Confession of Faith: Article XXIV

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We can distinguish between a passive sanctification and an active sanctification. Passive sanctification is the act or work of the Holy Spirit whereby He sets the sinner apart, separates him from that to which he was bound by the desire of his carnal heart and to which he was a servant, or a slave, and was in bondage, and places him in the service of God. There is a new principle, a new direction, a new service, and also another motive. By this sanctification man brings forth the fruits of good works, which have three characteristics: a) those good works must be done by faith, from love; b) they must be done to God’s honor, not to become something special in the eyes of people or in one’s own eyes, it must be to His glory; c) it must be based on the Word of God, it must be according to God’s holy law, and not according to human inventions.

Good works are done by faith, or out of love. This article says, “that on the contrary without it they would never do anything out of love to God.” Without faith or without that love to God we would do it only from self-love or from fear of damnation, fear of punishment. What we do may seem just as pious as what someone else does, but yet the root of the matter may be different. The question is: What stands in the center of all our activities, of all our works, religious works, praying, reading, coming to God’s house, maybe discussing the truth, reading good books? All these things I may recommend to you. They are things I hope you do not neglect. We need to search the Scriptures and to read good books.

Yet it is not only what we do, but why we do it and how we do it. Are we doing it out of self-love? Or is fear of damnation the leading motive: I must be right with God because otherwise I will be punished, otherwise I will go to hell and will have a terrible future? Oh, is that the purpose? I would like to see that many people did not live so carelessly, that they were concerned about their salvation or at least had convictions of the truth. But yet, even then self can still be in the center, and then all those works are not good works in the sight of God, because the root of faith working through love is missing.

On the other hand, there can be one who wrestles daily with his sinful nature, who sees so much corruption in his heart and says, “O Lord, I wonder whether there ever was any good work in my life and in my heart. I see a foul fountain of iniquity.” But yet at the bottom of his heart there is the love, the desire to live, if possible, holily before God out of love to Him. “Who would not fear Thee, O King of nations, for to Thee doth it appertain.” That love is something which the Lord plants in the hour of regeneration. Sanctification begins when the Lord begins. Some authors have made a distinction between a legalistic sanctification, in which there is still so much slavish fear and so much trying to please God in order to be back with Him, so much of that broken covenant of works, and an evangelical sanctification, which is out of gratitude because the Lord is worthy. This is the sanctification wherein the Lord is glorified.

We read that “without faith we cannot please the Lord.” Therefore faith is the root, but so is love. It is impossible that this holy faith can be unfruitful in man. We do not speak of a vain faith, but of such a faith which is called a “faith that worketh by love.” There are many texts in the Word of God which support this. The fruits must be visible. “Faith without works is dead,” James says. “For the tree is known by his fruit,” we read in Matthew 12:33. In 1 John 5:1 we read, “Everyone that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.” The fruits must be seen. And in Ephesians 3:17 we read, “That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love ....” And of the necessity of good works we read in Titus 3:8, “That they which have believed in God” (notice, faith is first) “might be careful to maintain good works.”

“Doing something to God’s honor means to give a testimony of our love, reverence, and obedience to God out of gratitude for the benefits received”

Ursinus says about this statement that without this true faith we do everything for ourselves out of fear of condemnation. Only true faith does it out of love to God, but then according to His commandment. That was the difference between Cain and Abel. Each brought a sacrifice, but Abel brought a sacrifice out of love to God, by faith in God, and to the honor of God, while Cain’s sacrifice was brought to receive something from God, was self-centered, was not done by faith. This was the difference between Abel and Cain. There was faith and also love in Abel’s heart, but not in the heart of Cain.

Justification and sanctification are, as it were, twins. Yet there is a very important difference between them. Justification has to do with the state of the person; sanctification has to do with his condition. Justification is something judicial, is a sentence, an acquittal; sanctification is something moral, something renewing our life. In justification there is pardon from guilt; in sanctification there is washing from pollution. In justification something is imputed to us, the righteousness of God; in sanctification there is an infusing, something is given unto us. Justification is God’s sentence, His acquittal, to us, but sanctification is within the heart. Justification is equal in all, it is perfect, complete; sanctification is very unequal between the one and the other, and even in the same person’s life there can be a higher or lower degree of it. Think of David when he fought with Goliath. Then sanctification was much higher than when he walked on the roof of his house and fell into such a terrible sin.

