Is Sanctification Monergistic or Synergistic? A Reformed Survey

Is Sanctification Monergistic or Synergistic? A Reformed Survey​

KEVIN DEYOUNG | SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Recently, in a leadership training class at our church, a spirited discussion broke out on whether sanctification is monergistic or synergisitic. No, this is not what every class is like at University Reformed Church. But this one was. I wasn’t there, but I was told the discussion was energetic, intelligent, and respectful. I’m glad to serve at a church where people know and care about this level of theological precision.
The terms monergism and synergism refer to the working of God in regeneration. Monergism teaches that we are born again by only one working (mono is Greek for “one,” erg is from the Greek word for “work”). Synergism teaches that we are born again by human cooperation with the grace of God (the syn prefix means “with” in Greek). The Protestant Reformers strongly opposed all synergistic understandings of the new birth. They believed that given the spiritual deadness and moral inability of man, our regeneration is owing entirely to the sovereign work of God. We do not cooperate and we do not contribute to our being born again. Three cheers for monergism.
But what should we say about sanctification? On the one hand, Reformed Christians are loathe to use the word synergistic. We certainly don’t want to suggest that God’s grace is somehow negligible in sanctification. Nor do we want to suggest that the hard work of growing in godliness is not a supernatural gift from God. On the other hand, we are on dangerous ground if we imply that we are passive in sanctification in the same way we are passive in regeneration. We don’t want to suggest God is the only active agent in our progressive sanctification. So which is it: is sanctification monergistic or synergistic?
I think it’s best to stay away from both terms. The distinction is very helpful (and very important) when talking about regeneration, but these particular theological terms muddy the waters when talking about sanctification. Synergism sounds like a swear word to Reformed folks, so no one wants to say it. And yet, monergism is not the right word either. To make it the right word we have to provide a different definition than we give it when discussing the new birth. What does it mean to say regeneration and sanctification are both monergistic if we are entirely passive in one and active in the other?
Those who say sanctification is monergistic want to protect the gracious, supernatural character of sanctification. Those who say sanctification is synergistic want to emphasize that we must actively cooperated with the grace in sanctification. These emphases are both correct. And yet, I believe it is better to defend both of these points with careful explanation rather than with terms that have normally been employed in a different theological controversy. Sanctification is both a gracious gift of God and it requires our active cooperation. I’ve tried to show in previous posts that these two truths are biblical. In this post I want to show these two truths are also eminently Reformed.
Let me give a few brief examples.
John Calvin (1509-64)
Commenting on 2 Peter 1:5 (“make every effort to add to your faith…”), Calvin says:

As it is an arduous work and of immense labour, to put off the corruption which is in us, he bids us to strive and make every effort for this purpose. He intimates that no place is to be given in this case to sloth, and that we ought to obey God calling us, not slowly or carelessly, but that there is need of alacrity; as though he had said, “Put forth every effort, and make your exertions manifest to all.”

For Calvin, growing in godliness is hard work. There is no place for sloth. We must exert ourselves to obedience with speed and diligence. The believer is anything but passive in sanctification. But later, while commenting on the same verse, Calvin also warns against “the delirious notion” that we make the movements of God in us efficacious, as if God’s work could not be done unless we allowed him to do it. On the contrary, “right feelings are formed in us by God, and are rendered by him effectual.” In fact, “all our progress and perseverance are from God.” Wisdom, love, patience—these are all “gifts of God and the Spirit.” So when Peter tells us to make every effort, “he by no means asserts that [these virtues] are in our power, but only shows what we ought to have, and what ought to be done.”
Francis Turretin (1623-87)
Turretin employs sanctification as a theological term “used strictly for a real and internal renovation of man.” In this renovation, we are both recipients of God’s grace and active performers of it. “[Sanctification] follows justification and is begun here in this life by regeneration and promoted by the exercise of holiness and of good works, until it shall be consummated in the other by glory. In this sense, it is now taken passively, inasmuch as it is wrought by God in us; then actively, inasmuch as it ought to be done by us, God performing this work in us and by us” (Institutes of Elenctic Theology 2.17.1).
When it comes to the grace of God in regeneration, Turretin is opposed to “all Synergists.” He has in mind Socinians, Remonstrants, Pelagians, Semipelagians, and especially Roman Catholics, who anathematized “anyone [who] says that the free will of man moved and excited by God cooperates not at all” in effectual calling (Council of Trent). Turretin is happy to be just the sort of monergist Trent denounces. But then he adds this clarification about synergism:

The question does not concern the second stage of conversion in which it is certain that man is not merely passive, but cooperates with God (or rather operates under him). Indeed he actually believes and converts himself to God; moves himself to the exercise of new life. Rather the question concerns the first moment when he is converted and receives new life in regeneration. We contend that he is merely passive in this, as a receiving subject and not as an active principle. (2.15.5).

