Sanctification

Salvation, justification and sanctification

Christ’s saving work becomes real in the life of each believer through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Christians describe this in several connected stages or dimensions.

  • Justification is being set right with God — the moment when a person is forgiven and reconciled through faith in Christ.
    • In many Protestant traditions, justification is seen as a decisive act of God’s grace received through faith alone, often associated with conversion.
    • Catholic and Orthodox teaching understand justification as beginning at baptism, where grace not only forgives but inwardly renews the person.
  • Regeneration or New Birth marks the start of the new life in Christ — being given a “new heart” and “new spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26; John 3:3).
  • Sanctification is the continuing work of the Spirit that shapes believers over time, “transforming them by the renewal of their minds” (Romans 12:2).
    • For Protestants, this follows justification as its fruit.
    • For Catholics and Orthodox, justification and sanctification are aspects of the same ongoing process of becoming holy.

Together, these terms express one reality: salvation as both gift and journey — God’s grace restoring, renewing, and drawing human beings into deeper communion with divine love.

Sanctification – transformation – Theosis

All traditions affirm that conversion and baptism are just the start of the Christian journey which will continue into eternity and lead to union with God.

For Orthodox and Catholics, this whole process is called salvation whereas most Protestants describe the initial decision to follow Christ as justification, the ongoing life of spiritual growth on Earth as sanctification and the culmination of the journey as glorification. Nevertheless despite the difference in language, it is the same process which is being described.

All would agree that everything starts, continues and ends with God’s grace and that we are called to cooperate with His grace by means of action, spiritual disciplines and devotions.

All would agree that, since God is virtuous, that any journey of sanctification will necessarily be accompanied by growth in virtue.

Across East and West, Catholic and Protestant, everyone agrees:

  • God is holy, loving, and good.
  • To be sanctified means to share in that holiness — to reflect the divine character.
  • Thus, any genuine communion with God must manifest in virtues: love, humility, mercy, truth, patience, justice, purity, etc.

“He who abides in Him ought himself to walk as He walked.” (1 John 2:6)

All would aim to achieve this by a combination of ascetic, devotional and practice of virtues but some would focus mainly on one or another.

Two different approaches

1. Virtue as Stepping Stones to Communion — the “ascent” model

(Catholic, Wesleyan, some Reformed spiritualities)

The starting point is grace-empowered effort to cultivate the virtues which enables us to receive more of the divine presence.

  • The soul, wounded by sin, needs healing and strengthening.
  • Grace initiates this process and continues to empower it, but human cooperation is required.
  • The believer grows in virtue step by step, being “trained” (like an athlete or apprentice) until the soul becomes capable of deep union with God.
  • Virtue is not meritorious in itself but disposes the person for fuller participation in grace.

→ In this view, virtues are synergistic rungs on a ladder of love.
God supplies the power, but each act of virtue prepares the soul for a greater measure of divine presence.

Analogy:
A musician who trains in scales (virtues) to be able to play freely with the master (communion).

Scriptural emphasis:
“Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue…” (2 Peter 1:5–7).
“The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21).

“Ascent” Spirituality — Virtue → Communion

Here sanctification is seen as the grace-empowered cultivation of virtues that dispose the soul to deeper union with God.
Grace initiates, but cooperation is required — hence emphasis on formation, discipline, and moral effort.

Core Practices — “Training the Soul”

These focus on moral, relational, and habitual transformation:

  1. Practising the Virtues
    • Humility
    • Patience
    • Charity / Love in action
    • Forgiveness
    • Diligence, temperance, prudence, justice (the cardinal virtues)
    • Faith, hope, and love (the theological virtues)
  2. Acts of Mercy and Service
    • Caring for the poor, visiting the sick, almsgiving
    • Volunteering or active ministry — “faith working through love”
  3. Sacramental Life and Confession
    • Regular Eucharist as a strengthening grace
    • Confession / Reconciliation to purge sin and re-align the heart
  4. Spiritual Reading and Moral Reflection
    • Scripture meditation aimed at imitation of Christ
    • Spiritual direction, examination of conscience, retreats
  5. Mortification / Discipline
    • Fasting or abstinence as moral training
    • Simplicity, chastity, self-control

If taken to excess, there is the danger of Legalism or moralism — mistaking steps for the goal

2. Virtue as Consequences of Communion — the “overflow” model

(Orthodox, Lutheran, Evangelical, contemplative Protestant traditions)

The starting point is direct encounter with God and as we get closer to Him, the virtues naturally follow.

