Question 77. How do justification and sanctification differ?

 

Question 77. How do justification and sanctification differ?

Answer. Although sanctification is inseparably connected with justification, there is a difference between them. In justification, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us, while in sanctification, the Spirit of God infuses grace, enabling believers to do right by it. In the former, sin is forgiven, in the latter, sin is restrained; the former equally frees all believers from the vengeful wrath of God, and perfects it in this life, so that they never fall into condemnation again. The latter is not equal among all believers, nor can it ever be perfected in this life, but only grows toward perfection.

 

From a doctrine perspective, humans are beings who cannot be completely free from sin, so they must fight against sin until they die and wash away their sins with the blood of Jesus every day for forgiveness of sins.

In 1 Peter 1:16, “It is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” According to the doctrine, humans cannot be holy, so why did God command them to be holy? He did not command them to strive to be holy, but to be holy all at once.

Regarding the current situation in which believers live, if we look at it from a human perspective, it is clear that they are not beings who can be holy and cannot completely escape from sin. However, the object that God looks at and the object that humans think of are clearly different. The object that God looks at is the spiritual part, and the object that humans look at is the physical part.

Because believers recognize the physical body as themselves, they appear unholy, and sin is visible. However, God frees the spirit imprisoned in the physical body from sin and clothes it with the garment of holiness. In other words, it means that the physical body (the body of sin) must die. However, believers do not think about the matter of the spirit and cling to the physical body. This is because they believe that the resurrection is the resurrection of the physical body.

In John 6:63, it is said, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” If believers continue to cling to the flesh, they are no different from the Jews who were obsessed with circumcision during the Age of the Law. If they cling to man-made doctrines, they are no different from Judaism, which is obsessed with legalism. Circumcision of Christ is taking off the fleshly body and putting on a spiritual body, and the spiritual body means resurrection life. Those who currently wear resurrection life have put on a spiritual body from heaven. The spiritual body is Christ’s clothing.

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