Sanctification

Chapter seven of Redemption Accomplished and Applied explains the doctrine of sanctification. Below are some of the quotes that really grabbed me.

There must be a constant and increasing appreciation that though sin still remains it does not have the mastery. There is a total difference between surviving sin and reigning sin, the regenerate in conflict with sin and the unregenerate complacent to sin. It is one thing for sin to live in us: it is another for us to live in sin. It is one thing for the enemy to occupy the capital; it is another for this defeated hosts to harass the garrisons of the kingdom. It is of paramount concern for the Christian and for the interests of his sanctification that he should know that sin does not have dominion over him, that the forces of redeeming, regenerative, and sanctifying grace have been brought to bear upon him in that which is central in his moral and spiritual being, that he is the habitation of God through the Spirit, and that Christ has been formed in him the hope of glory. This is equivalent to saying that he must reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ the Lord.

It is by grace that we are being saved as surely as by grace we have been saved. If we are not keenly sensitive to our own helplessness, then we can make the use of the means of sanctification the minister of self-righteousness and pride and thus defeat the end of sanctification. We must rely not upon the means of sanctification but upon the God of all grace. Self-confident moralism promotes pride, and sanctification promotes humility and contrition.

God works in us and we also work. But the relation is that because God works we work. All working out of salvation on our part is the effect of God's working in us, not the willing to the exclusion of the doing and not the doing to the exclusion of the willing, but both the willing and the doing. And this working of God is directed to the end of enabling us to will and to do that which is well pleasing to him.

Sanctification involves the concentration of thought, of interest, of heart, mind, will, and purpose upon the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and the engagement of our whole being with those means which God has instituted for the attainment of that destination. Sanctification is the sanctification of persons renewed after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. The prospect it offers is to know even as we are known and to be holy as God is holy. Every one who has this hope in God purifies himself even as he is pure (1 John 3:3).

Adoption

Chapter six of Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied covers adoption. Below is the summarizing paragraph found at the end of the chapter.

But though the relation of Fatherhood differs, it is the same person who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ in the ineffable mystery of the trinity who is the Father of believers in the mystery of his adoptive grace. God the Father is not only the specific agent in the act of adoption; he also constitutes those who believe in Jesus' name his own children. Could anything disclose the marvel of adoption or certify the security of its tenure and privilege more effectively than the fact that the Father himself, on account of whom are all things and through whom are all things, who made the captain of salvation perfect through sufferings, becomes by deed of grace the Father of the many sons of whom he will bring to glory? And that is the reason why the captain of salvation himself is not ashamed to call them brethren and can exult with joy unspeakable, "Behold I and the children whom God hath given me" (Heb. 2:13).

Justification

Below is a collection of quotes from chapter five of Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Murray does a great job at starting from the ground up in building his definition of justification. This has been one of the most helpful pieces of writing I've read on this topic as it lays everything out clearly and concisely. Enjoy!

If we are to appreciate that which is central in the gospel, if the jubilee trumpet is to find its echo again in our hearts, our thinking must be revolutionized by the realism of the wrath of God, of the reality and gravity of our guilt, and of the divine condemnation.

That justification does not mean to make holy or upright should be apparent from common use. When we justify a person we do not make that person good or upright. When a judge justifies an accused person he does not make that person an upright person. He simply declares that in his judgement the person is not guilty of the accusation but is upright in terms of the law relevant to the case. In a word, justification is simply a declaration or pronouncement respecting the relation of the person to the law which he, the judge, is required to administer. 

This is what is meant when we insist that justification is forensic. It has to do with a judgement given, declared, pronounced; it is judicial or juridical or forensic. The main point of such terms is to distinguish between the kind of action which justification involves and the kind of action involved in regeneration. Regeneration is an act of God in us; justification is a judgement of God with respect to us. The distinction is like that of the distinction between the act of a surgeon and the act of a judge. The surgeon, when he removes an inward cancer, does something in us. That is not what a judge does; he gives a verdict regarding our judicial status. If we are innocent he declares accordingly... Justification means to declare or pronounce to be righteous.

