Defining Major Doctrines within Soteriology
Regeneration (paliggenesias) is literally translated as ‘new birth’. This is the best basic definition. Regeneration is an instantaneous quickening of the Holy Spirit, which imparts to us the divine nature and spiritual life, bringing us forth as a new creation in Christ, and rendering us alive to God. God is always the primary agent in regeneration’s application; specifically God the Holy Spirit.[1]
Justification is the doctrine whereby God declares a former sinner to be righteous in His judgment. The doctrine is dichotomised into two basic elements: actual justification and declarative justification. Actual justification is whereby God makes a sinner just by imputing to him Christ’s righteousness through union with Jesus. Declarative justification is when God makes the proclamation of that one being justified. It is a forensic act. The primary agent of justification is God, particularly as Judge.
Adoption is the act of God whereby He legally and relationally places the believer as a legitimate son through a change effected in the believer’s position and status. Through this act God gives the believer both the privileges and rights of a true son.
The Holy Spirit is the Agent which executes this act in space-time. However, the entire Trinity is active in adoption. God the Father has eternally willed and decreed our adoption as sons according to His sovereign good-pleasure.[2] Christ made our adoption possible through His substitutionary act of effectual atonement, and the Holy Spirit acts as the employing agent by appropriating our adoption.[3] Man’s role is also considered active as he must exercise faith.
Sanctification, in its basic meaning, is to set something apart unto making it holy. The Bible has used this expression concerning many things. However, this doctrine in the New Testament is primarily focused on the sanctification of God’s elect. In the life of a believer sanctification is seen to be a work of the Word of God, the shed blood of Christ, the Holy Trinity, and man’s cooperation with grace.[4] The subjects of sanctification are always and only the elect. The agent of sanctification is God.[5]
Contrasting the Biblical View with Erroneous Misconceptions
Regeneration is something done to man; not by man. The Holy Spirit begets us.[6] It is not a progressive work, occurring in stages, but is depicted as a single and instantaneous event. Also, regeneration does not bring man into an immediate state of perfection. Believers, after regeneration, are called to live lives of sanctification, battling and struggling against sin in their flesh.[7]
Justification is whereby God makes and declares a sinner to be righteous and justified. This is obtained by grace alone through faith in Jesus.[8] Justification is a onetime and instantaneous work in both its actual and declarative aspects.[9] God alone is the Agent of our justification. God alone is Judge.
One is not justified by their faithfulness, good works, religious activities, or sacraments. Justification is not a progressive act, occurring over an extended period of time. Finally, it would be erroneous to think that man can justify himself before God.
Through Adoption the believer is begotten of the Spirit.[10] His relationship, position and status however are different than that of Christ’s to the Father. Jesus is the “only begotten” and will eternally exist as so in the Holy Trinity.[11] The believer is judicially adopted as a legal act into the Family of God.
The Doctrine of Adoption is exclusive in that it’s applicable is to fallen men under Adam’s race alone. Christ was not a man adopted into the Godhead as the Adoptionists suggested. Also, adoption is an instantaneous act and not progressive in nature. It occurs once and endures forever.
Sanctification has both objective and subjective aspects. Objectively, God’s elect are sanctified through their position in Christ (occurring at regeneration).[12] Subjectively, they are sanctified progressively in degrees through holy living which enables them to overcome sin and sinning.
False notions of sanctification would include views which deny either of these aspects. Sanctification is not complete in its positional aspect alone, as believers do not immediately experience perfection. Conversely, it is unbiblical to embrace the experiential aspect of sanctification while denying its objectivity, as this would require one to deny the elect’s positional death and resurrection with Christ.[13]
The nature of sanctification is comprised of two aspects; negative and positive. Negatively, it is a separation from the profane. Positively, it is a dedication to the holy. Further misconceptions would include any teaching that denies the indivisibility of these two aspects. A believer is not sanctified by embracing one of these aspects alone, but through the efficacy of both.
Justification
The Doctrine of Justification can be subdivided into two aspects: actual justification and declarative justification. The doctrine, expounded rightly, must emphasize both of these aspects. Though distinct in their nature and function, the two aspects are interrelated, working hand-in-hand for the completion of the holistic act.
In actual justification God makes a person righteous (just). It functions in three primary ways. First, it removes the sinner’s guilt by imputing Christ’s righteousness to the sinner.[14] Secondly, it removes the sinner’s condemnation by the issuing of forgiveness.[15] Thirdly, actual justification removes our estrangement as enemies of God by reconciling us through the blood of Christ.[16]
In declarative justification God declares a sinner to be positionally justified. This is also known as forensic justification, as it relates to the Law. This aspect deals strictly with our position before God, not our experience. We are declared by God to be just. God will then not lay a charge against His elect, since it is He who justifies.[17] It is this declaration of God which gives us legal standing before the holy and just Judge of all the earth.[18]
These two aspects are contingent upon each other, and occur virtually simultaneously. You cannot separate these acts and classify them in separate places in the ordo salutis. Through our union with Jesus Christ we partake of His righteousness.[19] We become one with Christ, through His death and resurrection, and we inherit His righteousness as our own. For this reason God is able to truthfully declare us righteous and therefore justified.
