Sanctification: Again
The topic of Sanctification continues to buzz about on the Lutheran blogosphere. Most recently, a friend expressed a thought that made me think about this again and helped me realize where some folks are going wrong on the subject of sanctification. She said that when she reads the Bible and comes across a passage talking about good works she can only read it in two ways: 1) I’m glad Jesus did that for me; 2) I sinned because I didn’t do it. She said she can’t bring herself to say, "I’m going to try to do that in my life." She then quoted Hebrews 12:2 which tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus and proposed that if she says to herself, "I’m going to try to do that" she will be taking her eyes off Jesus.
I can understand her concern, but I think she is not realizing that striving to do good works and trying to do them and doing all we can, by the grace God gives, is precisely because we are keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus! She did not quote verse 1 of Hebrews 12, "Let us run with perseverance the race set before us." It is not enough simply to keep telling everyone how miserably they are failing to do good works in order to preserve justification, nor should we fuse justification and sanctification into the same thing. We do not need to neglect the third use of the law in order to make sure its chief use is kept clear: to accuse of us sin. The problem is not sanctification, it is sanctification set free from Christ.
The way to address sanctification set free from Christ is not to stop talking about the Christian’s opportunities and joyful duty to seek to do good works and then actually to talk about those good works. We do not adequately teach sanctification when all we say to people is: You are sinful. You can’t ever do anything good. Look to Jesus. Amen." It is very clear that there is the great "therefore." Yes, we preach Romans 1-5, but we also preach Romans 6.
What we need to say is this: "Look to Jesus and in Him, run with perseverance the race set out before you. Look to Him and then run the race that He gives, and this is what that race is going to be like and this is how we are to be running it." Clear, practical instruction and guidance on the Christian life is not provided simply by telling everyone how sinful they are, but also by telling them about the cruciform shape of life hidden in Christ.
It’s called "teaching" and I’m convinced that we are simply not doing that adequately. We are to be running, striving, and serving and obeying him, which is our duty, as the Small Catechism makes so perfectly, and plainly, clear. Daily we sin, much, this is most certainly true! Daily however the old man is to be drowned and die and the new man arise, and we continue running the race set out before us, with our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus. We can, and must, keep Law and Gospel properly distinguished, and make sure the Gospel predominates. Of course! But this is not accomplished by neglecting adequate preaching about the good works which have been prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2).
Here is what one of our foremost Lutheran dogmaticians had to say on our life of sanctification. This is from Francis Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics.
Our sanctification in this life will remain imperfect, sometimes
showing a minus, sometimes a plus, but never reaching perfection.
Scripture [Vol. 3, Page 31] admonishes us to grow, increase, abound, in
sanctification, Eph. 4:15; in every good work, 2 Cor. 9:8; in the
work of the Lord, 1 Cor. 15:58; in the knowledge of God, in all
patience and long-suffering, Col. 1:11; in the love of the brethren
and of all men, 1 Thess. 3:12; in the knowledge of what is excellent,
Phil. 1:10; in doing what pleases God, 1 Thess. 4:1; and couples
these admonitions to grow in holiness with the admonition to keep on
putting off the old man, Eph. 4:22. It is clear that the
sanctification of even the most earnest Christians remains imperfect in
this life.44 The σάρξ remains in Christians throughout this life,
Rom. 7:14–24; Heb. 12:1, 45 and for this reason their
sanctification remains imperfect throughout this life. Paul describes
the situation in these words: “So, then, with the mind” (the new man)
“I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh” (the old man)
“the law of sin,” Rom. 7:25.46 The dogmaticians express it thus:
Iustitia fidei sive imputata perfecta sive consummata est, iustitia
vitae sive inhaerens imperfecta, inchoata, non consummata.
(Baier-Walther, III, 312.)47
Perfectionism, which teaches that
complete sanctification is attainable in this life,48 cannot dwell in
the Christian heart, which daily [Vol. 3, Page 32] asks for the
forgiveness of sin. Rome goes so far as to teach that certain
individuals merit more holiness than they need for themselves, the
surplus going to those who need it.49 Scripture denounces
perfectionism as a lie. 1 John 1:8, 10: “If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us …. If we say that
we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” See
also Prov. 20:9; Job 14:4; Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 7:18–24; Matt.
6:12. 1 John 3:9: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;
for His seed remaineth in him”—the favorite prooftext for
perfectionism—describes the Christian according to the new man who
maintains the dominion over the old man. The Apostle distinguishes
between “committing sin” (ἁμαρτίαν ποιει̂ν, 1 John 3:9) and
“having sin” (ἁμαρτιαν ἔχειν, 1 John 1:8). Christians do not
“commit sin,” that is, they do not permit sin to rule over them, to
give it free reign; they “have sin,” but in the power of the new man,
the offspring of God, they control sin. Speaking of the same matter,
Rom. 6:14 declares: “Sin shall have no dominion over you; for ye are
not under the Law, but under grace.”[Vol. 3, Page 33]
The fact
that sanctification in this life will always be imperfect must not be
put forward as an excuse for the neglect of sanctification. On the
contrary, it is God’s will and the will of the Christian that he strive
after perfection;50 he wants to be fruitful, not only in some, but in
all good works.51 It is characteristic of the true Christian life and
the will of the new man that he refrain from every sin. The Christian
is eager to serve God in all good works. “I delight in the Law of God
after the inward man,” Rom. 7:22. And when Scripture calls
Christians “perfect” also with regard to their life (“Let us,
therefore, as many as be perfect,” Phil. 3:15), it takes
“perfection” in the sense of “striving after perfection,” Phil.
3:13–14: “Forgetting these things that are behind and reaching forth
unto those things that are before, I press toward the mark.”52
The
Christian who does not strive to serve God alone is perilously close to
losing his Christianity. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon,” Matt.
6:24; “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all
that he hath, he cannot be My disciple,” Luke 14:33 (the entire
passage, Luke 14:25–35, belongs here). Unsparing self-denial marks
the Christian life. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow Me,” Matt. 16:24. The way
to heaven leads through “the strait gate” and the “narrow way,”
Matt. 7:13–14. Only he can go this way who is willing to cut off his
hand and foot and pluck out his eye, Matt. 18:8–9. The Apostle Paul
describes the Christian as one who exercises self-control in all
things, πάντα ἐγκρατεύεται, 1 Cor. 9:25, and points to himself as an
example: “I keep under” (ὑπωπιάζω—buffet, maul) “my body and bring
it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway,” 1 Cor. 9:27.53[Vol. 3,
Page 34]
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