“What Is Sanctifying Grace?

”
(Ezekiel 36:26-27)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
1. Last Lord’s Day evening, we considered the life of Jonathan Edwards.
a. How the Lord gifted him with an amazingly acute intellect.
b. How He also blessed him with a sanctified heart and mind.
c. How He prepared Edwards through his upbringing in a strong Christian
household and at Yale for the work He called him to do.
d. And how he faithfully labored in the Gospel ministry for eight months in
New York, tutored for 2 years at Yale, labored for more than twenty-three
years in the ministry at Northampton, then about eight years at Stockbridge
and finally 2 months as president of Princeton before his death.

2. We also considered how the times in which he lived influenced his thinking:
particularly the two awakenings that he lived and ministered through.
a. His first real experience with revival took place in 1734-1735 with the ‘first’
awakening under his ministry.
b. And by God’s grace, he saw a second – the “Great Awakening” – which
lasted from 1740-1743.
c. The Lord used each of these experiences to shape the mind that would
biblically analyze and write regarding the nature of saving and sanctifying
grace.

B. Preview.
1. This evening, we’re going to begin breaking ground on Edwards’ view of grace.
But first, there are a few things we need to understand about it.
a. The word “grace” can mean several things in Scripture:
(i) In general, it refers to God’s unmerited favor, giving us things we clearly
don’t deserve, and often in a context where we deserve just the opposite.
(a) It can refer to God’s common goodness to all men, giving them food,
clothing, shelter, the blessings of family, a long life.
(b) It can refer to God’s saving goodness to His elect, giving them heaven
when they deserve hell.

(ii) It can also refer more specifically to the spiritual blessings He gives.
(a) When He quickens us to life, He is said to give us saving grace.
(b) And when He strengthens us spiritually after we have been converted,
He is said to give us sanctifying grace.

b. It’s this sanctifying grace that we’ll want to explore more fully in this study,
through the eyes of Jonathan Edwards.
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(i) First, with a study of the nature of sanctifying grace from his Treatise on
Grace.
(ii) Then by considering his Religious Affections, where he will tell us more
specifically about the things that show us that saving and sanctifying grace
is present in our lives.
(iii) As we look at Edwards’ thought on the subject, we’ll see not only how
he benefited from the authors we’ve already surveyed, but also how goes
far beyond them in his understanding and explanation of these things.

2. But tonight, before we turn to Edwards, we’ll consider a few definitions of

sanctifying grace in the history of the church – some more recent and some from
the past, to show how difficult it has been to define what it really is.

II. Sermon.
A. The problem in understanding sanctifying grace.
1. Saving and sanctifying grace can be difficult to understand.
a. It’s a concept like time that we often talk about but don’t fully comprehend.
b. In Roman Catholic circles, it’s understood as a substance, contained in the
sacraments, that is consumed with them and enters the soul.
(i) In their system, to get to heaven directly – which is true only of the saints
– your soul must be full when you die, which means you have become
personally sanctified.
(ii) But any amount of it is enough to get you to purgatory, which means you
will eventually enter heaven.
(iii) We call this the doctrine of justification by infused grace – grace which
is infused or poured into your soul through the sacraments.

c. Protestants disagree that we are saved by infused grace.

(i) The Bible does not teach that we must become filled with grace – or
become personally perfect – before we are declared just by God and given
entrance to heaven.
(ii) It teaches that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us by faith, so
that even though we are not perfect, we are justified by the perfect
righteousness of Christ.

d. We do, however, agree that we are sanctified through infused grace.

(i) We are justified through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
(ii) But we are sanctified through the infused grace He gives.

2. But what is sanctifying grace?

a. That was a question I asked my professors in seminary.
(i) They agreed that it was something God poured into our souls through the
means of grace, but they were unclear as to exactly what it is.
(ii) One thought it was divine help of some sort.
(iii) Another that it was divine power, communicated by the Holy Spirit to
those who have faith that promotes sanctification.
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b. They all agreed it was God’s help, that it came from the Spirit of God, and
that it promoted spiritual growth, but none had an adequate explanation of
what it was.
(i) This also appears to be a common weakness of understanding among
theologians.
(ii) Many either fail to ask the question of precisely what it is, or having
asked it, fail to provide much clarity.
(iii) This is surprising considering that an adequate understanding of this
doctrine provides a vital key in our understanding of sanctification as a
whole, without which we will not see the Lord (Heb.12:14).

