1. The concept of sanctification.
The word sanctification is used in both a broader and a narrower sense in Scripture and in the language of the Church.
Taken in a broader sense, it refers to the whole work of the Holy Spirit whereby people are set apart from sin
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and become God's own again in order to live and serve God. In this sense, sanctification comprehends in itself the gift of faith and justification, sanctification as the inner transformation of man, the preservation in faith and also the complete renewal on the Last Day. Thus Christians are called from eternity elected to salvation 2 Thess. 2:13: εν άγιασμφ πνεύματος καϊ πίοτει άληΰείας; 1 Pet. 1:2: εν άγιαομφ πνεύματος εις νπακοην καϊ ραντισμόν αίματος '7ησον Χρίστον, Where justification or forgiveness of sins is included in the αγιασμός, as appears from the special mention of the πίστις άλη-ύλείας and the ραντισμός αίματος Ίησον Χρίστον. That Christians are called κλητοί άγιοι (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2) also comes primo loco from justification by faith. Also 1 Cor. 6:11, the "ye are sanctified," because it stands between “ye are washed” and “ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.” is best referred to justification. But because the Holy Spirit, through the effect of faith in the forgiveness of sins, also so transforms and renews man inwardly that he turns away from sin and serves God in good works, Scripture also refers to this intended consequence and effect of justification as "sanctifying" and "sanctification." Thus 1 Thess. 4:3-7: "This is the will of God, your sanctification (αγιασμός), that ye avoid fornication; … and that no man go too far, nor take advantage of his brethren in trade; … for God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to sanctification." Likewise, the holiness of life is addressed in 1 Thess. 5:23; 3:13: άμεμπτοι εν άγιωσύνη; 2 Cor. 7:1: επιτελονντες άγιω-σύνην; Eph. 4:24: "Put on the new man, created after God εν δικαιοσύνη και όσιότητι τής άληβείας." Matt. 19:28 calls the Christians' total and final deliverance from sin a rebirth (παλιγγενεσία). In this broader sense Luther also uses the word sanctification in his explanation of the third article. Large Catechism (455, 40. 41 [Trigl. 689, 40 f. 🔗]): "I believe that the Holy Spirit sanctifies me (Spiritus Sancti opera me sanctificari), as is his name. But by what does he do this, or what is his way and means of doing it? Answer: by the Christian Church, forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life." Quenstedt says about the further concept of sanctificatio (II, 914): Sanctificatio quandoque etiam late sumitur et iustificationem includit, ut Eph. 5:26;
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Hebr. 10:10; alias vero stricte et sic cum renovatione strictedicta coincidit, ut Rom. 6:19. 22; 1 Thess. 4:3. 4. 7.
Taken in a narrower sense, sanctification denotes the inner spiritual transformation or holiness of life, which is distinguished from justification as a consequence of it. Thus Rom. 6:22: "But now ye are free from sin, and have become God's servants" (namely, through justification)1) "ye have τον καρπόν υμών εις αγιασμόν. V. 18-19: ἐλευθερωθέντες δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας (by faith in the gospel, v. 17, or by justification) έδονλώΰητε τή δικαιοσύνη … παρεστήσατε τά μέλη υμών δονλα τή δικαιοσύνη εις αγιασμόν. About sanctification in the narrower sense, the Formula of Concord (619, 40 [Trigl. 929, Sol. Decl., III, 40 f. 🔗]) states: "In the same manner the order also between faith and good works must abide and be maintained, and likewise between justification and renewal, or sanctification. 41] For good works do not precede faith, neither does sanctification precede justification. But first faith is kindled in us in conversion by the Holy Ghost from the hearing of the Gospel. This lays hold of God's grace in Christ, by which the person is justified. Then, when the person is justified, he is also renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, from which renewal and sanctification the fruits of good works then follow."
For the definition of the terms, the following should also be pointed out: In the cited words of the Formula of Concord, "renewal" and "sanctification," are used as synonyms: "renewal" or sanctification." Sanctification is "renewal" inasmuch as in it a new kind comes into existence in contrast to the old kind innate in man, and renewal is "sanctification" inasmuch as the new kind consists in the fact that in it man is taken out of the service of sin and placed in the service of God. When in the same passage of the Formula of Concord sanctification and good works are distinguished as antecedens and consequens, sanctification is thought of as the principal new kind (καινός άνθρωπος, πνεύμα) wrought by justification, from which the individual good acts or works flow. Thus Gal. 5:25-26: "If we live in the spirit, let us also
1) Cf. on the whole passage Rom. 6:15-23 Meyer, Philippi, Stockhardt [Archive copy; Schade/Stahlke translation].
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walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory!" Gal. 6:1: "ὑμεῖς οἱ πνευματικοὶ, help him again εν πνενματι πραότητος ["Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.”]. Gal. 5:22, love, joy, longsuffering, etc., are represented as "fruit of the Spirit," καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματός. In another respect, good works coincide with sanctification, namely, inasmuch as sanctification in concreto is accomplished by the individual good acts, by the inward and outward shunning of evil and by the inward and outward doing of good. The sanctification in concreto is just as little as the faith2) an infused matter or a resting state (habitus otiosus, status otiosus), but continuous act or incessant activity, which is continuously caused and carried by the Holy Spirit.3) This is expressed in Scripture by the fact that sanctification and good works are presented directly as fruits of faith in the grace of God in Christ. As it is said in Rom. 6:22: ἔχετε τὸν καρπὸν ὑμῶν εἰς ἁγιασμόν, so it is said in Tit. 3:8, 14 of those who have become faithful in God that they should devote themselves to good works, καλών έργων προΐοταοϑαι.4) Thus Tit. 2:11 ff. the χάρις τον ϑεον ή οωτήριος, which appeared in Christ, is characterized as παιδεύονοα ημάς, ΐνα άρνησάμενοι την άοέβειαν … σωφρόνως και όικαίοις και ενοεβος ζήοωμεν εν τώ νν αιωνι [“teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”]. 5)
2) Cf. the section on fides actualis. II, p. 517, and the words of Walther, p. 522: "Faith is a continuous activity, a continuous access. Only we do not know how it happens, for example, in sleep." [Indices (to Baier's comp., ed. Walther) by Theodor Bünger. St. L. 1890, p. 130.]
3) Cf. the remarks of the dogmatists against the physical or substantial conception of sanctification. Quenstedt II, 917.
4) Προΐστασϋαι with the genitive — curam gerere alicuius rei, to devote or dedicate oneself to a thing, e.g. τέχνης, art.
5) Already the old Lutheran theologians deal with the question in how far sanctification (or renewal) and good works are distinguished as antecedens and consequens, and in how far they factually coincide. Thus Baier (III, 315) states: Bona opera partim ut finis et effectus ad renovationem sese habent, partim ad rationem formalem eius spectant. Renovatio enim formaliter [according to its essence] consistit in actibus aut operibus bonis et sanctis, quae viribus gratiae perficiuntur. [Google] Of course, good works are then conceived as Quenstedt defines them (II, 1371): Ratione ipsius operis, (bona opera) alia sunt interna, alia externa. Interna sunt interiores mentis cogitationes, voluntatis motus, cordisque affectus boni; externa sunt, quae in sensus hominum incurrunt et per exteriora verba et actiones externas sese exserunt. … Theologus disserens de operibus per opera intelligit actiones morales, nec tantum externas, quae fiunt manu et lingua,
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