Sanctification and Eschatology

Here are some resources and a (somewhat) brief history to bring you up to speed on the sanctification issue that has garnered a lot of attention recently.

One of Tullian Tchividjian’s main thrusts for his blog (and his tweets) is communicating that sanctification is “getting used to your justification”, prompted in part by the Lutheran theologian Gerhard Forde (see here, here and briefly here).Meanwhile, Darryl Hart occasionally expresses his confusion on finding union with Christ as expressed by Vos, Gaffin, etc. in the Reformed tradition* (e.g. see here).Justin Taylor links to three posts: one from Kevin DeYoung emphasizing the role of effort in the Christian life (possibly prompted by Tullian’s emphases, but possibly not), one from Tullian that attempts to articulate the relationship of justification to sanctification (in response to Kevin), and one from Kevin emphasizing that sanctification includes more than just recalling our justification.Bill Evans writes on Ref21, seeking to add clarity to the issues Kevin DeYoung and Tullian were speaking of by giving a brief history of the discussion and emphasizing the soteriological priority of union with Christ, from which the benefits of justification, sanctification and adoption flow. Evans is also concerned to understand the law, obedience, legalism, grace, etc. within this context of our union with Christ and the benefits we receive from that union.Sean Lucas writes on Ref21 in response to Bill Evans’ article. Lucas emphasizes the need for unity among brothers as these discussions continue while seeing the issues as more of a matter of emphasis than foundational disagreement.Justin Taylor links to Sean Lucas’s post that is a response to Bill Evans’ post, sympathizing with Lucas’s concerns for unity.GreenBaggins also weighs in and gives thoughts on the debate.Rick Phillips writes a lengthy, organized response by putting forth positive statements on sanctification.Camden Bucey rounds out the discussion by also pointing out the believer’s union with Christ in his death, along with that union with Christ in his resurrection, ascension, and session.Kevin DeYoung again weighs in, responding to the Ref21 articles.Bill Evans writes another response here.Jim Cassidy weighs in here, emphasizing the pastoral element to the discussion.Sean Lucas responds again here, indicating that he should not be misunderstood as saying that these discussions are matters of mere emphasis.Tullian sums up his response to those recent posts here.

In the interest of keeping a spirit of unity, I won’t mention any names of people with whom I differ on this topic. I hope that’s at least partially indicative of my desire not simply to start arguments between Christian brothers, but to allow iron to sharpen iron for the sake of producing clarity where it perhaps lacked beforehand, on both sides.

What I hope to present are the categories for the discussion, arrived at by careful exegesis elsewhere by other writers. For the sake of space and the reader’s patience, I’ll simply assume this exegetical work represented by the passages cited especially by Bill Evans, Rick Phillips, and Camden Bucey in the articles mentioned above. Especially assumed and foundational to the discussion is the work done by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. in his book Resurrection and Redemptionas well as in his articles “Biblical Theology and the Westminster Standards”, “Justification and Eschatology” in Justified in Christ, “Theonomy and Eschatology” in Theonomy: A Reformed Critique, “Epistemological Reflections on 1 Corinthians 2:6-16” in Revelation and Reason and somewhat related “The New Testament as Canon” in Inerrancy and Hermeneutic. Much of what I write here is simply summarizing Gaffin’s work as well as drawing on Lane Tipton’s crucial notes on this subject from his “Doctrine of Salvation” course taught at WTS, alongside his articles “Justification and Union with Christ” in Justified in Christ and “Paul’s Christological Interpretation of Creation and Presuppositional Apologetics” in Revelation and Reason.

Eschatology. Eschatology. Eschatology. It may initially sound foreign, but eschatology is the background of and essential to the gospel. What sets the stage for how we are justified, how we are sanctified, and what’s called the “order of salvation” is what was accomplished in history by Christ to make possible those benefits you receive by being in Christ; the history of salvation is the context for the gospel and your own personal salvation.

The history of salvation starts with the need for salvation and redemption in the first place: Genesis 3. Before Adam’s fall the garden was very good, but it wasn’t the pinnacle or fulfillment of God’s creation. The garden was set up as a probationary environment and Adam was meant to pass that probationary test, but he failed. Instead of passing the temptation and being exalted, Adam became the head and representative of the unfulfilled, unredeemed human race in an unredeemed, unfulfilled age, earth, and heavens. The conditional curse told to Adam by God became a reality. The entire creation would groan from that point forward because of Adam’s failure, and every person after him would be born united to Adam (Rom 5:12-21) in his guilt, corruption, alienation from God, and lack of redemption.

You know what happens next in redemptive history. The entire Old Testament is filled with anticipation, looking forward to a time when the redemption promised in Genesis would come and the new epoch is ushered in. Until that happens, failure after failure emerges – Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah – all of them Hebrews 11-like ‘heroes’ in the faith, but clearly failing to be the one who brings in that new, redeemed epoch. In the meantime, those who have faith in the Redeemer who is yet to come are no longer united to their earthly father Adam, they are united to their future Redeemer who has yet to come.

As we take a look at the epochal shift and fulfillment that occurred with the coming of God’s Son, Christ, we know that Christ lived a perfect life, then died for his chosen people and became sin (2 Cor 5:21) for believers for our salvation and our redemption from our inherited sin from Adam. But our salvation did not and cannot stop with Christ’s death alone, or with the cross alone (see Rev. 15). The second part to what Christ did back then in history is his resurrection by God that effectively ushered in that redeemed, new epochal age and conquered the fleshly, temporary, visible, groaning age and old creation. Those who died with Christ have been buried with Christ and have been raised with Christ by virtue of our union with Christ (Rom 6), and have, like Christ, become a new creation – but not fully. Yet.

