A little while ago, many of you will remember the exchange between our brothers Tullian Tchividjian and Kevin DeYoung on the nature of sanctification and its relationship to the gospel and justification. If you missed that discussion, you can find a helpful compilation here.
Recently, a couple brothers over at Ref21 added some helpful thoughts on the relationship between justification and sanctification.
William Evans kicks things off by attempting to put the discussion in historical perspective, and offers four important issues in the current discussion in his post, Sanctification and the Nature of the Gospel:
First, there is the “missional” character of this impulse.
Second, there is a particular understanding of the key problem facing the church. Tchividjian and others are convinced that the great threat to the church and its mission is legalism, a reliance on one’s own righteousness rather than the work of Christ. … Is it really the case that legalism and self-justification are the great problems facing the church and its mission?
Third, there is the obvious causal priority here placed upon the doctrine of justification. Justification is seen as the cause of sanctification, and a proper grasp of justification or one’s acceptance by God leads necessarily to sanctification.
Finally, there is a particular understanding of the gospel at work here. According to Tchividjian and others, the heart of the gospel is the message of justification by grace through faith, and everything else is extracted from this center. But many Reformed theologians, from Calvin onward, have detected something even more basic–the believer’s union by faith and the Holy Spirit with the incarnate Christ, from whom all the blessings of salvation (both forensic and transformatory) flow.
Sean Lucas shares five reflections in response to Evans. I particularly appreciated this insight, which I believe occurs quite often in settings rife with civic or cultural Christianity (nominalism):
From my own observation as a pastor of a largish steeple church in the Deep South, I would characterize the pressing problem a little differently than “legalism” or “cheap grace.” I believe that the predominant form of Christianity in my neck of the woods is “experiential moralism”: people go to church to have an experience that will help them fly right and do better. The problems come when a) they don’t have such experiences and b) they realize that it is not possible for them to fly right and do better. They pretend that their performance is adequate, but their performance isn’t holiness per se, but conformity to particular social norms. And when their marriages fall apart or their children run off, their profession of Christianity unravels as well.
Rick Phillips offers and explains seven propositions:
1. Justification and Sanctification are twin benefits that flow from union with Christ through faith.
2. Justification and Sanctification are distinct but simultaneous.
3. Justification and Sanctification are both necessary and intrinsic to salvation.
4. Justification is logically prior to progressive Sanctification.
5. Justification does not cause Sanctification, but Christ both justifies and sanctifies his people.
6. In Justification faith is passive and receptive (Gal. 2:16), whereas in Sanctification faith is active.
7. The law of God functions differently with respect to Justification and Sanctification.
It seems our Presbyterian brothers have organized one of their famed committees and offered us some good food for thought.