Sanctification and the Christian Life

Sanctification is the doctrine of how believers are made holy and conformed to Christ following justification, and of the shape of the resulting Christian life.

Definition

The doctrine of the believer's growth in holiness and transformation into the likeness of Christ.

Scope

This topic examines sanctification as the process and goal of holiness, its relation to justification, the work of the Holy Spirit, the role of human cooperation, the means of grace (word, sacraments, prayer), and varied accounts such as the Reformed gradual model, the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian perfection, and the Eastern teaching of theosis (deification). It also touches mysticism and spiritual formation. The presentation is descriptive, comparing traditions with comparative notes where apt.

Core questions

• How is sanctification related to justification?
• Is sanctification instantaneous, gradual, or both?
• What is the role of human effort alongside the Spirit's work?
• Can believers attain perfection or deification in this life?

Key theories

Christian perfection

John Wesley's teaching that, through a further work of grace, believers may be perfected in love in this life, freed from the dominion of sin while remaining liable to mistake and growth.

Theosis (deification)

The Eastern Christian understanding of salvation as participation in the divine life, by which the believer, through grace and the Spirit, comes to share in God's qualities without becoming God in essence.

History

Early Christian writers, especially in the East, framed salvation as deification (Athanasius, Maximus, later Palamas). The Western tradition, through Augustine and the medieval mystics, emphasized the soul's ascent. The Reformers distinguished justification from sanctification, with Calvin stressing gradual mortification and vivification. Wesley's eighteenth-century doctrine of Christian perfection shaped the Methodist and later Holiness and Pentecostal movements.

Debates

Perfectionism versus simul iustus et peccator

Whether believers can be entirely sanctified or perfected in love in this life (Wesleyan and Holiness traditions) or remain 'at once justified and sinner' until death (Lutheran and much Reformed teaching).

Grace and human effort in growth

How the Spirit's sanctifying work relates to disciplines, obedience, and the means of grace, and whether emphasizing effort risks legalism or neglecting it risks passivity.

Key figures

• Maximus the Confessor
• John Calvin
• John Wesley
• Gregory Palamas

Seminal works

• wesley1872
• calvinInstitutes
• mcgrath2016

Frequently asked questions

How does sanctification differ from justification?

In much Protestant theology, justification is God's once-for-all declaration that the believer is righteous, while sanctification is the ongoing process of being made holy; Catholic theology tends to integrate the two more closely.

What is theosis?

Theosis, or deification, is the Eastern Christian view that the goal of salvation is to share in the life and energies of God, becoming by grace what God is by nature, while never ceasing to be a creature.