During Bible college, I was assigned a paper for my Romans class on the topic of sanctification, and I wanted to get a better handle on the doctrine from an older believer. Who better to ask than Mrs. Ida Fleshman?
She was my great aunt and one of the sweet senior ladies at the church where I served as youth minister at the time. Ida was hunched over, nearly 80, and sweet as pie. She was at church all the time, always carried her big study Bible, and exuded a kindness that was spiritually intoxicating. Ida was a beautiful human being, full of grace and mercy. Surely she had sanctification figured out!
I wanted Ida’s methods and secrets for holiness so I could incorporate that wisdom into both my paper and my life. “What’s the key to sanctification?” I asked. Her answer stunned me. “I see my sin more clearly,” she said. “All I know is that the older I get and the more I know Jesus, the more God shows me how sinful I am and how much I need him.”
I don’t think Ida Fleshman ever read a book about Luther or Calvin, but she shared the same understanding of sanctification as these theological stalwarts. Her simple yet profound statement means so much to me today because I find her words beautifully blend Martin Luther’s and John Calvin’s perspectives on sanctification, their unified conviction that sanctification is ultimately grounded in and perpetuated through the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who know they are sinners.
Oil and Water?
Luther and Calvin certainly had their differences, and sometimes their views of sanctification are pitted against one another. Many believe trying to hold their teaching together is like mixing oil and water. Let’s take a look at Luther’s theology of the cross and Calvin’s doctrine of union with Christ to see if we can find some commonality.
Theology of the Cross
Luther and the Lutherans are champions of justification, and they’re bullish on the distinction between the law (God’s holy demand) and the gospel (God’s gracious promises for sinners). As Concordia Seminary professor Mark Seifrid writes, “God’s Law is like the knife in the hand of the surgeon with which He first must wound us in order to work our healing.”
Both law and gospel are necessary for sanctification because the first kills and the second brings life. People are sinners in their being, and that doesn’t change when they become Christians. So every Christian must be exposed by the law and then sent fleeing to the Savior where both righteousness and holiness are found.
Sanctification is ultimately grounded in and perpetuated through the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who know they are sinners.
Lutherans emphasize the theology of the cross—a doctrine that insists we can only experience the benefits of salvation through Christ crucified. For this reason, and in spite of those who accuse them of teaching antinomianism, many Lutherans insist they’re not weak on sanctification.
Rather, Christians focus on the finished work of Christ and the forgiveness he brings; they are “grasped by the gospel.” Then, ethical growth—righteous acts done for the love of God and neighbor—exude from Christians, not because we achieve greater intrinsic holiness but because of the Spirit’s powerful and spontaneous work (Rom 8:1–4). As Oswald Bayer has written, sanctification involves “ethical progress without metaphysical pressure.”
Union with Christ
If Luther emphasizes the distinction between law and gospel, Calvin and the Reformed tradition emphasize the unity of Scripture through the succession of biblical covenants. The covenant story unfolds from Genesis to Revelation and culminates in Christ. In him, salvation is accomplished and all covenant demands are fulfilled.
How is Jesus’s saving work applied to our lives? For Calvin, the answer is through union with the Savior. As Richard Gaffin writes, “The climactic realization of this covenantal bond between the triune God and his people centers in union with Christ.” Union with Jesus comes by faith and grants both justification (the declaration of our righteous standing) and sanctification (our growth in holiness)—realities that must be distinguished but not separated.
In the Institutes, Calvin emphasized that believers pursue personal holiness with the moral law as their guide (Institutes 2.6–10). Later reformers like John Owen expanded on Calvin’s thought, emphasizing that our union with Christ and holy status in him (our positional sanctification) do not change, though our communion with Christ ebbs and flows while increasing and deepening over time (progressive sanctification).
Peanut Butter and Jelly!
In my college days, no one I heard in popular Christian teaching talked more about Martin Luther than the late R. C. Sproul. Sproul loved both Calvin-influenced Presbyterianism and the German reformer. It may be love for Sproul—and it may be Mrs. Ida—but I think Luther and Calvin, despite their differences, are not oil and water for sanctification but rather peanut butter and jelly. We need both lenses for holiness.
Both Luther’s theology of the cross and Calvin’s emphasis on union focus on Christ’s person and work as the source of our sanctification.
Both reformers agreed that God works through faith to make us holy. And both Luther’s theology of the cross and Calvin’s emphasis on union focus on Christ’s person and work as the source of our sanctification.
Luther reminds you that you aren’t as holy as you think you are. When you’re in sin—and perhaps more importantly when you think you’ve “arrived” in holiness—Luther’s law/gospel paradigm will expose you and send you back to the Savior. You’ll be forced to confess the old sinner remains. But you’ll also be able to say with Mrs. Ida Fleshman, “I see my sin more clearly.” It’s at that point, as Calvin reminds us, that we learn humility, grow in love for the gospel, and live out personal holiness in the Christian life.