Portraits of Righteousness

Portraits of Righteousness

Foreword

This book was born out of a sermon series early in my pastoral ministry.[1] It was originally written for the person in the pew to help them navigate the choppy waters of recurring sin in their lives after they become Christians (post-Justification). Thus it bears much of the original homiletic flavor and does not offer a thorough scholarly treatment of the issues. However, the exposition has been expanded to reflect Paul’s emphasis on our calling to reveal God’s righteousness and not simply “manage sin.” To this end the book does offer salient exegetical support where it is appropriate to substantiate a Free Grace perspective on this critical portion of Scripture. I have written a seminary level textbook called Free Grace Soteriology for our introductory course on soteriology (how to have eternal life) at Grace School of Theology (gsot.org) located in Houston. But a proper understanding of the relationship between Justification and Sanctification is essential to having any hope of victory over our sin nature with a view to fulfilling our calling in Christ.

The relationship between Justification and Sanctification has been the center of debate between theologians since the beginning of the Reformation. The early Reformers put their emphasis on Justification. The Pietists who followed them put their emphasis on Sanctification. For the purposes of this book we will define Justification as Deliverance from the Penalty of Sin; we will define Sanctification as Deliverance from the Power of Sin to conform to the image of Christ. Early in their movements Martin Luther and John Calvin saw Sanctification as a subsequent work to Justification, highly desired but not guaranteed. Under pressure from Rome they linked the two in such a fashion that if Sanctification did not follow Justification, one’s Justification was in question.

Consequently, according to R. C. Zachman,[2] with whom this author agrees, both Calvin and Luther wound up with theological systems that were inherently unstable (see below). Both were teaching the view of justification set forth by Melanchthon that by faith alone in Christ alone the sinner is declared righteous in the courtroom of God in heaven. As such, all one’s sins (past, present, and future) are wiped away by the blood of the Lamb. If it is true that even future sins are washed away by Justification, then no future sins, either individually or collectively, can cause me to lose my standing before God (i.e., I cannot lose my destiny in heaven because of future sins). But forgiveness for future sins had never been taught in the Church, either East or West. The Church of Rome cried foul: What, then, is our motivation to try to avoid sin in the future? They said this dangerous teaching on Justification would only promote loose living (license).

As a result, most of the early Reformers succumbed to the pressure. They began to teach that Justification and Sanctification are invariably linked; that is, you cannot have one without the other. The two main ways of explaining an obvious lack of Sanctification in someone who claimed to be a believer was that either they never had it (as the Calvinists say), or you can lose it after you were initially justified (as the Arminians claim). But this invariable linkage of Justification with Sanctification produces an unstable theological system, as Zachman, himself a Reformed scholar, recognizes: You can’t claim both that Justification wipes away future sins and that future sins can nullify your Justification. The result is a paralyzing of lack of assurance that we are saved or that the Holy Spirit is available to empower our Sanctification. And without that assurance, who would trust the Spirit to fulfill their righteous calling in Christ? That is the assurance Romans 5–8 offers.

While Western Christianity, à la Augustine, has labored over the issue of Justification, the issue of Sanctification too often sits on a side-road of theology that doesn’t get much ink. Even in our churches, for every sermon we hear on getting sanctified we must hear ten on “getting saved.” But “getting saved” (by which we mean courtroom justification, not full-orbed salvation) deals with the penalty for our sins (eternal separation from God). It does not deal with how we are conformed to the image of Christ after we are justified and how sin in our lives subverts that calling. Consequently, many if not the majority of Christians experience the death mentioned repeatedly in Romans 6-8, where death does not mean separation from God for eternity but misery and spiritual defeat while on earth. Such things ought not to be. So Paul emphasizes God’s present offer of life through the Spirit to replace “death” (from wrath against sin) in light of our righteous calling.

David R. Anderson, PhD
The Woodlands, Texas
August, 2011

I hope you have a chance to read this work. It is very helpful in many ways.