Given this caveat, it’s hard to think Turretin would have been comfortable saying sanctification is monergistic, though he certainly believed holiness is wrought in the believer by God.
Wilhelmus A Brakel (1635-1711)
Like Turretin and Calvin, A Brakel makes clear that sanctification is a work of God. “God alone is its cause,” he writes. “As little as man can contribute to his regeneration, faith, and justification, so little can he contribute to his sanctification” (The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 3.4). This may sound like we are completely passive in holiness, but that’s not what A Brakel means.

Believers hate sin, love God, and are obedient, and do good works. However, they do this neither on their own nor independently from God; rather, the Holy Spirit, having infused life in them at regeneration, maintains that life by His continual influence, stirs it up, activates it, and causes it to function in harmony with its spiritual nature. (3.4)

We contribute nothing to sanctification in that growth in godliness is a gift from God. And yet, we must be active in the exercise of this gift. A Brakel even goes so far as to say, “Man, being thus moved by the influence of God’s Spirit, moves, sanctifies himself, engages in that activity which his new nature desires and is inclined toward, and does that which he knows to be his duty” (3.4, emphasis added). That’s why A Brakel later exhorts his readers to “make an earnest effort to purify yourself from all the pollutions of the flesh and of the mind, perfecting yours sanctification in the fear of God. Permit me to stir you up to this holy work; incline your ear and permit these exhortations addressed to you to enter your heart” (3.24). So in one sense (on the level of ultimate causation and origin) we contribute nothing to sanctification and in another sense (on the level of activity and effort) we sanctify ourselves.
Charles Hodge (1797-1878)
We find these same themes–sanctification as gift and sanctification as active cooperation–in the great systematician from Princeton. Hodge stresses that sanctification is “supernatural” in that holy virtues in the life of a believer cannot “be produced by the power of the will, or by all the resources of man, however protracted or skillful in their application. They are the gifts of God, the fruits of the Spirit” (Systematic Theology, 3.215).
And yet, Hodge is quick to add that this supernatural work of sanctification does not exclude “the cooperation of second causes.” He explains:

When Christ opened the eyes of the blind no second cause interposed between his volition and the effect. But men work out their own salvation, while it is God who worketh in them to will and to do, according to his own good pleasure. In the work of regeneration, the soul is passive. It cannot cooperate in the communication of spiritual life. But in conversion, repentance, faith, and growth in grace, all its powers are called into exercise. As, however, the effects produced transcend the efficiency of our fallen nature, and are due to the agency of the Spirit, sanctification does not cease to be supernatural, or a work of grace, because the soul is active and cooperating in the process. (3.215).

There are several important ideas in Hodge’s summary. First, he affirms that sanctification is a work of supernatural grace. It is not something that comes from us or could be accomplished by us. Second, he suggests that the soul is passive (monergism) in regeneration, but not in the rest of our spiritual life (note: by “conversion” he means our turning to Christ not the new birth). Third, he does not hesitate to use the language of cooperation. We are active in the sanctifying process with Christ as he works in us.
Herman Bavinck (1854-1921)
More than Hodge, and more like Calvin, Bavinck emphasizes the “in Christ” nature of sanctification. He wants us to see that we are not “sanctified by a holiness we bring out ourselves.” Rather, evangelical sanctification “consists in the reality that in Christ God grants us, along with righteousness, also complete holiness, and does not just impute it but also inwardly imparts it by the regenerating and renewing work of the Holy Spirit until we have been fully conformed to the image of his Son” (Reformed Dogmatics, 4.248). Bavinck goes on to say that Rome’s doctrine of “‘infused righteousness’ is not incorrect as such.” Believers “do indeed obtain the righteousness of Christ by infusion.” The problem is that Rome makes this infused righteousness that ground for forgiveness. We are given the gift of righteousness (by which Christ “comes to dwell in us by his Spirit and renews us after his image”), but only as we are also declared righteous by the gift of an imputed righteousness (4.249).
Sanctification, for Bavinck, is first of all what God does in and for us. But that’s not all we must say about sanctification.

Granted, in the first place [sanctification] is a work and gift of God (Phil. 1:5; 1 Thess. 5:23), a process in which humans are passive just as they are in regeneration, of which it is the continuation. But based on this work of God in humans, it acquires, in the second place, an active meaning, and people themselves are called and equipped to sanctify themselves and devote their whole life to God (Rom. 12:1; 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 4:3; Heb. 12:14; and so forth). (4.253)

While Bavinck may be more willing to stress the passive nature of sanctification rather than use the language of cooperation, in the end he hits the same themes we have seen in Calvin, Turretin, a Brakel, and Hodge. Bavinck sees no conflict “between this all-encompassing activity of God in grace and the self-agency of people maintained alongside of it” (4.254). He warns that Christians go off the rails when they sacrifice “one group of pronouncements to the other.” Sanctification is a gift from God, and we are active in it.
Louis Berkhof (1873-1857)
We see in Berkhof the same tendency to guard against any notions of self-helpism on the one hand and human inactivity on the other.