B. Let’s consider some of these views of sanctifying grace.

1. First, that of Dr. Philip Edgecumbe Hughes.
a. He begins where most do – that grace is “undeserved blessing freely
bestowed on man by God.” 1
b. After noting that there is both a common and special grace, he defines special
grace in this way: “Special grace is the grace by which God redeems,
sanctifies, and glorifies his people. . . . God’s regenerating grace is dynamic.
It not only saves but also transforms and revitalizes those whose lives were
previously broken and meaningless. . . . All is thus ascribed to the grace of
God, not merely the Christian’s conversion but also the whole course of his
ministry and pilgrimage” (480). Rather than telling us what grace is, he
actually tells us what it does.
c. He tells us several other things about grace that are absolutely true:
(i) First, God doesn’t give it to everyone, but only to His elect: “Unlike
common grace, which is universally given, special grace is bestowed only
on those whom God elects to eternal life through faith in his Son, our
Savior Jesus Christ” (Ibid.).
(ii) Second, that God must first bestow it before the elect can respond to the
outward call of the Gospel.
(iii) Third, when He does give it, it will effect faith in the recipient and bring
them safely to heaven (481).
(iv) Fourth, that it is irresistible and will accomplish what God wills.
(v) And finally, that it is sufficient to save believers now and forever, since
infinite power stands behind it (481-482).

d. The one thing he doesn’t tell us in his article on grace is what it is – the one
thing that will help us most to understand it.

2. Second, let’s consider R. L. Dabney, a southern Presbyterian theologian of the

19th Century.

1
Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, “Grace,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984), p. 479.
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a. Like Dr. Hughes, he begins by giving us a general definition: “Grace is the

exercise of goodness where it is undeserved, as in bestowing assured eternal
blessedness on the elect angels, and redemption on hell-deserving man”
(Systematic, 169) – it is God’s goodness, bestowing eternal blessedness, on
the elect angels, and on fallen man who doesn’t deserve it.
b. If God doesn’t give it, then man will die: “The withholding of God’s grace is
but the negative occasion of a sinner’s unbelief, just as the absence of the
physician from a sick man is the occasion, and not the cause, of His death.
Men say that ‘he died because he failed to receive medical help,’ when
speaking popularly. But they know that the disease, and not the physician,
killed him. So, our Savior teaches, in John 10:26; that the stubborn unbelief
of the Pharisees was occasioned by God’s refraining from the bestowal of
renewing grace” (242). Grace is absolutely essential to salvation.
c. And it is something spiritual, coming from the Spirit’s influence or work.
“But last, and chiefly, prayer is a means of grace, because God has appointed
it as the instrument of man’s receiving His Spiritual influences” (716).
d. Dabney does not, however, put his finger on precisely what it is.

