Justification and Sanctification
Romans 3:21-26
My first exposure to Eastern Orthodoxy was a series of short-term missions trips to Eastern Europe. I was taught that Eastern Orthodoxy was essentially the same as Roman Catholicism, and essentially a works based theology of salvation. When I talked to those who claimed to be Orthodox in Eastern Europe, the religion they described was heavily steeped in tradition, culture, rituals and sacraments without a hint of grace. Years after these trips I attended a Greek Orthodox church here in Spokane and was surprised at my experience. Far from the empty, works based folk religion I had experienced in rural Eastern Europe I found the liturgical service rich with scripture, with a gospel and Christ centered emphisis, I found a vibrant, active church community that was active serving within and outside of the church. Additionally I found a congregation that was educated in their history and theology. My experience with the Orthodox church has continued as more than one of friends now consider themselves Orthodox. John Reynolds, a philosophy professor at Biola University and the founder of academic program I participated in is Orthodox, and a handful of students at Biola now consider themselves Orthodox.
The Orthodox view of salvation is described as Theosis, the process by which God conforms us to Christ and brings us to union with Himself. There are no works involved prior to God moving by the Holy Spirit impelling a person towards the process of Theosis, or deification (McGuckin 199). Many orthodox maintain that it is God who continues the process as well. The difficulty Westerners have with Orthodoxy is the blurring of justification with the process of sanctification. While not denied, justification is not emphasized in Orthodox theology, and the distinction is left intentionally mysterious. An believer Orthodox would say, not ‘I have been saved’, but ‘I am being saved’. According to St. Athenatious “God became man that man might become God in him [Christ]”. The goal is unity with God (Meyendorff 95).
What does Romans say about Justification? Paul has for the last three chapters been building the situation of mankind, describing the universality of sin, the punishment for sin and our inability to help ourselves. In Romans 3:21-26 he is now able to tell the good news, we can be in a right relationship with God because of Christ. “But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (vs. 21-22 ESV). No person can live a good enough life by trying to be moral, God offered us the righteousness we needed through Christ.
As simple as this sounds many questions can arise. The ancient church, and the church in America seem to have a problem understanding the connection between justification, God’s declaration of a sinful person as righteous, and sanctification, the process by which God conforms believers to the image of Christ. America is full people who would call themselves ‘Christians’ because they have raised their hand, prayed a prayer, checked a box and consider that good enough to get them into heaven. To these people the gospel is, ‘fire insurance’ and they continue to lead lives consumed in themselves, trusting in everything and everything other than Christ.
Paul continues, “[all sinners] are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (vs. 24-25). Paul’s use of the words ‘redemption’ and ‘propitiation’ seem isolated to theology for modern readers but to ancient readers they would have carried more meaning. Redemption meant to pay a price for something, often used in context of slavery. Propitiation in both Jewish and secular Greek language meant to turn away God’s wrath, especially by a sacrifice. According to this verse, it seems impossible to deny that something drastic to a person’s status with God the moment they have faith in Christ. What exactly this is, Paul has to use several metaphors to describe it because one alone is not quite adequate (Moo 131). What is significant is that this is something that has happened at a moment of accepting Christ, something Western theologians call justification. What Paul is describing in this passage is not a gradual process by which God makes a person righteous like Christ, but he calls a person righteous like Christ in the past, present and future.
Paul emphasizes the present, not future gift of justification even more clear in the next breath. “It was to show His righteousness at the present time, that he might be just and the justifier of one who has faith in Jesus” (vs. 26). At least an aspect of salvation is something that happens the moment of faith in Christ’s righteousness.
However this passage of Romans 3:21-26 not the end of Paul’s epistle. Justification not only imputes Christ’s righteousness, but begins a process whereby God conforms us into the image of Christ through sanctification. Even in this specific passage there are hints that salvation is a life-changing event. The word ‘redemption’ which Paul used can be thought of as buying a slave. He says just a few passages later, “Having been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of righteousness…For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (vs. 18-19). Paul cannot speak of the wonderful event of justification without speaking of sanctification. When He freed us from sin, we became slaves of righteousness, there is no other choice.
Sanctification seems irresistible to a believer. Earlier Paul said, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (6:3). In identification with Christ we are brought into his life, death and resurrection. Have died to sin in justification, but we are resurrected to a new life in sanctification. ‘Salvation’ and ‘gospel’ for Paul often includes past justification, present sanctification and future justification. John Piper uses strong language when he speaks of sanctification. He says, “People who leave sanctification for heaven don’t get there”. This is difficult to swallow, but perhaps Paul is saying the same thing. Elsewhere in his epistles Paul will use the word, ‘save’ or ‘salvation’ in reference to sanctification, this word need not be isolated to the moment of justification.
If sanctification is inseparable from justification and the entire package of salvation, how is this not a salvation by works? It sounds like we are striving for heaven, hoping we will get there but not quite sure we will ever be good enough. Believers receive the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), Christ is in us are we are necessarily becoming like Him. There is certainly struggle and Paul is aware of this. The change might be imperceptible, it might be resisted, it might not be seen by others or even ourselves sometimes but sanctification is happening. Sanctification is a work of Christ in us. Just as Justification is not a matter of our boasting (Romans 3:27), neither is our sanctification (Romans 15:17-18). John Piper says, “Paul does not want us to say, ‘Sanctification is partly God's work and partly man's work’…it is all owing to Christ.” Dependency on Christ never stops in our Christian life, in justification or sanctification. The degree to which we are sanctified also has nothing to do with entering heaven and enjoying God forever, the question is whether the process has taken place in anyway.
We return to those who see redemption as a coupon to be ‘redeemed’ in heaven while we live our lives how we want. Romans makes it clear that justification alone, while it brings us to right standing with God, is not the entirety of biblical salvation. Justification is immediately followed by the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification and finally in glorification after death.
However, salvation is also not only God’s process of making the believer holy. Christ both made us right with God and allowed us to move into union with God. A believer can say both ‘I have been saved’ and ‘I am being saved’. I deeply appreciate the emphasis of Eastern Orthodox theology on the process of the believer and the relationship between us, God and Christ. Eastern Orthodoxy emphasizes significance of change motivated by a healthy hope for our future glorification, both of which are seriously lacking in the church of America in general. I see why many young people are attracted to Orthodoxy. I believe Theosis is an adequate way to present the gospel, but I would be concerned with a Orthodox who denies that something happened to the status of a believer before God at the point of putting trust in Christ. If salvation is only a process at what point are we considered, ‘holy’ enough for God? There seems to be diversity on the issue of justification in orthodoxy, some accept a very clear presentation of Justification (Platon 120), but most accept something not quite as clear-cut as western theology would prefer. Perhaps this is a cultural issue. The eastern mind gravitates towards mystery, beauty and relationship while the western mind gravitates towards the scientific method of definitions, distinctions and forensic terms. According to my research of both Orthodoxy and the book of Romans I believe it is quite possible to be Orthodox while still believing in a biblical concept of salvation.
Works Cited
Levshin, Platon. The Orthodox Doctrine Of the Apostolic Eastern Church. New York: AMS Press, 1857 reprinted 1967.
Meyendorff, John. Christ in Eastern Thought. Washington DC: Corpus Publishing, 1969.
McGuckin, John. The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine and Spiritual Culture. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.
Moo, Douglas. The Romans NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.
Piper, John. How the Spirit Sanctifies: Romans 15:14-21. May 13, 1984 (Morning)
Bethlehem Baptist Church.
< http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper84/051384m.htm>
No comments:
Post a Comment