[Commenting on 1 Thess 3:11-13]:
Justification and Sanctification
Observe the following six facts:
1.
Paul uses the language of blame/blamelessness or
the language of accusation usually for righteousness/justification at the last
judgment (Rom 8:31-38; 1 Cor 1:6-8 [ανεγκλητος]; Phil 1:10-11 [απροσκοπος] and 3:6 [αμεμπτος])
but here he uses it (αμεμπτος)
for holiness/sanctification (cf. 5:23). In Col 1:22 he intermixes the judicial
and cultic terms: αγιος και αμωμος και ανεγκλητος (cf.
also Phil 2:15; αμεμπτος . . . αμωμος).
Thus, he uses the same language of acquittal for the eschatological consummation
of both justification (cf. Gal 5:5) and sanctification (cf. Rom 6:22).
2.
Besides using the holiness/sanctification language
in the context of the last judgment ([1.] above), Paul uses it in two more
contexts:
a. for the event of believers becoming consecrated to God as members of his
holy people (“holy ones” or “saints”) through faith at baptism (e.g., Rom 1:7;
15:25, 31; 1 Cor 1:2; 6:11; 16:1; 2 Cor 1:1; 9:1; Phil 1:1; 1 Thess 4:7; 2
Thess 1:10; 2:13).
b. For the process of living as God’s holy people in the present (e.g., Rom 6:19-22;
12:1; 1 Cor 3:17; 6:1-11, 19, 22; 7:34; 2 Cor 1:12; 1 Thess 2:12; 3:12-13;
4:3-8; 5:23).
3.
Besides using the righteousness/justification
language in the context of the last judgment ([1.] above), Payl uses it also in
two more contexts:
a. for the event of our being acquitted from sins and restored to a right
relationship with God (i.e., becoming God’s people or children), through faith
at baptism (e.g., Rom 5:1-2, 9; 6:7, 17-18; 8:1-2; 10:9-10; 1 Cor 6:11).
b. for the process of living a righteous life in obedience to God in the
present (e.g., Rom 6:13, 16-22; 8:4; 1 Cor 6:9; Phil 1:11).
4.
So, the tripe usage of the
holiness/sanctification language corresponds to the triple usage of the
righteousness/justification language; thus both justification and
sanctification are spoken of as a past event as baptism (“already”), a present
process, and the eschatological consummation at the last judgment (“not yet”).
5.
Note the parallelism of sanctification and
justification as the descriptions of what happens at baptism: “But you were
washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11; cf. 1:30).
6.
Paul uses the righteousness/justification
language mainly in connection with “sin” and the law, while using the
holiness/sanctification language mainly in connection with “idolatry,” “impurity,”
or “shameful acts,” or when the acts of unrighteousness (αδικια) or sins are seen in terms of “impurity”
or “shameful acts” (Rom 6:19-22; 1 Cor 6:9-11; 1 Thess 4:1-8).
These six facts suggest that justification
and sanctification are not to be understood in terms of ordo salutis—the
logical or temporal order of salvation, in which God’s justification obtained
at baptism is to be followed by or issues is sanctified living in the present for
ultimate salvation at the eschaton, as traditionally worked out in Protestant
dogmatics—but two different but parallel metaphors for salvation, referring
basically to the same reality of God making us his people. Justification
expresses God’s salvation in Christ in terms of hos forgiving/acquitting us of
our sins (of having obeyed the god of this age/world, namely, Satan [cf. 2 Cor
4:4], and having transgressed God’s law) and making us his righteous people (i.e.,
the people restored to a right relationship with him, to his kingdom), while
sanctification expresses God’s salvation in terms of his washing us of our
pollution (of this world ruled by Satan) and making us his holy people (i.e.,
the people consecrated to him). Hence, both justification and sanctification
are presented as having already taken place at our baptism when we confessed
our faith in the gospel, as well needing to be consummated at the last judgment
at the Parousia of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore as structurally requiring
us at present to go on living a righteous life, obeying God’s rule, worshiping
God and conforming to his character (which involves both cultic and ethical
purity, especially love of neighbor; cf. Lev 19). (Seyoon Kim and F. F. Bruce, 1
& 2 Thessalonians [2d ed.; Word Biblical Commentary 45; Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2023], 310-11)
[Commenting on 2 Thess 2:13]:
But in our present verse he means
that God employed the agency of his Spirit to sanctify the readers (i.e., to
make them his holy people; cf. 1 :10) at their baptism (cf. 1 Cor 6:11), so
that they might obtain eschatological salvation. (Seyoon Kim and F. F. Bruce, 1
& 2 Thessalonians [2d ed.; Word Biblical Commentary 45; Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2023], 621)
