[...] The Necessity of Good Works and Sanctification [...]

Kevin, thank you. May I offer a slight tweak to your summary?

I'm not sure Turretin is saying "good works are the effect of justification" so much as the effects of the Spirit-wrought life (of holiness) worked within us. Justification, could we not say, is the distinct but inseparable acquittal of such a believer.

I'd love to see you steer clear of implying justification causes good works. How about "the knowledge of our justification motivates us toward good works"? Thanks again!

Concerned: From my reading of these men, the similarities have far more to do with the fact that each is trying to give an account of what Paul really said, rather than with them coming to the same conclusions. From what I've seen of Kevin, he is much closer to Piper's take on the role of good works in Justification (none) and Sanctification (plenty) than to N.T. Wright's.

Glad someone else is seeing the similarities with N.T. Wright.

I think glorification and good works are best viewed from the angle of the life of God (zoe) saturating our mortal bodies and being expressed through us as described in 2 Cor 5:4 and implied in James 2:17. Thus, I would add to the definition of "good work" 5) the overflow and expression of the life of God from within us.

J.C. Ryle, apparently relying on the writings of two earlier ministers named Trail and Brooks, made a distinction between justification and sanctification, and, in so doing, contrasted righteousness and holiness. Here is the link to the excerpt from Ryle's larger work on holiness.

http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/ryle/holiness/23.htm.

Here is a key paragraph from the link: "In sanctification the Spirit of God infuses a holiness into the soul. I do not say He infuses a righteousness; for I would fain have these words, righteousness and holiness, better distinguished than generally they are. Righteousness and holiness are, in this case, to be kept vastly asunder. Our righteousness is without us; our holiness is within us, it is our own; the Apostle plainly makes that distinction. 'Not having mine own righteousness.' (Phil. iii. 9.) It (holiness) is our own, not originally, but our own inherently (at regeneration); not our own so us to be of our own working, but our own because it is indwelling in us. But our righteousness is neither our own originally nor inherently; it is neither wrought out by us, nor doth it dwell in us; but it is wrought out by Jesus Christ, and it eternally dwells in Him, and is only to be pleaded by faith, by a poor creature. But our holiness, though it be not our own originally, yet it is our own inherently, it dwells in us...

Would much of the tension among new Calvinists concerning grace and good works or justification and sanctification be resolved by Ryle's distinction between righteousness and holiness?

I Peter 1:16 and Leviticus 11:44 contain the imperative to "be holy," with the Leviticus verse specifically commanding, "sanctify yourselves."

The closest I could find to a command for us to be righteous is Revelation 22:11, which the NAS translates: "Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy."

Young's literal translation renders the same verse a little differently (and more in keeping with Ryle's distinction between righteousness/justification and holiness/sanctification): "he who is unrighteous -- let him be unrighteous still, and he who is filthy -- let him be filthy still, and he who is righteous -- let him be declared righteous still, and he who is sanctified -- let him be sanctified still."

For some time, I had noticed how certain Old Testament saints were called "righteous." However, keeping in mind Ryle's distinction and Young's translation of Rev. 22:11, I found it interesting that Zechariah and Elizabeth were described this way in Luke 1:5-6: "In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.

One could read this verse and conclude that the couple were righteous before God because they walked blamelessly in accord with God's law. However, interpreting scripture with scripture, we should read Luke 1 and see that because Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous before God by faith in (the promise of) the Messiah/Christ, they were enabled to walk blamelessly before God.

Justified by God's act and accounted righteous by faith in Christ's perfect righteousness outside of us; sanctified by God's working holiness in us so that, more and more, we are enabled to daily walk in his ways. Isn't this life in Christ?

Hum...suspiciously similar to Wright and the ETS presentation in Atlanta 2010, to wit "not because of but in accordance with" formula. Cleared up much of the nonsense spewed against him.

I didn't grow up hearing this, but now I can't see how it can even be a controversy. Paul says it in the *very* *next* sentence after he talks about grace...

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:8-10

Amen. In Galatians 6:9, Paul exhorted those justified by faith alone to "not grow weary of doing good." There is no contradiction between the grace of the gospel and the good law of God that regulates our lives to do good works. The Westminster Confession of Faith (19.7) teaches that the gospel and the law do "sweetly comply," with "the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely, and cheerfully, which the will of God, revealed in the law, requires to be done." The more my wife and I look at the law of God the more we see how it fundamentally promotes our caring for the interest of God and others. It promotes loving good works.

[...] The Necessity of Good Works and Sanctification – Kevin DeYoung [...]

[...] De Young had a post, The Necessity of Good Works and Sanctification. I think theoretically I agree with him, but having freshly (almost two years this fall) come out [...]

[...] – The Necessity of Good Works and Sanctification by Kevin DeYoung Share this:Share Posted in: Weekly Review / Tagged: David Murray, David Phillips, Gloria [...]