Preface To The Second Printing
1. Must God Plead With God?
   
2. How The Spirit Leads
   
3. Physical Reinforcements of Faith
   
4. Jesus' Physical and Spiritual Death
   
5. Is There Merit in Pain?
   
6. The Six Days of Creation
   
7. Adding Guilt to Anxiety
   
8. Wine and The Disciple
   
9. Revolution or Evolution
   
10. I Am That Disciple
    
11. When People Disagree
    
12. Is Unity Based Upon Seven Doctrines?
    
13. Our Seven Sacraments
    
14. Instrumental Music
    
15. The Mood of Worship
    
16. Justified Then Sanctified
    
17. Is Christian Our Name?
    
18. The Lord's Table
    
19. Righteousness That Exceeds
    
20. Neither Destroyed Nor Nailed To The Cross
    
21. The Right of Self-Protection
    
22. A Tree of Error
    
23. God is Limited
    
24. You Are Here
    
25. God is In Charge
    
26. Hook's Points
    
27. Lamentations of A Mediocre Preacher
    

JUSTIFIED, THEN SANCTIFIED

You have seen the tracts and heard the lessons which declare that anyone can understand the Bible for "... the wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein" (Isa. 35:8). Frankly, I find it to be extremely perplexing that we are still in such confusion about how we are justified. This essay will not lift all the fog of confusion, either, but perhaps it may help a bit.

God, being holy and just, cannot violate his own nature by overlooking sin. For him to remain holy, the penalty, which is death, must be met for every sin.

There are two ways that the penalty for sin may be met. You may pay it yourself by spending eternity separated from God in hell. Or, it may be paid by another who would be qualified to pay it for you. In either case, God can deal with sin without compromising his uprightness.

God does justify offenders in his righteousness. We must not think of this as a parole. A parole would mean that the punishment is suspended on the condition that we sin no more. Another infraction would bring the whole penalty upon us. There would be no forgiveness, or remission. None could benefit from parole for none can live without infraction.

We are in double jeopardy because we cannot perform any work that has the quality to justify us and we will always be sinning. When a person is justified, it means that, though he is a sinner, he is accepted as though he were not. This justification is the opposite of condemnation. Because a man will always be a sinner, he will always need justification. Since he cannot pay the penalty for his sin by doing meritorious works, how can he be justified? If he is called upon to keep law to accomplish this, he is no better off, for inability to keep law is his problem in the first place, and law has no quality of grace to forgive. Even promising to sin no more cannot pay for sins already committed any more than promising to pay cash in the future will cancel an old debt.

God is not obligated to forgive our trespasses, but he loves us and wants us in his fellowship and presence. Since we can do absolutely nothing to merit the erasure of guilt, our salvation must be wholly by grace. Through his wonderful provision, both grace and righteousness are offered to us as free gifts (Rom. 5:15-17).

Through God's mercy, we are justified by Christ's blood (Rom. 5:6-11). He died in our place, paying the penalty so we might be free of it. He satisfied our account so we can be received by a holy God.

Knowing that we cannot keep law perfectly or perform works to merit forgiveness, what could God require of us that we might receive his grace? If he demands law keeping, sin will ever have dominion over us for we violate law, and law has no quality to forgive. To put us under a system of law for justification would seal our doom in hopelessness. "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14).

God still could not be holy while justifying persons who would neither believe in him or desire to be forgiven. So God will reckon our faith as righteousness, or justification, as Paul illustrated through God's dealing with Abraham: "For what does the scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.' Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. So also David pronounces a blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not reckon his sin.' " (Rom. 4:3­8).

Concerning this acceptance by faith, Paul further states: "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe . . . For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (Rom. 3:21­28). This faith leads us to accept the atonement of Christ by identifying with him in obeying the gospel and to live in him in a sanctified life.