[Sanctification] is a supernatural work of God. Some have the mistaken notion that sanctification consists merely in the drawing out of the new life, implanted in the soul by regeneration, in a persuasive way by presenting motives to the will. But this is not true. It consists fundamentally and primarily in a divine operation in the soul, whereby the holy disposition born in regeneration is strengthened and its holy exercises are increased. (Systematic Theology, 532).

In other words, sanctification is essentially a work of God. But it is also “a work of God in which believers co-operate.”

When it is said that man takes part in the work of sanctification, this does not mean that man is an independent agent in the work, so as to make it partly the work of God and partly the work of man; but merely, that God effects the work in part through the instrumentality of man as a rational being, by requiring of him prayerful and intelligent co-operation with the Spirit. (534)

Conclusion
So what do we see in this short survey of Reformed theologians. For starters, we do not see the exact language of monergism or synergism applied to sanctification.
Second, we see that, given the right qualifications, either term could be used with merit. “Monergism” can work because sanctification is God’s gift, his supernatural work in us. “Synergism” can also work because because we cooperate with God in sanctification and actively make an effort to grow in godliness.
Third, we see in this Reformed survey the need to be careful with our words. For example, “passive” can describe our role in sanctification, but only if we also say there is a sense in which we are active. Likewise, we can use the language of cooperation as long as we understand that sanctification does not depend ultimately on us.
And if all this is confusing, you can simply say: we work out our sanctification as God works in us (Phil. 2:12-12). Those are the two truths we must protect: the gift of God in sanctification and the activity of man. We pursue the gift, is how John Webster puts it. I act the miracle, is Piper’s phrase. Both are saying the same thing: God sanctifies us and we also sanctify ourselves. With the right qualifications and definitions, I believe Calvin, Turretin, A Brakel, Hodge, Bavinck, and Berkhof would heartily agree.

​

 

[TMSO]

The more I look and study into sanctification the more I see it as monergistic. Have you studied it lately?

Why would you have to see it as monergistic? I believe scripture says that we walk in the good works (so our action) that God prepared for us beforehand (God's action, without which we wouldn't have our action) for us to walk in. I bring up synergistic because that was circular.

 

[makesends]

But wouldnt that be showing conformity?

Well, I suppose so, but in an unbiblical way.

Biblical conformity is not US shaping ourselves into what we see needs to fit.

In my lingo, "we do so because it is so". We are In Christ, and it is he who works in us to do so. It is not our mind and will apart from him maintaining some force of production and direction of growth, etc.

More than once I've seen elsewhere, (not sure I've heard it here), the fact that 'God wants us to mature' gets translated to "God wants us to become like Christ, able to do what Christ does, without God's intervention or work." and/or "maturity is becoming trustworthy to God". Lol, it's kind of like the evangelists' notion that the whole reason God created people, and in particular the redeemed, is so that they can increase the numbers of club members. "It's the whole reason we are here, and anyone who doesn't see that is blind!" Sanctification is not a schedule we keep. It is God's work, and we do because it is so. (Actually, we can't very well 'help it'! The love of God drives us!)

Maturity is becoming increasingly one with him—at least, that is what I find biblical; 'melding' isn't a completely mistaken word there, though not entirely descriptive.

 

[makesends]

But in His work for us to both will and do, where is the choice to obey or not? You may say, maybe we are still in the chooing stage and not yet at the poing of willing or doing. But wouldnt that all be God sanctifying us monergistically? Then when we are sanctified to the point of willing and doing, the willing and doing is the fruit of sanctification?

I'm not sure I follow.

Logical if-then statement here: If God works in us both to will and to do according to HIS "good pleasure", and 'his good pleasure' is his purposes or even plan(s), then it is not always each motion of will and deed, obedience, in spite of what the synergists say.

makesends said:
To not quench the Spirit, for example, is a choice, yet not quenching the spirit has a sure effect in growing in the faith.

Well I think that is leading to conviction, God allows us to wander, because I believe we have to continually face our sin (we just don't know the depts of sin, just how sinful it is), eventually during the process of being corformed to the image of Christ, being sanctified, we finally see sin as an abomination.

Yes. Though we never reach a full understanding of the horror that sin is, the more pure we become and the more we know God, the worse sin looks to us. (Though you'd have to grant that that path is not always steady. Sometimes jarring in the extreme!)

The "quenching the Spirit" is always sin, and not quenching the Spirit leads to conviction, but that doesn't mean that is all the Spirit does if we do not quench the Spirit (I say this just in case you thing quenching the Spirit is only about rejecting conviction.)