3. Third, there is the view of Dr. Morton Smith, founder, former president and
professor of Systematic Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological
Seminary.
a. In the context of Christ’s headship over His church, he quotes James
Bannerman with approval, “If saving grace is dispensed, it is dispensed
through the virtue and power of his Spirit; if a blessing is communicated, it is
because he blesses.”2 Here grace is said to be “dispensed,” and the manner in
which it is dispensed is “through the virtue and power of his [i.e., Christ’s]
Spirit.”
b. But what is this blessing He gives? Dr. Smith continues, “The Church does
not actually convey grace. She ministers the Word and Sacraments, and it is
through these that the grace is received. . . . Berkhof holds that the means of
grace should be limited to the Word and sacraments, as:
. . . the objective channels which Christ has instituted for the Church, and to
which he ordinarily binds himself in the communication of his grace. Of
course these may never be dissociated from Christ, nor from the powerful
operation of the Holy Spirit, nor from the Church which is the appointed
organ for the distribution of the blessings of divine grace. They are in
themselves quite ineffective and are productive of spiritual results only
through the efficacious operations of the Holy Spirit.3
c. We see that it is again through the work of the Spirit, but it’s not entirely
clear what this work of the Spirit is.
2
Morton H. Smith, Systematic Theology, 2 vols. (Greenville, SC: Greenville Seminary Press, 1994),
2:597. This quote may be found in James Bannerman, The Church of Christ, 2 vols. (Reprint, St.
Edmonton, AB Canada: Still Waters Revival Books, 1991), 1:195.
3
Smith, 2:603. Emphasis added. The quote can be found in Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology
(Reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986), pp. 604-605.
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4. Other views:
a. For Rome, there is no question: “This grace is a supernatural power that is
infused into man, and works ex opere operato. Thus in the sacraments,
which are visible signs, the invisible grace is always present.”4 It was
determined in the seventh session of the Council of Trent and recorded in the
section concerning the Sacraments in General, Canon vi, “If any one saith,
that the sacraments of the New Law do not contain the grace which they
signify; or, that they do not confer that grace on those who do not place an
obstacle thereunto; as though they were merely outward signs of grace or
justice received through faith, and certain marks of the Christian profession,
whereby believers are distinguished amongst men from unbelievers: let him
be anathema”5
b. Luther understood grace in much the same way. Berkhof writes, “He, too,
conceived of the grace of God as a sort of substance contained in the means
and not to be obtained apart from the means.”6
c. Reflecting the Protestant view, Morton Smith writes, “While the grace of
God is generally imparted mediately through the means of grace, it is not
because the grace is deposited into the means. Rather it is the Spirit’s
accompanying the means that gives them their efficacy.”7 Grace is not in the
sacraments, but the Spirit communicates grace through them.
d. And A. A. Hodge writes, “The same covenant of grace provides at once for
the infusion of grace in the heart, the exercise of grace in the life, and the
reward of the grace so exercised.”8 Notice he says that grace is infused, that
sanctifying grace is something measurable, poured into our souls by God’s
Spirit, that gives us the ability to do something we were unable to do before.
But the question still remains: What is it?

5. One final view: Charles Hodge, professor of systematic theology at Princeton in

the 19th Century.
a. He comes the closest to hitting the mark regarding sanctifying grace, where
he writes, “Hence it is that the greatest of all gifts secured by the work of
Christ, that without which salvation had been impossible, the Holy Ghost, in
the influence which He exerts on the minds of men, has in all ages and in all
parts of the Church been designated as divine grace.”9 Here, at least, is a
4
Smith, 2:604
5
Philip Schaff, ed., The Creeds of Christendom, 6th ed., rev., David S. Schaff, 3 vols. (Reprint,
Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990), 2:120-21.
6
Smith, 2:604. This quote may be found in Berkhof, page 607.
7
Smith, 2:605.
8
A. A. Hodge, The Confession of Faith (Reprint, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1983), p.
228.
9
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing
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definition of what grace is: the influence of the Spirit exerted on the minds of
men.
b. He spells this out more fully in this next quote: “A work of grace is the work
of the Holy Spirit; the means of grace, are the means by which, or in
connection with which, the influence of the Spirit is conveyed or exercised.
By common grace, therefore, is meant that influence of the Spirit, which in a
greater or less measure is granted to all who hear the truth.10 By sufficient
grace is meant such kind and degree of the Spirit’s influence, as is sufficient
to lead men to repentance, faith, and a holy life. By efficacious grace is
meant such an influence of the Spirit as is certainly effectual in producing
regeneration and conversion. By preventing grace is intended that operation
of the Spirit on the mind which precedes and excites its efforts to return to
God. By the gratia gratum faciens [the grace that makes one gracious] is
meant the influence of the Spirit which renews or renders gracious.
Cooperating grace is that influence of the Spirit which aids the people of God
in all the exercises of the divine life. By habitual grace is meant the Holy
Spirit as dwelling in believers; or, that permanent, immanent state of mind
due to his abiding presence and power. Such is the established theological
and Christian usage of this word. By grace, therefore, in this connection is
meant the influence of the Spirit of God on the minds of men.”11
c. Hodge is essentially correct here, but needs on important correction.
(i) Is grace the Spirit’s influence on the mind, or on another important
faculty that directly influences the mind?
(ii) Edwards believed that His influence was on another more fundamental
faculty of the soul.
(iii) This is what we’ll begin to consider next time.
(iv) But at this point, considering what we have seen of what grace does,
search your heart to make sure it is at work there.
(v) As the author to the Hebrews reminds us, without holiness there will be
no heaven, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without
which no one will see the Lord” (12:14).
(vi) You may only be holy through faith in Christ. Amen.

Company, 1986), 2:654.

10
This definition of common grace appears to be too narrow, for common grace is common to all,
not simply to those who hear the Word.
11
Ibid., 654-55.