  • The decisive move is entering communion with God through faith, prayer, sacrament, and the indwelling Spirit.
  • Virtues are not acquired so much as manifested: they are the outward signs of the divine life now active within.
  • The task of the believer is not to climb toward God but to remove obstacles (the passions, pride, distraction) so that God’s grace may flow unhindered.

→ In this view, communion is the wellspring, and virtue the stream that naturally flows from it.

Analogy:
A tree rooted in divine soil naturally bears virtuous fruit.

Scriptural emphasis:
“Abide in me, and you will bear much fruit.” (John 15:5).
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” (Gal. 5:22–23).

“Communion” Spirituality — Communion → Virtue

Here sanctification is about abiding in the divine presence, letting God’s indwelling Spirit transform the heart.
The focus is not on “building” virtues but on participation and purification — removing inner noise so that God’s grace can flow unhindered.

🔹 Core Practices — “Opening to the Spirit”

These cultivate awareness, receptivity, and divine indwelling:

  1. Prayer of the Heart
    • The Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”)
    • Contemplative or centering prayer
    • Spontaneous conversational prayer (Evangelical)
  2. Worship and Liturgy
    • Eucharist as encounter with the living Christ
    • Corporate worship and praise — experiencing God’s presence
  3. Fasting and Stillness (Hesychia)
    • Fasting not as self-denial but to quiet the passions
    • Silence, solitude, inner watchfulness (the nepsis tradition)
  4. Scripture and Divine Illumination
    • Lectio divina — letting the Word speak inwardly
    • Personal Bible reading for encounter, not just information
  5. Repentance as Ongoing Re-Turning
    • Confession as continual re-alignment of the heart
    • Tears, contrition, renewal — “metanoia” as transformation of mind

If taken to excess this leads to Quietism or passivity — neglecting moral formation

Integration – Mature spirituality usually brings the two together:

  • The Catholic mystics (e.g., John of the Cross, Teresa of Ávila) combine ascetic formation with deep contemplative union.
  • The Orthodox monastics (e.g., St. Maximus, St. Gregory Palamas) speak of virtues as the “natural radiance” of the deified soul.
  • The Wesleyan “means of grace” include both moral and contemplative disciplines — acts of mercy and works of piety.

“Pray as though everything depends on God; work as though everything depends on you.”
— Often attributed to Augustine or Ignatius, and bridging the two worlds.

For the Orthodox, the practices bring purification of soul and bring us into alignment with God so that His grace can dwell in us and flow through us unhindered. The virtues are a consequence of this. The emphasis is not on producing virtues but on being purified so that the virtues naturally blossom.

For the Catholics, the practices strengthen the virtues within us, analogous to an athlete training to become stronger. In Catholic theology (especially from Aquinas onward), virtue is understood as a habitual disposition to do good — a stable quality that grace perfects and elevates.

Catholics agree that virtues come from grace, but they emphasise that the human will cooperates with that grace by repeatedly choosing the good until it becomes second nature.

