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Hello, I'm Kevin DeYoung, pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, and you are listening to Doctrine Matters. We want this podcast to equip Christians with a better understanding of the rich theology that undergirds our faith. And hopefully along the way, we'll be looking at some that have even been misunderstood or maybe threatened in the church's history. We'll point out the biblical evidence, the arguments, and work together to reshape our thinking, be transformed by the renewal of our minds with scripture and reason as we think theologically together. Because, as the title of the podcast tells you, doctrine Matters. Welcome back to Doctrine Matters. Talked about justification last week. There's so many particular topics we could have hit on justification and even to go from that into adoption. But we're going to go right over moving through the Ordo Salutis this week and talk about sanctification. These two are often put together rightfully so. Calvin called it the duplex gratia, that is the double grace that we receive that belongs to us by virtue of our union with Christ, both the gift of justification and sanctification. So they do go together. We want to talk about them, but we must distinguish how they differ. The Bible typically uses the language of sanctified or sanctified to refer to the believer's positional holiness. But when we talk about systematic theology, we're usually thinking of the believer's progressive holiness, not the holiness we have by virtue of. Almost similar to justification, though that's forensic category, but the positional holiness. That is, to be fair, the way in which the language of holiness is often used in the New Testament, but as a systematic category. And it's acceptable that sometimes categories develop that overlap but are not identical with the actual words themselves. And of course, the Bible wasn't originally written in the New Testament in English, and we're dealing with English words. So the theological terms develop, and sometimes not in identical ways with the actual open up a lexicon for this particular verb or noun. So we're talking about the believer's progressive holiness, growth in holiness. Sanctification can be understood passively and actively. So passively, inasmuch as the transforming work is wrought by God in us, so this is God's work. But also we can think of it actively, inasmuch as sanctification ought to be done by us, God performing this work in us and by us. And there I'm quoting from Turretin. So this is a crucial point in sanctification, God is doing the work in us, and at the same time we are also working must underline that, because this is unlike justification. This is unlike effectual calling, unlike regeneration, unlike God working monergistically. He's the only one doing the work of regeneration. Now, in sanctification there is a passive and an active element. It's not he saves us, you're justified, you're adopted. Now go work real hard and see what you can come up with. No, it is God working in us. But Philippians 2, as we also work out our salvation with fear and trembling, so we. We want to distinguish between justification and sanctification. Again, Turretin is helpful here, and he gives five ways in which they differ. One, they differ with regard to their object. Justification is concerned with guilt, sanctification with pollution. Two, they differ as to their form. Justification is a judicial, forensic act whereby our sins are forgiven and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. So judicial, forensic sanctification is a moral act whereby righteousness is worked in us, infused in the believer. Personal renewal is begun and carried out over a long process to completion. Third, they differ as to the recipient subject. Here's what turretin means. In justification, man is given a new objective status based on God's acquittal and sanctification. We are subjectively renewed by God. So that is what it means for us to receive the gift. For they differ as to degrees. Justification is given in this life fully, without any possible increase. You cannot be more justified, less justified. Sanctification, however, is begun, but is only made perfect in the next. So the declaration of justification is once for all. The inward work of sanctification takes place by degrees. So you might say marriage is the state you are in. You cannot be. Well, today I'm 58% married, tomorrow I'm 63% married. You are married or you are not married. You are justified or you are not justified. But once married, it does admit to degrees in your love for one another, in the outworking of that affection, in your sense of communion. So justification, no degree, you are, you aren't. Sanctification can make progress. And then five, they differ as to the order. God only sanctifies those who are already reconciled and justified by faith. Faith. Now we know that justification is by faith alone. That is, faith is the instrument apart from works of the law. It is a receiving we receive. It's the faith of an empty hand to rest on Christ, to receive Christ. It is not for anything that we do or effort that we make. That's what we mean by faith alone. Now, some people wanting to magnify God's grace and sanctification, wanting to remind us that sanctification is still according to the promises of God, have said that, well, sanctification is by faith alone. And it's true. We want to stress sanctification is a gift and that we grow by believing in the promises of God. But that phrase by faith alone is not helpful. Here's why it is apt to be confusing for sanctification, which does require effort, or for justification or for both. Now, there's a way you could say, yeah, sanctification, it certainly is by faith. But once you say by faith alone, you have to mean something different than what you mean when you say justification by faith alone. The faith in justification is the instrument through which we receive righteousness. Faith for sanctification is the root and principle out of which it grows. So we say justification is by faith alone. We mean we want to safeguard justification from any notion of striving or working. But sanctification explicitly includes these co operations, so it makes the description alone misleading at best and inaccurate at worst. We are apt to misunderstand both doctrines if we say they are by faith alone. So let's zero in on this issue just a little bit more about effort because again, there have been controversy over