The doctrine of sanctification never ceases to be a topic of serious discussion among the Reformed. This is certainly the case in the Presbyterian Church in America. Rightly so. The Christian’s understanding of sanctification is key to possessing gospel clarity, fostering spiritual maturity, and fueling service to Christ. The minister’s view of sanctification greatly informs his preaching and discipleship, thus impacting the spiritual health of the church in significant ways.
Over the years I’ve found it interesting that fellow Presbyterian ministers will often reference the Heidelberg Catechism (HC) when discussing sanctification, rather than the Westminster Standards. At times I’ve wondered if some might view the HC as less demanding in its teaching on progressive sanctification; that it may have a less stringent approach to God’s law, piety, and good works. The HC is invoked to contend, among other things, that gratefulness is the sole motivation for Christian obedience, and that the only effective way to cultivate true spiritual growth is to hearken back to our justification. These views are sometimes touted as the Reformed position.
So what does the HC teach about sanctification? Is gratitude the only legitimate motivation for Christian obedience? Does the third-use of the law play a significant role in progressive sanctification? Are Christians meant to be active and earnest in the pursuit of holiness? The following article is an attempt to answer these questions; to demonstrate that the Heidelberg Catechism, like the Westminster Standards, teaches a robust and multi-faceted doctrine of sanctification. Before answering these important questions, let’s briefly consider the background of the HC.
A Most Beloved Catechism
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) ranks as one of the most beloved Reformed Confessions since the days of the Protestant Reformation. Its warm piety, pastoral tone, and gospel-driven approach to the Christian life make it a favorite among Reformed believers everywhere. For good reason it has been historically referred to as the Book of Comfort. Like many, I refer to it often for both doctrine and devotional purposes.
Written chiefly by Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583), the HC is a masterful exposition of the gospel. The main divisions of the 129 questions and answers (Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude) underscore the biblical fundamentals of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. These three divisions are set forth in Q.2 which asks, “What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?” A. First, how great my sins and misery are; second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.”
The third division, namely, “how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance,” is found in questions 86-129 and is a wonderful exposition of the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer. This section follows, of course, the magisterial, Gospel-heralding exposition of questions 1-85. These Q & A’s include an explication of the Apostles’ Creed, along with the nature and efficacy of the preached Word and sacraments (c.f. Q.65, 70, 81). Rather than minimizing the role of prayer and the Ten Commandments in the sanctification of the believer, the HC views them as essential (Q.115-116). With this in mind let’s consider a few of the important questions posed above.
Is gratitude meant to be the only motivation for Christian obedience?
The HC teaches, without question, that gratitude for our salvation is the chief motivation for Christian obedience (Q.2). Gratitude is, indeed, a cardinal theme in the HC as it concerns good works and obedience. Good works are described as “fruits of thankfulness” (Q.64). The Christian’s Spirit-enabled obedience should surely flow from a heart bursting with gratitude for what Christ has done on our behalf in his sinless life, propitiatory death, and Hell-conquering resurrection. Through His sufferings, “especially on the cross,” Christ has “delivered me from the anguish and torments of hell” (Q.44).
Christians overflow with thankfulness when contemplating the blood and justifying righteousness of Christ. We give thanks over the fact that even though each one of us has “transgressed all the commandments of God … God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me [through faith] the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ … as if I had never had had, nor committed any sin; yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me” (Q.60).
Gratefulness, therefore, is a defining mark of the Christian. United to Christ our hearts swell with gratitude; and gratitude fuels our desire to please God. But it is over simplistic to assert that gratitude for our justification in Christ is the only biblically or confessionally recognized motivation for Christian obedience. Rather, there are other factors, as outlined below, that motivate Christians unto godliness, good works, and conformity to God’s Word.
The Glory of God
Is there any doubt that God’s glory motivates the believer unto obedience and good works? The HC asks in Q.91, “What are good works? A. Only those which proceed from a true faith, are performed according to the law of God, and to His glory … .” As God’s redeemed children, we obey God that He would be “glorified in all our words and works” (Q.99). Individually, our obedience should be motivated by a passion to “glorify Him with my whole heart, so that I renounce and forsake all creatures, rather than commit even the least thing contrary to His will” (Q. 94)–– and additionally, “that we may so order and direct our lives, our thoughts, words and actions, that Thy name may never be blasphemed, but rather honored and praised on our account” (Q. 122; cf. Matt. 5:16). In this same vein the Westminster Standards declare that God’s glory is man’s chief end (WSC Q. 1), and the Apostle Paul states “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31). According to Scripture and the HC the glory of God motivates believers in their Spirit-empowered sanctification.