 

[Carbon]

I think that we (sometimes I identify myself with Calvinists and the Reformed) would do well to keep in mind that the WCF and such are not the do-all and end-all in understanding of those particulars in Scripture with which we deal.

To me, the distinction is obvious. In regeneration the work is done by God alone, without consulting or asking permission of the recipient of God's grace. In subsequent sanctification, however, we do work. BUT.....

The problem rears its ugly head in the terminology and mindset of the synergist, and the casting of the question. The synergist is a self-determinist, and that mindset in modern day is pervasive, even among Calvinists. It is close fellows with the flesh. (Not only that, but it is not rooted out by good doctrine, nor by fasting and prayer, but only by the grace of God, though God does use means to accomplish it. Yet God sees fit to not remove it entirely in this life, and we continually strive against God, in spite our desire for him; so we must continue to slice away at it, intellectually and in heart and practice. Meanwhile, I think, it is prudent to be skeptical of our mental constructions).

The problem, (I'm starting another paragraph since I so rudely interrupted myself), is that the mind continually wants to separate the work of God from the work of the human. I think that if we are intellectually honest, and logical, we would see that even the work of the human is, by way of causation, at least, and particularly in the case of the elect, the work of God. "For it is GOD who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

I hear from Calvinists almost an acquiescence to, rather than a redefinition, of the synergist's notion of free will, in their dealing with the question of Justification by monergism/synergism —but what about in Sanctification? We humans like to define and put handles on our notions and concepts, as if that does the job of explaining. It may well do the job of explaining something to ourselves to our temporary satisfaction, but we do not do well to remain stagnant there; and God willing, we will increase that understanding. We (Reformed/Calvinists) even use the synergist's terminology —"cooperation", and such— in our own consideration of the differences in this question.

But it is NOT mere cooperation of two different entities. WE ARE IN CHRIST.

Already, but not yet. But, we see through a glass darkly.

After reviewing this post, I wold say you are undecided (not really sure) if Sanctification is synergistic or monergistic.
Would that be fair to say?


Have you given it any more thought?

 

[Carbon]

I believe sanctification is synergistic.

Thanks for coming right out and saying what you believe.

 

[Carbon]

Yes, but synergism isn't just about cooperation. It is about complementary activity, as though what we do ADDS TO, or IMPROVING what God does. It does not, and is incapable of doing so.

That is a pretty tight explanation for synergism but it does have a leak. As Arminianism desires just a small, small part of the glory.

 

[prism]

Thanks for coming right out and saying what you believe.

Would this be synergistic or Monergistic?...

Philippians 2:12-13 (KJV) Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

 

[Carbon]

Would this be synergistic or Monergistic?...

Philippians 2:12-13 (KJV) Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Monergistic, of course.

 

[Carbon]

Monergistic, of course.

@prism Wouldn't you say so?

 

[Papa Smurf]

Dr. Packer has quite a bit to say below in a short article from him concerning sanctification, so I thought that I'd post it here.

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SANCTIFICATION
THE CHRISTIAN GROWS IN GRACE​

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Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?… And that is what some of you were.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9, 11​

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Sanctification, says the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q.35), is “the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.” The concept is not of sin being totally eradicated (that is to claim too much) or merely counteracted (that is to say too little), but of a divinely wrought character change freeing us from sinful habits and forming in us Christlike affections, dispositions, and virtues.​

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Sanctification is an ongoing transformation within a maintained consecration, and it engenders real righteousness within the frame of relational holiness. Relational sanctification, the state of being permanently set apart for God, flows from the Cross, where God through Christ purchased and claimed us for Himself (Acts 20:28; 26:18; Heb. 10:10). Moral renovation, whereby we are increasingly changed from what we once were, flows from the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13; 12:1–2; 1 Cor. 6:11, 19–20; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:22–24; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 13:20–21). God calls His children to sanctity and graciously gives what he commands (1 Thess. 4:4; 5:23-24).​

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Regeneration is birth; sanctification is growth. In regeneration, God implants desires that were not there before: desire for God, for holiness, and for the hallowing and glorifying of God’s name in this world; desire to pray, worship, love, serve, honor, and please God; desire to show love and bring benefit to others. In sanctification, the Holy Spirit “works in you to will and to act” according to God’s purpose; what He does is prompt you to “work out your salvation” (i.e., express it in action) by fulfilling these new desires (Phil. 2:12–13). Christians become increasingly Christlike as the moral profile of Jesus (the “fruit of the Spirit”) is progressively formed in them (2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 4:19; 5:22–25). Paul’s use of glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18 shows that for him sanctification of character is glorification begun. Then the physical transformation that gives us a body like Christ’s, one that will match our totally transformed character and be a perfect means of expressing it, will be glorification completed (Phil. 3:20–21; 1 Cor. 15:49–53).​