Justification is something which is applied to us. The merits of Christ are applied in justification. Sanctification is not complete. It is something which is imperfect here in the sinner. It is gradual. It is something lifelong, a process, while justification is instant, perfect, one hundred percent complete. If justification were only ninety-five percent complete, the Lord could not accept a sinner, for no one will enter into His presence who has any spot or any wrinkle. We must be just in the sight of God. But that justifying faith will bring forth good works. These are works from the root of faith. These works must also be done to His honor and glory. Ursinus says, “The honor of God includes love, reverence, obedience and gratitude.” “Doing something to God’s honor,” he says, “means to give a testimony of our love, reverence, and obedience to God out of gratitude for the benefits received.”

But these works are also according to the Word of God. Not human traditions or ideas, but God’s infallible Word must be their guide for this life of gratitude, a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their paths. Although it is the desire of the renewed creature to live holily before God, sanctification is very imperfect, in spite of what the perfectionists say. They believe, as do the Anabaptists, that by faith one can come to a perfect life and perfect obedience. But in 1 John 1:8 we read, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” God’s child will remain a sinner until the end of his life. When Paul complained, “O wretched man that I am,” this was not something which he said before his conversion, referring to his former life. But he was speaking about what he still experienced at the moment he wrote it — “The good that I would, I do not; the evil which I would not, that I do. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

On the other hand are the Antinomians, who say that the law is abolished for God’s people. They have nothing to do with the law anymore. The law contains nothing but promises to them, but no requirements, no obligations. They are free from the law. No, God’s children are free from the bondage of the law, but the law is still a rule of life to them. Paul wrote of those who said, “Let us do evil, that good may come,” the Antinomians of his day: their condemnation, their damnation is just (Romans 3:8).

Finally, one other question: Is there a reward for good works? Yes. We read in the Word of God, “In keeping of His commandments there is a great reward.” Of the many texts which support this, I will mention only a few, for instance, Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” And in Revelation 3:4, “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me,” the Lord says, “in white: for they are worthy.” They are worthy because of what they have done by grace. So there is no worthiness in themselves, but they receive a reward. The Lord speaks of them, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” There is a reward. But it is not a reward of merit, it is a divine, gracious reward. It is a reward not according to works, but it pleases the Lord by grace to crown His own work. That crown is a reward — that is eternal glory; the next step after sanctification is glorification. We may not base our salvation on those good works, for our best works are filthy rags; they also are punishable. Then every believer, even the most tender, living saint, every child of God must say, “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand?” Their works are no ground; they are polluted by the flesh. They cannot be done in their own strength. Therefore this article concludes with this statement: “Thus, then, we would always be in doubt, tossed to and fro without any certainty, and our poor consciences continually vexed if they relied not on the merits of the suffering and death of our Savior.”

Faith without fruits is a dead faith.

That sanctification, that renewing of the life, is not the ground upon which we must rest. The ground is only the death, the suffering of Jesus Christ. The ground is what He did, what He worked when He said, “It is finished.” But yet the fruits must be seen. Faith without fruits is a dead faith. Someone who talks about grace but does not show it in his life is a dead branch, a dead tree. Oh, may we by grace show forth those fruits. Perhaps you will say, “What are those fruits?” In the beginning already, those first fruits are the missing of God, sorrowing about sin, longing for restoration in God, desiring to live to His honor and glory. Those fruits are hungering and thirsting, not only after righteousness, but also to be renewed day by day. They are a people who cling unto the Throne of Grace, who need the Lord Jesus Christ not only for righteousness, but also to be made unto us (and do not separate it), made unto His church, sanctification. May this be our portion. We would then be seen by others in these dark times, and they would be made jealous of it. God would be glorified. He is worthy to be served, also by our young people. May the Lord grant this holy desire also unto you.

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