Is this a once­for­all­time justification? Yes, it is provided; we have only to claim it. "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14). This is not supporting the teaching of the impossibility of apostasy nor giving license to sin. Those who are sanctified are perfected as far as the guilt of sin is concerned for they are walking in the light, sanctified in fellowship with Christ. In 1 John 1:7f­2:2, John assures us that "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." The one sacrifice is still effective, cleansing our sins of weakness and ignorance. This perfection is not in us, for "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." By this means God can be faithful to his covenant, promises, and nature of justice and holiness while accounting us sinners as righteous. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Then John urges us not to sin, but he assures us that if we do sin, we still have the one who stands in our place and that his expiation of our sins is still effective. This is a great consolation and it allows us to realize that the perfection is in the sacrifice instead of our having to achieve it.

Are morality, good works, and rituals of worship necessary for justification? No, for they have no merit to justify. But these are fruits of sanctification in response to justification. We are justified, then sanctified. Justification is an act of God and sanctification is our responsive action.

To be sanctified is to be separated, set apart, made holy. Without this holiness, no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). Peter emphasizes this saintliness in us, exhorting, "... as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Peter 1:15f). Many other references call for us to lead saintly lives; yet we cannot be holy enough to merit justification which is accounted to us because of our faith.

Our sanctification is the committing of our lives in an effort to conform to the will of God. It begins when we obey the gospel. One will never be more justified than at that time, but he should grow in sanctification toward more maturity in knowledge, understanding, and conduct. He can never reach perfection in these, but he is perfected in his justification while walking in the light. If spiritual immaturity necessarily prevents our salvation, then none can be saved. None can merit such an award.

Neither justification nor sanctification are attained through keeping of a legal code. The concept of law keeping for righteousness, or justification, makes merit its very center. This concept gets a strangle hold on the sincere disciple who is struggling to be worthy of salvation when he knows all along that he cannot be worthy. Law demands perfect obedience. When the struggler admits his weakness in keeping law, he is urged to try harder. That does not give him much encouragement, for he knows the futility of it. He is not sure that he knows what is sin in each instance, so he lives in doubt and insecurity due to his lack of understanding. Law is a grievous yoke to bear, but Jesus said that his yoke is easy, that his burden is light, and that his commandments are not grievous.

God perfects those who are sanctified and gives us many encouraging promises. He won't let Satan overpower us. He urges us to exercise ourselves in activities which will give us spiritual strength. He urges continued consecration through his teachings, commands, exhortations, and promises. He cherishes our fellowship and wants to glorify us with him.

The blood continues to cleanse the ignorant and stumbling disciple as he walks in the light, but he can abandon that walk and renounce the source of justification. If unbelief rules his heart, it cannot be reckoned for righteousness, nor can he be justified by faith. "Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day; as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:12f). The believer can change his mind, become an unbeliever, and harden himself against any further positive response.

If a person renounces Christ and hardens himself beyond any approach, then he is no longer saved. "For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt" (Heb. 6:~6). This is not being said of the sincere disciple who is wrestling with doubts and weaknesses, but it is speaking of one who has known and experienced what Christ has to give and then knowingly and willingly renounces it all.

This same thought prevails in these words: "For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses. ,How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 10:26~29). The basis for justification and sanctification is rejected; there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. This apostate must pay his own debt for his sins in hell. For this person, it will be "a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (v. 31) who must exact the penalty for sin in order to remain holy.

This fear does not rule in the heart of one who is walking in the light, however, for his heart is ruled by the peace and comfort of fellowship with God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and all other believers. "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God" (Rom. 5:1f).

"Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:23). "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life" (Rom. 6:22).

Neither our justification nor sanctification are based upon the keeping of law-other than the law of love. The service of our dedicated life is in loving God and man. Assemblies and the activities in them are for our upbuilding so that we will continue in faith. There are no rituals to sanctify us, no quotas to prove our consecration, no level of Bible knowledge to make our grade of holiness, nor program of work to do to achieve worthiness. Our love for one another will lead us to conduct ourselves in moral uprightness and our love for God will constrain us to make him Lord of our lives. None of this sanctification, however, will be an effort to gain justification, for we are first justified, then sanctified.

Sanctification simply keeps us walking in the light so that we will not forfeit our justification.