There is a reality that we do not yet see with our physical eyes in our temporary bodies: the reality of being united with Christ as he has been raised, exalted, ascended into heaven, and as he is seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father. We don’t visibly see that, do we? But make no mistake, it is a reality for Christ and is just as much a reality for us, albeit not physically seen. By faith we are united to Christ and receive the benefits of justification, sanctification, and adoption and we receive those benefits simultaneously at the time-point of our faith in Christ. In his resurrection and exaltation Christ was justified (1 Tim 3:16), definitively sanctified (Rom 6), and adopted (Heb 1:5). Moreover, this also happens to us as believers because of our union with that exalted Christ. We are not first justified by faith and abstractly declared innocent, only to then be sanctified for good works as that initial justification and its reality plays out in our lives. We are definitively sanctified at the same time-point that we are justified. Yet progressive sanctification does just that – it progresses – as we work out our salvation (Phil 2:12-13) in the power of the Spirit as believers living in this temporary world.

We can understand Christ’s coming in various ways, but one that I think is helpful is understanding Christ’s coming in two episodes. Christ has already completed the first part by being born of a virgin, living a perfect life, being crucified, dying, being buried, and being raised, exalted, ascending, and sitting at the right hand of God in heaven (Eph 1:20f). “It is finished”, it goes without saying, is completely true. But “it” doesn’t mean “everything” and Christ still has work to do before all is well and the removal of sin includes not only the removal of our guilt and corruption but working towards our deliverance from the old, evil age. We are awaiting a new creation, the new heavens and the new earth. We have faith and hope in what is invisible and unseen that is yet to come, for who hopes for what is visible (Heb 11:1-3)? We will get new bodies when Christ returns, bodies fit for the not-yet new creation that he will bring and fit for what we already are in our union with him. What we see now in this age will burn when Christ returns. What we see is just our temporary home as we are aliens here, and all of it will on that day make way for our real, permanent, new creation home with the glorified Christ.

Because of the already/not yet aspect to all of reality now, that reality must inform discussions regarding the gospel, salvation, what Christ has done, what he will do, etc. There is a sense (already) in which we are no more justified or sanctified now than we ever will be, even in the new heavens and the new earth. But there is another (not yet) sense where there is still work to be done in us and with God’s unredeemed, temporary creation. While this already/not yet tension is still a reality here while our Lord tarries, the indicative of who we are as believers united with Christ and receiving every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3) as a result is never in tension with what God calls us to do here as his sons and daughters in Christ. Whatever motivation we have for doing good works, we can be confident that those good works are never the basis for our salvation, while at the same time we strive toward them (Col 3:1) to hear Christ when he returns say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

When the sanctification discussion takes place merely on the level of a pendulum swing between indicatives and imperatives (Gal 5:25; Eph 5:8; 1 Cor 5:7; Phil 2:12-13 are just a few examples of the biblical both/and of indicatives and imperatives), when the same two concepts are highlighted as emphases, and when all of that is discussed apart from the systemic eschatological element coursing through what Christ has done and what he is doing in you, something foundational and structural is lacking.

When sanctification is defined as “getting used to your justification” or “forgetting about yourself” and the law and the gospel/grace are in a tug of war of emphasis, do you not see that the entire crucial context and substructure of what Christ accomplished and how he applies it in your life is missing? Sanctification is a dying to sin and rising with Christ and has so much more to do with what Christ did for you than in your disposition of just letting the reality of the benefit of judicially being declared righteous sink in; not to mention the need to distinguish for clarity’s sake the difference between being definitively sanctified (1 Cor 1:2; 6:11; Heb 10:10,14) through our union with Christ and progressively sanctified (Rom 12:2) over time in the life of believers.

What absolutely must be distinguished in these discussions is the difference between pastoring a believer who needlessly feels guilty over not doing good works because he thinks he has to earn his salvation, and pastoring a believer who actually fails to do a specific good work (or doing a bad work) because he reverted to breaking God’s law and followed the previous patterns of the “old man” (Rom 5:12f; 6:12; 8;13) who was dead before God breathed new life and Spirit into him as God breathed life into his first creation, Adam.

As redeemed believers we must do good works “for Jesus” as God works in us progressively to sanctify and we must do so as good and faithful servants of the Savior who requires that of us, but not do them from a false motivation to earn our salvation already achieved for us by Christ. We obey as God’s new creatures, groaning with creation for our Savior to come and complete his work in us.

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For reference to the historical Reformed tradition, one place to start would be the Westminster Confession of Faith; Chapter 11 for justification, Chapter 12 for adoption, and Chapter 13 for sanctification. Also see the Westminster Larger Catechism Questions 69-78 for the relationship of union to the benefits, particularly

Q 69: What is the communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?
A. The communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him.

Also, Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 32-38 are helpful. In Calvin, it’s worth looking at his Institutes, III.I.1, III.XI.1, III.XI.6, III.XI.10, III.XVI.1. It should be clear from those readings that what is said above regarding eschatology and our union with Christ is consistent within the tradition and not in conflict.