Justification -- How your view affects sanctification

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Thanks, could you elaborate further?

Well, here is some of what Haldane had to say:

Verse 10 - For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.

"In that - or with respect to that - He died, He died unto sin - Here we have the same declaration concerning our Lord and Savior as in the 2d verse concerning believers, of whom the Apostle says that they are dead to sin. Whatever, then, the expression signifies in the one case, it must also be understood in the other. But those who attach a wrong interpretation to the phrase in the first occurance, are necessitated to attribute to it a different in the second. Accordingly, Calvin remarks on this 10th verse, - 'The very form of expression, as applied to Christ, shows that He did not, like us, die to sin for the purpose of ceasing to commit it.' Here are two misinterpretations, - first, of the 2d verse, and next, as a natural consequence, of this 10th. A similar difference of interpretation will be found in the other commentators. Having mistaken the meaning of the one, they are compelled to vary it in the other. In the first, they introduce the idea of death to the power of sin, but in the last this is impossible. Our Lord never felt the power of sin, and therefore could not die to it. But, He died to the guilt of sin - to the guilt of His people's sins, which He had taken upon Him; and they, dying with Him, as is above declared, die to sin precisely in the same sense in which He died to it. This declaration, then, that Christ died to sin, explains in the clearest manner the meaning of the expression 'dead to sin,' verse 2d, proving that it signifies exclusively dying to the guilt of sin; for in no other sense could our Lord Jesus Christ die to sin"

"...Having been delivered from its guilt, - dead to it, or justified from it, verse 7th, - they are in consequence delivered from its power. But to include the idea of power in the expression, 'dead to sin,' verse 2d, entirely confuses and misrepresents his meaning. Jesus Christ suffered the penalty of sin, and ceased to bear it. Till His death He had sin upon Him; and therefore, though it was not committed by Him personally, yet it was His own, inasmuch as He had taken it upon Him. When He took it upon Him, so as to free His people from its guilt, it became His own debt as truly as if it had been contracted by Him. When, therefore, He died on account of sin, He died to it, as He was now for ever justified from it. He was not justified from it till His resurrection; but from that moment He was dead to it. When He shall appear the second time, it will be 'without sin,' Heb. 9:28."

"...From verse 11, believers are here commanded to reckon themselves to be really and effectually dead to sin - dead to its guilt - and alive unto God in Jesus Christ, as it ought to be rendered. The obligation thus enjoined follows from all that the Apostle had been inculcating respecting their blessed state as partakers with Christ, both in His death and in His life. As this is their real condition, he here commands them to maintain a full sense and conviction of it. The duties of the Christian life, flowing from their union with Jesus Christ and acceptance with God, he immediately proceeds to enforce. But here it is the obligation to maintain the conviction of their state that he exclusively presses upon them. To note this is of great importance. Unless we keep in mind that we are dead to sin, and alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord, we cannot serve Him as we ought; we shall otherwise be serving in the oldness of the letter, and not in newness of spirit. But when the believer's state of reconciliation with God, and his death to sin, from which he is delivered, is steadily kept in view, then he cultivates the spirit of adoption - then he strives to walk worthy of his calling.......he has peace in his conscience, his heart is enlarged, and he runs the way of God's commandments."

"...Of their high privileges and state of acceptance with God, believers are ever reminded in Scripture; and it is not till a man has the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I Pet. 3:21, and a sense of being justified from sin, having his conscience purged from dead works by the blood of Christ, that he can serve the living God, Heb. 9:14. How important, then, is this admonition of the Apostle, Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, though often much obscured by false glosses turning it away from its true and appropriate meaning! By many it would be accounted presumptuous in Christians to take it home to themselves. Hence they are not aware of the obligations they are under to labour to maintain the assurance of their union with Christ, and of their participation with Him in His death and resurrection. But we see that the Apostle, after he had fully developed the blessed state of believers, and declared the foundation on which it rests, with which their continuing to live in sin is incompatible, expressly enjoins this as a positive duty on those whom he addresses, and consequently on all Christians, thus reminding them that what he had said was not to be viewed in the light of abstract truth, but ought to be practially and individually brought home to their own bosoms. How seldom is this use made of the text before us! How seldom, if ever, is the duty it enforces urged upon Christians!..."

