Welcome to Marscast, a podcast from MidAmerica Reform Seminary, where our faculty members address all things theological and cultural through a reformed lens. I'm your host, Jared Luchibor, and in today's episode, Dr. Venema concludes this series on the Holy Spirit by looking at the doctrine of sanctification and the role of the Holy Spirit in that. He discusses the biblical and theological understanding of sanctification as an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit rather than a second blessing or higher level of Christian experience. He's also going to emphasize that sanctification is a progressive work, which will ultimately result in the complete holiness and conformity to Christ of all believers when the Spirit's work is finished. He refutes various perfectionist teachings and instead upholds the scriptural call for believers to actively put to death sin and live in obedience, all while relying on God's grace. Take a listen. In our third session on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, I want to address what in many ways is the great work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian by virtue of Christ having gifted the church at Pentecost and thereafter with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. And it's the work of the Spirit in sanctification. It's not really accidental that in a Catechism like the Heidelberg. When the three persons in their particular office and work operation of the Holy Trinity, the Father and creation, as the language of Lord's Day 8 puts it, the Son and redemption, the language used for the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit and sanctification. It's quite significant. We didn't really comment on that when we were talking about the names of the Spirit. In the New Testament, consistently, the adjective holy is ascribed and given so that the language is always that, or almost always that, of the Holy Spirit. And why the Holy Spirit? It's because He comes to draw us into fellowship with Christ by the working of the Spirit with the Word, bringing us to faith and repentance, And as Paul put it, and as I quoted him loosely in my first presentation, he has become the life-giving spirit. He not only grants, in the narrow sense of the word, that new birth whereby we see the kingdom, whereby we understand the things of the kingdom, he's not only the one who grants us entrance into the kingdom, But regeneration, or the new birth, the granting of life from the dead, is closely associated with the great work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification, whereby we become new creatures, sanctified, consecrated in union with Christ to God and to his service. And so it's a natural thing that in any treatment of the person and work of the Holy Spirit that we spend some time on the doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit in the work of sanctification. I want to begin with, as we think about sanctification, with some definitions. I always like the definition in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Question and answer 35, very directly, what is sanctification? And the answer that is given is as follows. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace. And I'm going to stop there. I'll read the remainder of it in a moment. But if you're a careful reader of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Confession of Faith as well, and the larger catechism, You'll notice that they carefully choose their words when they describe sanctification in distinction from justification. When justification is described, the language is, justification is an act of God's free grace. Here the language is, sanctification is the work Whereas justification is a definitive declaration, Once for all, you can't be more or less justified so far as God's judgment respecting you is concerned. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I will be no more justified upon my death than I am upon my first embrace of the gospel promised through faith as the Spirit works that faith in me in response to the gospel. Sanctification, however, is an ongoing, progressive, continuing work of the Holy Spirit that does not reach its goal until our glorification. the complete renewal of our lives in obedience to God and to His commandments. And that's why I'm going to continue for a moment with this definition to note what it adds at this point. It's a work of God's free grace, an ongoing, continuous, renewing work of God's grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God. and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness." Now, that language is echoed throughout the various Reformed confessions. You can find almost exactly the same content in the early portion of the Heidelberg Catechism's treatment of the Christian life of gratitude. It's the work of the Spirit in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only to grant us faith whereby we embrace the promise of justification, but the Spirit, says the Heidelberg Catechism in the very first question of the third section on the Christian life, also renews us after God's image. So if you want a short definition of the work of sanctification, It's an ongoing, continuing, and ultimately perfected work that is a work that is not hoping against hope, but a work that the Spirit will resolutely and ultimately accomplish. And once it is accomplished, completed, and its goal is achieved, we will be fully conformed, exactly conformed to nothing less than the image of God's dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It reflects the language even of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8. It's God's purpose in electing to save