8. The imperfection of sanctification.
While justification has no degrees, but, where it is, is always perfect,99) so with regard to sanctification there is a minus and plus. Hence the exhortations of Scripture to increase in all matters,100) in every good work,101) in the work of the brethren,102) the knowledge of God, patience, longsuffering in loving the brethren and all men,104) in discerning good and evil,105) in walk and godliness, etc.106) According to this, there are degrees in sanctification and good works. And since the exhortation to increase in sanctification is accompanied by the exhortation to put away the old man, this means that sanctification and good works remain imperfect in this life even among the serious Christians.107) The question has been raised why God does not make the sanctification of Christians, like justification, perfect in a moment — by completely removing the evil nature. That God could do this according to his omnipotence, no one will doubt. But since God does not do it according to the revelation in His Word, the question raised belongs to the quaestiones otiosae et inutiles.108) The οάρξ remains in Christians throughout this earthly life,109) and therein it is justified that also their sanctification in this life remains an imperfect one. Paul indicates the actual condition by the words: τώ μεννοΐ (that is, after the new man) δουλεύω νόμω ϑεοϋ, τή δε σαρκί (that is, after the old man) νόμω αμαρτίας.110) The dogmatists express it thus: Iustitia fidei sive imputata perfecta sive consummata est, iustitia vitae sive haerens
99) Cf. the section "Justification has no degrees" (II, 646 ff.).
100) Eph. 4:15.<w:t>101) 2 Cor. 9:8.<w:t>102) 1 Cor. 15:58.
103) Col. 1:11.<w:t xml:space="preserve">104) 1 Thess. 3:12. <w:t>105) Phil. 1:10.
106) 1 Thess. 4:1.
107) F. C. 605, 68 [Trigl. 907, Sol. Decl., II, 68 🔗]: "Not only is there a great difference among Christians, that one is weak and the other strong in spirit, but also every Christian finds himself at one time joyful in spirit, at another time fearful and frightened, at one time ardent in love, strong in faith and hope, at another time cold and weak."
108) Carpzov, Disputatt. isagog., p. 1161; in Baier III, 312. Luther II, 778.
109) Rom. 7:14-24; Hebr. 12:1. In addition, F. C. 537, 4 [Trigl. 805, Epit., VI, 4 🔗] ; 641, 7. [Trigl. 965, Sol. Decl., I, 7 🔗]
110) Rom. 7:25. On this Luther XV, 1552.
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imperfecta, inchoata, non consummata. [Google]111) Perfectionism, that is, the doctrine of a perfect righteousness of life,112) if really meant, completely excludes the Christian faith, because the Christian faith is the faith in the forgiveness of sins, that is, it presupposes the having of sins. Rome further enhances the falsity of perfectionism by asserting that there are human individuals who have a surplus of holiness and good works and can give of it to others.113) Scripture describes perfectionism as
111) Baier III, 312.
112) Thus Rome, Tridentinum, sess. VI, can. 18. 20; the Unitarians, such as Socinus in his Disput. on Rom. 7: p. 56, and in more recent times W. E. Channing, Imitableness of Christ's Character (The Works of W. E. Channing, p. 316); the Arminians, e.g. Limborch, Theol. Christ V, 15, 2; enthusiasts, such as Schwenkfeld and Weigel (cf. Quenstedt II, 921 sq.; Günther, Symbolik 4, p. 256); the Methodists, Ev. Fellowship, United Evangelical Church, the Inspired (citations in Günther, op. cit, P. 255 ff.); Mahan and Finney of Oberlin (Hodge, Syst. Theol. III, 255 ff.). Source material in Baumgarten, Streitigk. II, 462-482; in Günther l. c. On the doctrine of perfection among the Methodists: Schneckenburger, Kleine Protest. Kirchenparteien, pp. 136 ff. Everything said in favor of perfect holiness is already found with the Arminians, so also the conclusion from ought to be to being, whereas Baumgarten (II, 479) correctly says: "The general exhortation of God to diligence in sanctification proves the contrary, in that it is thereby presupposed that there is always still something to tidy up and mend, otherwise this duty would belong only to beginners, since it nevertheless remains an obligation of man until his perfected state." Compilation of the alleged reasons for perfect sanctification in Baumgarten (II, 468 ff. 478 ff.). — Perfectionism in all its varieties, from Rome on to Mahan and Finney, has this in it, that it slackens from the perfection of the demands of the divine law against Gal. 3:10, and thereby, where it is consistently followed, also dismisses faith in Christ. Strong (Syst. Theol., 877): "This view reduces the debt to the debtor's ability to pay, — a short and easy method of discharging obligations. I can leap over a church-steeple, if I am only permitted to make the church-steeple low enough." Rome and Wesley limit the term sin to that by which a man consciously and deliberately goes against God's commandments, and remove from the rubric of "sin" the inherent evil inclination and involuntary transgressions. Wesley: "I believe a person filled with love of God is still liable to involuntary transgressions. Such transgressions you call sins, if you please; I do not." (In Strong, l. c.., p. 878.) Likewise Rome, Trident, Sessio V, Decretum de peccato originali 5. (Smets, p. 18 f.).
