What does justification do? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
So what does justification do for us? In this section, Bates says it’s not just something declarative. Yes, we do become a new reality when God justifies us, but that justification does result in good works that are included in the justification somehow. From what I gather, what he is saying is that the justification of our persons results in us being the creatures capable of doing the good works that form in us the character of Christ.
In other words, what we call sanctification, Bates thinks is found in justification still. I am unsure how he sees sanctification then in the text and perhaps this is in another book, perhaps even the one I recommended he write in the chapter on salvation. Bates does think that we do not need a divide between justification and sanctification. It could be that sanctification is included within the activity of justification.
This section is worth quoting in length:
In sum, at least three problems exist with regard to the traditional Protestant distinction between justification and sanctification in an individual’s order of salvation. First, it is not biblical, since there is radically insufficient evidence in Scripture that these are inseparable but qualitatively distinct benefits attained in the Messiah. Second, in Scripture personal justification cannot be restricted to a judicial declaration of innocence but rather involves liberating ontological change that extends into resurrection life and behavior, including bodily actions. In fact, Paul says that actual behavior, deeds, will form part of the basis of an individual’s final justification. Third, Paul nowhere intends to describe an individualized order of salvation in the first place with regard to justification, but he does describe the collective church’s vindicated position in the king as a whole. Justification is a corporate benefit that belongs to the church; individuals come to experience this benefit only conditionally if and when they become united to the king.
Matthew W. Bates. Beyond the Salvation Wars (Kindle Locations 3930-3939). Kindle Edition.
Once again, one of the major problems that we have here is the idea of individualizing the text. (If anyone has done any research into this large history to see where this individualization started to be dominant in interpretation, I would love to know.) Bates says that this is not so, including in the Romans 8:29-30 passage. The benefits of being in Christ are only applicable assuming that someone is in the group that is loyal to Jesus. If you cut yourself off from Jesus through outright apostasy or regular unrepentant sin, then you do not get the benefits.
Now some of you reading this might be wondering about what role the righteousness of Christ plays in all of this. Is it not the case that Jesus gives us His righteousness in exchange for our sinfulness and He paid for that on the cross? How one is made righteous was an area of divide between Protestants and Catholics and again, Bates has a different answer.
But that’s for next time.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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