As far as the nature of justification is concerned one thing should be noted: justification is not the grounds of faith, nor is faith not the grounds of justification. Rather, faith is the instrumental cause of justification. Faith is the means by which justification is effected through. We are justified through faith not because of faith. Justification is also primary to one’s stability because a Christian needs the confirmation of a God who is for them. They believe that God will not lay a charge against them because it is He who justified them.[20]
Sanctification
There are at least five major views on the Doctrine of Sanctification, including: Wesleyan, Reformed, Pentecostal (Holiness and Classical), Keswick, and Augustinian-Dispensational. Among these camps the Reformed, Keswick, and Augustinian-Dispensational views are similar in a few respects. These groups all believe that sanctification believes at conversion (or regeneration). They believe that sanctification is both positional and experiential in its aspects, and they believe that perfection is not attained in this lifetime (House 1973).
Pentecostals (both Holiness and Classical) view sanctification as being a subsequent act of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life; not occurring necessarily at regeneration. They equate the filling/baptism/receiving of the Holy Spirit with being the initiation of sanctification in addition to receiving special powers to witness. Pentecostals view sanctification as both positional and progressive, with each of these aspects becoming true at this subsequent act of the Spirit.
The Wesleyans view sanctification as beginning when the individual responds to prevenient grace. They believe that one’s position and experience of sanctification is kept or lost based on the believer’s obedience, and that the believer can attain “entire sanctification” in this lifetime, bringing an end to the struggle of opposing natures (House).
My view is mostly Reformed, but partly Augustinian-Dispensational. I believe that experiential sanctification begins simultaneously with the new birth, and that as soon as the new nature is born it is immediately growing. I don’t believe that a considerable amount of time can elapse in a believer’s life without their being some degree of sanctifying activity going on. I don’t believe that the Bible teaches that sanctification is a subsequent event occurring at a later point in the believer’s life.[21] Finally, I believe that a born-again Christian experiences the conflict of two natures (flesh and spirit) which are in opposition until death.
REFERENCE LIST
Freligh, Harold M. 1962. Newborn: A Basic Handbook on Salvation for Personal or Group Study. Dimension Books.
Pecota, Daniel B. 1976. Soteriology: A Study Guide (Second Edition). Global University
The Holy Bible. 1982. The New King James Version (NKJV). Thomas Nelson, Inc.
The Holy Bible. 1960. The New American Standard Bible (NASB). Zondervan.
[1] John 3:3, 3:5, 3:7, 3:8; Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:23
[2] Eph. 1:4-9, 11-12; Rom. 9:7, 11, 23
[3] Rom. 6:4, 11, 7:4, 8:14-17; Gal. 4:6-7; Eph. 1:4-7; 2 Cor. 1:21-22, 5:4-5; Gal. 4:6-7; Eph. 1:13-14
[4]John 15:3, 17:17; Eph. 5:26; Ps. 119:9; James 1:23-25; Heb. 10:10, 27; 1 John 1:7; God the Father (John 15:1-2, 17”5-7, 1 Thess. 4:3) God the Son (Heb. 10:10) God the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; Gal. 5:22)
[5] Eph. 5:26
[6] John 3:5, 3:8
[7] Romans 7
[8] Gal. 2:16, Rom. 3:24, 4:5, 5:1; Titus 3:7 et al.
[9] Rom. 5:1
[10] 1 Peter 1:3; 1 John 5:1
[11] John 1:1, 3:16, 8:58; 1 John 5:7-9
[12]2 Cor. 5:15-17 – Here the apostle gives the new birth as a reason for living a sanctified life.
[13] Rom. 6:3-11; Eph. 2:1-6; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Col. 3:3-4; Gal. 2:20 et al.
[14] Rom. 4:6; 6:4, 11; 1Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21
[15] Colossians 2:14; Ps. 32:1; Rom. 8:33
[16] Rom. 5:8-11
[17] Rom. 8:33
[18] Rom. 2:2, Gen. 18:25, Rev. 4:2
[19] Rom. 6:3-11; 7:1-4
[20] Rom. 8:33
[21] 2 Cor. 5:15-17 – Here the apostle gives the new birth as a reason for living a sanctified life.
Filed under: Soteriology - (The Study of Salvation)
