Justification and Sanctification

Pastor Martin opens a new section on sanctification by considering it in three lights. He first relates sanctification to the human problem of sin, using the illustration of a drunk driver who needs both a lawyer and a physician to show that sin creates both legal and personal problems — justification and adoption address the legal, sanctification the personal. He then traces sanctification as central to the divine plan of salvation in its initial design, actual procurement, powerful application, prolonged interval, and final consummation. He closes by pressing the personal necessity of holiness from Hebrews 12:14, warning against two fatal errors: a salvation that makes sanctification optional, and a sanctification sought apart from union with Christ.

Pastor Martin moves to the second peak of sanctification — progressive sanctification — and covers four headings: the fact established (continuous mortification, growth, renewal, transformation, and pruning), the necessity explained (inescapable reality of remaining sin, undeniable imperfection of existing graces, and the unchangeable revelation of God's purpose), the essence asserted (mortification and conformation — negative and positive held in tandem), and the goal described (total eradication of all sin and complete conformity to the image of Christ). He closes by urging believers to hold the perfection of justification and the irreversibility of adoption clearly while pressing on in sanctification.