Christ Our Savior and Sanctifier
John Fogal
According to the Bible, every human being has a twofold problem. First, there are sins, which are accumulated offenses against God, transgressions against the law of God, immoral choices, and violations of our conscience, all of which make us legally guilty before the holy God and without excuse. Second, there is sin, which is internal hereditary corruption, moral perversion, self-centered predisposition, and a spiritual disease like a blight that saturates a tree or an incurable infection in a body. Everyone has committed sins and is justly designated as a sinner. The deeper truth is that we commit sins because we are sinners. This internal power of sin is not about what we have done but about who we are from birth. “Sin … produced in me all manner of evil desires” (Rom 7:8, NKJV1). Sin … “deceived me, and by it killed me (Rom 7:11). “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Rom 7:17, 20). We not only need forgiveness for our sins; we also need deliverance from the power of indwelling sin, which was inherited from Adam.
God’s salvation provides the remedy for both issues. It is the same gospel, the same cross, and the same spiritual union with Christ that is the remedy for sins and sin. However, God addresses sin differently than he addresses sins. If I were writing a theological textbook, there would be a large chapter titled “Our Great Salvation” in which there would be three subheadings: A. Salvation, B. Sanctification, and C. Glorification.
God’s remedy for our sins provides cleansing by the blood of the Lamb of God. His is “the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb 13:20) as anticipated in the Old Testament. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb 9:22). Through his sacrifice, Christ washes us from our sins (Rev 1:5), and God remembers them no more (Jer 31:34; Heb 8:12), removing them “as far as the east is from the west” (Psa 103:12). No amount of human effort can satisfy God’s justice; only Christ’s atoning blood is sufficient. By faith in his sacrifice, our sins are taken away, and Christ’s righteousness I credited to our record in heaven.
However, the remedy for indwelling sin requires something more. Since sin came into us from the first Adam when we were conceived physically, God’s remedy for sin requires death to the reign of sin in our mortal bodies. To accomplish this, God graciously declares to the believer, who is now in a spiritual union/oneness with the second/last Adam (Christ), that (based on that union/oneness) we died to sin with Christ when he died on the cross, and we need to reckon that truth to be a reality in our lives.
To appropriate the blood of Christ for our sins, we need to repent of our sins, confess them to God, turn from them, and, by faith, receive Christ as our only Savior. In order to appropriate the death and resurrection of Christ for sin, we need to “know that the old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin”; “reckon (by faith) yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord”; and “present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom 6:1-13) and, by faith, receive Christ alone as our Sanctifier. We need to see these three active injunctions as together in one decisive transaction for the deliverance from the power of sin. Salvation and sanctification are two distinct actions because there are two distinct ways by which God deals with the two distinct aspects of our twofold problem. Dr. Simpson was on to something when he joined others in making a clear distinction between Christ as our Savior and as our Sanctifier.
It should be clear that the primary purpose of this article is to show that mankind has two distinct problems (sins and sin) and that God has two distinct remedies (salvation and sanctification). Those who see sanctification as a “second blessing” (and are either for it or against it) are missing the point of this article. Think for a moment: Does God remove sin in sanctification like he removes/washes away sins in salvation? Do we appropriate victory over the power of sin in our human nature by repentance or by “knowing … reckoning … yielding …” (Rom 6:1-13)? Does God change sin like he changes sins (Isa 1:18)? Does sin die? When we are pardoned and forgiven for our sins, does that include being set free from the power of sin?
I am unable to fully explain the depth of the first part of Romans 6:6: “our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with” (and many other verses such as Rom 5:12; 6:3, 9, 20, 22; 7:8, 23-25; Gal 2:20, etc., etc.), but I do understand “that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom 6:6b). This truth is also found in: “the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:17); “for sin shall not have dominion over you” (Rom 6:14); “having been set free from sin you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:18); “but now having been set free from sin” (Rom 6:22); etc., etc. Isn’t this what every true believer in Christ really wants? My prayer is that pastors everywhere will experience the joy of proclaiming this glorious truth as they “feed Christ’s sheep.”
In our own strength, we cannot remove our sins, and we cannot overcome sin. However, God in his infinite mercy has declared that, since we as believers are in a living, spiritual, union relationship with Christ, whatever happened to him also happens to us (Rom 5:12-21). “Our old man WAS crucified WITH Christ.” The same Bible that says, “Christ died for us” also says that “we died with him.” We died with him when he died on the cross, “and he who has died has been freed from the power of sin” (Rom 6:6, 7). We accept (by faith) what God has done and cooperate/participate with him as he continues his work in our lives.