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Regeneration was a momentary monergistic act of quickening the spiritually dead. As such, it was God’s work alone. Sanctification, however, is in one sense synergistic—it is an ongoing cooperative process in which regenerate persons, alive to God and freed from sin’s dominion (Rom. 6:11, 14–18), are required to exert themselves in sustained obedience. God’s method of sanctification is neither activism (self-reliant activity) nor apathy (God-reliant passivity), but God-dependent effort (2 Cor. 7:1; Phil. 3:10–14; Heb. 12:14). Knowing that without Christ’s enabling we can do nothing, morally speaking, as we should, and that He is ready to strengthen us for all that we have to do (Phil. 4:13), we “stay put” (remain, abide) in Christ, asking for his help constantly—and we receive it (Col. 1:11; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 1:7; 2:1).​

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The standard to which God’s work of sanctifying His saints is directed is His own revealed moral law, as expounded and modeled by Christ Himself. Christ’s love, humility, and patience under pressure are to be consciously imitated (Eph. 5:2; Phil. 2:5–11; 1 Pet. 2:21), for a Christlike spirit and attitude are part of what law-keeping involves.​

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Believers find within themselves contrary urgings. The Spirit sustains their regenerate desires and purposes; their fallen, Adamic instincts (the “flesh”) which, though dethroned, are not yet destroyed, constantly distract them from doing God’s will and allure them along paths that lead to death (Gal. 5:16–17; James 1:14–15). To clarify the relationship between the law and sin, Paul analyzes in a personal and dramatic way the sense of impotence for complete law-keeping, and the enslavement to behavior one dislikes, that the Spirit-flesh tension produces (Rom. 7:14–25). This conflict and frustration will be with Christians as long as they are in the body. Yet by watching and praying against temptation, and cultivating opposite virtues, they may through the Spirit’s help “mortify” (i.e., drain the life out of, weaken as a means of killing) particular bad habits, and in that sense more and more die unto sin (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5). They will experience many particular deliverances and victories in their unending battle with sin, while never being exposed to temptations that are impossible to resist (1 Cor. 10:13).​

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~Packer, J. I. (1993). Concise theology: a guide to historic Christian beliefs (pp. 169–171). Tyndale House.​

--Papa Smurf

 

[ElectedbyHim]

I can see both sides.

But for myself, I have to go with monergistic.

If it was not for His Spirit in me, there is no way I would seek sanctification in my daily life.

 

[ElectedbyHim]

The Author of Sanctification. Since sanctification is not fundamentally external but is rather an internal and supernatural work in the heart of man, its author must be God. Consistent with this understanding, Paul states that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13), and he elsewhere ascribes the entire work of sanctification to God (1 Thess. 5:23). The God of peace is entreated to equip his people that they might “do his will” and to work in them “that which is pleasing in his sight” (Heb. 13:20–21). For this reason, Scripture often employs the passive voice in key texts on sanctification, commanding believers not to transform themselves but to be transformed (e.g., Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). Thus, Berkhof concludes that sanctification “consists fundamentally and primarily in a divine operation in the soul.”170

More specifically, Scripture identifies the Holy Spirit as the member of the Godhead who is the divine agent of sanctification. Peter speaks of “the sanctification of the Spirit” (1 Pet. 1:2). He is “the Spirit of holiness” (Rom. 1:4) who wages war directly against the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:17), while those virtues that constitute a character of holiness and integrity are said to be the Spirit’s fruit (Gal. 5:22–23). It is no surprise, then, that Paul says the believer’s transformation into the image of Christ “comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

The Means of Sanctification. However, while sanctification is properly said to be an internal work of the Spirit, it does not follow that the believer has nothing to do in this matter, since Scripture is replete with exhortations and imperatives for the believer to pursue holiness. Paul commands the church to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” precisely because God is at work within them (Phil. 2:12–13). So far from being an excuse not to work, God’s sanctifying work in believers is the very ground of their efforts. Peter declares that, on the basis of the work of Christ, believers have been granted “all things that pertain to life and godliness,” and have “escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Pet. 1:3–4). And he follows these precious indicatives with a rousing call to action: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue” (2 Pet. 1:5). As John Murray writes,

God’s working in us is not suspended because we work, nor our working suspended because God works. Neither is the relation strictly one of co-operation as if God did his part and we did ours so that the conjunction or coordination of both produced the required result. God works in us and we also work. But the relation is that because God works we work. All working out of salvation on our part is the effect of God’s working in us.171

Thus we are to “strive for … the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14), to “put to death the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13), to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18), to “pursue righteousness” (2 Tim. 2:22), and even to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).

