away by nothing else than the blood of Christ; (b) God’s hatred of sin, who spared not even his own son to avenge it; (c) the unspeakable love of Christ, whose love ought so to constrain us that we should no longer live to ourselves but to him who died for us (2 Cor. 5:14, 15); (d) the right which Christ acquired in us by dying (Rom. 14:8, 9; 1 Cor. 6:20), which demands that we should glorify him with our body and spirit. Finally, this is the principal end of Christ’s death–that being dead to sin we should live unto righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24; Tit. 2:14).

XVIII. (3) The Spirit, who is given to us, has a twofold name: the “Spirit of adoption” who seals our justification; and the “Spirit of sanctification” who begins and carries it forward. Hence his operation is usually twofold: the first by consolation, when he testifies that we are the sons of God (Rom. 8:16); the other by sanctification, when he makes us cry out, Abba, Father (v. 15). On the part of God, he descends into us and confirms his promises, while on our part he makes us ascend to God to the execution of our duty.

XIX. The very faith by which we are justified demands this. For as it is the instrument of justification by receiving the righteousness of Christ, so it is the root and principle of sanctification, while it purges the heart and works through love (Gal. 5:6). Justification itself (which brings the remission of sins) does not carry with it the permission or license to sin (as the Epicureans hold), but ought to enkindle the desire of piety and the practice of holiness. With God, it is a propitiation that he may be feared (Ps. 130:4); speaks peace to his people that they may not turn again to folly (Ps. 85:8). Thus justification stands related to sanctification as the means to the end. And to this tends the whole economy of grace, which for no other reason dawned upon us, unless “that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly” (Tit. 2:12).

XX. The sacraments prove the same thing, being administered to seal the benefits of Christ. Baptism, which is administered for the “remission of sins” (Acts 2:38), is also a “laver of regeneration” (Tit. 3:5). And if in the supper is exhibited to us the body of Christ broken and his blood poured out for the remission of sins (Mt. 26:28), in the same place the body and blood are exhibited as the aliment of spiritual life, which consists in sanctification (1 Cor. 10:16).

XXI. Although the justified believer falls into various sins, often so grievous that the progress of his sanctification is for a long time interrupted (nay, itself not a little weakened), it does not follow that sanctification itself is torn away from justification. For if actual sanctification is taken away, still habitual sanctification is not; nor is the seed of God ever removed, but remains always in us (1 Jn. 3:9), as we have already proved concerning the perseverance of faith. He who sins does not act in a holy manner; but still he who does not exercise the act of holiness can have the habit of holiness remaining in himself, although weakened and infirm.

XXII. It is one thing to be purged from old sins sacramentally and conditionally; another really and absolutely. They (of whom Peter speaks, 2 Pet. 1:9) were purged from sin in the former sense, but not in the latter, on account of a defect of the required condition (viz., faith). Thus they could be called neither justified nor truly sanctified. See more on this subject in a later question concerning good works.

(From: “Institutes of Elenctic Theology”)

Thomas Watson (c.1620-1686)

The word sanctification signifies to consecrate and set apart to a holy use: thus they are sanctified persons who are separated from the world, and set apart for God’s service. Sanctification has a privative and a positive part.

1. A privative part, which lies in the purging out of sin. Sin is compared to leaven, which sours; and to leprosy, which defiles. Sanctification purges out “the old leaven.” 1 Cor. v. 7. Though it takes not away the life, yet it takes away the love of sin.

2. A positive part, which is the spiritual refining of the soul; which in Scripture is called a “renewing of our mind,” Rom. xii. 2, and a “partaking of the divine nature.” 2 Pet. i. 4. The priests in the law were not only washed in the great laver, but adorned with the glorious apparel (Exod. xxviii. 2); so sanctification not only washes from sin, but adorns with purity.

