Is Justification Permanent? Part Three

I here continue my response to the objection about the permanence of justification:

So far I have demonstrated the historical existence of my doctrine and distinguished it from two other doctrines out there. To complete my case that it is possible to believe what I believe about both the permanence of justification and the necessity of good works, I have one sentence from the Welsh Methodist confession of faith of 1823: "All those who are united to Christ and justified through his righteousness are also sanctified." This is the key right here, and the point I want to defend biblically. Those God justifies (declares righteous), he also sanctifies (makes righteous). Both of these are acts of God, not man, and there is no evidence that God is schizophrenic in his work of salvation. There are many who are neither justified nor sanctified, and there are some who are both justified and sanctified. But there are none who are justified and not sanctified, and there are none who are sanctified but not justified.

Much in my earlier blog post addresses the fact that it is God who justifies us. So I now want to focus attention on some passages in the Bible where the sanctification of believers is attributed to the work of God:

John 17:17-19 - "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."

Here Jesus prays for the sanctification of believers. Earlier in his prayer he has made it explicit that he is praying for his disciples (except for Judas), and not for the world. He also prays for all who will believe in him in the future. And will the Father reject the prayer of the Son?

Acts 20:32 - "And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified."

Paul's address to the Ephesian elders contains a similar point to Jesus' prayer, in that God uses his word in his work of sanctification.

Romans 6:17-18, 22 - "But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness... But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life."

Interestingly, when addressing the topic of the Roman church's sanctification, Paul, instead of thanking them, thanks God!

Romans 8:29-30 - "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

Paul here explicitly identifies that the same people that are justified are also conformed to the image of Christ (usually understood to include both sanctification and glorification). And the grammar in this passage (nicknamed "the golden chain of redemption") is such that each "those" means "those, all of those, and only those."

1 Corinthians 1:4-9 - "I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge - even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you - so that you
are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

Philippians 1:3-6 - "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 - "Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints."

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 - "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it."

In all four of these passages, Paul looks forward to Christ's return, and he looks to God to make all these believers holy and to keep them holy.

1 Corinthians 1:30 - "He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption."

The "righteousness" and "redemption" spoken of here are most likely the same "righteousness" and "redemption" spoken of in Romans 3:21-26. Again, we see a unified work of Christ - it is not possible that we can split up Christ so that one person gets the "wisdom-Christ," another gets the "righteousness-Christ," another gets the "sanctification-Christ," and another gets the
"redemption-Christ." Those who are in Christ are given all the spiritual blessings (see Ephesians 1:3). And those spiritual blessings are found only in Christ, so those who are not in Christ are not given any of them.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of
our God."

Ah, see, now I'm guilty of stacking the deck in my favor! I started out by introducing verses 9 and 10 as verses defending the necessity of holy living in order to inherit eternal life. Now I'm using them (with verse 11) to show that those whom God justifies he also sanctifies. Again, Paul links the two together.

Ephesians 2:8-10 - "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

This is the crowning statement on an excellent passage where Paul twice says that salvation is by grace. He speaks of how we were dead, and then God "made us alive together with Christ." But he regenerates us (gives us new life) because he intends to sanctify us (make us holy). God has prepared good works for us to walk in.

Ephesians 5:25-27 - "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."

Here's a reference to the sanctification of the church, and another reference to the word as an instrument of sanctification.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 - "But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Again, we see Paul thanking God for his act of sanctifying Christians.

Titus 2:11-14 - "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works."

This one is similar to the ones in Ephesians. It's like the one in Ephesians 5, because it's about the whole church, and it's like the one in Ephesians 2, because it shows that good works of the redeemed are a necessary consequence of Christ's redemption.

1 Peter 1:1-5 - "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

Peter's phrasing of these concepts is different than Paul's familiar way, but he still speaks of God's work in sanctification and about how he preserves believers' holiness for the second coming.

Jude 24-25 - "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."

Now Jude takes his turn among the apostles affirming that God is able to both make us holy and keep us holy.

Philippians 2:12-13 - "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, 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."

Of all the verses addressing God's role in sanctification, this one is probably the most clear and the most important. The biblical doctrine of sanctification avoids two errors. On one hand, we do not attribute it to the Christian. Paul did not tell the Philippians to make themselves holy, to work out their salvation on their own strength, because God had already done his part and it was up to them to do the rest. And on the other hand, we do not ignore human responsibility. Paul did not tell the Philippians to just sit back and relax because God was at work so they did not need to work. On the contrary, Paul tells them to work, because God is at work in their willing and working. If God works in me, I will consequently will and work for his good pleasure. Likewise, if I'm willing and working for God's good pleasure, then it can only be because he is at
work in me.

Both of those two other views that Paul steers clear of in this passage come from a deficient view of man's will in relation to God's will. We are not endowed with a divine will equivalent to God's; rather, the will of the creature is insignificant compared to the will of the Creator. Without God choosing to work in us, we can't do anything. But with God at work in us,
good stuff happens.

And bringing that back to the question of whether there could be anybody whom God justifies but fails to sanctify... not when we have a God as powerful as our God! "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21).