“III.Wherein do justification and sanctification differ?This is a matter of great concernment for people’s practice and daily exercise; wherein they differ. They agree in many things, as has just now been declared, but they likewise differ vastly. “1st. Justification is an act of God about thestateof a man’s person; but sanctification is the work of God about thenatureof a man: and these two are very different, as I shall illustrate by a similitude. Justification is an act of God as a judge abouta delinquent, absolving him from a sentence of death; but sanctification is an act of God about us, as a physician, in curing us of a mortal disease. There is a criminal that coniesto the bar, and is arraigned for high treason; the same criminal has a mortal disease, that he may die of, though there was no judge onthe bench to pass the sentence of death upon him for his crime. It is an act of grace which absolves the man from the sentence ofthe law, that he shall not suffer death for his treason—thatsaves the man’s life. But notwithstanding this, unless his disease be cured, he may die quickly after, for all the judge’s pardon. Therefore, I say, justification is an act of God as a gracious Judge, sanctification is a work of God as a merciful Physician; David joins them both together. ( Ps. ciii. 3.) ‘Who forgiveth all thine inqiuities, who healeth all thy diseases.’ It is promised, That iniquity shall not be your ruin ( Ezek. xviii. 30), in theguiltof it; that is justification: and it shall not be your ruin, in the power of it; there lies sanctification. “2ndly. Justification is an act of God’s grace upon the account of the righteousness of another, but sanctification is a work of God, infusing a righteousness into us. Now there is a great difference between these two: for the one is by imputation, the other by infusion. “In justification, the sentence of God proceeds this way: the righteousness that Christ wrought out by His life and death, and329the obedience that He paid to the law ofGod, is reckoned to the guilty sinner for his absolution; so that when a sinner comes to stand at God’s bar, when the question is asked, Hath not this man broken the law of God? Yes, saith God; yes, saith the conscience of the poor sinner, I have broken it in innumerable ways. And doth not the law condemn thee to die for thy transgression? Yes, saith the man; yes, saith the law of God, the law knows nothing more but this; ‘the soul that sinneth must die.’ Well, then, but Is there no hope in this case? Yes, and Gospel grace reveals this hope. There is One that took sin on Him, and died for our sins, and His righteousness is reckoned for the poor sinner’s justification; and thus we are absolved. We are absolved in justification by God’s reckoning on our account, on our behalf, and for our advantage, what Christ hath done and suffered for us. “In sanctification the Spirit of God infuses a holiness into the soul. I do not say He infuses a righteousness; for I would fain have these words, righteousness and holiness, better distinguished than generally they are. Righteousness and holiness are, in this case, to be kept vastly asunder. Our righteousness is without us; our holiness is within us, it is our own; the Apostle plainly makes that distinction. ‘Not having mine ownrighteousness.’ ( Phil. iii. 9.) It is our own, not originally, but our own inherently; not our own so us to be of our own working, but ourown because it is indwelling in us. But our righteousness is neither our own originally nor inherently; it is neither wrought out by us, nor doth it dwell in us; but it is wrought out by Jesus Christ, and it eternally dwells in Him, and is only to be pleaded by faith, by a poor creature. But our holiness, though it be not our own originally, yet it is our own inherently, it dwells in us: this is the distinction that the Apostle makes. ‘That I may be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.’ ( Phil. iii. 9.)
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 18:49:07 +0000
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