In God's justification of sinner's there is no deviation from the rule that what is declared to be is presupposed to be. God's judgement is according to truth here as elsewhere. The peculiarity of God's action consists in this that he causes to be the righteous state or relation which is declared to be. We must remember that justification is always forensic or judicial. Therefore what God does in this case is that he constitutes the new and righteous judicial relation as well as declares this new relation to be. He constitutes the ungodly righteous, and consequently can declare them to be righteous. In the justification of sinners there is a constitutive act as well as a declarative. Or, if we will, we may say that the declarative act of God in the justification of the ungodly is constitutive. In this consists its incomparable character.

It is clear that the justification which is unto eternal life Paul regards as consisting in our being constituted righteous, in our receiving righteousness as a free gift, and this righteousness is none other than the righteousness of the one man Jesus Christ; it is righteousness of his obedience. Hence grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:21). This is the truth that has been expressed as the imputation to us of the righteousness of Christ. Justification is therefore a constitutive act whereby the righteousness of Christ is imputed to our account and we are accordingly accepted  as righteous in God's sight.

Justification is both a declarative and constitutive act of God's free grace. It is constitutive in order that it may be truly declarative. God must constitute the new relationship as well as declare it to be. The constitutive act consists in the imputation to us of the obedience and righteousness of Christ. The obedience of Christ must therefore be regarded as the ground of justification; it is the righteousness which God not only takes into account but reckons to our account when he justifies the ungodly.

Faith and Repentance

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

The sufficiency of his saviourhood rests upon the work he accomplished once for all when he died upon the cross and rose again in triumphant power. But it resides in the efficacy and perfection of his continued activity at the right hand of God. It is because he continues ever and has an unchangeable priesthood that he is able to save them that come unto him and to give them eternal life. When Christ is presented to lost men in the proclamation of the gospel, it is as Saviour he is presented, as one who ever continues to be the embodiment of the salvation he has once for all accomplished. It is the Saviour himself and therefore salvation full and perfect. There is no imperfection in the salvation offered and there is no restriction to its overture; it is full, free, and unrestricted. And this is the warrant of faith.

Repentance we must not think of as consisting merely in a change of mind in general; it is very particular and concrete. And since it is a change of mind with reference to sin, it is a change of mind with reference to particular sins, sins in all the particularity and individuality which belong to our sins. It is very easy for us to speak of sin, to be very denunciatory respecting sin, and denunciatory respecting the particular sins of other people and yet not be penitent regarding our own particular sins. The test of repentance is the genuineness and resoluteness or our repentance in respect of our own sins, sins characterized by the aggravations which are peculiar to our own selves.

The broken spirit and contrite heart are abiding marks of the believing soul. As long as sin remains there must be the consciousness of it and this conviction or our own sinfulness will constrain self-abhorrence, confession, and the plea of forgiveness and cleansing. Christ's blood is the laver of initial cleansing but it is also the fountain to which the believer must continuously repair. It is at the cross of Christ that repentance has its beginning; it is at the cross of Christ that it must continue to pour out its heart in the tears of confession and contrition. The way of sanctification is the way of contrition for the sin of the past and of the present.

Regeneration

It is the glory of the gospel of God's grace that it provides for this incongruity. God's call, since it is effectual, carries with it the operative grace whereby the person called is enabled to answer the call and to embrace Jesus Christ as he is freely offered in the gospel. God's grace reaches down to the lowest depths of need and meets all the exigencies of the moral and spiritual impossibility which inheres in our depravity and inability. And that grace is the grace of regeneration...God effects a change which is radical and all-pervasive, a change which cannot be explained in terms of any combination, permutation, or accumulation of human resources, a change which is nothing less than a new creation by him who calls the things that be not as though they were, who spake it and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast. This, in a word, is regeneration.

John Murray - Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

Effectual Calling

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

It is God the Father who is the specific agent in the effectual call. This aspect of Biblical teaching we are too liable to overlook. We think of the Father as the person of the trinity who planned salvation and as the specific agent in election. And we think properly when we do so. But we fail to discern other emphases of Scripture and we do dishonour to the Father when we think of him simply as planning salvation and redemption. The Father is not far removed from the effectuation of that which he designed in his eternal counsel and accomplished in the death of his Son; he comes into the most intimate relation to his people in the application of redemption by being the specific and
particular actor in the inception of such application.