Q. What is sanctification?

Ans. It is a principle of grace savingly wrought, whereby the heart becomes holy, and is made after God’s own heart. A sanctified person bears not only God’s name, but his image. In opening the nature of sanctification, I shall lay down these seven positions:–

1. Sanctification is a supernatural thing; it is divinely infused. We are naturally polluted, and to cleanse, God takes to be his prerogative. “I am the Lord which sanctifieth you.” Lev. xxi. 8. Weeds grow of themselves. Flowers are planted. Sanctification is a flower of the Spirit’s planting, therefore it is called, “The sanctification of the Spirit.” 1 Pet. i. 2.

2. Sanctification is an intrinsic thing; it lies chiefly in the heart. It is called “the adorning the hidden man of the heart.” 1 Pet. iii. 4. The dew wets the leaf, the sap is hid in the root; so the religion of some consists only in externals, but sanctification is deeply rooted in the soul. “In the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom.” Psalm li. 6.

3. Sanctification is an extensive thing: it spreads into the whole man. “The God of peace sanctify you wholly.” 1 Thess. v. 23. As original corruption has depraved all the faculties–“the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint,” no part sound, as if the whole mass of blood were corrupted–so sanctification goes over the whole soul. After the fall, there was ignorance in the mind; but in sanctification, there is a blessed pliableness in the will; it symbolizes and comports with the will of God. After the fall, the affections were misplaced on wrong objects; in sanctification, they are turned into a sweet order and harmony, the grief placed on sin, the love on God, the joy on heaven. Thus sanctification spreads itself as far as original corruption; it goes over the whole soul: “the God of peace sanctify you wholly.” He is not a sanctified person who is good only in some part, but who is all over sanctified; therefore, in Scripture, grace is called a “new man,” not a new eye or a new tongue, but a “new man.” Col. iii. 10. A good Christian, though he be sanctified but in part, yet in every part.

4. Sanctification is an intense and ardent thing. Qualitates sunt in subjecto intensive. “Fervent in spirit.” Rom. xii. 11. Sanctification is not a dead form, but it is inflamed into zeal. We call water hot, when it it so in the third or fourth degree; so he is holy whose religion is heated to some degree, and his heart boils over in love to God.

5. Sanctification is a beautiful thing. It makes God and angels fall in love with us. “The beauties of holiness.” Psa. cx. 3. As the sun is to the world, so is sanctification to the soul, beautifying and bespangling it is God’s eyes. That which makes God glorious must needs must make us so. Holiness is the most sparkling jewel in the Godhead. “Glorious in holiness.” Exod. xv. 11. Sanctification is the first fruit of the Spirit; it is heaven begun in the soul. Sanctification and glory differ only in degree: sanctification is glory in the seed, and glory is sanctification in the flower. Holiness is the quintessence of happiness.

6. Sanctification is an abiding thing. “His seed remaineth in him.” 1 John iii. 9. He who is truly sanctified, cannot fall from that state. Indeed, seeming holiness may be lost, colours may wash off, sanctification may suffer an eclipse. “Thou hast left thy first love.” Rev. ii. 4. True sanctification is a blossom of eternity. “The anointing which ye have received abideth in you.” 1 John ii. 27. He who is truly sanctified can no more fall away than the angels which are fixed in their heavenly orbs.

7. Sanctification is a progressive thing. It is growing; it is compared to seed which grows: the first blade springs up, then the ear, then the ripe corn in the ear; such as are already sanctified may be more sanctified. 2 Cor. vii. 1. Justification does not admit of degrees; a believer cannot be more elected or justified than he is, but he may be more sanctified than he is. Sanctification is still increasing, like the morning sun, which grows brighter to the full meridian. Knowledge is said to increase, and faith to increase. Col. 1. 10; 2 Cor. x. 15. A Christian is continually adding a cubit to his spiritual stature. It is not with us as it was with Christ, who received the Spirit without measure; for Christ could not be more holy than he was. We have the Spirit only in measure, and may be still augmenting our grace; as Apelles, when he had drawn a picture, would be still mending it with his pencil. The image of God is drawn but imperfectly in us, therefore we must be still mending it, and drawing it in more lively colours. Sanctification is progressive; if it does not grow, it is because it does not live. Thus you see the nature of sanctification.

(From: “A Body of Divinity”)