My last post referenced the synergistic nature of sanctification when it states, “The Christian must always be working out their salvation (Phil. 2:12) but must be doing so synergistically, cooperating with God (1 John 3:9; Phil. 2:12-13).” This post will explain that nature, describing the relationship between God’s grace and the moral effort in the Christian life.
One finds this synergistic relationship explained when the Westminster Divines wrote: “This sanctification is throughout, in the whole man (1 Thess. 5:23; Rom. 12:1-2); yet imperfect in this life, there abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part (1 John 1:8-10 Rom. 7:14-25; Phil. 3:12); whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17). In which war, although the remaining corruption, for a time, may much prevail (Rom. 7:23); yet, through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome (Rom. 6:14;1 John 5:4; Eph. 4:15-16); and so, the saints grow in grace (2 Pet. 3:18; 2 Cor. 3:18), perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1)” (The Westminster Confession of Faith, 13:2,3; emphasis mine).
After speaking about the remnants of corruption in a person, the WCF proves that the Christian eventually overcomes the depraved aspects of their lives. However, overcoming does not occur under one’s will or internal fortitude. The Holy Spirit supplies the Christian with strength from the sanctifying power of Christ. In other words, because God’s ultimate purpose is to glorify Christ as the firstborn among his saints (Rom. 8:29), he beautifies them to more of Christ’s likeness, to replicate them in Jesus’s image. Ian Hamilton puts it plainly, “More particularly, what the Holy Spirit first produced in Christ, he comes in his new covenant ministry to reproduce in the people of Christ. This is what John Calvin called the Spirit’s ministry of ‘replication’” (Ian Hamilton, The Gospel Shaped Life, 67).
One may wonder how the Holy Spirit does this work in the believer. John Owens gives three profound ways from Scripture: 1) “by causing our hearts to abound in grace and the fruits that are contrary to the works of the flesh” (Gal. 5:19-21; Titus 3:5), 2) “by the effective destruction of the root and habit of sin, to weaken, destroy, and take it away” (Isa. 4:4), and 3) “by bringing the cross into the heart of a sinner by faith, and gives communion with Christ in His death, and fellowship in His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10; 1 Pet. 4:13) (John Owen, The Mortification of Sin, 18).
Here it is pertinent to realize the “grace” part of the Christian’s “grow in grace” the WCF discusses. God the Holy Spirit alone works in the believer to sanctify them. It is a means of grace to make his saints more like his Son. Morton Smith states, “From these passages we see that sanctification is the work of the Spirit of God. We do not sanctify ourselves. It is God who works in us to do his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13)” (Morton Smith, Systematic Theology:2, 489).
Yet, as the work of sanctification is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, the Christian takes part in its work as well when the saints “grow in” and “perfect holiness in the fear of God.” Charles Hodge puts it this way when he discusses how the believer works out their salvation considering second causes: “When Christ opened the eyes of the blind no second interposed between his volition and the effect. But men work out their own salvation, while it is God who worketh in them to will and to do, according to his own good pleasure. In the work of regeneration, the soul is passive. It cannot cooperate in the communication of spiritual life. But in conversion, repentance, faith, and growth in grace, all its powers are called into exercise. As, however, the effects produced transcend the efficiency of our fallen nature, and are due to the agency of the Spirit, sanctification does not cease to be supernatural, or a work of grace, because the soul is active and cooperating in the process” (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology:3, 215 – emphasis mine).
The cooperation of the Holy Spirit and our spirit in the work of sanctification happens consciously and subconsciously. God is at work in us as we knowingly work out our salvation and even unknowingly. Smith explains this synergy like this: “The Spirit in the work of sanctification draws in the whole of our conscious life as well as the subconscious. Every act or function in the whole of our moral and spiritual being is brought into this operation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit engages man’s consciousness, understanding, feeling, will, conscience, and every aspect of our personality. He does this through the Truth, namely the Truth of the Word (John 17:17). The medium which He uses to enable us to grow in grace, and thus to become progressively conformed to the image of Christ is simply the application of the Law and the Gospel to us. The Word of God is the means of sanctification. As the believer grows in his knowledge of the Word, and as the Spirit enables us to apply it more and more to our lives, then we grow in sanctification” (Smith, 490).
There is an implication of which the Christian must be mindful: working out one’s salvation means obedience to God’s commands. That obedience is a part of the Holy Spirit’s application which graces the believer by enablement. Concerning the Philippians 2:12-13 passage, Beeke and Smalley comment, “Here are two kinds of working: the human working essential to progress in sanctification and the divine working that creates both the human willing and the human working. The Christian life requires human willing and working as well as divine willing and working, but the divine working is the cause of all good things” (Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Revelation and God: 1, 1074).
Therefore, one can conclude that the Christian’s sanctification is deeper than living a morally good life or overcoming some sinful pattern of thinking or behaving. It is following Christ from regeneration to glory in blessing and sufferings. Douglas Kelly notes, “Hence, the Christian life is the experience of co-resurrection with Christ in the Holy Spirt, who produces through the personality of those in union with the risen Lord, ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ (Gal. 5:22-23, cf. John 14:19, Eph. 2:5). This union with the crucified, risen One impels us in the holy direction of seeking to be like him” (Douglas F. Kelly, Systematic Theology:2, 480). Indeed, this is a comforting doctrine.
Andrews PCA 