How Does Sanctification Differ from Justification?

Related but Different Gifts

The Bible typically uses the language of “sanctified” or “sanctify” to refer to the believer’s positional holiness as one set apart unto God. In systematic theology, however, sanctification usually means the renovation of men and women by which God takes the joined-to-Christ, justified believer and transforms him more and more into the divine image. That is the sense we are talking about right now—progressive sanctification rather than definitive sanctification.

Sanctification can be understood passively and actively—passively, inasmuch as the transforming work “is wrought by God in us,” and also actively, inasmuch as sanctification “ought to be done by us, God performing this work in us and by us.”¹ This is a crucial point. In sanctification, God is doing the work in us, but at the same time we are also working. Any theology that ignores either the passive or the active dimension of sanctification is going to be lopsided and unbiblical.

From this definition, we can already see that justification and sanctification, though related, are different gifts. The most serious, and potentially damning, errors surface when the two are not carefully distinguished. According to Turretin, justification and sanctification differ in at least five ways.²

1. They differ with regard to their object. Justification is concerned with guilt; sanctification with pollution.

2. They differ as to their form. Justification is a judicial and forensic act whereby our sins are forgiven and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. Sanctification is a moral act whereby righteousness is infused in the believer and personal renewal is begun and over a long process carried to completion.

3. They differ as to the recipient subject. In justification, man is given a new objective status based on God’s acquittal. In sanctification, we are subjectively renewed by God.

4. They differ as to degrees. Justification is given in this life fully, without any possible increase. Sanctification is begun in this life but only made perfect in the next. The declaration of justification is once for all. The inward work of sanctification takes place by degrees.

5. They differ as to the order. God only sanctifies those who are already reconciled and justified by faith.

In sanctification, God is doing the work in us, but at the same time we are also working.

Some Christians have argued that sanctification is also “by faith alone.” While we are right to stress that sanctification is a gift that comes only to those who put their faith in Christ, and that we grow in godliness by believing in the promises of God, the phrase “by faith alone” is not helpful. Both justification and sanctification are by faith, but whereas faith is the instrument through which we receive the righteousness of Christ, faith is the root and principle out of which sanctification grows.³ We say that justification is by faith alone, because we want to safeguard justification from any notion of striving or working. But sanctification explicitly includes these co-operations, making the description of “alone” misleading at best and inaccurate at worst. We are apt to misunderstand both justification and sanctification if we describe them in ways that are too similar.

This article is adapted from Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology by Kevin DeYoung.

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