One Source

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied:

There is only one source from which we can derive a proper conception of Christ's atoning work. That source is the Bible. There is only one norm by which our interpretations and formulations are to be tested. That norm is the Bible. The temptation ever lurks near us to prove unfaithful to this one and only criterion. No temptation is more subtle and plausible than the tendency to construe the atonement in terms of our human experience and thus to make our experience the norm. It does not always appear in its undisguised form. But it is the same tendency that underlies the attempt to place upon the work of Christ an interpretation which brings it into closer approximation to human experience and accomplishment, the attempt to accommodate our interpretation and application of our Lord's suffering and obedience unto death to the measure or, at least, to the analogy of our experience. There are two directions in which we can do this. We can heighten the significance of our experience and doing to the measure of our Lord's or we can lower the significance of our Lord's experience and doing to the measure of ours. The bias and the final result are the same. We drag down the meaning of Christ's atoning work and we evacuate it of its unique and distinctive glory. This is wickedness of the deepest dye. What human experience can reproduce that which the Lord of glory, the Son of God incarnate, alone endured and accomplished?

Lessons in Grammar

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

"In the atonement something was accomplished once for all, without any participation or contribution on our part. A work was perfected which antedates any and every recognition and response on the part of those who are its beneficiaries. Any curtailing of this fact in the interest of what is supposed to be a more ethical interpretation or in the interest of interpreting the atonement in terms of the ethical effects it is calculated to produce in us is to eviscerate the truth of the atonement. The atonement is objective to us, performed independently of us , and the subjective effects that accrue from it presuppose its accomplishment. The subjective effects exerted in our understanding and will can follow only as we recognize by faith the meaning of the objective fact." (emphasis mine)

Our friends at Dictionary.com can help us with a key definition from above:

e·vis·cer·ate [v. ih-vis-uh-reyt; adj. ih-vis-er-it, -uh-reyt]

verb (used with object), e·vis·cer·at·ed, e·vis·cer·at·ing.

1. to remove the entrails from; disembowel: to eviscerate a chicken.

2. to deprive of vital or essential parts: The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the leaders of the party.

3. Surgery . to remove the contents of (a body organ).

I chose to show the definition in its entirety because I think it's important to recognize what other context's this word could be used in. Needless to say it is a strong word choice. 

Anytime we make begin to make Christ's atonement subjective, anytime we give ourselves credit for making the choice for Christ, anytime we do anything to rob Christ of the glory he deserves in redeeming us, we disembowel his atoning work. How's that for a mental picture.

 

The Court Room

<sup>Romans 3:23-26:

23</sup> for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

From Murray's Redemption: Accomplished and Applied:

Here not only are redemption and propitiation collocated but there is a combination of concepts bearing upon the intent and effect of Christ's work, and this shows how closely interrelated these various concepts are. This passage exemplifies and confirms what other considerations establish, namely, that redemption from the guilt of sin must be construed in juridicial terms analogous to those which must be applied to expiation, propitiation, and reconciliation. 


The atonement is one of those topics that make people uncomfortable when we get down to the nitty gritty. Some parts are more palatable then others; we like them better than the others. But Murray argues above that the different parts are so closely interwoven that we cannot separate them. They must be looked at altogether  to see the glory of Christ's work on the cross. Great teaching so far, really enjoying the book!

Counterintuitive

How's this for counter cultural?

The more we emphasize the inflexible demands of justice and holiness the more marvellous become the love of God and its provisions.

John Murray

This quote was in the context of the necessity for the atonement. As a person still in their 20's this quote strikes me as one that would offend a lot Christian young people today. God's love is paramount, for above any other attribute they'd say. Talk about holiness and justice and you would risk being labelled a legalist! God's love is clung to while all other attributes, like holiness and justice (righteousness) are left behind. But what Murray points to here is that God's love is truly appreciated when viewed alongside His holiness and justice. These attributes show just how undeserving His love is to sinners like us. Abandon these other attributes and His love begins to lose it meaning.

