Though we are not saved by good works, as procuring causes, yet we are saved to good works, as fruits and effects of saving grace, which God has prepared that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10). It is, indeed, one part of our salvation to be delivered from the bondage of the covenant of works; but the end of this is, not that we may have liberty to sin…but that we may fulfill the royal law of liberty, and that we may serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter (Gal. 5:13; Rom. 7:6)…
They would be free from the punishment due to sin, but they love their lusts so well that they hate holiness, and would not be saved from the service of sin. The way to oppose this pernicious delusion is not to deny, as some do, that trusting on Christ for salvation is a saving act of faith, but rather to show that none do or can trust on Christ for true salvation, except they trust on Him for holiness.
-Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, Chapter 8, Kindle Loc. 1702-19 (Get a free copy for Kindle HERE).
The choice of the name ‘Jesus’ had a purpose: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus is a Greek play on the Hebrew name Joshua, or Yeshua – Yah Saves. Jesus is announced as the salvation of Yahweh. But what does he save his people from? The angel puts it plainly: he saves his people from their sin. This could be taken to mean a number of things: he saves them from the wrath and curse of God against man due to their sin. He saves them from the consequences of sin. But, Walter Marshall reminds us, salvation includes salvation from sin itself.
Jonathan Edwards put it like this:
The most remarkable type of the work of redemption by divine love in all the Old Testament history, was the redemption of the children of Israel out of Egypt. But the holy living of his people was the end God had in view in that redemption, as he often signified to Pharaoh, when from time to time he said to him by Moses and Aaron, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” And we have a like expression concerning Christ’s redemption in the New Testament, where it is said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, . . . to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:68-75). All these things make it very plain that the end of redemption is, that we might be holy (Charity and Its Fruits, Chapter 11).
In our justification we are counted as righteous for sake of Christ. In sanctification we live out the trajectory of our justification as we are actually being made righteous through the continuing work of his Spirit within us. This work will culminate in our glorification, as all remnants of sin are wiped out and we are made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God for all eternity. So then, justification is the beginning, actual holiness is the end. Justification is the inauguration, glorification is the culmination. Sanctification is the road in between.
RC’s believe in a purgatory in which sins are purged. We follow the teaching of the apostle Paul: the purging of sin (along with positive living unto righteousness) is present-life sanctification. I once had a (Reformed) professor who recommended that we read (specifically) Dorothy Sayers’ translation of Dante’s Purgatorio. He hypothetically asked himself the question we were all thinking in our minds: ‘Why should a bunch of protestant seminary students read a book about Purgatory?’ His answer was this: apply it all to sanctification. That was great advice, and I used it as I read the book. I use it almost every day. God (as a loving Father) is purging me of my sins.
This does not entail that we will ever achieve sinless perfection in this life; but it does mean that we must believe in the promise of God: ‘He will save his people from their sin.’ Your salvation is of free grace. You did not earn a bit of it. And that grace toward you is not in vain. So get to work, for it is him who is at work in you.
[FYI: Your last sentence in this post has, I believe, an important type-o where you wrote “as it” rather than “is at.” You have all the right letters, just the wrong ordering!]
I think Marshall gives his most succinct dispatch of Antinomianism and Legalism in this short chapter. It almost appears as a summation to what previous chapters laid a wide foundation for. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it at a meditative pace.
That is an awesome way to use Dante! I’ve certainly never considered it myself, but see its applicability immediately. It will surely change my day-to-day approach to life.
One difference I do see, is that I do not observe Dante’s Purgatorio as having much of a place for cherishing, or contentment. It is a place where one’s entire posture is forward-facing. That is to say, it is a place long on hope and short on gratitude. Long on prayer and short on praise. Philippians 4:6 comes to mind as helping to balance the Purgatory metaphor, where we are exhorted to give up our prayers with “thanksgiving.” To live without this, would seem to fate oneself to a certain form of the anxiety spoken of at the beginning of that verse.
Thanks for being a good editor (I need one), the typo is fixed!
As for Dante; I certainly don’t think it makes Purgatorio doctrinally acceptable in a strict sense (you already know that), but that way of looking at it can certainly make it more helpful. I think your take on it summarizes the way I tend to look at Roman Catholicism in general. There’s not much to be thankful for when you’re grinding it out, jumping from one hoop to the next on the road to acceptance and righteousness. That’s the whole beauty of the gospel mystery of sanctification (the book and the phrase), it starts with relief; it begins with ‘It is finished.’ I starts with joy and that joy is what gives us happiness in the midst of a fight – it’s a hard fight, but it’s a happy fight.