us that we should be conformed to the image of his Son. And so that's a beautiful Calvin in his Institutes when he defines the Christian life of repentance and uses regeneration language in the broad sense of the whole scope of the Spirit's work in making us new creatures in Christ. He too appeals to the idea, biblically, that we are in Christ unlike what we were in Adam. fallen sinners under the dominion and tyranny of sin, in Christ we are become new creatures, new creation, 2 Corinthians 5.17, and we will ultimately be renewed through and through in the whole man, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it. Now I want to probe a little further on this topic, having dealt with sort of a broad definition of the work of the Spirit in the sanctification of the believer, and I want to comment on a relatively more recent theological debate among Reformed people, and it was in part contributed to by John Murray when he, in his reflection on the question of sanctification, introduced a distinction but not a separation. between what he called definitive sanctification and progressive sanctification. You can find a couple of essays on each of those topics in his collected writings. And in the article on definitive sanctification, and I'll be upfront and transparent here and acknowledge that you don't find this explicitly in any of the Reformed confessions, though I would argue that you do find it implicitly in even the Westminster Confession of Faith. But the idea of definitive sanctification is to say that when any man or woman is brought into, by the working of the Spirit through the Word, faith union with Christ, and Christ is given to them by the Spirit for their sanctification, The language of the New Testament, and particularly in Paul's epistles, is that this brings about what Murray terms a definitive breach with the reign and rule, even the tyranny of sin, the dominion of sin in the life of the Christian. Paul certainly teaches that in Romans 6, that we are no longer under the dominion of sin and of death, we are brought under the dominion of righteousness. He certainly says it as well in 2 Corinthians 5.17, if any man be in Christ, behold, a new creation. He says it in Romans 6 at the outset of that chapter when he says, if you're in union with Christ, you have died with Christ. You've been baptized into his death. You've been raised with him in newness of life. The same spirit who gave life to Christ in his resurrection gives new life to believers, Romans 8. Or think, for example, of Paul's language in Galatians. We're to keep in step with the Spirit because we are those who are in union with Christ and indwelt of the Spirit. We need to live up to our identity in Christ as no longer sold under sin. I mentioned that the confessions do implicitly speak of such a definitive breach or definitive sanctification, and I'll only give one Other testimony, it's Lord's Day one of all things, first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism, which teaches that we no longer are under the tyranny of the devil. We've been transferred, says Paul, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. We are new creation people. We live in the realm of Christ's reign and rule. Does that make us perfect? No, by no means. Even if our obedience be only small, it nonetheless is real and we make a beginning of perfect obedience. So I affirm the idea of definitive sanctification, and I do so in part because in the modern period there's been a lot of debate about the topic of sanctification, where sanctification becomes a kind of second blessing. It takes all sorts of forms, whether in perfectionist teachings like victorious life or Kazikian teaching, or even in some forms of dispensationalism, where people talk about carnal Christians whose hearts are still dominated by the reign and rule of the evil one. even though they're in Christ, and only in their being through Christ's work and spirit brought to a higher level form of Christian existence do they become spiritual, and Christ is placed upon the throne. The whole debate about lordship salvation comes to mind. Non-lordship salvation advocates will say that there are two categories of Christians, justified Christians but not yet sanctified Christians, people who embrace the gospel for free justification but don't surrender to Christ's lordship. It's a very destructive and unbiblical idea. Now, if anyone is in Christ, Not perfectly, they are in principle new creatures, empowered and no longer in the dominion of power of sin, but by the Spirit quickened and alive and in some measure to a life of good works. So I affirm that, and I think it's an important part of our understanding as believers of the uniqueness of our identity, who we are and what we have become through union with Christ. Now back to the more common and proper understanding of the work of sanctification as progressive, there too I think it's appropriate to recognize that any kind of perfectionist teaching I've mentioned this already, but I want to go into it a little further. In the evangelical tradition in North America, particularly through the influence of Wesleyanism, there have been a whole variety of holiness movements, a victorious life teaching, sometimes it goes under the rubric of higher life teaching. a whole number of views that say that your average Christian really hasn't entered into true victory in Christ in terms of properly being sanctified. And they'll often appeal, it's a misreading of Romans 6, in my opinion, to the language of the Apostle Paul when he, after he describes believers as having been made partakers of Christ's death, burial, resurrection, unto newness of life, that they should count