Progressive Sanctification

from http://www.nanc.org/

Progressive Sanctification is that gracious work of God in a believer whereby He enables him to replace works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit, thereby causing him to become more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ.

This process of spiritual growth continues over the course of a Christian's lifetime and is, therefore, neither instantaneous nor complete, but gradually occurs as he appropriates God's sanctifying truth which is found solely in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Such spiritual growth, in part, may be fostered by means of godly biblical counsel from those who are qualified to minister it. NANC considers this teaching central to counseling and happily accepts applications for certification from all who adhere to it.

Pastoral Implications

The entire work of biblical counseling proceeds from understanding the Christian life as a transformation process that engages and redeems every aspect of our humanity. God Himself actively works to change us; we actively work to change; the process will be completed on the day of Christ. God initiates and sustains a change process [1] that is progressive throughout our lives, [2] that calls for our active participation in response to God’s word of promise and command, [3] that is incomplete in this life. God will perfect us when we see Jesus face to face.

Candidates who believe in and teach some form of either instant sanctification or passive sanctification or perfect sanctification cannot be accepted for certification. They misunderstand the Christian life.

Philippians 1:6, 2:12-13, and I John 3:2-3 give clear expression to truths which must always be held together:
• First, something decisive happened in the past and continues as a present reality. God began a good work in us. We are now His beloved children.
• Second, God continues to work in us so that we increasingly both will and do His good pleasure.
• Third, this work is not complete. What we shall be has not yet appeared.
• Fourth, in the future, God will finish what He began and continues to do. He will bring all to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. When He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.
What is the present tense implication of these past, present, and future realities? Everyone who so hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

In other words, Progressive Sanctification is what happens in the still-incomplete middle where we live. The ministry of counseling, like all other ministries, targets the long process of individual and corporate purification into the image of Jesus. God operates in real historical process. This occurs at all levels: in the Bible’s unfolding redemption, in church history, in a family’s history, in the personal history of an individual. Shortcuts, quick fixes, and magic answers make promises contrary to God’s ways – however much they may invoke God’s name and cite His words out of context. The doctrine of progressive sanctification is an essential core doctrine.

Views that promise an instant, passive, or perfect sanctification have been termed “quietism,” because they portray God’s agency in ways that erase human agency. The catch phrase “Let go, and let God” expresses the quietist impulse: all that a Christian need do is give up trying to do anything. God will do it all; our job is only to get out of the way. Quietist teachings appear under many names, for example, the Keswick Movement, Victorious Life, Higher Life, Second Blessing sanctification, Second Work of Grace, Sinless Perfection, and so forth.

But not all misunderstandings of progressive sanctification come wearing a brand-name label. Graders should keep alert for any approach to counseling that proceeds as if there is some “secret” that will provide a one-and-done solution to life’s struggles: a decisive moment of faith, a certain experience of the Holy Spirit, appropriation of some key doctrine, driving out a demon, participating in one particular means of grace, etc. The promise of a panacea (“cure-all”) can be extremely alluring and seductive. Candidates may or may not announce such views. Graders must pay keen attention to how candidates describe the process and goal of their counselees’ growth.

A common correlate to quietist teaching is the view that even a sense of individual identity and choice is a bad thing. The goal of the Christian life becomes a mystical absorption into Christ and the Spirit, so the sense of individual volition disappears. Beware of superspiritualized language that annihilates individual identity, denying rather than redeeming the full range of human capabilities. This is an extremely destructive teaching. In truth, God is raising up sons and daughters to become wise, mature kings and queens. He desires human beings who honor Him in the full expression of their humanity. He does not want inanimate puppets animated by the “Spirit.” God has no interest in “possessing” us, as it were, in unmaking our humanness and taking over. Instead, the Holy Spirit remakes human beings into better human beings: more loving, joyous, peaceable, honest, courageous, merciful, persevering, God-reliant, and every other good thing.

A common example of this error is often justified by wrenching out of context the wondrous truth of Galatians 2:20: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” These words are interpreted to mean the extinguishing of our selfhood or personhood, and the taking over of our thoughts, desires, and decisions by the Spirit. Such a view has more in common with merging with the divine (mysticism) and possession by the divine (ecstasy religions) than with the robust Christian faith expressed in the second half of Galatians 2:20: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

The foregoing grader’s guide and discussion of pastoral implications has concentrated on errors that erase meaningful, ongoing human agency, thus distorting the actual relationship between God and His people. But graders must also be alert to the opposite error. There may be candidates who in practice deemphasize or misrepresent God’s agency, power and promises. Perhaps they only pay lip-service to the Holy Spirit’s role in our moral transformation. Their counsel might so focus on the moral law, diagnosing sin and prescribing righteousness, that they forget how the promises of God are daily bread, water of life, refuge in affliction, and source of mercy and hope. They might counsel as if human agency and volition were all-decisive. They might view people as having some innate power of will to “Just say No,” not communicating the whole relationship with Christ. They might underestimate people’s sufferings and limitations (“encourage the faint-hearted, hold on to the weak”) in their earnestness to identify people’s sins (“admonish the unruly”). Moralism is a different sort of panacea, but rarely wears a brand name label.

In sum, the Bible portrays how God’s agency and human agency interrelate in progressive sanctification. Our counselees need to understand this with all their heart. NANC counselors must be able to communicate this precious truth both in their words and in their person. This is truth that must be lived, as well as counseled to others.
Printed On: 8/16/2009 6:57:27 AM
Reference URL: http://www.nanc.org/Theological_Considerations/Progressive_Sanctification.aspx