113) These are the Roman opera supererogationis, which come about because certain people, e.g. the monks, are so pious that they not only
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self-deception and lies: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."114) Cover is sought by perfectionism especially behind 1 John 3:9. But the words, "He that is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth with him" describe the Christian according to the new man who, though struggling, asserts dominion over sin or the old man. The apostle distinguishes between "doing sin" (αμαρτίαν ποιεϊν), which he denies to the Christian 1 John 3:9, and "having sin" (αμαρτίαν εχειν), which he grants to the Christian 1 John 1:8. The former describes a sinning whereby sin gains dominion and does as it pleases; the latter describes a sinning whereby the Christian, through the new man, because his seed abides with him, asserts dominion over sin. A factual parallel is Rom. 6:14: "Sin shall not be able to have dominion over you, because ye are not under law, but under grace."
The truth of the imperfection of sanctification in this life is not to be misused for sloth in sanctification and good works. God's will and the Christian attitude corresponding to it is rather that the Christian strives not only for partial, but complete sanctification115) and pursues not only some, but all good works.116)
do what is commanded in God's law, but also do what is merely recommended (consilia evangelica, namely the three great monastic virtues): Poverty, obedience and celibacy). Thus Bellarmin (lib. 2, De Monach, c. 7. 8). Gerhard aptly characterizes the opera supererogationis by a play on words: recte quidem opera illa dicuntur supererogationis, quia ingens pecuniae summa illis erogata est, quia opera illa aliis vendiderunt; rectius autem dicerentur opera superarrogationis, quod sit evidens arrogantia, sibi tale quippiam tribuere ac polliceri. [Google] Bellarmin's and Thomas' definition of consilia evangelica in Gerhard, l. c. Against the opera supererogationis as opera superarrogantiae: Augsb. Conf. 62, 62 [Trigl. 93, XXVIII, 62 🔗]; Apol. 147, 239 [Trigl. 219, III, 239 🔗]; 169, 14 [257, XII, 14 🔗]; 193, 45-47 [295, VI, 45-47 🔗].
114) 1 John 1:8, 10; Prov. 20:9; Job 14:4; Eccl. 7:21; Rom. 7:18-24; Matt. 6:12.
115) 2 Cor. 7:1: "Therefore, since we have such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness (από παντός μολνσμον) of the flesh and spirit"; Col. 2:1: "Put away therefore all malice and all deceit (πάσαν κακίαν και πάντα δόλον)"; 1 Pet. 1:15: άγιοι έν πάση άναστροφή.
116) Col. 1:10: "Walk worthily of the Lord to all pleasing (εις παοαν άρεσκείαν) and be fruitful in all good works (εν παντϊ εργφ άγα&φ)"; Phil. 4:8: δσα (all things) έστιν άλητόήή, δσα σεμνά, δσα δίκαια, δσα άγνά, δσα προσφιλή, δσα εύφημα, ει τις άρετή και εΐ τις έπαινος (if there is
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The striving to avoid all sin and to serve God in all good works belongs to the right form of the Christian life and corresponds to the attitude of the Christian according to the new man.117) When Scripture calls Christians "perfect ones," τέλειοι, even with respect to their lives,118) it describes perfection as consisting in the striving for perfection,119) Where the striving to serve only God is forgotten, the Christian state is in extreme danger: "You cannot serve God and mammon";120) "Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."121) Hence the exhortations to unsparing self-denial: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." 122) This is the meaning of the narrow gate (ατενή πύλη) and the narrow way (τεϋλιμμένη όδός) that led to life,123) as well as the cutting off of hands and feet and the plucking out of eyes, of which Christ speaks.124) The apostle Paul also does not draw any other figure of the Christian life. He says, "Every one that fighteth abstaineth from all things, πάντα εγκρατενεται,125) nor did the apostle himself consider himself dispensed from it, but confesseth, "I stupefy (νπωπιάζω) my body, and tame (όονλαγωγώ) it, lest I preach unto others, and become reprobate myself." 126) Of course, this begs the question: who then can be saved? 127) Christ answers: "With men it is
any virtue and if there is any praise), ταντα λογίζεσϑε. Meyer on this passage: "οσα, all which, nothing excepted, said asyndetically six times with great emphasis".