themselves therefore as dead to sin. And they have a very peculiar reading of that in conjunction with a reading of another controversial passage, Romans 7, that when Paul says in Romans 7, I myself find that though I inwardly desire to do something, outwardly I'm incapable of actually doing that which I will or want to do. They argue that what we have here is the description of a Christian living life on a lower plane, because they haven't, to use one of their favorite expressions, let go and let God. That is to say, You can achieve perfection in this life by following the same formula and approach to your sanctification as is applicable to your justification. Just as faith is a passive receiving of a gift freely given, So the secret to success in a higher level plane of Christian sanctification is to wait upon God and expect and lay hold of the promise that he will grant a second higher level form of Christian experience by a powerful working of the Holy Spirit. Now this is a very problematic viewpoint as it relates to progressive sanctification. It's beautifully addressed by J.I. Packer in his book, Keeping in Step with the Spirit, because he at one time in his life held this view. It's pastorally frustrating because it promises more than any believer can achieve in this life, a form of perfection. It's interesting to me that our Lord ends the Sermon on the Mount, which is a comprehensive interpretation of what God's holy law requires of us, He didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And he gives an exposition of the will of God in terms of the commandments and the like in that sermon. It's a sermon about kingdom life in a fallen world, and it strikingly concludes with the only standard of perfection that the scriptures know. And it is, you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. You must be as holy as Christ is holy, when conformed wholly and entirely from the inside out to his image. Why do I mention this? I go back to that because whenever you come across whether it be a Wesleyan, a Dispensational, a Kazikian, a Higher Life, a Victorious Life, all of these second blessing formulas regarding how some Christians can achieve perfection in this life have one thing in common. they reduce the bar, the standard of perfection, because they're all at least honest enough to know that they've not arrived. Better to stick with the common teaching of the Word of God, that all Christians are together at one through their union with Christ, gifted with the spiritual blessing of justification, but in respect to their sanctification, they're all to some degree or another on the same pathway which is enabled by the working of the Holy Spirit. After all, I haven't mentioned this text. It's rather striking. Paul can say in Ephesians 2.10 that it is God's purpose. He's prepared beforehand good works for us. We've been created to walk in good works, which God has prepared for those who are in union with Christ. But the problem with all these perfectionist teachings is also not only do they reduce the standard of perfection so that it's within reach in this life, But they also treat sanctification, as I've suggested, as though it were received like justification, which is pastorally foolish. Paul says to the church in Philippi, notice the language, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Why is that so important? in our sanctification, though it too, like justification, is a work of God's free grace. We are, from the heart outward, in our willing, in our acting, in our speaking, in our running, called to a disciplined life of putting to death sin and being enlivened by the Spirit to a new life of good works, which are works done from true faith to God's glory and according to the standard of His holy law. And that is the great and, you might say, glorious work, that the Spirit whom the Father sends, who works in the name of the Father, who elected us in love that we might be holy and blameless before Him, The Spirit who proceeds as well from the Son, who died on the cross, and by his sacrifice sanctifies, purifies, and makes us acceptable to God, is the Spirit who will see to it that all those who are members of the body of Christ, when his work in them is finished, will be brought to that glorious place that is represented for us so well in, I think, the portrait of the whole body of Christ given in Revelation chapter 21. A spotless, unblemished, perfectly holy, nothing impure, no remainder of the curse. And that's our future in Christ, when the work of sanctification has been finished by the Spirit in all those who are his members. Next time, Dr. Andrew Compton joins us once again to talk about the use of theology and apologetics in fiction. He's joined by author, OPC ruling elder, and friend of the seminary, Rob McKenzie. Rob wrote Seeker's Progress, a work that explores the world that John Bunyan created in his classic book, The Pilgrim's Progress. Dr. Compton and Rob sit down together and talk about whether fiction of this sort can be too preachy and manipulative and whether reformed writers even do a good job of utilizing fiction to inculcate in readers their view of the world. Stay tuned next time to hear Rob's responses to these questions. If you enjoyed this episode of Marscast, please consider subscribing and telling others who may be interested. Also, consider leaving a review, whether on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated and they help us to enhance our content further. Your support allows us to produce engaging content and to build a community of lifelong learners and thoughtful practitioners. I'm Jared Luchobor, signing off for now. See you in the next episode of Marscast.