THE RELATIONSHIP OF JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION -
A PASTORAL VIEW
The New Testament presents two aspects of God's
Work: 1 - God's Work FOR US in Christ. 2 - God's Work
IN US by the Holy Spirit. Number one is what God did OUTSIDE of us
in the person of Jesus. This is the Gospel. Number two is what God
does WITHIN our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This is the fruit of the
Gospel, for faith in Number one brings the Holy Spirit to the
believer. Number two must not be confused with Number one;
neither should it be separated from Number one. Faith always
rests on the work of God in Christ, the alien work; but faith always
brings the Holy Spirit with His renewing and sanctifying work in
the hearts of men. Like three links of chain, the two outer links are joined by a common link, yet they do not touch or affect each other except through the middle link.
___________ ___________ _____________
/ /\ /\ \
/ / \ / \ \
\ Salvation \ / Faith \ / Good Works /
\____________\/___________\/______________/
holds to produces
If you try to balance a broom on your finger while watching your finger, the broom falls. The only way to accomplish this is to look at the top of the broom. Then it is easy to balance. Human nature, the main characteristic of which is selfishness (looking at one's finger), tends to make the predominate feature of Christianity the one that affects the self the most. The subjective, that which God does IN ME, is made the most important and what God has done outside of me or other men (looking up at the top of the broom) is lost sight of.
This is what happened in the early church. We can see it even in the teachings of the fathers of the post-apostolic church. The objective truth of justification by grace through faith did not hold the prominent place. More and more the church began to focus on the experience of sanctification, that which happens IN ME by the Holy Spirit. Justification became only an initiating step at the beginning of the Christian life and the most important things, sanctification, that which happens IN ME, became the most central feature. The Epistle's expansion on justification was subordinated to what many thought was the highest blessing of sanctification. Christian experience is important and powerful in people's lives, but it is not most important. True Christian experience is attained when men make God's work outside of them the foundation of their hope, the focus of their attention and the object of their glorying and worship.
Historically, as the church drifted from the objective truth of the Gospel, it focused on religious experience. The pursuit of an extra-ordinary religious experience became the great passion of the medieval church. People carried crosses, sat on poles, went on pilgrimages, venerated relicsand indulged in the most incredible superstitions.Christianity became a great cesspool of fantastic Biblical ignorance and spiritual stagnation. Amazingly, the church did not abandon such Biblical expressions such as "justification" and "salvation by grace". These words did come however, to evolve new meanings altogether. Justification, instead of meaning what God did outside of men to pronounce him righteous, came to mean God's renewing, sanctifying act in man's own heart ...(# l and # 2 were utterly confused and mixed.) Instead of justifying "grace" meaning disposition of mercy and favor in God's heart toward the undeserving, "grace" came to mean a God given quality that adorned the human soul. So, the classical Roman doctrine declared that men were justified by God's work in their hearts and experiences. (It taught justification by # 2 instead of by # l.)
Martin Luther utterly rejected the church's teachings that God's work inside a man qualifies him to be accepted in the sight of a righteous God. He saw that no man could find enough righteousness or grace in his own heart to stand before God with an easy conscience, and no one could have any certainty of salvation if it were to be based on his own experience. Luther discovered that justifying grace is not some quality God infuses or pours into the human soul, but it is God's favor directed to those who are sinful, lost and undeserving. God's grace in the believer's heart is not the foundation of a Christian. God's grace in Christ is. Christ's work outside of us, that of doing, obeying, dying and rising for us, rather than His work inside of us, is the only basis and foundation of our acceptance with God. The moment a man becomes reliant on his subjective experience,rather than on the experiences of Jesus, confidence toward God and assurance of justification disappears.
Medieval Reformation
Medieval thought was man-centered, experience centered or what we would call "subjective". The reformation thought reclaimed the Biblical Christ-centered, cross-centered and objective. The reformers did not deny the Spirit's work of renewal and sanctification in the hearts of God's people. But they saw clearly that justification by grace through faith alone is a work of God that takes place completely outside of us, more specifically, in the historical past. Trust in Christ's work that has been completed in the historical past and in the ind and accounting of God allows for a clear conscience, peace with God and a life of good works that flows from thecertain conviction of being accepted by God and the concurrent thankfulness.
Is the believer in Christ a sinner or a saint? Does grace make one more and more righteous, less and less sinful? Are the good works of a spirit-filled believer still defiled with human imperfection and sin?
And now the most startling notion of the reformers! Grace does not change the sinful nature of the believer. The sinful nature will be with man as long as he lives. But,said the reformers, the Holy Spirit brings to the justified sinner a new nature, even a new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). The Christian therefore has two natures. The old nature called "flesh" because it is born of the flesh and inherited from the flesh; the new nature is called "spirit" because it is born of the spirit (John 3:6). Think of this analogy. The bread and wine of the Lord's Supper are not changed or transformed from their natural elements, but God's Word effects the presence supernaturally of Christ's Body andBlood. A new substance is found in, with and under the old. Now back to the nature of the Christian man.