117) Rom. 7:22: "I delight (σννήδομαι) in God's law according to the inward man."
118) Phil. 3:15: οσοι ovv τέλειοι, τοντο φρονώμεν.
119) Phil. 3:14: τα μεν όπίσω έπιλανϑανόμενος, τοΐς δέ εμπροσΰεν έπεκτεινόμενος, κατά σκοπόν διώκω. Cf. Luther on Matt. 5:48; VII, 489 ff. Quenstedt 11, 924.
120) Matt. 6:24.
121) Luke 14:25-35. The whole passage belongs here.
122) Matt. 16:24.<w:t>123) Matt. 7:13. 14.
124) Matt. 18:8. 9; Mark. 9:43-50.<w:t>125) 1 Cor. 9:25.
126) 1 Cor. 9:27. To νπωπιάζω election: ,,Ab υπώπιον, ea pars faciei, quae est sub oculis, sugillo, ut sub oculis vibices et maculae luridae existant, I strike one in the face that he gets brown and blue spots under the eyes from it." The word in the New Testament only Luke 18:5. (Cf. Meyer on both passages, also Winer, Grammatik 6, p. 42.)
127) Luke 19:25.
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impossible, but with God all things are possible."128) It is precisely in the right earnestness in sanctification that Christians face their daily deficit. They recognize and confess this to God and take refuge in safe territory, namely the territory of grace or forgiveness of sins. They can do this confidently because grace is free, completely detached from the law and from all human activity, and therefore not dependent on daily success or failure in sanctification and good works. Only when we distinguish in this way between the law and the gospel do we understand how the same apostle is completely sure of grace and salvation129) and at the same time speaks of the necessity of unsparing self-restraint, lest he preach to others and himself become reprobate.130) We come here to the fact that the whole Christian life is a daily repentance. The more sincerely Christians strive daily to renounce everything they have and to serve only God with their works, the more they recognize daily the deep sinful corruption that clings to them according to the flesh, and the more they are prompted to fall back daily on the free grace of God in Christ, which the gospel promises. And because they are not under the law, but under grace,131) they daily begin anew the striving for perfect sanctification, in one respect sadly,132) but at the same time joyfully.133) Thus, in the pursuit of perfect sanctification, the Christian life becomes a daily penance (poenitentia quotidiana, poenitentia stantium).
Considerations have been made as to whether perfectionism or forgetfulness of sanctification is the greater evil. A. J. Gordon says: "If the doctrine of sinless perfection is a heresy, the doctrine of contentment with sinful imperfection is a greater heresy. … It is not an edifying spectacle to see a Christian worldling throwing stones at a Christian perfectionist." 134) It is useless to try to weigh the relative greatness of the "heresies" under address. Scripture says to the "Christian
128) Luke 19:26.<w:t>129) Rom 8:37-39.
130) 1 Cor. 9:27.<w:t>131) Rom. 6:14.
132) Rom. 7:24: "I wretched man, who will deliver me from the body of this death?"
133) Rom. 7:25: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Rom. 8:37-39.
134) Ministry of the Spirit, p. 116 [p. 120]; in Strong, Syst. Theol., p. 881.
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worldlings": "Know this, that no fornicator or unclean person or covetous person, who is an idolater, has inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with vain words! For because of these the wrath of God comes upon the children of unbelief. Therefore be not their companions<w:t>(συμμέτοχοι αυτών)!"135) And to perfectionists the Scripture says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," and with aggravated expression, "If we say we have not sinned (ήμαρτήκαμεν), we make Him [God] a liar, and His Word is not in us."136) If perfectionists like Wesley remained in the faith, it was because they did not believe their doctrines for their person.
We add here what Luther says in "Grund und Ursach' aller Artikel, so durch die römische Bulle unrechtlich verdammen worden" (“Reason and Cause of All Articles Unlawfully Condemned by the Roman Bull”) following Augustine: "A pious man sins in all good works" and: "A good work, done in the best way, is a daily sin according to mercy and a mortal sin according to the strict judgment of God.137) The Council of Trent has especially cursed this statement of Luther,138) because it takes away the foundation of the Roman doctrine of works and thus of the whole papacy. For even if Christians need forgiveness of sins for their good works because of their inherent imperfection, they cannot earn forgiveness of sins with their works. Luther's defense of his sentence refutes the Roman, as well as the "Protestant" perfectionism. Luther writes: "This article" ("A pious man sins in all good works") "exasperates the works saints, who build their comfort on their own righteousness and not on God's mercy, that is, on sand; therefore they will be like
135) Eph. 5:5-7.