I believe there is both a “legal transaction” AND a “life transmission” component for dealing with sins and sin. There are two inseparable elements of our great salvation, and I believe we cannot have one without having the other. Some seem to focus only on having a right, legal standing before God with little or no emphasis on “being a new creature in Christ” (2 Cor 5:17). Salvation is about justification AND regeneration, imputed righteousness AND imparted righteousness. Sanctification is about judicial/positional sanctification AND experiential/ongoing sanctification. We are legally pardoned for our sins based on Christ having died for sins. We are legally delivered from the power of sin based on the fact that “Christ died to sin.” When we are declared justified by faith, we are also given new life in Christ. When we “know,” “reckon,” and “present/yield” our bodies to God, we are filled with (controlled by) the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18), giving us “inwrought holiness,” enabling us to live victoriously over sin, and receiving “power from on high” for effective service.
This is not about “sinless perfection” – meaning that sin is eradicated from the believer’s life so that it is impossible for a sanctified believer to commit sins (1 John 1:6-2:2). Nor is it about “continuing in sin that grace may abound” (Rom 6:1-4, 15; 1 John 3:8-10; 5:18 NLT). Nor does it excuse continuing sins by nonchalantly tolerating the idea that sins are just part of life and glibly saying, “We know that we all commit sins” (1 John 3:2-3). Nor is it about trying to suppress sin by relying on human effort (Rom 6:12-18; Gal 3:3). Nor is it about anything less than complete, totally set-apart, absolute surrender to the will of God (Matt 26:39; Rom 6:13, 19, 22; 12:1-2). It is about living triumphantly as a conqueror over the power of sin by the enabling power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom 8:9, 10, 13; 1 Cor 3:16-17; 6:11; 2 Cor 7:1; Gal 2:20; Eph 3:14-19; Col 1:27; 3:1; 1 Thess 4:3; 5:23-24; 1 Pet 1:2). I believe there are no two personal testimonies of salvation and sanctification that are exactly alike. I also believe that each person’s real experiences are in some way related to these core truths concerning both salvation and sanctification.
This is how I would outline the first eight chapters of Romans:
I. There is the terrifying truth that we are all sinners, and we all have sinned (1:18-3:20).
II. There is the freedom from the penalty for sins – “legal transaction” (3:21-4:25) AND “life transmission” (5:1-11).
III. There is also freedom from the power of sin – “legal transaction” (5:12-7:5) AND “life transmission” (7:6-8:39).
Experiencing Christ as our Savior AND Sanctifier is both a crisis and a process, both instantaneous and progressive. It seems to me that part of our problem with understanding this truth is that God is eternal – everything is eternally present with him (not sequential like our finite human mind thinks), and we cannot fully comprehend the concept of eternity.
The sense of “crisis” comes at the decisive point of repentance and faith in Christ alone for our salvation and at the decisive point of knowing, reckoning, and presenting/yielding ourselves to God for our sanctification. It is one thing to be in the process of dying, like so many professing Christians seem to be living. However, there is a final, aorist tense, climactic transition point called death. From God’s perspective, both salvation and sanctification are legal, instantaneous transactions that continue on with new life from that point forward. From our human perspective, there are both crisis and progressive experiences for both salvation and sanctification. One moment we are “dead in trespasses and sins,” and the next moment we are (and continue to be) “alive in Christ.” One moment we are “slaves of sin,” under the dominion of sin, and the next moment we are (and continue to be) “set free from the power of sin and have become (and continue to be) slaves of righteousness to holiness” (Rom 6:17-22). This is great news!
Every Christian should be able to say, “I have been, I am being, and I will be saved and sanctified” – experiencing victory in Jesus with freedom from the penalty of sins and freedom from the power of sin in this life and, ultimately, freedom from the presence of sins and sin in heaven. [1]
John Fogal - Pastor, Church Consultant, Author, former District Superintendent - Fort Wayne, Indiana
[1] For further study on this subject, you may want to look at a book that I had the privilege of writing titled Work Out Your Salvation Because It Is God Working in You. You can find it on Amazon.com.