Tuesday, May 25, 2010

That division between justification and sanctification again

“We also see a wedge driven between justification and sanctification, something that is alien to the theologians we have considered prior to Calvin, as well as a loss of the sense of salvation as participation in the life of the Godhead.
“Indeed, in the intellectual climate of modernity generally, there is a rise in concern with the cognitive dimensions of faith as belief and as a mental act, and a corresponding erosion of an epistemology based upon participation in the Godhead.”—Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture, page 224

<idle musing>
I just read the foreword to the new Bonhoeffer biography from Thomas Nelson; Timothy Keller wrote the foreword, but unfortunately, it is Flash™, so I can't paste an excerpt (go there to read it—you really should; it is preview pages 14-15). Keller highlighted the dichotomy in German theology at the time between justification and sanctification; he sees the same tendencies here. The result is cheap grace, which really isn't grace at all...
</idle musing>

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