D. Sanctification

Note: This list is a work in progress, and may change at any time both in the selection of quotations and the content of the annotations. In the meantime, feel free to offer any suggestions.

CLEMENT OF ROME

“Ye see, beloved, what is the example which has been given us; for if the Lord thus humbled Himself, what shall we do who have through Him come under the yoke of His grace?” (1st Letter to the Corinthians, chap. 16)1

IGNATIUS

“For the beginning is faith, and the end is love. Now these two, being inseparably connected together, are of God, while all other things which are requisite for a holy life follow after them. No man [truly] making a profession of faith sinneth; nor does he that possesses love hate any one. The tree is made manifest by its fruit; so those that profess themselves to be Christians shall be recognised by their conduct. For there is not now a demand for mere profession, but that a man be found continuing in the power of faith to the end.” (Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. 14).2

BARNABAS

“For to this end the Lord endured to deliver up His flesh to corruption, that we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which is effected by His blood of sprinkling.” (Epistle of Barnabas, chap. 5)3

Leo the Great

“True faith also, that justifies the transgressors and makes them just, is drawn to Him who shared their human natures and wins salvation in Him, in whom alone man finds himself not guilty; and thus is free to glory in the power of Him who in the humiliation of our flesh engaged in conflict with the haughty foe, and shared His victory with those in whose body He had triumphed.” (Letter 124, sec. 4; “To the Monks of Palestine”)4

  1. In calling the demand for holiness a “yoke of grace,” Clement attributes all good works of the believer to the operation of grace, and implicitly denies any condign merit or supererogatory works.
  2. The nature of good works as the fruit of faith and the necessity of perseverance, both solidly Reformed teachings, are clearly presented here by Ignatius.
  3. Both sanctification and the remission of sins are by the sprinkled blood and substitutionary death of Christ.
  4. Leo sees true faith both as the means by which transgressors are justified by uniting them with Christ (“justifies the transgressors…in [Christ] alone man finds himself not guilty”); and the means by which they are sanctified (“[justifies]…and makes them just…”).

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