What is the difference between salvation, justification and sanctification?

[WesleyF]

I know these three have different meanings, but I’ve not understood the differences between them all that well. Could someone explain?

 

[catholic1seeks]

Catholic Answers: Grace: What It Is and What It Does
catholic.com/library/Grace_What_It_Is.asp

The Protestant misunderstanding of justification lies in its claim that justification is merely a forensic (i.e., purely declaratory) legal declaration by God that the sinner is now “justified.” If you “accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior,” he declares you justified, though he doesn’t really make you justified or sanctified; your soul is in the same state as it was before; but you’re eligible for heaven.

A person is expected thereafter to undergo sanctification (don’t make the mistake of thinking Protestants say sanctification is unimportant), but the degree of sanctification achieved is, ultimately, immaterial to the question of whether you’ll get to heaven. You will, since you’re justified; and justification as a purely legal declaration is what counts. Unfortunately, this scheme is a legal fiction. It amounts to God telling an untruth by saying the sinner has been justified, while all along he knows that the sinner is not really justified, but is only covered under the “cloak” of Christ’s righteousness. But, what God declares, he does. “o shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11). So, when God declares you justified, he makes you justified. Any justification that is not woven together with sanctification is no justification at all.

The Bible’s teaching on justification is much more nuanced. Paul indicates that there is a real transformation which occurs in justification, that it is not just a change in legal status. This is seen, for example, in Romans 6:7, which every standard translation—Protestant ones included—renders as “For he who has died is freed from sin” (or a close variant).

Paul is obviously speaking about being freed from sin in an experiential sense, for this is the passage where he is at pains to stress the fact that we have made a decisive break with sin that must be reflected in our behavior: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:1-2). “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness” (6:12-13).

The context here is what Protestants call sanctification, the process of being made holy. Sanctification is the sense in which we are said to be “freed from sin” in this passage. Yet in the Greek text, what is actually said is “he who has died has been justified from sin.” The term in Greek (dikaioo) is the word for being justified, yet the context indicates sanctification, which is why every standard translation renders the word “freed” rather than “justified.” This shows that, in Paul’s mind, justification involves a real transformation, a real, experiential freeing from sin, not just a change of legal status. And it shows that, the way he uses terms, there is not the rigid wall between justification and sanctification that Protestants imagine.

According to Scripture, sanctification and justification aren’t just one-time events, but are ongoing processes in the life of the believer. Both can be spoken of as past-time events, as Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 6:11: “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” Sanctification is also a present, ongoing process, as the author of Hebrews notes: “For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). In regard to justification also being an on-going process, compare Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6 with both Hebrews 11:8; Genesis 12:1-4 and James 2:21-23; Genesis 22:1-18. In these passages, Abraham’s justification is advanced on three separate occasions.

 

[thessalonian]

According to the council of trent justification is not merely the forgiveness of sins but also the healing of the wounded soul after sin and the righting of the man who’s nature is corrupt. The protestant sees the first (forgiveness) as the definition of justification and the second two as sanctification (Catholics would generally agree with the prot definition of sanctification). Catholicism sees the second two as a part of justification (i.e. sanctification is a subset of justification) because they are the cause and the effect of sin that needs to be forgiven and is all interelated. Protestant theology tends to have a difficult time speaking about how sanctification takes place because they have a disconnect with it and the cross and works and grace. Their theolgy does not tie it alll together and wrap it up in to a package called salvation.

1Tim.6

1. 
   ]12] Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the* eternal life** to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
   
   Gal.6
   
   1. 
      ]8] For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap* eternal life**.
      
      Rom.6
      
      1. 
         ]22] But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end,* eternal life**.
         
         Rom.2
         
         1. 
            ]7] to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give* eternal life**;
            
            John.4
            
            1. 
               ]
               ]36] He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life**, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

 

[SyCarl]

To many Protestants salvation has four parts. These may take place or be going on at the same time, but all four together make up salvation.

Regeneration is when the Holy Spirit infuses us with a new spirit freeing us from slavery to sin. We want to please God and become capable of acting righteously.

Justification is the forgiveness of sins and a right standing with God whereby He will accept our good works. While in regeneration we have been made capable of being righteous, we are not completely righteous since are still able to sin.

Sanctification is the process by which we try to act righteously and become holy. This is achieved to varying degrees but is not completed in this lifetime since, again, we are still tempted to sin.

Glorification occurs after death when we become totally holy.

Catholics do not separate things this way and that often results in confusion on both sides as people mean different things by the terms they are using.

 

[The_Dude]

“A person is expected thereafter to undergo sanctification (don’t make the mistake of thinking Protestants say sanctification is unimportant), but the degree of sanctification achieved is, ultimately, immaterial to the question of whether you’ll get to heaven”

Well, a question pops up if sanctification is conflated with justification; how much sanctification is needed for heaven? How does one know they’ve done enough works, or that their works are sufficiently holy and pure?

SyCarl did a good job - another point is that justification is generally monergistic in Protestantism, but sanctification is synergistic. The ordo salutis goes into more details on the various stages of salvation, though there are some differences between groups on the exact ordering/causes of the elements.

 

[JohnJFarren]

JMJ / MMM 081003 Friday
Hello WesleyF –
I think the following helps put things into focus –
SALVATION is the goal, the end result.

JUSTIFICATION is the first step of the process toward that goal.

SANCTIFICATION follows Justification and is the process itself, lasting a lifetime (or more) of become more holy, more mature, more spiritually perfect. “Nothing imperfect enters Heaven.” “Become perfect as your Heavenly Father is Perfect.”
Now, of course, the task of examing each one of those comes.
John (JohnJFarren) Trinity5635@aol.com

 

[lofktis14kr]

I make no claim to be an expert on this subject or any other matter of theology. But in defence of the Protestant position, I would say this: this matter of discriminating between justification and sanctification was at the core of what spurred the Protestant movement led by Martin Luther.

“The Dude” nailed it in his post:
*Well, a question pops up if sanctification is conflated with justification; how much sanctification is needed for heaven? How does one know they’ve done enough works, or that their works are sufficiently holy and pure? *

No one can ever do enough to earn their way into Heaven/escape Hell except for one, Jesus Christ. He only, ever did that which was right and holy, from the heart. God holds all men to a perfect standard, but the Bible is clear that, “there is none righteous, no not one.” and unless we have the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to our account, we have no hope of Heaven. This righteousness we obtain by faith alone. This is why the clarion call of the reformation was sola fide, sola ChristosWe are saved by faith alone in Christ alone.

As for sanctification, the Protestants hold to a definitive sanctification and a progressive sanctification. Definitive is the work of God sanctifying or separating the believer apart for holy use. Progressive sanctification is the actual work of the Spirit which causes the believer to walk in newness of life.

So, as far as our acceptance with God, He accepts us in Christ alone. In Christ, our criminal record has been wiped clean, and we stand before God not in our own merits, but in Christ’s.(Rom. 3:20-28; Gal. 3:10-14) And sanctification is the manifestation or fruit or evidence of our acceptance with God.(Eph.2:8-10)