Understanding The Difference Between Justification and Sanctification

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Following Jesus is the results of our sanctification. It is not justification.

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So these two things collapse. This is what happened in Roman theology in that basically there's no difference between your justification and your sanctification.

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And if you're new to this theology, let me explain what I mean by that. To be justified means to be made right or to be declared right.

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We're not made right at the moment, although we will one day, but we're declared right. Glorification is to be made right. So justification means that you were in debt and you owed and God cleared the, or sorry,

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Christ cleared the debt and then gave you what you owed. And so then you now in your standing before God are now just, you're justified.

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Now you are declared what you are not. You are not righteous.

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You are not sinless. You're declared that, but you're not. Sanctification is the process by which

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God is now transforming you to reflect what has been declared, but it will always be imperfect.

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I think this is a good moment for me to read from our confession. This is the Lenten Baptist Confession. It's going to be the same in the

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Westminster. And Justin, I know you had something from the Heidelberg. This is chapter 16 on good works. And this is what

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I think is important when I'm talking about the difference between sanctification and justification. So here it says here in point three, their ability to do good works does not arise at all from themselves, but entirely from the spirit of Christ.

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To enable them to do good works, they need in addition to the graces they have already received and an actual influence of the same

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Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do for his good pleasure. See, it's a flow and response of, it's not within our abilities.

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So even now as justified sinners who are now considered to be saints, children of God, the ability to do these good works still doesn't come from our flesh.

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It still comes with the power of the spirit. That's sanctification. This is why we say both your salvation and the transformation are works of God's sovereign work.

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It's called monergistic, meaning one doing the work. So to say that you're adding in following Jesus or whatever work you want to put in there, repentance, making

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Jesus Lord of your life, whatever phrase you want to put in there, you're putting sanctification prior to justification.

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You're reversing it and you can't do that. It has to stay in the right order. Otherwise, you're putting a work into salvation and you have reasons to boast.

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Yeah, going back really quickly to the Roman Catholic understanding of justification, I don't think it's a caricature or unfair to, in a succinct way, summarize their view in this way.

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They effectively, functionally taught justification via sanctification.

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They still do. Right, but I'm talking about it in the context of the Reformation, the medieval church, and how

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Reformation doctrine stands in stark contrast. The Council of Trent, excuse me, from the middle of the 16th century has not been recanted officially by the

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Church of Rome. And so they effectively taught that you were justified via the means of sanctification because as you were, it's kind of faith and love and cooperation with God and all these kinds of things that resulted in your final salvation.

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And when we say justification, we mean, like you said, the declaration of God that we are just in his sight now and forever.

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The present declaration means something for our future and it means to be justified.

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So this is my synopsis of Heidelberg 60 and then I also want to read from the 1689 as well. Heidelberg question 60 is great.

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How are you righteous before God? And you confess it's by faith in Christ, but then we say that although I have broken all of God's commands and I've never really kept any of them and I am still inclined toward all evil, yet by faith, just because out of God's sheer grace, by faith,

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I am counted with the holiness, righteousness and satisfaction of Jesus Christ. It is as though I have never sinned nor been a sinner.

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And it is as though I myself have worked all of the obedient works that Christ did. And all of this

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I receive with a believing heart. That's some good news there now in terms of what it means to be justified. Now, here's the 1689 confession, chapter 11, paragraph one on justification.

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I'm just going to read it. I could unpack it, but I'm just going to let the word stand on their own. It's good. Those God effectually calls, he also freely justifies.

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He does this not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins and accounting and accepting them as righteous.

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He does this for Christ's sake alone and not for anything produced in them or done by them.

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He does not impute faith itself, the act of believing or any other gospel obedience to them as their righteousness.

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Instead, he imputes Christ's active obedience to the whole law and passive obedience in his death as their whole and only righteousness by faith.