The Desire to be Holy
Another biblical motivation that the HC recognizes for Christian obedience and spiritual growth is the desire to reflect the holiness of God. Christian baptism, according to the HC, reinforces this point as it represents “the remission of sins freely, for the sake of Christ’s blood which He shed for us by His sacrifice on the cross; and also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost, and sanctified to be members of Christ, that so we may more and more die to sin, and lead holy and unblamable lives” (Q. 70 – emphasis mine). Christians are called to imitate and reflect the Father’s holiness by manifesting “the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:11; cf. Eph. 5:1). In addition, believers are called to follow the example of Christ (Phil. 2:1-11; I Pet. 2:21; Rom. 8:29).
After a stirring exposition of the gospel in I Peter 1:3-12, Peter states: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (I Pet. 1:14-16). Therefore, a clear motivation for every Christian’s obedience is the sincere desire to be like their heavenly Father, to show forth the family resemblance, manifesting an always imperfect, yet growing, measure of Spirit-wrought holiness (Q. 114). The redeemed rejoice in the good news that Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). We also rejoice and are comforted in the truth that God is more committed to our sanctification than we are. He will surely do it! (I Thess. 5:23-24).
Fatherly Discipline and Warnings
In Ursinus’ commentary on HC Q.115, he states that one reason for the strict preaching of the law, including its sober warnings is, in part, “in relation to the godly, because on account of the weakness and corruption of the flesh, it is useful and necessary, even to them, that the threatenings of the law, and the examples of punishment set before them, may keep them in the faithful discharge of their duty. For God threatens severe punishment even to the saints, if they become guilty of sins of a shameful and grievous nature (Ez.18:24)” (Ursinus, Commentary On the Heidelberg Catechism (Phillipsburg, NJ: Reprint, 1852), 613-614.
This corresponds with the HC’s reference to divine punishment and the “heavy wrath of God” as deterrents to disobedience for the believer (Q. 102; 112).
Paul writes that church discipline is not only intended for the censure (and potential restoration) of the offender (I Tim. 5:20; cf. Q.85). It is also meant to foster godly fear in the hearts of onlooking believers; to encourage them, by God’s grace and Spirit, to walk more circumspectly according to God’s Word. In addition, the Scriptures provides sober warnings to believers to motivate them unto obedience. The book of Hebrews is full of such solemn warnings (e.g. Heb. 2:1-4; 3:7- 4:13; 10:19-39). It is precisely because God loves his children that he provides “useful and necessary” warnings for “the faithful discharge of their duty.” So, we see that Scripture and the HC present warnings as motivations for godliness (cf. Q.102).
In addition to gratitude, these three key motivations, namely, the glory of God, the desire to be holy, and the Father’s sober warnings, are legitimate motivations for Christian obedience found in the HC. Of course, there are others. Indeed, other motivations include the fostering of God’s praise, the deep and growing assurance of faith, and the hope that “others may be gained to Christ” as our lives show forth the fruit of the gospel (Q.86). Once again, gratitude is unquestionably the chief motivation for Christian obedience and sanctification in the HC. However, it’s not the only one.
The Gospel Reformation Network’s Article V on Gratitude and Motivation rightly states:
“We affirm that gratitude for justification is a powerful motivation for growth in holiness …. but deny that gratitude for justification is the only valid motivation for holiness, making all other motivations illegitimate or legalistic”. (1)
Does the third-use of the law play a significant role in the Christian life?
Our Reformed Confessions answer in the affirmative. The HC gives serious and careful attention to the requirements of God’s law as a guide for the Christian life (Q. 92-113). This section does not teach sinners how to live in order to be saved, as if salvation could be earned through the works of the law. Rather, it teaches those who are already saved and justified by grace how to “behave towards God” and “what duties we owe to our neighbor” (Q. 93).
God’s law not only restrains, exposes, and condemns sin. It also instructs those who are united to Christ how to love, please, and obey God. The HC explains that good works are “only those which proceed from a true faith” and are “performed according to the law of God, and to his glory; and not such as are founded on our imaginations or the institutions of men” (Q. 91). The law, therefore, serves to give God’s children wisdom and direction for Christian living. We do not set the rules or make them up as we go. God’s Word is a guide for the Christian life.
