When Paul related how Jesus commissioned him, these were the words he related from the Lord:

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

via Passage: Acts 26:16-18 (ESV Bible Online).

I think I first heard of “sanctification by faith” while teaching through Hebrews 11 in a Sunday School class. But while in seminary I ran into it because I found Daniel Fuller’s Gospel & Law: Contrast or Continuum. There is a lot of flaky stuff going by that name, but Fuller did some more serious work–albeit not entirely bereft of flakiness in my opinion. I think the idea that the Reformers were guilty of the Galatian heresy veers in that direction! But Fuller was quite fruitful to work through and think about. Later came John Piper’s book Future Grace which was quite excellent. It is more readable when you are in the mood for a devotional book (it has 31 chapters, if I recall, for daily reading) but it has significance as a serious theological as well as pastoral work.

But even while I think it is great to consider how we are sanctified by faith, that has pretty much nothing to do with the expression in Acts 26.18. Fuller and Piper are using a modern technical theological term that in the Bible is a word used in other ways. In fact, I think (I may be wrong) it is usually used in another way.  They are thinking of Sanctification as the Westminster Confession uses it:

They, who are once effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart, and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them: the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified; and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

The prooftext at the end of this paragraph provides the rationale for using the term “sanctification.” It is found in Hebrews 12.

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

The term “holiness” is the same root as what is translated as “sanctification” in many other places. This is unquestionably about behavior and growing in obedience (as a comment for another series of posts, in context it is also quite corporate in its emphasis). It is thus a fine term to use in such a way.

But the term is also used in Scripture much differently. In fact, it is used in the book of Hebrews much differently.

As I have time I’d like to fill out the following argument.

1. Holiness is often or even usually a “status” rather than a description of one’s behavior. It refers to having access, having a right to the presence of, and/or being brought near to God the Holy one. It implies special behavioral demands and promises behavioral change because one must act a certain way in God’s presence, and in God’s presence you cannot be the same as you were before.
2. Thus, to be sanctified is to have this status conferred upon you. You are reconciled where you were once exiled. It is, in short, incredibly close to being justified, in its implications.
3. The work of Christ is often described as this form of sanctification, going back to the sacrificial system of the Mosaic Covenant. Christ’s blood brings us near.
4. The pivotal stories of Gentile inclusion in Acts 11 and 15 are in fact all about sanctification and use that language and imagery. The issues of access and inclusion in the Church are, at their core, questions about whether not everyone is holy.
5. That rather than being focused upon in two Pauline letters, this issue is in all Paul’s letters. It explains why he can write such a generic letter to the Ephesians, that is all about the work of Christ and salvation, and never feel a need once to talk about justification or even righteousness as a forensic concept.
6. This in fact is the universal presupposition mentioned in all the Epistles, Pauline or not, as they are addressed to “saints.” This is the revolution that has occurred (for Marxists it would be “comerade”). No more degrees of access. No more degrees of holiness. We are all saints. We all have access. We are all righteous in God’s sight. Justification is a consequence in a part of sanctification if it is understood as standing or status.

TO BE CONTINUED (I HOPE)