The Double Cure
The first verse of the hymn “Rock of Ages”ends with these words: “Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure” (Majesty Hymns, 451). Interestingly, some hymnals have an alternate reading: “Be of sin the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt and power” (Hymns for the Living Church, 149.) Fortunately, both versions refer to the same two cures for sin.
The first cure is salvation from God’s wrath by being cleansed from the guilt of sin. This cure is called justification and refers to a change in God’s records when we trust Christ as our Savior whereby all of our sins are blotted out and Christ’s righteousness is credited to us. When Paul describes justification in Romans 4, he refers to David’s statements in Psalm 32: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:8) and “the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works” (Rom. 4:6). This righteousness is not our own since it is apart from our works and comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:22).
The second cure involves cleansing from the power of sin by being made pure. This cure is called regeneration or the new birth. This is a change in our lives whereby the Holy Spirit breaks the control of sin and indwells believers, giving them life and enabling them to obey God. In Romans 6:12 Paul admonishes his readers, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof,” and in Romans 8:13 he insists, “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
Both justification and regeneration occur instantaneously and simultaneously when we put our trust in Christ, but there is a logical order in which justification logically precedes regeneration. In Colossians 2:13 Paul states, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him [regeneration], having forgiven you all trespasses [justification].”
Justification is also described as sanctification. In Hebrews 10:10 the writer speaks of God’s will and says, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” This is a positional sanctification. In contrast, progressive sanctification is accomplished by the written word of God. In His high priestly prayer Jesus says, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).
1. Regeneration makes progressive sanctification possible.
Stated another way, birth makes growth possible. Paul could ask the Roman believers, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:1, 2). Therefore we are to “reckon [ourselves] to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11). Being made dead to sin refers to that aspect of regeneration in which the Holy Spirit breaks the control of sin, while being made alive to God refers to that aspect of regeneration in which the Holy Spirit gives us life, indwelling us, and enabling us to obey God.
2. Progressive sanctification is a process throughout the lifetime of a believer.
In Philippians 1:6 Paul could say, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” This is why it is called progressive sanctification. It is not instantaneous and will not be complete until Christ returns. As Paul tells the Thessalonian believers, “To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (1 Thess. 3:13).
3. Progressive sanctification is the responsibility of both the believer and God.
Believers are admonished to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). In 1 Peter 1:14–16 believers are moreover exhorted, “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
In Philippians 2:12 we read, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Believers here are commanded to cultivate and develop, to work out and not work for, their salvation. They are to do it with fear and trembling, showing it is possible to fail in this endeavor, remaining spiritually immature believers.
But it is also clearly taught in Scripture that God is responsible for our progressive sanctification. In the very next verse we are told, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
4. Progressive sanctification is accomplished by obedience to the written word of God.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers, “Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication” (1 Thess. 4:1–3).
5. Progressive sanctification is accomplished by yieldedness to the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:25 states, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Hebrews 10:19–25 states at least three specific tools God has made available to us in our responsibility to walk in the Spirit.
Prayer. Hebrews 10:19–22 reads, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, . . . And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”
His promises. “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)” (Heb. 10:23). His people. “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another” (Heb. 10:24, 25).
Article 12 of the 1878 Niagara Bible Conference Creed summarizes the Biblical teaching concerning progressive sanctification: “We believe that we are called with a holy calling to walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and so to live in the Spirit that we should not fulfill the lusts of the flesh; but the flesh being still in us to the end of our earthly pilgrimage needs to be kept constantly in subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence to the dishonor of His name.”
At the time of original publication, Dr. Myron Houghton was a senior professor and chair of the Systematic Theology Department at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa. Prior to teaching at Faith, he taught at Denver Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary. Dr. Houghton is the author of Law and Grace (Regular Baptist Books).
(Originally published in FrontLine • May/June 2012. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)