Thus, while believers cannot directly effect the inner transformation of sanctification for their souls and while sanctification is properly said to be the Spirit’s work, believers are not entirely passive in sanctification. Instead, the Holy Spirit effects his sanctifying transformation in the hearts of believers through the use of means that must be appropriated. The Scottish Puritan Henry Scougal provides an effective illustration:

All the art and industry of man cannot form the smallest herb, or make a stalk of corn to grow in the field; it is the energy of nature, and the influences of heaven, which produce this effect; it is God “who causeth the grass to grow, and the herb for the service of man” (Ps. 104:14); and yet nobody will say that the labours of the [farmer] are useless or unnecessary.172

In other words, while it is true that God is the One who causes grass to grow and makes the land produce crops, only a foolish farmer passively waits for the land to yield its produce by divine fiat. Instead, he acknowledges that God brings forth fruits and vegetables from the earth by means of a farmer’s labors—through the cultivation of the soil, the sowing of the seed, and the plant’s exposure to sunlight and water. Similarly, in and of himself, the believer is just as powerless to effect holiness in his heart, for it is the work of God. Yet only a foolish person waits passively for his heart to spring forth in righteousness by divine fiat. Instead, the faithful Christian acknowledges that God brings forth the fruit of holiness by means of the believer’s labors. Scripture’s repeated calls to effort, action, and obedience are commands for believers to put themselves in the way of those channels of sanctifying grace that the Spirit employs to conform Christ’s people into his image.

The means of sanctification include the following:

1. Reading and meditating on the Word of God (Pss. 1:2–3; 19:7–11; 119:105; John 17:17; Acts 20:32; 2 Tim. 3:16–17; Heb. 4:12; James 1:23–25)

2. Praying (Ps. 119:37; Luke 11:9; Phil. 4:6–7; Heb. 4:16; James 4:2; 1 John 1:9)

3. Fellowshiping with the saints in the context of the local church (Prov. 27:17; 1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:11–16, 25; Heb. 3:12–13; 10:24–25)

4. Interpreting the experiences of God’s providence according to Scripture (Rom. 8:28–29), especially the experience of trials (Ps. 119:71; Rom. 5:3–5; 8:17; Phil. 3:10–11; Heb. 12:10; James 1:2–4; 1 Pet. 1:3–7)

5. Keeping the commandments of God (John 15:10)

Sanctifying grace flows through all these channels, and thus it is the responsibility of Christians to put themselves in the way of these blessings. Though believers cannot p 642 perform the divine operation of sanctification on their own souls, they must nevertheless pursue holiness by availing themselves of the means by which the Spirit of God accomplishes this divine operation.173



Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 640–644.

Continued...

 

[ElectedbyHim]

The Dynamics of Sanctification. The question of the dynamics of sanctification concerns how sanctification actually works. Why does reading and studying the Word of God sanctify? How is prayer a means of grace? Why does fellowship with other believers push the people of God to greater holiness? Once again, answers to these questions come in 2 Corinthians 3:18, where Scripture reveals a sixth means of sanctification that stands at the foundation of the rest, thus rendering them efficacious. Paul writes, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Boiling that complex sentence down to a simpler form, it reads, “We all, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed.” As believers in Christ behold his glory as revealed in the Word with the eyes of their heart (Eph. 1:18), they are thereby progressively conformed into his image.

This theme of spiritual sight is not isolated to this single text but is established throughout the New Testament’s teaching concerning sanctification. The author of Hebrews states that the Christian life is a race run with endurance as believers fix their eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith (Heb. 12:2). Faith itself is spiritual sight that sees and believes the truth, “the assurance of things hoped for” and “the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1); that is, what cannot be seen with the physical eyes is unveiled by the spiritual eyes of faith. In this way, Moses’s faith was strengthened to endure all manner of temptation by “looking to the reward” (11:26) and “seeing him who is invisible” (11:27). Paul encourages the Corinthians with the thought that the temporary affliction of this life is producing an eternal weight of glory for God’s people, provided that they look with the eyes of faith at what is unseen: the spiritual truth that reveals the glory of the Savior (2 Cor. 4:17–18). And once again, the apostle John instructs us that our being perfected in the image of Christ will result from finally seeing him unhindered: “But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

The cumulative weight of these texts compels us to understand the spiritual sight that beholds the glory of Christ as the foundational means of sanctification. John Owen summarizes this biblical teaching:

Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ, and virtue will proceed from Him to repair all our decays, to renew a right spirit within us, and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience.… It will fix the soul unto that object which is suited to give it delight, complacency, and satisfaction.… When the mind is filled with thoughts of Christ and his glory, when the soul thereon cleaves unto him with intense affections, they will cast out, or not give admittance unto, those causes of spiritual weakness and indisposition.… And nothing will p 643 so much excite and encourage our souls hereunto as a constant view of Christ and His glory.174

In other words, when the believer apprehends the glory of Christ with the eyes of faith, the sight of his beauty satisfies his soul in such a way that he does not go on seeking satisfaction in the false and fleeting pleasures of sin. Just as in regeneration, when the Spirit shone into sinners’ hearts the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6), overcoming spiritual blindness by awakening souls to the filth of sin and the loveliness of Christ, so also does the Spirit work in progressive sanctification, strengthening that holy disposition created in regeneration. The spiritual apprehension of Christ’s glory conforms believers’ affections to the divine will, causing them to hate sin and love righteousness. Then, sanctified affections direct the will in such a way that it desires the righteousness it has come to love and repudiates the sin it has come to hate. Finally, the internal transformation is brought to fruition externally, as the sanctified will issues in holy living.