Ursinus states in his commentary on the HC that while the chief efficient cause of conversion is “the Holy Spirit, or God himself,” the “means or instrumental cause of conversion [which includes sanctification in his use of “conversion”] are the law … the gospel, and again, the doctrine of the law after that of the gospel.”
The preaching of the law goes before, preparing and leading us to a knowledge of the gospel: “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:20) Hence, there can be no sorrow for sin without the law. After the sinner has once been led to a knowledge of sin, then the preaching of the gospel follows, encouraging contrite hearts by the assurance of the mercy of God through Christ. Without the preaching there is no faith, and without faith there is no love to God, and hence no conversion to him. After the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the law again follows, that it may be the rule of our thankfulness and of our life. The law, therefore, precedes, and follows conversion. It precedes that it may lead to a knowledge and sorrow for sin: it follows that it may serve as a rule of life to the converted. It is for this reason that the prophets first charge sin upon the ungodly, threaten punishment, and exhort to repentance; then comfort and promise pardon and forgiveness; and lastly, again exhort and prescribe the duties of piety and godliness (Ursinus, Commentary, 472–– emphasis mine).
The third-use of the law, therefore, when taught and preached faithfully, in no way negotiates, marginalizes, or undermines the gospel of grace. (2) Nor does it introduce a new form of legalism. Rightly understood, legalism seeks to add something to the grounds of our justification–– the merits of Christ supplemented by our own. Thus, to preach the law as a guide and rule of life for those whose faith is resting in Christ alone for salvation is not legalism. And while it is true that “even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience,” we nevertheless “with sincere resolution” are called to “begin to live, not only according to some, but all the commandments of God” (Q.114). HC question and answer 115 is key to this point:
Q. 115: If in this life no one can keep the Ten Commandments perfectly, why does God have them preached so strictly?
A. First, that throughout our life we may more and more become aware of our sinful nature, and therefore seek more eagerly the forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ. Second, that we may be zealous for good deeds and constantly pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that He may more and more renew us after God’s image, until after this life we reach the goal of perfection.
According to the HC, the strict preaching of the law of God to Christians is meant to expose our remaining indwelling sin, continually drive us to the merciful arms of Christ, and by the Spirit lead us in the way of grateful and growing obedience to the Lord. Ursinus lists several “uses of the law” for the regenerate in his commentary on Q.115.
1. “The preservation of discipline and outward obedience to the law.” As mentioned above, the faithful preaching of the law, along with its threatenings will help to keep God’s people “in the faithful discharge of their duty.”
2. “A knowledge of sin.” Ursinus writes that “the law is to the regenerate a mirror, in which they may see the defects and imperfections of their own nature … lead them to true humility before God … continually advance in true [sanctification] and faith … and become more and more conformed to God and the divine law.”
3. “A rule of divine worship and of a Christian life.” Ursinus states: “For although the law be also a rule of life to the unregenerate before their conversion, yet it is not to them a rule of worship and gratitude to God, as in the case of the regenerate.”
4. “That the exposition of the law delivered to the church may teach that God is, and what he is.”
5. “The voice of the law sounding in the church is an evident testimony, teaching what the true church is, and in what true religion consists.”
6. “It admonishes us of the image of God in man … in the original righteousness which was in Adam, and is again restored in us by Christ.”
7. “It is a testimony of eternal life, still future, in which we will perfectly fulfill the law.”
8. “In nature perfectly restored and glorified after this life, the law will also have its use.” Here Ursinus explains that a “knowledge of the law” will still remain in the elect in heaven that they might demonstrate perfect and personal obedience as did Adam before the fall (All quotes in this section from Ursinus, Commentary, 613-615).
The HC clearly teaches a “third use” of God’s law for the believer, and in no way does this third-use, understood properly, undermine the gospel. Indeed, the HC heralds a whole gospel that saves from the terrible wages of sin and saves unto a life of sanctification.
Are Christians meant to be active and earnest in their quest for spiritual growth?
Yes! Rather than encourage passivity (e.g. “let go and let God”) the HC teaches that Christians are called to actively and earnestly exercise faith in Christ through the means of grace (Q. 65-82; 116); that is, to “diligently frequent the church of God” on the Sabbath in order to “hear [God’s Word], to use the sacraments, and publicly to call upon the Lord” (Q. 105). Moreover, the HC exhorts believers “more and more to hate and flee from [sin]” and “live according to the will of God in all good works” (Q. 89-90).
