John Murray

Using the illustration of a wide-angle lens on a three-peaked mountain, Pastor Martin surveys the biblical doctrine of sanctification in its three great dimensions. Peak one — definitive sanctification — is the radical, once-for-all cleavage with the dominion of sin (1 Corinthians 1:2, 6:11; Acts 20:32; Romans 6). Peak two — progressive sanctification — is the continuous process of mortifying sin and being conformed to Christ (Romans 6:22, 8:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18, 7:1; 1 John 3:3). Peak three — climactic sanctification — is the final deliverance from all sin at death and in the resurrection (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; Philippians 3:20-21; Hebrews 12:23). He closes by insisting that no biblical salvation exists without all three dimensions, and no sanctification occurs outside union with Christ received by repentance and faith.

Pastor Martin presses deeper into the sacrifice of Christ by considering it under the category of propitiation. He establishes the necessity of the category from Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10, and Romans 3:25, then defines propitiation from Old Testament origin and classical Greek usage, illustrated from Jacob's appeasing Esau in Genesis 32 and Proverbs 16:14. He explains that propitiation presupposes the wrath of God — His aversion to sin, displeasure at the sinner, and will to avenge — and shows how Christ averted that wrath in His blood.

Pastor Martin addresses the first major error concerning propitiation — paganizing it. He distinguishes the heresy of the enemies of the gospel (who caricature propitiation as capricious appeasement of an angry deity and thus deny God's wrath altogether, holding God is nothing but love) from the error of the friends of the gospel (who pit a loving Christ against an angry Father, missing the Trinitarian unity and failing to see the Father's love as the very source of propitiation). He grounds his answers in Romans 3:21-26, 1 John 1:5, and 1 John 4:9-10.

Pastor Martin concludes his study of Christ's sacrifice by considering its perfection. From Hebrews 10:1-18 he demonstrates the contrast between the imperfect, repeated sacrifices of the old economy and the perfect, one-time, finished sacrifice of Christ — witnessed by Christ sitting down at God's right hand. He then unfolds three implications of that perfection: historic objectivity, absolute finality (with Spurgeon's denunciation of the Mass), and intrinsic efficacy (bringing many sons to glory).