The Indissoluble Tie

[Paul] says that Christ is made unto us righteousness, by which he means that we are on his account acceptable to God, inasmuch as he expiated our sins by his death, and his obedience is imputed to us for righteousness.  For as the righteousness of faith consists in remission of sins and a gracious acceptance, we obtain both through Christ.  But Paul also calls Christ our sanctification, by which he means that we who are otherwise unholy by nature, are by His Spirit renewed unto holiness, that we may serve God.  From this, also, we may infer that we cannot be justified freely through faith alone without at the same time living holy.  For these fruits of grace are connected together, as it were, by an indissoluble tie, so that he who attempts to sever them does in a manner tear Christ into pieces.  Let therefore the man who seeks to be justified through Christ consider that this cannot be attained without his taking Him at the same time for sanctification. (Calvin, Commentary on 1st Corinthians, 1 Cor 1:30)

Calvin again is on his point that Christ cannot be divided or torn into pieces.  The salvation we have in Christ is just that – in Him.  And because it is found in union with Him, we possess all that He has secured for us.  I hope it is understood by readers that this quote from Calvin demands a definitive view of sanctification (unless we want to say he is a proto-Phoebe Palmer).  While the exact nomenclature is not employed, Murray wasn’t the first to incorporate a definitive aspect into sanctification.

Camden Bucey is the president of Reformed Forum. He graduated with an MDiv in 2011 and is currently a PhD student at Westminster Theological Seminary. Camden is a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and a licentiate of the presbytery of Philadelphia. You can follow Camden on Twitter at @camdenbucey. This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Systematic Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.