the last 10, 12 years, people arguing, and it sounds spiritual at first. We should not talk about any effort or you cannot become any more sanctified. We shouldn't talk about grace or godliness as something we can grow into or can be more or less. We certainly shouldn't talk about trying. No, sanctification is just getting used to our justification. And in fact it's Phariseeism and it's all that's wrong with religion and legalism. When we're telling people that you have to work at something. J.C. ryle's classic book Holiness. Everyone should read that. That book, he's the 19th century bishop of Liverpool, was written in response to the Higher Life theology. It's popular in England at the end of the 19th century, sometimes called Keswick looks to American readers like Keswick. But Keswick theology, there still is a Keswick convention, although it's. It's much different. So don't assume that these views of the early Kazakh convention are the same as today. They have had, you know, DA Carson all sorts of good speakers over the years, but. But initially this Kazak convention is associated with this Higher Life movement which taught that the cure for sin was found in. In moving from one class of Christians to another. The idea was that in a moment of crisis you would have A second conversion of sorts. The believer was supposed to move from being a carnal Christian. This is going to sound familiar to some. And then you would become a spiritual Christian. You would move from not abiding in Christ to then abiding in Christ. You would move from being a believer to a disciple, from having Jesus as Savior to Jesus as Lord, from being a defeated Christian to a victorious Christian. In short, you go from a lower life to a higher life. J.I. packer, the second half of the 20th century, wrote very strongly against this because personally, this higher life theology had been so damaging to him as a young Christian that he found it not only unbiblical, but pastorally unwise. In the original Kazakh theology, there were two conditions for the victorious life. Surrender and faith. Sanctification took place through consecration. That is, you surrendered unconditionally to the mastery of Jesus. So victory did not come through effort, but through confirming over and over your consecration and your surrender. Sanctification, we might say, meant trusting and not trying. There is one of those famous demotivation posters or satire posters that as someone rock climbing and hanging on this sheer cliff and it says, let go and let God. Yeah, you can imagine what happens there. If you let go, you fall to your doom. But that was the one of the sayings, and you still hear that today. I just need to let go, just need to fully give up. I need to find full surrender and consecration. It's not in any sort of effort. And that sounds spiritual because don't we want to rely on God's grace? Don't we want to rely on faith heaven? We emphasize it's God who does the work, but now we're talking about sanctification and. And J.C. ryle as well as anyone, pressed home this point that sanctification does not put an end to effort. It is the consistent witness of the New Testament that growth in godliness requires exertion on the part of the Christian. Some examples, Romans 8:13 says, by the Spirit we must put to death the deeds of the flesh. That requires violent activity. Ephesians 4 instructs us to put off the old self, put on the new. Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the full armor of God, to stand fast against the devil. Colossians 3:5 commands us to put to death what is earthly in us. First Timothy 6:12 urges us to fight the good fight. Luke 13:24 exhorts us to strive to. To enter the narrow gate. And most plainly, second Peter 1:5 says, make every effort, make every effort to add to your Faith, and it gives all these things knowledge and goodness and love and brotherly kindness and self control. You must make an effort. We work to kill sin, to live in the spirit. We have rest in the gospel, but we do not rest in the battle against the flesh and against the devil. J.C. ryle put it memorably, the child of God has two great marks about him. He is known for his inner warfare and his inner peace. Of course, our effort is not winning God's justifying favor. And whatever we work out is God working in us. Philippians 2, 1 Corinthians 15 so it's not that we leave the gospel behind. It's true the Gospel is the A to Z of the Christian life. But let us not misunderstand what it means to be gospel centered. As Gospel Christians, we are not afraid of striving, fighting, working. Those are good biblical words. What the Gospel frees us from is self justification. And then it frees us for obedience. Again, think of redemptive history. God did not tell the Israelites, work hard as slaves here and I'll come back and I'll set you free from Egypt. That's law without gospel. But neither did he tell them, I love you. I have set you free by my grace and I ask nothing more. Except now that you I'm going to give you the promised land. And I just want you to believe in this good gift. I just want you to enjoy it. And the more that you can relax and let go, the more you will find your consecration. No, that's gospel with no law. That's not they had to to fight to enter into his rest. They had to be active in order to take possession of the promised land and then to rid it of its enemies. And it's giving us a picture there of the Christian life. We are unilaterally sovereignly saved by grace. And then God says, now as I work in you, you are going to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Justification is dependent on faith apart from works of the law. Sanctification born of faith, dependent on faith, powered by faith. But it requires exertion, mortification and vivification. Those old words putting to death, making alive. When it comes to growth in godliness, trusting does not put an end to trying. Thanks for listening to Doctrine Matters with me. Kevin Deyoung. Our hope and prayer is that this has been helpful to you as you look at Scripture and try to understand the best of our theological tradition as Christians, please consider subscribing to Doctrine Matters through Spotify, Apple Music or however you listen to your podcasts and if you'd like to learn more about this week's doctrine, you can ask your pastor for good resources or check out my year long mini systematic theology book, Daily Doctrine, which is available in print or audio@crossway.org until next week. Thanks for being with us.