"...In consulting a multitude of commentators, I found no satisfactory solution. Most of them explain the expression 'dead to sin,' in the 2d verse, as importing death not only to the guilt, but also, as has been remarked, to the power of sin, - a proof that the assertion of the Apostle is misunderstood. But when it is perceivd that the guilt of sin only is included, a clear light is thrown on this highly important part of the Epistle......'True spiritual mortification does not consist in sin not being in thee, nor in its being put upon the cross daily, nor yet in its being kept upon it. There must be something more to establish perfect peace in thy conscience; and that is the testimony of God concerning the body of sin. He has provided for thy perfect deliverance from it in Christ....Thy sins were crucified with Him, and nailed to the cross. They were put to death when He died: for He was thy covenant head, and thou wast legally represented by Him, and art indeed dead to sin by His dying to sin once. The law has now no more right to condemn thee, a believer, than it has to condemn Him. Justice is bound to deal with thee, as it has with thy risen and ascended Savior....No sin can be crucified either in heart or life, unless it be first pardoned in conscience; because there will be want of faith to receive the strength of Jesus, by whom alone it can be crucified. If it be not mortified in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power. If the believer does not see his perfect deadness to sin in Jesus, he will open a wide door to unbelief; and if he be not persuaded of his completeness in Christ, he gives room for the attacks of self-righteous and legal tempers. If Christ be not all in all, self must still be looked upon as something great, and there will be food left for the pride of self-importance and self-sufficiency; so that he cannot grow into the death of Christ in sensible experience, further than he believes himself to be dead to sin in Christ...'"
 
The discussion has been very good.

Remember that faith, alone, lays hold of Christ and His righteousness and that our righteousness is not the grounds for our justification, ever. God justifies the ungodly.

Yet, we also know that faith is the gift of God and is preceded by His grace whereby, in election, we are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. Those are certain to occur because God has made us alive.

When we believe, we are united to Christ in His death and resurrection and our sanctification (being made like Him) is certain even as the faith which rests in Him is certain because it is produced by the same Spirit working through the Word. Thus, God is pleased to sanctify those whom He has justified. We must be sanctified and perfected by that same Spirit and the promises of that are signified and sealed to us in our baptism.

Thus, for us, we strive toward holiness because Christ is at work in us to will and do His good pleasure. We know we are righteous in Him and are being made righteous in Him and we ought to be able to see that work in our desires and attitudes and growth in grace. We are, in fact, warned to look for that and continually cast ourselves on Christ for the grace that we daily need from Him. Christianity is not a life of "got the decision card" but a life of trust in the Gospel and what the means of grace (Word, Sacrament, prayer, fellowship) do toward the end of our glorification. We must avail ourselves of them and fall on them as a beggar falls on bread and as a son who is constantly in need of his Father's care and provision.
 
Excellent discussion. Lots of good reading.This is the kind of thing for which I joined PB. Many thanks, all.
 
The discussion has been very good.

Remember that faith, alone, lays hold of Christ and His righteousness and that our righteousness is not the grounds for our justification, ever. God justifies the ungodly.

Yet, we also know that faith is the gift of God and is preceded by His grace whereby, in election, we are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. Those are certain to occur because God has made us alive.

When we believe, we are united to Christ in His death and resurrection and our sanctification (being made like Him) is certain even as the faith which rests in Him is certain because it is produced by the same Spirit working through the Word. Thus, God is pleased to sanctify those whom He has justified. We must be sanctified and perfected by that same Spirit and the promises of that are signified and sealed to us in our baptism.

Thus, for us, we strive toward holiness because Christ is at work in us to will and do His good pleasure. We know we are righteous in Him and are being made righteous in Him and we ought to be able to see that work in our desires and attitudes and growth in grace. We are, in fact, warned to look for that and continually cast ourselves on Christ for the grace that we daily need from Him. Christianity is not a life of "got the decision card" but a life of trust in the Gospel and what the means of grace (Word, Sacrament, prayer, fellowship) do toward the end of our glorification. We must avail ourselves of them and fall on them as a beggar falls on bread and as a son who is constantly in need of his Father's care and provision.

AMEN! Thanks
 
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