Below I continue my comments on the Forde quotes.
"The second aspect of the transition of the Christian from old to death to life, is that all our ordinary views of progress and growth are turned upside down. It is not that we are somehow moving toward the goal, but rather that the goal is moving closer and closer to us. This corresponds to the eschatological nature of the New Testament message. It is the coming of the kingdom upon us, not our coming closer to or building up the kingdom. That is why it is a growth in grace, not a growth in our own virtue or morality. The progress, if one can call it that, is that we are being shaped more and more by the totality of the grace coming to us. The progress is due to the steady invasion of the new. That means that we are being taken more and more off our own hands, more and more away from self, and getting used to the idea of being saved by the grace of God alone. Our sanctification consists merely in being shaped by, or getting used to, justification."
In my opinion there is very little if any to disagree with in the above statement, assuming the way Forde frames the progress of sanctification, as the Kingdom coming ever closer to the justified man, means that it carries the broad idea of our going from justification to glorification through sanctification. He mentions at the first, the progress from the old man—the death of the old man—to new man, so there is a progression of sorts. But the matter that needs to be worked out is whether the new man is capable of sin or if he, by virtue of his new position in Christ, is not, and perhaps it is only the old man warring against him. If by having our ideas of progress and growth turned upside down, Forde does NOT mean the new man does NOT sin then I agree with his description. The concept of “compatibilism” also comes to mind, thus I’ve included these posts in that category on the blog. On monergism.com, B.B. Warfield is quoted as defining the term this way, “Compatibilism (also known as soft determinism), is the belief that God’s predetermination and meticulous providence is “compatible” with voluntary choice.” The term is generally thought of in regards to regeneration but it really covers the entire realm of human choice, which also includes our choices as believers, to obey and experience that moment of sanctification or disobey and not. Our choices to obey God’s Law and leading are mysteriously and sometimes strangely compatible with the foreordination of God that we either do or do not conform to that Law. We make real choices according to our present and most aggressive affection or desire—in fact we must operate that way, for the only factors constraining our “creaturely” free choices are our affections or desires and God’s perfect knowledge of our future choices. It is here I would like to draw the distinction between the indicative or positional and experiential natures of the believer’s sanctification. On the one hand the New Testament says that we are or already have been sanctified or set apart (John 17:19; Acts 20:32, 26:18; 1 Cor. 1:2, 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:21; Heb. 2:11, 10:10; Jude 1:1). When we were regenerated we were set apart to God. On the other hand, sanctification seems to be the progress through the interim period between justification and glorification, as the New Testament says, but not in as many places, we are being sanctified (1 Thess. 4:3; Heb. 10:14). So it is imperative that we obey God’s Law and be sanctified. At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, consider the following event as an analogy because most of us can relate to the emotion of it. During a bank robbery a woman is held hostage and the thief calls for the male security guard cowering in the corner to go to the safe, but in his angst he can’t move. Finally one of the other customers calls out to him and says, “…be a man!” The fact that the guard was petrified in the corner did not change his gender, during the entire episode he was a man. His gender hadn’t suddenly changed as his fear overtook him. But the other customer was encouraging him to fulfill in action, the position he already occupied.
Reformed theology would agree that the progress of sanctification is not the growth of our own virtue, but what does “being shaped more and more by the totality of the grace coming to us” mean except that our actions change? To be sure, the shaping would include at the very least an increase of repentance and belief over the entire period of “sanctification” in a believer’s life, but I am coming to the conclusion that it can’t be that alone. Even in Forde’s description of what being shaped by grace means he puts up life change as a sign of the growth; change which can only really be measured against the Law of God unless one sets up another tablet of prescribed actions in its place. But we would agree that any change made in that direction is not of our own conjuring but of the Kingdom coming upon us in the person of the Holy Spirit, and I would add, by whom we have been sanctified, and by whom we are being sanctified, or growing by grace, into our new position. Like someone who has been hired as a product developer who has never performed in that capacity before, even though he is called the Vice President of Product Development he must grow into the position as his actions change to reflect his title.
Quotes and comments to be continued...
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