A Perspective on Sanctification by Nicole Collins

The doctrine of sanctification and its implication upon the disciple of Christ’s life are profound to think about.  As a Lutheran person, Luther doesn’t seem to say much about the “process” more than about the sacrament of Baptism.  In an indirect way, I believe that Luther is telling us that sanctification is living into your Baptism which is enacted by God’s Holy Spirit.

“Still Baptism is itself a work, and you say works are of no avail for salvation; what then, becomes of faith? Answer: Yes, our works, indeed, avail nothing for salvation; Baptism, however, is not our work, but God’s (for, as was stated, you must put Christ-baptism far away from a bath-keeper’s baptism). God’s works, however, are saving and necessary for salvation, and do not exclude, but demand, faith; for without faith they could not be apprehended. For by suffering the water to be poured upon you, you have not yet received Baptism in such a manner that it benefits you anything; but it becomes beneficial to you if you have yourself baptized with the thought that this is according to God’s command and ordinance, and besides in God’s name, in order that you may receive in the water the promised salvation. Now, this the fist cannot do, nor the body; but the heart must believe it.”

Why I can appreciate Luther’s sacramental view of sanctification here is that it definitely is Biblical going back to John the Baptist’s Baptism of Jesus and the dove of the Holy Spirit ascending upon Jesus.  That was a physical sign of the Holy Spirit which is also our challenge—we want to “see” in an empirical sense, the Spirit.  Our human problem is an existential one in my perspective since we cannot fully be comfortable or trusting in the fact that much of the mystery of God and his actions are invisible.  When we cannot see or rationalize the invisible, we naturally resort to works righteousness over faith produced responses to God.

Becoming “fully developed” (Teleioi) through spiritual formation is a very closely connected, slippery slope that Lutherans share to a degree with the Calvinist perspective. I believe it is in the separation, existentially and empirically from the Old Nature to the New Nature that teeters on the edge of being self-justifying or meritorious in regards to responding to God and growing in faith.

Confessional Orthodox Theologian Carl Braaten does address our theological “surf-board” in the realization of sanctification as freely responsible servants of Christ in community—the Church.  The church is a fellowship (Biblical—Koinonia) of Sinners set apart for mission through service (Biblical—Diakonia).  As he says, I have to agree: “If only the church and Christian people could be freed from anxiety about their own intrinsic holiness and view it instead under the sign of the Cross in the struggles of God against the powers of evil in the world until the final establishment of the kingdom, we would not have here a mark which divides the church.” 

I had to include this quote because it illumines profoundly our spiritual formation battle today of growing in faith.  It is an existential battle between good and evil as well as one that needs to be shaped by spiritual discipline over the rationalization of works righteousness or “cheap grace”-based social justice moralism/ activism.  The camps of discipleship today have become polarized doctrinally and politically in simply pondering about the realization of sanctification as a spiritual formation “goal” of the Christian’s faith journey.

           

We must adhere to a cross-shaped life.  What I mean by this is that we must allow Spiritual formation to be transformative not as a separate existential entity but living into the human reality that we are both saint and sinner. Adhering to a cross-shaped life is one that daily incorporates prayer, Bible study and fellowship naturally pursued out of faith.  The only thing that is separating is living in the tension of shutting down the Old Nature’s tendencies to do and operate centered around the self and its survival and choosing the seemingly unnatural path of living selflessly centered in Christ operating out of love and service as spiritual fruits of faith (Galatians 5).

St. Paul, the pastor to the pastors, perfectly examples our struggles in his one of his frustrations and teaching moments with the Corinthians: (1 Corinthians 1:18-25) “18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ ²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

According to the original Greek, discernment is spoken to in the context of intelligence or comprehension—wisdom or spiritual formation according to God, however must be understood as starting from the “internal church”—the heart over the head.  The heart is the vessel for naturally building the foundation of faith through God’s Holy Spirit.  The heart is the sanctuary of the soul—our true existential reality of being children of God.  This is the true “place” of realizing the “process” of God’s GRACE shaping our lives to grow in faith and response.

Calvin’s perspective of sanctification in relation to what I have just said in the preceding paragraph would separate this notion of the internal church even further by seeing it as an outside reality of a naturally produced response to God’s Grace.  Luther’s perspective is perhaps too ecclesiologically bound to ‘Church,’ and not so clarified for speaking to both senses of ‘church,’ individual and corporate.  We need community to grow faith this is true but we also need communion with Christ—which deals solely with that first initial foundation of church, the heart.

So which is it? This seems to be the question that arises in reflection for me about what is the “best” view of sanctification—in my perspective it is our Spiritual Formation process of growing into a life of holiness.  Both views in combination to a degree address our needs to develop and grow into the lifestyle of Grace. Logos and Spirit combined along with becoming intentionally involved naturally through faith in developing both senses of church—the heart and community.

Returning to Luther, he says in his lecture about sanctification: “Faith is not the human notion and dream that some people call faith. When they see that no improvement of life and no good works follow—although they can hear and say much about faith—they fall into the error of saying, “faith is not enough; one must do works in order to be righteous and saved.” This is due to the fact that when they hear the Gospel, they get busy and by their own powers create an idea in their heart which says, “I believe;” they take this then to be a true faith. Faith, however, is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God (John 1:12-13).  It kills the Old Adam/Eve and makes us altogether different people in heart and spirit, mind and powers and brings with it the Holy Spirit. For through faith one becomes free from sin and comes to take pleasure in God’s commandments.  Nature, free will and our own powers cannot bring this righteousness into being. “The spirit” is the man who lives and works, inwardly ad outwardly, in the service of the Spirit and of the future life.”

The logos which begins the first chapter of John’s Gospel is the Word.  The Word is Christ Jesus—the Gospel and is tangibly given as our Bible as well as proclaimed, taught and lived through the office of the ministry of the priesthood of all believers.  The Greek in particular is especially interesting in regards to the Word||Jesus became flesh (sarx) and dwelt (tabernacled) among us.  Tabernacle in one understanding is the most sacred place where the Spirit of God IS in the corporate church.  Tabernacle in regards to the heart (internal church) is where the Holy Spirit does indeed work. 

Sanctification as a life lived into the reality of Grace is not just a product of justification and merits of Christ works it is something as well that streams from the beginning of creation—spiritual formation (full development/ teleioi) intentional obedience/ accountability to God. It is both realized sacramentally in and through our daily Baptismal journey as well as it is living most prayerfully into a deep awareness of reflection, confession, repentance and renewal—a formative process of the theology of the cross.  The theology of the cross is where we, being human, are completely unable to fulfill God’s Law—we are incapable of this righteousness for it is through Christ alone.

In conclusion, sanctification is an existentially realized eschatology of living into the lifestyle of Grace—the goal of spiritual formation in, with and through Christ as His disciple guided and nurtured by the Holy Spirit.

Bibliography

·         McReynolds, Paul R.; “Word Study Greek/English New Testament;” Tyndale Publishers Carol Stream, Illinois 1999 BS1965.5

·         Luther, Martin; “The Large Catechism;” Kindle Edition; Public Domain

·         Luther, Martin; “Luther Works, volume 35 on Word and Sacrament I;” Fortress Press Minneapolis, MN 1960 ISBN 978-0-8006-0335-9

·         Braaten, Carl; “Principles of Lutheran Theology;” Fortress Press Philadelphia, PA 1983 BX8065.2.B67