Book VII, Chapter 8, §10
Our justification. Human
nature is substantially constituted by the union of flesh and spirit, and the
full functioning and development of human persons is conditioned by this union.
The fall of mankind, the redemption, and the subsequent mysteries of grace are
determined in their effects upon us by this constitution of our nature. In
particular, the redemption of the body, above described, is the redemption of
the human spirit as well, and apart from the latter, the former is an idle
tale. If the resurrection of Christ makes possible the conversion of our
corruptible bodies into spiritual ones, it does so because it enables our
spirits to transcend their earthly weaknesses, and to subject their bodies to
the uses for which they have learned through holy discipline to employ them.
The effects of the resurrection in relation to the body and the spirit of man
are branches of one mystery of glorification. In relation to our spirits, the
initial effect of our Lord’s resurrection—mediated through the Body of Christ,
by our incorporation therein—is our justification [cf. Rom. 4:25].
And our justification is the inception of our sanctification and entire
transformation in disposition and character, after the pattern of the
righteousness of God in Christ. This whole mystery of justification and
sanctification is made possible, both in inception and in progress, by Christ’s
meritorious redemption, and by the dispensation of grace which His resurrected
opened up. But because of the peculiarly-immediate causal relation in which the
resurrection stands to the sacramental dispensation of grace, flowing from HIs
glorified Manhood, Scripture connects justification primarily with that fact [Rom.
4:25]. (Francis J. Hall, Anglican
Dogmatics, ed. John A. Porter, 2 vols. [Nashotah, Wis.: Nashotah House
Press, 2021], 2:254-55)
In technical parlance, the meritorious cause of
justification is the death of Christ, but its direct causal antecedent is
the resurrection (Rom. 4:25). (Ibid., 2:255 n. 1)
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