Therefore, as the believer avails himself of the various means by which he lays hold of the Spirit’s sanctifying grace, he is to look with the eyes of faith to the transforming glory of Christ revealed through those means. The Word of God is a vehicle for the glory of God (Ex. 33:18; 34:5–7; 1 Sam. 3:1, 21). Prayer is the occasion for personal communion with God, in which the worshiper seeks God’s face (2 Chron. 7:14; Pss. 24:6; 27:8; 105:4; Hos. 5:15) in order that he might behold his transforming beauty (Ps. 27:4). Fellowship in the local church is an opportunity to hear the Word preached skillfully, to sing songs of worship with sanctifying lyrics drawn from biblical truth, to pray corporately as the body of Christ, and to see the gospel pictured in the ordinances of baptism and communion. Besides this, to whatever degree Christians have been imperfectly conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18), to that degree they reflect the image of his glory to one another. Finally, obedience itself is the avenue for greater disclosure of the glory of Christ to the eyes of the heart (John 14:21). When confronted with temptations to sin, believers must reason with themselves, considering that sin never delivers the satisfaction it promises. They must consider that obedience brings fuller disclosures of the Savior, who is the source of all true pleasure and satisfaction. And out of a desire for the superior pleasure that is found in Christ, they must engage in (1) the work of mortification—putting to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13), that is, laying aside the old self (Eph. 4:22) and the sin that so easily entangles (Heb. 12:1) and that clouds the sight of Christ’s glory—and (2) the work of vivification—putting on the new self (Rom. 13:14; Eph. 4:24), that is, delightfully disciplining themselves to behold Christ in Scripture, prayer, fellowship, providence, and the obedience that brings deeper communion with him.

By fighting to behold the glory of Jesus by all the means of grace, the follower of Christ will be gradually transformed into his image from the inside out. He will therefore conduct himself in a manner worthy of the gospel (Phil. 1:27) and worthy p 644 of the Lord himself (Col. 1:10), working out his salvation with fear and trembling, just as Scripture commands (Phil. 2:12). As 2 Timothy 2:21 declares, “He will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”^[1]

 

[ElectedbyHim]

Jehovah-M’Kaddesh = The LORD is my/our sanctification

 

[Carbon]

Dr. Packer has quite a bit to say below in a short article from him concerning sanctification, so I thought that I'd post it here.

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SANCTIFICATION
THE CHRISTIAN GROWS IN GRACE​

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Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?… And that is what some of you were.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9, 11​

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​

Sanctification, says the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q.35), is “the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.” The concept is not of sin being totally eradicated (that is to claim too much) or merely counteracted (that is to say too little), but of a divinely wrought character change freeing us from sinful habits and forming in us Christlike affections, dispositions, and virtues.​

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Sanctification is an ongoing transformation within a maintained consecration, and it engenders real righteousness within the frame of relational holiness. Relational sanctification, the state of being permanently set apart for God, flows from the Cross, where God through Christ purchased and claimed us for Himself (Acts 20:28; 26:18; Heb. 10:10). Moral renovation, whereby we are increasingly changed from what we once were, flows from the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13; 12:1–2; 1 Cor. 6:11, 19–20; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:22–24; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 13:20–21). God calls His children to sanctity and graciously gives what he commands (1 Thess. 4:4; 5:23-24).​

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Regeneration is birth; sanctification is growth. In regeneration, God implants desires that were not there before: desire for God, for holiness, and for the hallowing and glorifying of God’s name in this world; desire to pray, worship, love, serve, honor, and please God; desire to show love and bring benefit to others. In sanctification, the Holy Spirit “works in you to will and to act” according to God’s purpose; what He does is prompt you to “work out your salvation” (i.e., express it in action) by fulfilling these new desires (Phil. 2:12–13). Christians become increasingly Christlike as the moral profile of Jesus (the “fruit of the Spirit”) is progressively formed in them (2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 4:19; 5:22–25). Paul’s use of glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18 shows that for him sanctification of character is glorification begun. Then the physical transformation that gives us a body like Christ’s, one that will match our totally transformed character and be a perfect means of expressing it, will be glorification completed (Phil. 3:20–21; 1 Cor. 15:49–53).​