136) 1 John 1:8, 10. Huther correctly remarks on the perfect tense ήμαρζήκαμεν: "The perfect tense does not prove that ήμαρτήκαμεν is meant by sinning before conversion; rather, it is here, as in all the verses before, that the Christians' sinning is addressed."
137) St. L. XV, 1551, 1554.
138) Sess. VI, can. 25: Si quia in quolibet bono opere iustum saltem venialiter peccare dixerit, aut, quod intolerabilius est, mortaliter, atque ideo poenas aeternas mereri tantumque ob id non damnari, quia Deus opera non imputet ad damnationem, anathema sit.
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the house built on the sand, Matt. 7. But let a devout Christian man learn and know that all his good works are unprofitable and not enough in the sight of God, despairing with all the dear saints of his works, and considering the mere mercy of God with all confidence and firm trust; therefore let us well establish this article, and see what the dear saints have to say about it. Iesaias (chap. 64:6) thus says: "All our righteousnesses are found unclean, and all our righteousnesses are like stained, stinking cloths.'' Notice that the prophet does not exclude anyone, saying, "All of us are unclean," and yet he was a holy prophet. Again, if our righteousness is unclean and stinks before God, what will unrighteousness do? To this he says: 'all righteousness' excludes none. If then a good work is without sin, then this prophet is lying; God be before! Is this passage of Isaiah not clear enough? Why do they condemn my article, which says nothing else than this prophet? But we like to be condemned with the holy prophet. Item, Solomon (Eccl. 7, 21) : There is no one so pious on earth who does a good work and does not sin'. I think this passage is enough and expresses my article from word to word. Now, Solomon is damned here; let us see, his father David must also be damned, who says Ps. 143:2: 'Lord, do not enter into judgment with me your servant, for no living man is found justified before your face.' Who is God's servant but he who does good works? How is it then that he does not like to suffer God's judgment? God's judgment is not unjust. If the work were completely good without sin, it would not escape God's right judgment. So there must be a defect in the work, so that it is not pure. Therefore no living man is justified before God, but all are allowed to his mercy, even in their good works. Here you papists should prove your art, not only writing bulls, but answering to such passages. In the first two articles above, I have shown how all saints fight against their sinful flesh and are still sinners as long as they live in the flesh, which fights against the Spirit, so that they serve God according to the Spirit and sin according to the flesh. Therefore, if a godly man is both justified by the Spirit and sinful by the flesh, the work must certainly be like the person, the fruit like the tree. And as much as the Spirit has in the work, so
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as much it is good, but as much as the flesh has in it, as much as it is evil. … But whether they will say here, as they will say: Yes, such uncleanness is not sin, but an imperfection and infirmity or defect, I answer, Certainly it is a defect and infirmity; but if this be not called sin, I also will say that murder and adultery are not sin, but only a defect and infirmity. But who gave you papists power thus to tear up the Word of God, and to call such impurity of the good work infirmity, and not sin? Where is one letter of Scripture for you? Must we believe your bad dreams without Scripture, and you do not want to believe our clear Scriptures? … As David says (Ps. 143:2) that even God's servants may not suffer His judgment, and no living man is justified before Him, this infirmity must surely be sin. … Item, St. Augustine (Confess. 9): Woe to all human life, even though it be the most praiseworthy, where it is judged without mercy! Behold, the great heretic Augustine, as he speaks against this holy bull so impudently and sacrilegiously, that he not only ascribes sin to the good life, but also condemns the very best life (which is undoubtedly in good works), if they are not helped by the mercy of God, as if they were vain mortal sins. O! St. Augustine, do you not fear the Most Holy Father Pope? St. Gregory says of St. Job: "The holy man Job saw that all our good works are vain sins, if God judges them; therefore he says (Job 9:3): If anyone wants to be right with God, he cannot answer him one thing for a thousand. Who, you, Gregori? Should you be allowed to say that all our good works are vain sins? You are under the Pope's excommunication and a heretic, much worse than Luther, who only says that in all good works there are sins, and you make vain sin out of it. … Further, the same Gregory says: "We have now said many times that all human righteousness is found unrighteous when it is severely judged; therefore Job says: "Even if I had done something righteous, I would not answer God to be right with him, but would plead with him as my judge. Now God's judgment is not false nor unjust, but true and justified. If then unrighteousness is found in our righteousness, that same unrighteousness must not be fictitious, but truly there, and not merely a defect or infirmity, but a damnable sin, which hinders salvation,
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mercy does not occur and accepts and rewards the works out of pure grace. If these passages do not help my article, God help it. So I would rather be condemned with Isaiah, David, Solomon, Paul, Augustine, Gregory, than be praised with the Pope, all bishops and papists, if the world were like pope, papists and bishops. O blessed is he who should die over this cause! Amen."