Rebecca Stark is the author of The Good Portion: Godthe second title in The Good Portion series.

The Good Portion: God explores what Scripture teaches about God in hopes that readers will see his perfection, worth, magnificence, and beauty as they study his triune nature, infinite attributes, and wondrous works. 

                     

Wednesday
Apr052023

Theological Term of the Week: Progressive Sanctification

progressive sanctification
“That gracious and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit, by which He delivers the justified sinner from the pollution of sin, renews his whole nature in the image of God and enables him to perform good works”;1 often simply called sanctification.
  • Scripture used to support the idea of prevenient grace:
    And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV).
  • From The London Baptist Confession, 1689

    Chapter 13: Of Sanctification

    1. They who are united to Christ, effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, are also farther sanctified, really and personally, through the same virtue, 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 all true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. (Acts 20:32; Romans 6:5, 6; John 17:17; Ephesians 3:16-19; 1 Thessalonians 5:21-23; Romans 6:14; Galatians 5:24; Colossians 1:11; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Hebrews 12:14)

    2. This sanctification is throughout the whole man, yet imperfect in this life; there abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part, whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war; the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Romans 7:18, 23; Galatians 5:17; 1 Peter 2:11)

    3. In which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome; and so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, pressing after an heavenly life, in evangelical obedience to all the commands which Christ as Head and King, in His Word hath prescribed them. (Romans 7:23; Romans 6:14; Ephesians 4:15, 16; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 7:1)

  • From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham, page 607

    Sanctification in its most commonly recognized aspect is understood in ethical terms. The letters of Paul are replete with instructions on how we are to live. That we can obey God is due to the Spirit’s work within us, transforming us into his image (Ephesians 4:24; Col. 3:10). The dynamic of union with Christ is expressed in the life experience of believers. Christ has risen, never again to die. So we, in union with him are no longer subject to the domain of sin and death, and so grow “more and more” (WCF, 13.1) in conformity to Christ by the Spirit through the means God has provided: the ministry of the Word, the Sacraments, and prayer (WSC, 88),

 

Learn more:

  1. Tim Challies: The Essential: Sanctification
  2. Simply Put: Sanctification
  3. Got Questions: What is sanctification?
  4. Nick Batzig: 5 Things You Should Know about Sanctification
  5. Fred Zaspel: The Doctrine of Sanctification
  6. J. Ligon Duncan: The Good News of Progressive Sanctification
  7. John Murray: Definitive and Progressive Sanctification
  8. Sinclair Ferguson: The Reformed View of Sanctification

 

Related terms:

 

Filed under Salvation

1 Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, page 532.


Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

Sunday
Apr022023

Sunday Hymn: Ride on, Ride on in Majesty

 

 

 

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
Hark! all the tribes Hosanna cry;
O Saviour meek, pursue thy road
With palms and scattered garments strowed.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die:
O Christ, thy triumphs now begin
O’er captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
The winged squadrons of the sky
Look down with sad and wondering eyes
To see th’approaching sacrifice.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh;
The Father on his sapphire throne
Expects his own anointed Son.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die:
Bow thy meek head to mortal pain,
Then take, O God, thy power and reign.

—Hen­ry H. Mil­man

Thursday
Mar302023

Theological Term: Prevenient Grace

prevenient grace
The grace of God that, according to synergistic (or Arminian or Wesleyan) teaching, counteracts the spiritual death that resulted from the fall, sufficiently restoring lost human freedom so that a person is able to choose to cooperate or not cooperate with saving grace; also called preventing grace.
  • Scripture used to support the idea of prevenient grace:
    The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world (John 1:9 ESV).
    And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (John 12:32 ESV).
  • From On Working Out Our Own Salvation by John Wesley
    For allowing that all the souls of men are dead in sin by nature, this excuses none, seeing there is no man that is in a state of mere nature; there is no man, unless he has quenched the Spirit, that is wholly void of the grace of God. No man living is entirely destitute of what is vulgarly called natural conscience. But this is not natural: It is more properly termed preventing grace. Every man has a greater or less measure of this, which waiteth not for the call of man. Every one has, sooner or later, good desires; although the generality of men stifle them before they can strike deep root, or produce any considerable fruit. Everyone has some measure of that light, some faint glimmering ray, which, sooner or later, more or less, enlightens every man that cometh into the world. And every one, unless he be one of the small number whose conscience is seared as with a hot iron, feels more or less uneasy when he acts contrary to the light of his own conscience. So that no man sins because he has not grace, but because he does not use the grace which he hath.

Learn more:

  1. Got Questions: What is prevenient grace?
  2. R. C. Sproul: Prevenient Grace
  3. Sam Storms: The Arminian Doctrine of Prevenient Grace
  4. Tom Schreiner: Does Scripture Teach Prevenient Grace in the Wesleyan Sense?

 

Related terms:

 

Filed under Salvation


Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.