Historical Background
The monastic tradition made holiness a disciplined way of life; the Reformers relocated sanctification as the necessary fruit of justification, progressive and incomplete in this life. John Wesley taught a second, decisive work of grace, entire sanctification or Christian perfection, understood as perfect love rather than freedom from mistake or temptation, and the Holiness movement carried the teaching into the nineteenth century. Keswick teaching spoke instead of the counteracted, Spirit-filled life. Pentecostal traditions tied sanctification in various ways to baptism in the Holy Spirit. Orthodox theology frames the whole as theosis, the believer's real participation in the divine life by grace.
Scripture References
- Romans 6
- Romans 8
- 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
- Hebrews 12:14
- 1 John 1:5-2:2
The Questions
- Is sanctification chiefly God's work, the believer's work, or a concurrence of both, and in what proportions? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Is there a decisive second stage of grace in this life? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Can a believer be entirely sanctified before death, and what would that mean? Work on this question in the Workshop
- What is the relation of sanctification to justification: cause, fruit, or twin gift? Work on this question in the Workshop
The Positions on This Subject
Lutheran
Scripture must be divided rightly into law and gospel: the law accuses and kills the old creature, the gospel freely gives Christ; confusing the two corrupts both justification and sanctification.
Eastern Orthodox
Salvation is theosis: by grace human beings truly participate in the divine life and are deified, while remaining creatures by essence; salvation is healing and union, not only acquittal.
Wesleyan-Arminian
God can and does, in this life, so fill believers with love that sin's dominion is not merely counteracted but cleansed: entire sanctification, or Christian perfection, received by faith, ordinarily in a moment, as a second work of grace after justification.
Anabaptist
Salvation is inseparable from discipleship: faith that does not follow Christ in obedience, including the refusal of the sword and the oath, has not yet become the faith that saves.
Charismatic and Pentecostal
Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a work of grace distinct from and subsequent to the new birth, empowering the believer for witness; in the classical Pentecostal statement it is witnessed by speaking in tongues as the initial physical evidence.
Objections
Perfectionist accounts are objected to on 1 John 1:8 and on the observed lives of their claimants; Wesley answered by narrowing the definition to love's reign rather than sinlessness of performance. Purely progressive accounts are objected to for flattening the New Testament's decisive imperatives and promises. Theosis is objected to by Western critics as confusing Creator and creature; its defenders answer that participation is by grace and energy, never by essence.
Sources
Primary: John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1766); Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XIII (1646); Catechism of the Catholic Church, paras. 1987-1995 (1992).
Secondary: Thomas N. Smith, 'Sanctification,' in The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology (Oxford University Press, 2010); Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (James Clarke, 1957).