The two natures, (the "flesh" and "spirit") in addition, are opposed to one another. Paul says, "For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that you cannot do the things that you want". (Gal. 5:l7). The parallel passage of Romans 7:l5-25 describes the reality of these two natures within a justified saint. Luther coined a Latin expression to describe the nature of a Christian:simil justus et peccator. A Christian does not gain life everlasting by trying to reform the flesh, much less by purifying the flesh from its corruption; but he gets above it and walks in a new state by faith in Christ. The nature of this life is quite contrary to what Rome and many others promise.
By the Spirit's indwelling power the Christian denies, fights against and puts to death the desires and inclinations of the flesh. He is called to a life of suffering. (Romans 8:10-18; 1 Peter 4:2, 2), to constant warfare against the sinful nature. The spirit is not given to release him from painful conflict but to sustain him in successful conflict until the end. (Romans 8:23-25) "We ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we have patience and wait for it. "
Can you just imagine how popular this theology of the cross is at House of Happiness Lutheran Fellowship, whose Entertainment Evangelism Seminar draws hundreds and cost the same? How the believer perceives himself depends on which view point he takes. From the viewpoint of God (Objective reality) the believer in Christ is fully righteous. From his own viewpoint (Subjective), by reason of the sinful nature, he is fully sinful. The believer of Christ, according to Paul and Luther, is unique in the fact that he accepts both verdicts, contradictory as they may seem to an unspiritual man. He has peace, but is in the midst of war. He has rest, but with tribulations.
The Reformers had a very different view from the Roman church on the matter of the Christian's good works. The medieval church taught that God accepts men's persons because of their works (done with God's help, of course!). The Reformers declared that God accepts our works because He has accepted our persons because of Christ, our Substitute. No good work of the believer is entirely without sin, said Luther many times. True, God's Spirit motivates Christians to do good works but the sinful nature of man corrupts all these works with the taint of human imperfection, they said. Good works are accepted only by the mercy and by the intercession of Christ's merit at the right hand of God. Neither our persons nor our works are ever perfect, but our perfection, righteousness and entire satisfaction to the law rests only in and with our Rescuer.
There are three main difficulties Pastors face in dealing with the relationship of justification and sanctification.They are: unwarranted discouragement, institutionalized good works and the "quick fix".
A pastor once declared to a visiting lecturer: "I have preached the Gospel in my church. I am always talking about grace, faith and justification, but it does not make the impact it should. What am I doing wrong?" Then the lecturer asked the preacher if he was as diligent if arraigning his hearers before the high claims of God's law and the judgment seat of Christ. The pastor admitted that he didn't. "Then you need look no further to answer the lack of quickening power in your preaching," he was told. The Gospel is indeed good news to sinners, but it is a sheer waste of time to try to comfort those who do not mourn - those who are not made conscious of their sins and what they deserve by the proclamation of God's Law. It is said that we should not cast our pearls before swine. Walther says "The law is for secure sinners, and the Gospel is for alarmed sinners".
Lutheranism has grown fat and flabby. Luther warned that people would become secure and lazy by the continual preaching of grace. To make matters worse, Luther's reaction against legalism has made the contemporary church very suspicious of "law." Professor Gordon H. Clark, noting another underhanded development, says, "The term legalism in theology used to designate a theory of justification by works. Liberals have now redefined it so as to exclude rules, laws and obedience from moral living! Love replaces definite commands. This enables the liberals to transfer the odium of legalism in its historical sense to the evangelica lview that is not subject to such a criticism." Much of our discouragement today comes from the fact that we are using the great Christian doctrine of justification by grace largely out of context, like trying to focus an overhead projector on thin air instead of a screen or wall. Let me demonstrate. You must go through the current Portals of Prayer from April 1 to May 10 before you read anything about the eternal perdition we deserve and from which Christ has saved us.
Justification is a legal word, a law term, a forensic concept. The message of justification by grace through faith is music to the ears of those who take the demands of God's law seriously and realize that as Luther says, "the law must be fulfilled so that not a jot or tittle shall be lost, otherwise man will be condemned without hope." Those who hear much current preaching of the Gospel are often like the Youth Group from Mt. Calvary in San Antonio. We would take the Rebanault's large rubber liferaft to Warnecke Park in New Braunfels and shoot the rapids with it. It was great fun, since the water was only l2 to l8 inches deep. The liferaft, which had a very serious purpose when ferrying people across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, had now become a toy because the people were no longer in danger. The Gospel is not an eternal life-saving message to those who do not fully realize the everlasting danger they are in because of sins. No wonder we are discouraged when people do not respond to the Gospel with thankfulness, dedication and hearty willingness.