Eternally inexhaustible love

Below, John Murray's commentary on Romans 8:32 which reads: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (ESV)

If restraint had been placed upon the power of the enemy, he would not have despoiled the forces of darkness and made a show openly of the principalities and powers. He would not have triumphed over them and bound the effectively to the triumphal chariot of his cross. Is this not further proof of the Father's grace, that he should have given over his Son to the malignity and hate, the ingenuity and power of the prince of darkness and his hosts? It was the Father who delivered him up, not the host of darkness. "Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; nor Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy;-but the Father, for love!"

It is only as the ordeal of Gethsemane and Calvary is viewed in the perspective of damnation vicariously borne, damnation executed with the sanctions of unrelenting justice, and damnation endured when the hosts of darkness were released to wreak the utmost of their vengeance that we shall be able to apprehend the wonder and taste the sweetness of love that passes knowledge, love eternally to be explored but eternally inexhaustible. (Murray, John. The Epistle to the Romans: the English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes -Volume 2. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968. Print. 324-325)

Distortion and denial of justification

From John Murray's commentary on Romans (Murray, John. The Epistle to the Romans: the English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968. Print.):

The intimacy of the relations between justification and sanctification is made evident by the way in which chapters 5 and 6 are connected. There is no abruptness of transition. The question with which chapter 6 begins arises, from the emphasis at the close of chapter 5. If grace superabounds where sin abounds, if the multiplication of transgression serves to exhibit the lustre of grace, and if the law administered by Moses came in alongside in e order that the trespass might abound, the logical inference would seem to be, let us sin all the more in order that God may be gloried in the magnifying of This grace. This is the antinomian distortion of the doctrine of grace and it is also the objection of the legalist to the doctrine of justification apart from works by free grace through faith. It is both the distortion and the objection that the apostle answers in this Chapter, and in his answer he develops the implications of the death and resurrection of Christ. (212, emphasis mine)

I find it interesting that the depravity of our hearts and minds leads both the legalist and the antinomian to erroneously abuse the same doctrine; in the case of the antinomian, take our right standing with God as a springboard for license to sin and, in the case of the legalist, to deny justification outright either through argument or action. I know that I too often pitch my tent in both camps, but your more likely to find me in the same neighbourhood as the legalists. God help us.

Superabounding grace!

Romans 5:20,21

ESV - Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

From John Murray's commentary on Romans:

The apostle construes the multiplying of trespass which the giving of the law promoted as magnifying and demonstrating the superabounding riches of divine grace. The more transgression is multiplied and aggravated the greater is the grace that abounds unto justification and the more the lustre of that grace is made manifest. The surpassing efficacy and glory of God's grace are stressed by the superlative, "superabounded".

Sufferings

Romans 8:16,17
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

"Believers do not contribute to the accomplishment of expiation, propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption. Nowhere are their sufferings represented as having such virtue or efficacy. The Lord laid his people's iniquities upon Christ alone and in him alone did God reconcile the world to himself. Christ alone redeemed us by his blood. Nevertheless there are other aspects from which the sufferings of the Children of God are to be classified with the sufferings of Christ himself. They partake of the sufferings which Christ endured and they are regarded as filling up the total quota of sufferings requisite to the consummation of redemption and the glorification of the whole body of Christ (cf. Col. 1:24). Again union and communion with Christ are the explanation and validation of this participation." John Murray in The Epistle to the Romans, Volume II

Romans 5:18-21

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"With Adam is bound up the entrance of sin into the world and the reign of sin, condemnation, and death. With Christ is bound up the entrance of righteousness and the reign of grace, righteousness, justification, life. These two heads of humanity and the two parallel yet opposing complexes bound up with them are the pivots on which the history of humanity turns. God's government of the race can be interpreted only in terms of these two headships and of the respective complexes which the heads set in operation. These are the pivots of redemptive revelation, the first as making redemption necessary, the second as accomplishing and securing redemption." (Murray, John. The Epistle to the Romans: the English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968. p207)

Antithetical Complexes

Romans 5:12-21
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John Murray, in his commentary on Romans, discusses this passage:
"We cannot grasps the truths of world-wide significance set forth in this passage unless we recognize that two antithetical complexes are contrasted. The first is the complex of sin-condemnation-death and the second is that of righteousness-justification-life. These are invariable combinations. Sin sets in the operation the inevitable consequences of condemnation, and death, righteousness the consequents of justification and life, and, as is obvious, these are antithetical at each point of the parallel."

