Depravity and Regeneration (6): Sanctified

What follows is the sixth entry of a series of articles written by Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma. The fifth entry is Depravity and Regeneration (5): The Depravity of the Old Man.

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We need to discuss the believer’s good works. We need to understand the obligation of the believer in God’s covenant to walk in obedience to God’s commands. But we do not wish to rush into this subject without laying the proper groundwork. That requires examining the truth of sanctification. I have heard repeatedly the accusation that some of our ministers, and now the denomination as a whole, deny the truth of justification by faith alone on the grounds of the work of Jesus Christ alone or that they teach a conditional covenant. Quite frankly, protests and appeals have not proven this to be true. God’s people in our denomination need not question or fear that they are being deceived by doctrinal error in the preaching they hear from our pulpits. We thank God that from every angle the truth of justification by faith alone and an unconditional covenant are still taught faithfully and fervently by ministers of the gospel in the PRC.

So also is the proper truth of sanctification taught and preached. It is striking how this doctrine of sanctification is strangely silent in the objections raised against the believer’s conscious experience of fellowship with God in the way of good works. Repeatedly, in protests the term “salvation” is made synonymous with justification, as if the two are one and the same. It is true that justification is salvation, but salvation includes much more than only justification. Anyone taught in Reformed theology knows that the study of salvation reveals various steps in the order of salvation, sanctification being one of them.

God’s Word clearly teaches that one cannot be justified without also being sanctified. All among us would agree that this is true. But would such agreement be expressed if we were to say that sanctification is as fundamental to our salvation as justification? Justification does not trump sanctification. Would agreement be expressed if we were to say that sanctification is the purpose of God in electing us? Ephesians 1:4: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Would agreement be expressed if we were to say that our sanctification is the purpose of Christ in saving us? John 17:17-19: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” Sanctification is as much a necessary work of God’s grace as is our justification. Why is it that I have heard more than once when speaking of the obligation to walk in obedience to the commands of Scripture the puzzling response, “yes, but it is all of grace!” Of course it is all of grace! All of salvation is of grace. A life of sanctification is all of grace too. No one is denying that.

But I am getting ahead of myself. What is sanctification? The story is familiar. God told Adam that if he disobeyed his command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil he would die. Adam and Eve ate and they died, as God said. They became subject to death in two ways. First, through Adam’s disobedience the human race became guilty of violating God’s command and offending his most high majesty. The penalty or condemnation for such sin was eternal death. In order to save or deliver his elect people from this sentence of guilt and death Christ justified us. He paid for our sins through his death and God imputed his righteousness to us in the place of our guilt. Christ suffered death for us. Now we have a right in Christ to eternal life.

But Adam and Eve died in another way too when they fell. Their hearts shriveled up inside of them from a spiritual point of view. Adam’s heart, the spiritual center of man, became dead in sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1, 5). His mind and will became slaves to sin. As we well know, this corruption or depravity of Adam is passed along to his posterity by heredity. The entire human race is infected by a horrible depravity that affects heart, mind, will and body. In order to save or deliver God’s elect from this death Christ must also perform a work in and through us. This is the work of sanctification. By means of this work of Christ he takes the spiritual scrub brush of his blood to our filthy hearts and cleanses them. 1 Corinthians 6:11: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” Since out of the heart are the issues of life our thoughts and desires are also cleansed in the blood of Christ. Likewise, our bodies now become the temples of God in which the Holy Spirit resides. In fact, the Holy Spirit is the agent of our sanctification. He applies to us the work of Christ. He dwells in us imparting to us the life of Christ that cleanses us from iniquity.

This work of sanctification is described in various ways in the Bible. As we have noticed, it is a spiritual cleansing. It is also referred to as the circumcision of the foreskin or our hearts. Deuteronomy 30:6: “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” It is the renewal of our spirits. Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” A transformation takes place in us. Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Through sanctification we become a new person. 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Perhaps most importantly sanctification is a restoration. By this work Christ restores to us regenerated sinners the image of God (righteousness, holiness and true knowledge) we lost in Paradise. Adam and Eve could serve God without sin because they were created in God’s image. Having lost the image in the fall the human race was plunged headlong into the total depravity of sin. Through the work of sanctification Christ now restores this image to his elect people. 1 Corinthians 1:30: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (see also Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10). With these virtues the sanctified believer is able to serve God in all righteousness and holiness by walking in the way of good works. Such is the purpose of God in our sanctification: that we should walk in good works. In fact, on the basis of Christ’s work in our sanctification the believer is actually enjoined by God in his Word to walk in all good works. These good works do not sanctify us, but are the necessary result of this work of sanctification. For that reason we are exhorted to walk in all good works.

Next blog we will take a close look at these good works.