By the preservation and indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, God’s redeemed children are called to “constantly and strenuously resist our foes till at last we obtain a complete victory” (Q. 127). We are as “members of Christ by faith … with a free and good conscience” meant to actively “fight against sin and Satan in this life” (Q. 32). In light of the finished work of Christ, God’s people are to “earnestly desire to have their faith more and more strengthened, and their lives more holy” (Q.81). There is more to sanctification than merely looking back to our justification. Empowered by the Spirit, the Christian life is a personally active spiritual battle. We fight, labor, wrestle, and run the race with endurance.
In contrast to spiritual apathy, the HC exhorts believers to spiritual vigilance: “That even the smallest inclination or thought contrary to any of God’s commandments never rise in our hearts; but that at all times we hate all sin with our whole heart, and delight in all righteousness” (Q. 113). Therefore, far from teaching a form of passivity in relation to personal holiness, the HC exhorts the Christian believer to toil in the strength of the Holy Spirit.
Some Final Considerations
As we have seen, the biblical concepts of holiness, obedience, piety, progress, duty, and perseverance are viewed by Ursinus and the HC as the fruit of Spirit-wrought sanctification. The gospel is magnified by the promise that “it is impossible that those, who are implanted into Christ by a true faith, should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness” (Q. 64). Again, let’s be clear: these characteristics or fruit or good works are not an attempt to perfect by the flesh what was begun in the Spirit (Gal. 3:3). That is the charge that is often laid at the feet of those who preach and apply the imperatives of Scripture (even when gospel indicatives are boldly heralded week after week through Word and sacrament). Progressive sanctification is a work of God’s free grace, whereby through the Spirit’s use of the appointed means of grace (i.e. Word, sacraments, and prayer) believers receive, and rest in, Christ alone by faith. Moreover, by faith they die more and more to sin and live more and more to righteousness.
Believers are not passive in this work of sanctification. On the contrary, God’s redeemed toil, struggle, fight, run, and press on in the Spirit’s strength and power (cf. Phil. 2:12-13; 3:12-16). These actions are motivated by gratitude for the work of Christ as well as other key motivating factors such as God’s glory and the threatenings of the law. To downplay or marginalize progressive sanctification in our churches, therefore, is not only to deny our Reformed confession, it is to deny the clear teaching of Scripture.
Well-intentioned preachers, motivated by zeal to proclaim the gospel and avoid legalistic tendencies, sometimes neglect the third use of the law, thus advancing a form of soft antinomianism (sometimes not so soft). Consequently, congregations are left untaught and confused on how to please God with their lives. There is only a plea to “look to Christ” and little more. It’s overly simplistic, however, to make “believe in Jesus” or “glory in your justification” the only imperatives for Christian living. The Bible is full of divinely-inspired instruction for God’s people on how to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” and to “grow up in every way into him” (Eph. 4:1b, 15b). Paul’s letters are structured with indicatives leading to imperatives. (3)
In light of the doctrine of sanctification that we find in Scripture, and in our Reformed Confession, let us not shrink back from faithfully trumpeting forth the good news that we’ve not only been saved from condemnation, but to a life of growing Christlikeness. What a gospel! The Lord powerfully saves and transforms His beloved. “He will surely do it.” (I Thess. 5:23-24)
[This is a revised version of an article first published at Ref21 in 2014].
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(1) Another helpful way to communicate this same truth was shared with me by Rev. Dr. Harrison Perkins in a recent email exchange: “We deny that justification’s crucial significance relegates sanctification to optional or secondary importance among the benefits of Christ.” Also see GRN Affirmations and Denials on Sanctification at https://gospelreformation.net/gospel-reformation-network-affirmations-and-denials/}.
(2) This point is punctuated in the WCF 19.6-7: 6. “Although true believers be not under the law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified, or condemned; yet is it of great use to them, as well as to others; in that, as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly; discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives; so as, examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of his obedience. It is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin: and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what afflictions, in this life, they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law. The promises of it, in like manner, show them God’s approbation of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof: although not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works. So as, a man’s doing good, and refraining from evil, because the law encourageth to the one, and deterreth from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law; and, not under grace. 7. Neither are the forementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the gospel, but do sweetly comply with it; 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, requireth to be done.”
(3) For example, the first eleven chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans mainly focus on gospel indicatives, and the final five chapters primarily set forth imperatives. A similar division is found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, with chapters 4-6 focusing on imperatives and exhortations for Christian living.
