Preface
What follows is a recent response I gave to a Roman Catholic online. I have made various revisions to my original message and have expanded upon it as you see it now in its final form below.Justification, Regeneration, and Progressive Sanctification: Three Distinct yet Interrelated Aspects of Salvation
Arthur Sippo: [Roman] Catholicism insisted that we are not merely saved from the consequences of sin, but from sin itself. To do this we must undergo transformation to become a new creation in Christ so that we are not enslaved to sin but the willing servants of righteousness. This is the clear teaching of Romans 6.
J. D. Gallรฉ: Contrary to Roman Catholicism, conventional Protestantism maintains a strong distinction between justification and sanctification. Whereas sanctification is understood as progressive in nature, conventional Protestants do not recognise justification as a process. Nevertheless, Calvinists and Arminians alike maintain the necessity of both in salvation. Sinful human beings require remission for their sins, a right standing before God (justification), and deliverance from the power and practice of sin as well (regeneration). Believers are saved from objective guilt and condemnation[1] as transgressors of God’s law via justification and freed from the power of sin via regeneration.[2] These two aspects of salvation, whilst distinct, occur simultaneously; one cannot be divorced from the other. (It is not possible for one to be justified and unregenerate or unjustified and regenerate.)
As a result of the regenerating work of the indwelling Holy Spirit, believers are enabled to live lives of ongoing repentance from sin. The goal is for believers to become increasingly holy (set apart, consecrated) over time, maturing in Christ in the present age. This concept is known as progressive sanctification. Protestants typically maintain that believers will not attain sinless perfection prior to final salvation (glorification). Until then, even the greatest Christians fall something short of perfect obedience. The reflection of Christ’s moral image is not yet wholly untainted in the most virtuous of saints.
When you write that ‘[W]e must undergo transformation to become a new creation in Christ so that we are not enslaved to sin but the willing servants of righteousness. This is the clear teaching of Romans 6’, you are using the scriptural terminology ‘new creation’ incorrectly. ‘New creation’ (kainฤ ktsis) occurs in two texts, both of which are Pauline: 2 Corinthians 5.17 and Galatians 6.15. In the former text, when Paul writes, ‘[I]f anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation’ (2 Cor. 5.17, ESV), he is speaking of the believer’s regenerate condition as a result of his or her union with Jesus Christ. Paul is not here addressing the matter of believers progressing in holiness as in Romans 6 where (in so many words) he exhorts those who have been baptised into the death of Christ to continue submitting to God and not reclaim sin as their master. There Paul urges believers to live in accordance with their identity in Christ as dead to sin and alive to God (see Rom. 6.10–11). The consecrated living of saints (i.e. walking in ‘newness of life’, Rom. 6.4) is to spring forth from believers’ union with Christ (vv. 3–7). This union between Christ and believers is a present reality that occurred at a specific point in the past: in baptism (vv. 3–4; see also Col. 2.11–14).
The point that must be stressed is this: regeneration is God’s act. One cannot make himself or herself a new creation in Jesus Christ (see Jn 1.12–13).[3] As I see it, the error you have made is in conflating progressive sanctification with regeneration. The process of moral transformation (otherwise known as progressive sanctification) is ongoing and the result of regeneration. No amount of human striving for holiness will result in justification (the forgiveness of sins; a sinner being declared righteous before a holy God), being ‘born again’[4] by the power of the Holy Spirit (regeneration), or union with Christ. We must be careful not to inadvertently reverse the order of salvation (ordo salutis).
Notes
1. That is, the divine eschatological penalty against sin, resulting in endless, conscious punishment or final annihilation (see e.g. Matt. 13.40–42; 25.41, 46; Mk 9.43–47; Lk. 13.3, 5; Jn 3.16, 36; Rom. 6.23; Phil. 3.19; 2 Thess. 1.9; 2 Pet. 2.6; 3.6–7; Jude 7; Rev. 14.9–11; 21.8).2. Regeneration is sometimes referred to as initial sanctification.
3. I will leave aside the Arminian–Calvinist dispute concerning whether regeneration precedes faith or faith precedes regeneration. As a non-Calvinist, I understand the latter view to be correct.
4. Or ‘born from above’ (see Jn 3.3).
Original content copyright © J. D. Gallรฉ, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022. All rights reserved.
Latest revisions: 11 November 2015 (some material was added and revised in the fifth and sixth paragraphs); 13 November 2015 (one word added); 18 September 2016 (minor emendations); 18 November 2016 (converted a ‘cf.’ to ‘see also’ in brackets [i.e. parenthesis]); 17 February 2018 (converted twenty colons to full stops); 26 February 2018 (abbreviated assorted scriptural references); 24 May 2019 (minor revision to n. 1); altered two scriptural abbreviations (12 Dec. 2021); added a comma in n. 1 (14 Aug. 2022).
