Series: A Biblical Theology of Christian Maturity (Week 2)

Distinctions and Definitions

There are distinctions between the work of sanctification that is accomplished by God the subsequent work undertaken by humanity. In addition, it must be admitted that there is a distinction between definitive sanctification occurring once at the beginning of salvation and progressive sanctification leading to spiritual maturity and holiness. 

A Holy Cooperation

The key passage in Scripture describing the cooperation of man and God in sanctification is Philippians 2:12-13 where Paul tells the Philippian church, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” There is clearly an element of human responsibility (work out your own salvation) alongside divine activity (for it is God who works in you). There is an indication in this passage of the way in which God sanctifies as well. He gives both the desire and the power to do his will. God works in the believer through the power of the Holy Spirit to convict of and mortify sin (Romans 8:13), to discipline (Heb. 12:5-11), and to produce fruit (John 15: 1-11; Galatians 5:22-23). Our role in this process is both passive and active. It is passive in that “we depend on God to sanctify us, and…active in which we strive to obey God and take steps that will increase our sanctification.”[1] 

Scripture is replete with admonitions to obey and take these kinds of steps to further sanctification. The believer is told to yield to God (Rom. 6:13), to strive for holiness (Heb. 5:14), to put to death earthly behavior (Col. 3:5-11), and to put on God-glorifying behavior (Col. 3:12-17). It is clear from Scripture that this process is a unique and dynamic cooperation between God and the believer toward spiritual maturity and holiness. 

A Holy Separation

The language of Scripture also teaches that believers have been sanctified by God, or set apart from the world.[2] Thomas Watson, the great Puritan and joint pastor of Crosby Hall with Stephen Charnock sheds light on this aspect of sanctification within the context of his sermons on the Westminster Assembly’s Catechism in his marvelous work A Body of Divinity. His explanation resounds with helpful simplicity: “They are sanctified persons who are separated from the world, and set apart for God’s service.”[3] Another Puritan, the great John Owen gave a more detailed description of the definitive aspect of sanctification in his work on the Holy Spirit. 

Sanctification is an immediate work of the Holy Spirit of God on the souls of believers, purifying and cleansing of their natures from the pollution and uncleanness of sin, renewing them in the image of God, and thereby enabling them, from a spiritual and habitual principle of grace, to yield obedience unto God, according to the tenor and terms of the new covenant, by virtue of the life and death of Jesus Christ.[4]

While the process of sanctification, and thus the process of spiritual maturity are clearly begun in God’s setting the believer apart from the world, the two are not the same. “Sanctification in this sense is something that occurs at the very beginning of the Christian life, at the point of conversion, along with regeneration and justification.”[5]

 A Holy Progression

There is another sense in which sanctification is described in Scripture and that sense to which this paper will pay particular attention. While themes of separation and renovation come through from the text of Scripture, the progressive nature of sanctification is a focus as well. Watson profoundly agrees, “Sanctification is progressive; if it does not grow, it is because it does not live.”[6] Owen continues, “This work of sanctification is progressive, and admits of degrees. It is begun at once, and carried on gradually.”[7] Modern theologians have produced equally helpful descriptions of progressive sanctification, though not as verbose, still emphasizing its ongoing nature. Wayne Grudem notes, “Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.”[8] Culver’s definition is extremely helpful as well. He says sanctification should be viewed as “growth in moral likeness to God, improvement of character, and fulfilling the ethical norms of Scripture in heart and life.”[9] Simply put, sanctification is the progressive work of God and man whereby the believer becomes holy. 

A Holy Aim

Holiness is ultimately conformity to the image of Jesus Christ in the actual life of the believer. It is begun at conversion and continues throughout life. While some may distinguish holiness from spiritual maturity, it is the contention of this paper that spiritual maturity ultimately is a growth in holiness, or specifically a progression in Christlikeness in every area of the life of the believer. Speaking of God’s work in sanctification toward holiness, J.C. Ryle notes, “He not only washes him in his own blood, but he also separates him from his natural love of sin and the world, puts a new principle in his heart, and makes him practically godly in life.”[10]  Thomas Bergler, in his work From Here To Maturity discusses the status, process and ultimate goal of sanctification regarding holiness. 

The ultimate goal of this process is perfect conformity to the image of Christ who is the perfect image of God. Thus for Christians holiness is a current status, an ongoing process, and an ultimate goal only reached in the life to come.[11]

Scripture is clear that holiness is indeed the ultimate aim of the life of the believer, specifically in the process of sanctification (Ex. 19:6; Lev. 11:44-45, 19:2; 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 4:3,7, 5:23; Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:15-16). John Owen says that holiness is “the fruit and effect of this work [sanctification], the work as terminated in us, as it compriseth the renewed principle or image of God wrought in us, so it consists in holy obedience to God.”[12] Not only is it the aim of sanctification, but also the object of the cooperation of man and God (Phil. 2:12-13). “Holiness is both God’s promised gift and man’s prescribed duty.”[13]

 So sanctification involves the work of God and the work of the believer. It is begun in the separation of the believer from the world and toward God, but carried out in the actual life of the believer in a progressive movement toward holiness. In crafting a biblical theology of spiritual maturity, the necessary emphasis of this paper is leaning on the progressive reality of sanctification. It will be clearly demonstrated through a careful survey of biblical data that sanctification progresses holistically in order to produce spiritual maturity in the life of the believer. 

Notes

[1] Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England : Grand Rapids, Mich: Inter-Varsity Press ; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994), 754.

[2] “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1 Cor. 1:2 ESV). “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holynation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9 ESV).

[3] Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity: Contained in Sermons Upon the Westminster Assembly’s Catechism (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 240.

[4] John Owen, The Holy Spirit, vol. 3, 16 vols., The Works of John Owen (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1977), 386.

[5] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd edition (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2013), 898.

[6] Watson, A Body of Divinity, 242.

[7] Owen, The Holy Spirit, 387.

[8] Grudem, Systematic Theology, 746.

[9] Robert Duncan Culver, Systematic Theology: Biblical and Historical (Fearn, Ross-shire: Mentor, 2005), 756.

[10] J.C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (Greenwood, SC: Attic Press, Inc., 1977), 16.

[11] Thomas E. Bergler, From Here to Maturity: Overcoming the Juvenilization of American Christianity (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 47.

[12] Owen, The Holy Spirit, 386.

[13] J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life, 1st U.S. trade pbk. ed (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 1994), 198.