I was reading “When the Darkness Will Not Lift” by John Piper, which is about Christians who live without joy. There are many reasons why some Christians live without joy but one of them was confusing justification and sanctification.
Justification is a legal term. In the courtroom of heaven, we are all guilty sinners deserving condemnation. However we are declared righteous by faith alone and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. Our faith is not our righteousness but rather it is us being the recipients of Christ and all that he is for us is.
Afterwards, God gives us his Holy Spirit and progressively transforms us morally into the image of Christ. This is called sanctification, or the working out of our justified position in Christ.
It is crucial not to confuse or combine justification and sanctification. The reason, as Piper states, is that it “turns justification by faith into justification by performance” and ultimately undermines the gospel. God accepts us by virtue of what Christ has done and our simple acceptance of that free gift. The joy-robbing frustration often comes in through the slow and pain-staking process to become more like Christ. We get frustrated with ourselves and impatient because we feel that we don’t measure up. Sadly, there are even some church sub-cultures which make their members feel inadequate and contribute to this confusion.
Interestingly, John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress (which sold more copies than any other book besides the Bible), struggled for a time with despair and joylessness. Here’s a section out of Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, which explains that decisive moment that John Bunyan received clarity on justification:
One day as I was passing into the field …this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And …I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he [lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, “The same yesterday, today, forever” (Heb. 13:8). Now did my chains fall off my indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God [about the unforgivable sin] left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.
The remarkable freedom we have in Christ, the riches of his spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, the lavishness of his grace, and the forgiveness of our sins, should make us delight in the same manner of realization as Bunyan. Moreover, we should know that though sanctification is a long, slow and pain-staking process, it is merely a “slight momentary affliction …preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
Where does the Bible make the sharp distinction between justification and sanctification you do? The only time I see the two words together in Scripture is 1 Cor 6:11. Also, I don't see where Scripture says Justification is in relation to the "courtroom of heaven" or any mention of Christ's Righteousness.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying there is no distinction between justification and sanctification? Are you just trying to do a word search? because the words are concepts (e.g., the word Trinity isn't in the bible either). What does Justification mean to you?
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThere is a distinction but not the sharp distinction you make. Justification and Sanctification are two sides of the same coin. Justification is the over-arching term that includes sanctification, forgiveness, adoption, etc. The presence of terms like forgive, adoption, sanctify, etc, all indicate justification is taking place.
One good example, aside from 1 Cor 6:11 as I already noted, is Titus 3:4-7 that says "saved by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Spirit" is equivalent to "justified by His grace".
The distinction I make is not to turn justification into sanctification. As you said, they are "two sides of the same coin" but there are still TWO DIFFERENT SIDES. The 1 Cor 6:11 passage is primarily taking about Justification and being Sanctified by your past sins. Sanctification is still on-going. My whole point was not to feel like we have to earn God's approval because we are justified in Christ. But if you disagree with me, that's fine. You're entitled to your views.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThey are "two different sides" only in that one is more broad than the other, not that they happen separately. They occur at the same time and depend on eachother to take place. For example, if the individual is not sanctified, they cannot be justified.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree with you. Being sanctified (past sin) when justified is different than currently being sanctified (becoming more Christ-like and committing less sin) from present and future sin. AGAIN, my whole point was not to feel like we have to earn God's approval because we don't feel justified. That is what kills joy. In a blog I'm not going to go through an entire systematic treatment on the subject. I wrote plenty in Grad-school. But I get the feeling we agree but you're just reading it differently for whatever reason. But I do appreciate you taking the time to read it at all. Thanks again for your comments. I'll make sure to communicate better next time.