Joy in tribulations

Romans 5:1-5

5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

In considering the progression of the verses above, John Murray, in his commentary on Romans, indicates that the process begins with tribulation-we rejoice in our sufferings-and terminates in hope. However, we see in verse 2 that preceding the even the tribulations is a glorying in hope. So, "He [Paul] has described a circle, beginning with hope and therefore ending with hope.This drives home the lesson that the glorying in tribulations is not something disassociated from rejoicing in hope of the glory of God; it is not even coordinate or complimentary. Glorying in tribulations is subordinate. We glory in tribulations because they have an eschatological orientation-they subserve the interests of hope." We as Christians are not masochist; tribulations do not terminate on themselves. Our joy in trials and difficulties is grounded in hope that has its fulfillment in the future; our trials are to be rejoiced in because they terminate on God. We will be with Him. Forever.

Abraham's faith and our faith

Romans 4:22-25

22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

From John Murray's commentary on Romans, we read "If we are to be justified by faith, obviously the circumstances of our faith cannot be identical to Abraham's. We are not now in the same historical context and our faith cannot be exemplified in the same ways ... It is precisely in relation to these considerations that verses 24 and 25 are significant." (153)

Murray proceeds to clarify by comparison the faith of Abraham and our faith. He delivers 3 points of comparison.

1. It is God who raised Christ from the dead therefore both our faith as well as Abraham's is placed on God.
2. Abraham's faith was focused on a God who quickens the dead (vs. 17) and our faith is in God who raised Christ from the dead. Thus, both our faith and Abraham's centers on an omnipotent, death-defying God.
3. Abraham's faith was concerned with a promise. Our faith rests on Christ who was the fulfillment of promise. Both the patriarch's faith and our faith is centered on Christ. (153)

Faith and works in Romans 3

Romans 3:327-31
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

John Murray, in his commentary on Romans (Murray, John. The Epistle to the Romans: the English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968.) discusses the relationship between faith and works of the law:

We are required to ask how the principle of faith is so rigidly exclusive of and antithetical to works of law in the matter of justification. The only answer is the specific quality of faith as opposed to that of works. Justification of works always finds its ground in that which the person is and does; it is always oriented to that consideration of virtue attaching to the person justified. The specific quality of faith is trust and commitment to another; it is essentially extraspective and in that respect is the diametric opposite of works. Faith is self-renouncing; works are self-congratulatory. Faith looks to what God does; works have respect to what we are. It is this antithesis of principle that enables the apostle to base the complete exclusion of works upon the principle of faith ... It follows therefore that "by faith alone" is implicit in the apostle's argument. Luther added nothing to the sense of the passage when he said "by faith alone". (123)

Murray on religious institutions

Romans 3:1-2

3:1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

In his commentary on Romans(Murray, John. The Epistle to the Romans: the English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968.), John Murray makes an application to modern thinking on religious institutions that is based on Paul's comments on an ancient institution; namely, circumcision.

The direction of the apostle's thought here is relevant as rebuke to much that is current in the attitude of the present day, namely, neglect of, if not contempt for, institutions which God has established in the church, on the plausible plea that in many cases those who observe these institutions do not prove faithful to their intent and purpose and that many who are indifferent and perhaps hostile to these institutions exhibit more of the evangelical faith and fervor which ought to commend these institutions. The same answer must be given and given with even greater emphasis. For if Paul could say with reference to the advantage and profit of an institution that had been discontinued as to its observance "Much every way", how much more may we esteem the institutions that are permanent in the church of Christ and which regulate its life and devotion until Christ will come again. (92)