Orthodox: Spiritual Disciplines as Tuning to Divine Energy

  • In Orthodoxy, the spiritual disciplines (prayer, fasting, almsgiving, confession, hesychasm, liturgy) are not about moral performance or self-improvement, but about alignment.
  • Sacraments are believed to convey the substantial presence of Christ bringing spiritual nourishment and growth towards conformity to Christ is given.
  • The aim is to clear away the passions (disordered desires) so that the divine energies may work freely within the person.
  • Virtue arises as the passions are purified. The focus is on healing and illumination. Moral improvement is a result, not the goal which is full participation in God’s life.
  • The effort is real, but the outcome is not self-achieved — it is grace manifesting itself as the heart becomes purified.
  • In this sense, spiritual practice is like tuning a musical instrument: the goal is harmony, not achievement.

“We fast not to gain favour, but to regain freedom.” — St. Basil the Great
“Prayer is not asking, but being in God.” — St. Silouan the Athonite

Catholic: Spiritual Disciplines as Cooperation and Growth in Virtue

  • Sanctification is mediated through the Sacraments, virtues, and works of love. Catholicism keeps the ascetic element but ties it to virtue ethics: grace perfects nature.
  • Through prayer, fasting, sacraments, and moral discipline, the believer cooperates with grace by repeatedly choosing the good until it becomes second nature and so to grow in theological and moral virtues (faith, hope, love; prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude).
  • This gives the Catholic spiritual tradition a more moral and developmental tone: holiness is the formation of the person’s character in the likeness of Christ.
  • This is both synergistic (we act with grace) and teleological (we are moving toward perfection).
  • The practices train the will, enlighten reason, and strengthen desire for the good.
  • Virtues are habits — stable dispositions to act well. Grace infuses theological virtues (faith, hope, charity) and elevates natural virtues.

Although these disciplines have some natural moral benefit even outside sacramental grace – virtue ethics is open to pagans and philosophers – but in Christian life they are animated and crowned by infused grace, which orients them toward eternal life, not just moral excellence.

“Grace builds on nature and perfects it.” — St. Thomas Aquinas
“Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving unite the soul with God and conform the heart to Christ.” — Catechism §1434–1435

Protestant: Spiritual Disciplines as Means of Grace

Here the diversity is greater, but we can identify three main currents:

Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist)

  • Emphasis: Word and Sacrament as means of grace — not human exercises but channels through which God acts.
  • The believer practices prayer, worship, confession, and good works not to gain grace, but as the fruit of grace already given.
  • The disciplines are responsive, not instrumental: they don’t tune or train so much as express and reinforce trust.
  • Sanctification is God’s ongoing work within, and discipline keeps the believer receptive.
  • Humans are passive before God in justification; in sanctification, believers cooperate, but only by grace’s power.
  • Emphasise discipleship, sanctification, and growth in holiness through prayer, Scripture, and community life. Sacraments including Baptism and Communion are seen as symbols rather than conveying God’s grace.

“We do not pray to make God gracious, but because He is gracious.” — Martin Luther

So: less about achieving virtue; more about maintaining faith.

Evangelical and Pentecostal

  • Emphasis: personal relationship and daily walk with God.
  • Disciplines like Bible study, prayer, worship, service, and fellowship are relational practices — expressions of love and trust.
  • They “grow faith” but are understood as the Spirit’s work in the believer rather than self-generated effort.
  • Still, there’s a strong sense of personal responsibility — obedience as discipleship.

“Work out your salvation… for it is God who works in you” (Phil. 2:12–13) is their balancing text.

Methodist/Wesleyan

  • A distinct bridge: John Wesley’s term “means of grace” includes both instituted means (Word, sacrament, prayer) and prudential means (fasting, works of mercy).
  • For Wesley, these practices are where prevenient and sanctifying grace meet human effort — an explicitly synergistic view.
  • He even called them “channels whereby God conveys grace to souls of men.”
  • For Wesley, this meant being filled with perfect love of God and neighbour, even before death.
    After death, this blossoms into glorification. This comes the closest Protestant equivalent to the Eastern theosis
  • Good works and holy habits are means of cooperating with grace; sanctification is real growth in love.
  • Synergistic — believers must respond actively through discipline, prayer, and love.

So in Methodism, disciplines are simultaneously tuning, training, and trusting.