The Sanctification Q&A Thread

[Theoretical]

Consider this the Sanctification corollary to Prufrock's excellent thread.

Does anyone out there have any questions about Sanctification they want to ask, but perhaps are too timid or just have never gotten around to starting a thread in the wading pool? If so, ask away: it will be educational, beneficial and all around useful for us all, either to explain or to read other's explanations.

 

[Ex Nihilo]

WCF Chapter 13.1 says:

They, who are once effectually called . . . are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them

So, how are we sanctified through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection?

 

[Herald]

...by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them.

The language in the 1689 LBC is nearly identical.

We are set apart (made holy; sanctified) through the ministry of the Word, and the indwelling Holy Spirit. In the same way we are saved and being saved. Philippians 2:12-13 12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

 

[Jimmy the Greek]

Sanctification has a punctilliar aspect in that we are "set apart" at once when we are indwelt by the Spirit. It also has a continuing aspect as we are progressively confromed to Christ. Right?

Is it then proper to say that we are sanctified by grace just as we are saved by grace -- even though progressive sanctification is a process in which we actively "participate"?

-------------
Sorry, I did some editing while others were responding.

 

[Herald]

Is it proper to say that we are sanctified by grace just as we are saved by grace -- even though sanctification is a process in which we 'participate'?

In light of Ephesians 2:8, yes. But our sanctification, while of grace, is actually by the Spirit.

 

[Ex Nihilo]

Yes, definitely -- but how do the Word and indwelling Spirit apply the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection? The second phrase seems to me to show us how we access the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, but I am wondering more about what that virtue does.

 

[Herald]

Christ's virtue is found in His moral excellence; His perfect obedience to the Law and the Father's will. By submitting Himself fully and obediently to the will of the Father, we become partakers in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

 

[Prufrock]

Is it proper to say that we are sanctified by grace just as we are saved by grace

Absolutely. Sanctification was purchased for us by Christ just as much as Justification.

More in response to the opening question, Witsius speaks beautifully to the point:

The power of his resurrection produces a new life in [Christ's members]. For, he himself being raised from the dead, has received, not only for himself a new and a glorious life, but a fountain of a new and holy life for all his people; from which, by a continued influence, the most refreshing streams flow to all his members; hence, from his own life, by a most conclusive argument, he inferred the life of his people: Because I live, ye shall live also.

 

[MW]

Romans 6 teaches what is sometimes called "positional sanctification," where the believer's relationship to sin is radically affected by his union with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The vitality of this union is ministered by Word and Spirit so that the believer "reckons" his old self dead to sin and alive to God. He lives under the dominion of grace and this enables him to yield his members instruments of righteousness unto holiness.