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Here is the link to a pdf I'll be referencing of an essay by Gerhard Forde:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ifcation.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2YconywcmCm8Mn__q1_gGm
SANCTIFICATION, IF IT IS TO BE SPOKEN OF AS SOMETHING other than justification is perhaps best defined as the art of getting used to the unconditional justification wrought by the grace of God for Jesus‟ sake. It is what happens when we are grasped by the fact that God alone justifies. It is being made holy, and as such, it is not our work. It is the work of the Spirit who is called Holy. The fact that it is not our work puts the old Adam/Eve (our old self) to death and calls forth a
...
As such, sanctification is likely not the kind of life that we (old beings!) would wish, much as we might prattle piously about it and protest about how necessary it is. For the most part we make the mistake of equating sanctification with what we might call the moral life. As old beings we get nervous when we hear about justification by grace alone, faith alone, and worry that it will lead to moral laxity. So we say we have to “add” sanctification too, or we have to get on to what is really important, living the “sanctified life.” And by that we usually mean living morally.
Now, living morally is indeed an important, wise and good thing. There is no need to knock it. But it should not be equated with sanctification, being made holy. The moral life is the business of the old being in this world. The Reformers called it “civil righteousness.” Sanctification is the result of the dying of the old and the rising of the new. The moral life is the result of the old being‟s struggle to climb to the heights of the law. Sanctification has to do with the descent of the new being into humanity, becoming a neighbor, freely, spontaneously, giving of the self in self-forgetful and uncalculating ways. “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Mt 6:3-4). Sanctification is God‟s secret, hidden (perhaps especially!) even from the “sanctified.” The last thing the sanctified would do would be to talk about it or make claims about achieving it. One would be more likely, with Paul, to talk about one‟s weaknesses.
...
Talk about sanctification is dangerous. It is too seductive for the old being. What seems to have happened in
the tradition is that sanctification has been sharply distinguished from justification, and thus separated out as
the part of the “salvationing” we are to do. God alone does the justifying simply by declaring the ungodly to
be so, for Jesus‟ sake. Most everyone is willing to concede that, at least in some fashion. But, of course,
then comes the question: what happens next? Must not the justified live properly? Must not justification be
safeguarded so it will not be abused? So sanctification enters the picture supposedly to rescue the good
ship Salvation from shipwreck on the rocks of Grace Alone. Sanctification, it seems, is our part of the
bargain. But, of course, once it is looked on that way, we must be careful not to undo God‟s justifying act in
Christ. So sanctification must be absolutely separated from justification. God, it seems, does his part, and
then we do ours.
The result of this kind of thinking is generally disastrous. We are driven to make an entirely false distinction
between justification and sanctification in order to save the investment the old being has in the moral
system. Justification is a kind of obligatory religious preliminary which is rendered largely ineffective while
we talk about getting on with the truly “serious” business of becoming “sanctified” according to some moral
scheme or other. We become the actors in sanctification. This is entirely false. According to Scripture, God
is always the acting subject, even in sanctification. The distinction serves only to leave the old being in
control of things under the guise of pious talk.
On the level of human understanding, the problem is we attempt to combine the unconditional grace of God
with our notions of continuously existing and acting under the law. In other words, the old being does not
come up against its death, but goes on pursuing its projects, perhaps a little more morally or piously.
Unconditional grace calls forth a new being in Christ. But the old being sees such unconditional grace as
dangerous and so protects its continuity by “adding sanctification.” It seeks to stave off the death involved by
becoming “moral.”
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ifcation.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2YconywcmCm8Mn__q1_gGm
SANCTIFICATION, IF IT IS TO BE SPOKEN OF AS SOMETHING other than justification is perhaps best defined as the art of getting used to the unconditional justification wrought by the grace of God for Jesus‟ sake. It is what happens when we are grasped by the fact that God alone justifies. It is being made holy, and as such, it is not our work. It is the work of the Spirit who is called Holy. The fact that it is not our work puts the old Adam/Eve (our old self) to death and calls forth a
...
As such, sanctification is likely not the kind of life that we (old beings!) would wish, much as we might prattle piously about it and protest about how necessary it is. For the most part we make the mistake of equating sanctification with what we might call the moral life. As old beings we get nervous when we hear about justification by grace alone, faith alone, and worry that it will lead to moral laxity. So we say we have to “add” sanctification too, or we have to get on to what is really important, living the “sanctified life.” And by that we usually mean living morally.
Now, living morally is indeed an important, wise and good thing. There is no need to knock it. But it should not be equated with sanctification, being made holy. The moral life is the business of the old being in this world. The Reformers called it “civil righteousness.” Sanctification is the result of the dying of the old and the rising of the new. The moral life is the result of the old being‟s struggle to climb to the heights of the law. Sanctification has to do with the descent of the new being into humanity, becoming a neighbor, freely, spontaneously, giving of the self in self-forgetful and uncalculating ways. “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Mt 6:3-4). Sanctification is God‟s secret, hidden (perhaps especially!) even from the “sanctified.” The last thing the sanctified would do would be to talk about it or make claims about achieving it. One would be more likely, with Paul, to talk about one‟s weaknesses.
...
Talk about sanctification is dangerous. It is too seductive for the old being. What seems to have happened in
the tradition is that sanctification has been sharply distinguished from justification, and thus separated out as
the part of the “salvationing” we are to do. God alone does the justifying simply by declaring the ungodly to
be so, for Jesus‟ sake. Most everyone is willing to concede that, at least in some fashion. But, of course,
then comes the question: what happens next? Must not the justified live properly? Must not justification be
safeguarded so it will not be abused? So sanctification enters the picture supposedly to rescue the good
ship Salvation from shipwreck on the rocks of Grace Alone. Sanctification, it seems, is our part of the
bargain. But, of course, once it is looked on that way, we must be careful not to undo God‟s justifying act in
Christ. So sanctification must be absolutely separated from justification. God, it seems, does his part, and
then we do ours.
The result of this kind of thinking is generally disastrous. We are driven to make an entirely false distinction
between justification and sanctification in order to save the investment the old being has in the moral
system. Justification is a kind of obligatory religious preliminary which is rendered largely ineffective while
we talk about getting on with the truly “serious” business of becoming “sanctified” according to some moral
scheme or other. We become the actors in sanctification. This is entirely false. According to Scripture, God
is always the acting subject, even in sanctification. The distinction serves only to leave the old being in
control of things under the guise of pious talk.
On the level of human understanding, the problem is we attempt to combine the unconditional grace of God
with our notions of continuously existing and acting under the law. In other words, the old being does not
come up against its death, but goes on pursuing its projects, perhaps a little more morally or piously.
Unconditional grace calls forth a new being in Christ. But the old being sees such unconditional grace as
dangerous and so protects its continuity by “adding sanctification.” It seeks to stave off the death involved by
becoming “moral.”