A Body of Divinity, Vol. 3 (of 4): Wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are explained and defended, being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly's Larger CatechismRidgley, Thomas
Religion
A Body of Divinity, Vol. 3 (of 4): Wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are explained and defended, being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly's Larger Catechism
I. That which is supposed in this answer, namely, that sanctification
and justification are inseparably joined together; and accordingly, no
one has a warrant to claim one without the other: This appears in that
they are graces that accompany salvation. When the apostle connects
justification and effectual calling together, in the golden chain of our
salvation, Rom. viii. 30. he includes sanctification in this calling.
And elsewhere, when Christ is said to be _made righteousness and
redemption_ to us for our justification, he is, at the same time, said
to be made _wisdom and sanctification_, 1 Cor. i. 31. and we are said to
be _saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Ghost_, Tit. iii. 5. which is the beginning of the work of
sanctification; _that being justified by his grace, we should be made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life_; and speaking of some who
were once great sinners, and afterwards made true believers, he says,
concerning them, that they were _washed, sanctified, and justified in
the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God_, 1 Cor. vi.
11. And when God promises to pardon and _pass by the transgression of
the remnant of his heritage_, Micah vii. 18, 19. he also gives them
ground to expect that he would _subdue their iniquities_; the former is
done in justification, the latter in sanctification.
From the connexion that there is between justification and
sanctification, we infer: that no one has ground to conclude that his
sins are pardoned, and that he shall be saved while he is in an
unsanctified state; for as this tends to turn the grace of God into
wantonness, so it separates what he has joined together, and it is a
certain evidence that they who thus divide them, are neither justified
nor sanctified. Let us therefore give diligence to evince the truth of
our justification, by our sanctification, or that we have a right and
title to Christ’s righteousness, by the life of faith, and the exercise
of all those other graces that accompany or flow from it.
II. We have, in this answer, an account of some things in which
justification and sanctification differ, as,
1. In justification God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us;
whereas, in sanctification the Spirit infuseth grace, and enableth to
the exercise thereof. What it is for God to impute Christ’s
righteousness hath been before considered; the only thing that we shall
now observe is, that the righteousness whereby we are justified, is,
without us, wrought out by Christ, for us; so that it is _by his
obedience_, as the apostle expresses it, that _we are made righteous_,
Rom. v. 19. and that which Christ did as our Surety, is placed to our
account, and accepted by the justice of God, as though it had been done
by us, as has been before observed: Whereas, in sanctification, the
graces of the Spirit are wrought and excited in us, we are denominated
holy, and our right to eternal life is evinced, though not procured.
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