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Regeneration was a momentary monergistic act of quickening the spiritually dead. As such, it was God’s work alone. Sanctification, however, is in one sense synergistic—it is an ongoing cooperative process in which regenerate persons, alive to God and freed from sin’s dominion (Rom. 6:11, 14–18), are required to exert themselves in sustained obedience. God’s method of sanctification is neither activism (self-reliant activity) nor apathy (God-reliant passivity), but God-dependent effort (2 Cor. 7:1; Phil. 3:10–14; Heb. 12:14). Knowing that without Christ’s enabling we can do nothing, morally speaking, as we should, and that He is ready to strengthen us for all that we have to do (Phil. 4:13), we “stay put” (remain, abide) in Christ, asking for his help constantly—and we receive it (Col. 1:11; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 1:7; 2:1).​

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The standard to which God’s work of sanctifying His saints is directed is His own revealed moral law, as expounded and modeled by Christ Himself. Christ’s love, humility, and patience under pressure are to be consciously imitated (Eph. 5:2; Phil. 2:5–11; 1 Pet. 2:21), for a Christlike spirit and attitude are part of what law-keeping involves.​

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Believers find within themselves contrary urgings. The Spirit sustains their regenerate desires and purposes; their fallen, Adamic instincts (the “flesh”) which, though dethroned, are not yet destroyed, constantly distract them from doing God’s will and allure them along paths that lead to death (Gal. 5:16–17; James 1:14–15). To clarify the relationship between the law and sin, Paul analyzes in a personal and dramatic way the sense of impotence for complete law-keeping, and the enslavement to behavior one dislikes, that the Spirit-flesh tension produces (Rom. 7:14–25). This conflict and frustration will be with Christians as long as they are in the body. Yet by watching and praying against temptation, and cultivating opposite virtues, they may through the Spirit’s help “mortify” (i.e., drain the life out of, weaken as a means of killing) particular bad habits, and in that sense more and more die unto sin (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5). They will experience many particular deliverances and victories in their unending battle with sin, while never being exposed to temptations that are impossible to resist (1 Cor. 10:13).​

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~Packer, J. I. (1993). Concise theology: a guide to historic Christian beliefs (pp. 169–171). Tyndale House.​

--Papa Smurf

Here it is in a nutshell.

Sanctification, says the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q.35), is “the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”

 

[Carbon]

I can see both sides.

I can see why some would agree with sanctification.

But for myself, I have to go with monergistic.

Same here brother.

If it was not for His Spirit in me, there is no way I would seek sanctification in my daily life.

Amen

 

[makesends]

That is a pretty tight explanation for synergism but it does have a leak. As Arminianism desires just a small, small part of the glory.

ok, lol

 

[makesends]

After reviewing this post, I wold say you are undecided (not really sure) if Sanctification is synergistic or monergistic.
Would that be fair to say?


Have you given it any more thought?

Not a lot more consideration, though it comes to me daily that if it were not for God, there would be no work on my part toward Sanctification. And even that is God's work. The difference between the two --regeneration and salvation vs sanctification-- is stark and obvious. We are not consulted nor asked for permission in our regeneration and salvation. But to call Sanctification synergistic is to me a complete farce. We have no credit there. While I don't deny we are totally engrossed in it, it is still God's doing, God's work and to God's credit. Every day I see that.

"In me --that is, in my flesh-- there dwells no good thing." Yeah, I long to be rid of this earthly tent.

So, even if Sanctification is not monergistic in the same way that Salvation is, I cannot call Sanctification synergistic. It opens up the thinking that separates "God's part" in it from "our part", and that is false. We do so because it is so, not because we are finally wonderful. It is God who works in us both to will and to do according to his purposes.

 

[Carbon]

Not a lot more consideration, though it comes to me daily that if it were not for God, there would be no work on my part toward Sanctification. And even that is God's work. The difference between the two --regeneration and salvation vs sanctification-- is stark and obvious. We are not consulted nor asked for permission in our regeneration and salvation. But to call Sanctification synergistic is to me a complete farce. We have no credit there. While I don't deny we are totally engrossed in it, it is still God's doing, God's work and to God's credit. Every day I see that.

"In me --that is, in my flesh-- there dwells no good thing." Yeah, I long to be rid of this earthly tent.

So, even if Sanctification is not monergistic in the same way that Salvation is, I cannot call Sanctification synergistic. It opens up the thinking that separates "God's part" in it from "our part", and that is false. We do so because it is so, not because we are finally wonderful. It is God who works in us both to will and to do according to his purposes.

Then I think we both are in agreement it is monergistic.

 

[prism]

@prism Wouldn't you say so?

Well, it does give the reason for 'working out your salvation' ..i.e. " For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."