The medieval church had done a very good job of institutionalizing good works. The Lutheran Confessions railed against the good works instituted by man. Burning candles, saying certain prescribed prayers and the rote practice of penitence came in for some heavy hitting. Luther reinforces the Biblical teaching that the milkmaid, the farmer, the physician and the preacher all do good works in their daily life. In this day it often seems that the only good works that people can do are good works related to the institutionalized church. If our people are not covered up every night with meetings at the church, then we are told by our consciences and perhaps District officials that they are not doing the good that Jesus wants them to do. If our church does not provide the expected meeting of certain numerical membership or financial goals, we are not doing good. If the church does not try to meet the holistic needs of the people in the community, the church is loveless and lacking in sanctification. Examples could be multiplied regarding this kind of institutionalized good work syndrome.
In order to alleviate our discouragement and guilty consciences, often brought on by unbiblical expectations, we are provided with any number of "quick fixes." But unfortunately, the quick fixes are exactly antithetical to the prescription that is truly needed to get at the root of the problem. Many are quite willing to speak to their congregations as "lost sheep", "prodigal children", sad sacks, failures in life, unhappy souls, friendless wanderers in need of companionship, victims of any kind of generic abuse, outcasts of society or those whose potential has notbeen fulfilled. But they are quite unwilling to see and deal with prospects or their congregations as a guilty criminals arraigned before the judge of all. The Biblical doctrine of justification, however, is the answer to the anxious question of the convicted law breaker: How can I get right with God's law? How can I be righteous before God? When pastors refuse to see people's situation in these terms, they end up not applying the Gospel the way God wants it applied.
Modern Protestantism and to a lesser degree Lutheranism is refusing to think of man's relationship with God in these basic Biblical terms, thus knocking away the foundation of the Gospel of justification and weakening or eliminating the motivation for sanctification. The quick fix is basically an appeal to number 2 - God's Work IN US by the Holy Spirit rather than to number l - God's work FOR US in Christ. It is an appeal to the subjective, rather than to the objective. Thus Joel Gerlach's comments of several years ago are appropriate: "The emphasis is an old and familiar one. Accounts of personal encounters with Christ are given top billing at the expense of the salvation message. Experience is "in", doctrine is "out"..."
As we view the scene, Protestantism is drowning in a sea of religious subjectivism. The reason is not the charismatic movement, emotional revivalism or the church growth movement. These are symptoms, not causes. The cause, which finds Lutheranism diving headlong into the same sea as general Protestantism, is the drift away from the reformation doctrine of justification by grace through faith in its proper context of God's holy law. When pastors fail to recognize, or finally reject, the authority of God's objective rule of law and the objective dealing with that law that Christ performed in man's place, they begin an unrecognized drift back to Rome's reliance on subjective experiences. What we see then in contemporary religious life is that we Lutherans also are abandoning the reformation principles in favor of the old medieval distortions of subjectivism. As in the medieval church, we are not abandoning the principles or vocabulary of Biblical theology outright, but we are receiving mixed signals.
At times the leaders of the church encourage us to remain faithful to the principles of the Scripture and the reformation. Then we are provided with sermon material, we hear sermons and devotions at official gatherings, which are revivalistic, sentimental and subjective. In the October '90 Lutheran Witness we are reminded in the Q and A section of the anti-Gospel implications of the altar call, but in February 91 we read the thrilling story of a successful missionary in Massachusetts who used the altar call. We are told that people want "practical sermons", which presumably means we are to address the problems of daily life, ranging presumably from how do I get over my depression to how do I find a good but cheap plumber. Norman Vincent Peale and his spiritual off-spring David Schuller advise that we eliminate negative things like sin and law from our messages and emphasize the positive virtues of grace, love and faith. If we pastors will simply emphasize the wondrous things God works in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ, then our flocks will abound in the sanctified good works that will bring greater numbers of people into the church and overflow the offering plates with green evidence of our sanctification before our God.
In different ages, the church has had to grapple with great points of the faith and clarify its theology. In the second century, the points of contention were creation, the incarnation and the resurrection. The third and fourth centuries dealt with the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. In the tenth century the church wrestled with the doctrine of atonement. In the sixteenth century the Evangelical Church had to clearly define the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. In light of the fact that Lutheranism in the sixties at the Lutheran World Federation was unable to adopt a statement on justification, I would contend that we still are grappling with the same problems as the reformers. The difficulties in understanding and appreciating the relationship between justification and sanctification is because we do not understand and appreciate the doctrine of justification, not sanctification.