Protestant soteriology

[Reformed]

I understand justification to the cleansing of sin and the restoring of balance to the human. Sanctification is part of justification, in that the cleansing of sin and the balancing occur by the Sanctifying power of God, but Justification refers specifically to that point where the change begins.

To use an analogy, Justification is the birth, and Sanctification is the life. We are born and therefore live, but our lives continue to grow and act, going beyond mere birth. In Justification we are both restored and equipped with the Divine Nature, and Sanctification is the restoration, the Life, and the continuing growth and development of that Life. Like natural life, however, spiritual life requires work and movement, so Holy work is like the life-process of this Sanctity; it is living the Life we’ve been given, and therefore much more than merely a sign that we have the life. Me walking and eating and enjoying a sunset are not merely signs of me having life (though obviously if I’m doing these things I do have life, and in that sense they are signs), they are me living.

Hope that helps!

Peace and God bless!

Thanks for your answers again. I think the Bible reveals that the new birth (regeneration) is seperate and distinct than the doctrine of justification. I believe Holy Scirpture uses the word justifiction as in past tense… justified. Have you considered Romans chapters 3, 4, and 5 to understand justification as something that is declared and finished in the past tense? I believe sanctification is used as the process of transformation. In Catholic Theology, do you receive final and complete justification at the end of your life based on where you are at in the transformation process upon your death?

 

[guanophore]

Thanks for your answers again. I think the Bible reveals that the new birth (regeneration) is seperate and distinct than the doctrine of justification. I believe Holy Scirpture uses the word justifiction as in past tense… justified. Have you considered Romans chapters 3, 4, and 5 to understand justification as something that is declared and finished in the past tense? I believe sanctification is used as the process of transformation. In Catholic Theology, do you receive final and complete justification at the end of your life based on where you are at in the transformation process upon your death?

What Ghosty has articulated for you is the Eastern concept of salvation. This was transmitted by Peter and Paul and their disciples preaching in Syria. None of this theology was influenced by the Latin Rite, or Western science and philosophy. The notion that doctrine is “bible based” is also foreign in the East.

 

[Ethan_Enoch]

Thanks for your answers again. I think the Bible reveals that the new birth (regeneration) is seperate and distinct than the doctrine of justification. I believe Holy Scirpture uses the word justifiction as in past tense… justified. Have you considered Romans chapters 3, 4, and 5 to understand justification as something that is declared and finished in the past tense?

I don’t think regeneration & justification are really separable. Are you saying that the not-yet-regenerate elect are already justified? How can that be? If we are justified by faith, we are not going to have that faith, and therefore aren’t justified, until we’re born again, right?

 

[guanophore]

Thanks for your answers again. I think the Bible reveals that the new birth (regeneration) is seperate and distinct than the doctrine of justification. I believe Holy Scirpture uses the word justifiction as in past tense… justified.

Has it ever occurred to you that you may be reading the scriptures with blinders on?

Matt 12:35-37
36 I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

Rom 2:13
3 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Gal 2:15-17
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, **so that we might be justified **by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law."

Have you considered Romans chapters 3, 4, and 5 to understand justification as something that is declared and finished in the past tense?

Indeed.

I believe sanctification is used as the process of transformation. In Catholic Theology, do you receive final and complete justification at the end of your life based on where you are at in the transformation process upon your death?

No. our final and complete salvation(glorfication, justification) is based on grace, through faith. Without faith, no one is justified.

The manner in which purification occurs for the justified person may depend upon ones state of sanctification. Since nothing unclean can enter heaven, we believe that we must be separated from all sin, and attachment to sin, even that of which we are unaware.

 

[guanophore]

I don’t think regeneration & justification are really separable. Are you saying that the not-yet-regenerate elect are already justified? How can that be? If we are justified by faith, we are not going to have that faith, and therefore aren’t justified, until we’re born again, right?

I believe that Reformed holds the Calvanist position that only those who are regenerated can hear the gospel, because they are dead in their trespasses and sins prior to that, and at emnity with God. He believes that the spirit rejenerates those who are elect, so that they can hear and embrace the gospel. Once that happens, and the person makes a profession of faith, one is justified by the merits of Christ on the Cross. After that, one is baptized as an outward expression of the inward change. I am sure he will correct me if I did not understand this soteriology correctly.

 

[Ethan_Enoch]

I believe that Reformed holds the Calvanist position that only those who are regenerated can hear the gospel, because they are dead in their trespasses and sins prior to that, and at emnity with God. He believes that the spirit rejenerates those who are elect, so that they can hear and embrace the gospel. Once that happens, and the person makes a profession of faith, one is justified by the merits of Christ on the Cross. After that, one is baptized as an outward expression of the inward change. I am sure he will correct me if I did not understand this soteriology correctly.

So, he’s not saying that justification is over, like atonement is, just that a person either is justified or is not justified; nobody is becoming justified. That makes sense.

Also, I don’t think that a profession of faith is necessary for justification, if justification is by faith alone. A profession of faith certainly would accompany true faith, but it is a work, and does not cause justification.

I still think that, while regeneration & justification are distinct acts of God, they are never really separated. Everyone who is born again is immediately justified.