Required reading
To begin with, Murray clarifies that holiness is not merely potential or positional: 'It is actual and practical as much as anything comprised in the application of redemption is actual and practical.'
Then Murray looks at three respects in which the concerns of sanctification must be viewed:
(i) All sin in the believer is the contradiction of God's holiness;
(ii) The presence of sin in the believer involves conflict in his heart and life;
(iii) There must be a constant and increasing appreciation that though sin still remains it does not have the mastery;
Then some observations are made about the agent of sanctification;
(i) The mode of the Spirit's operation in sanctification is encompassed with mystery;
(ii) It is imperative we realize our complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit;
(iii) It is as the Spirit of Christ and as the Spirit of him who raised up Christ from the dead that the Holy Spirit sanctifies.
To close, Murray discusses the means of sanctification. It by the Spirit but also includes the conscious life of the believer: 'God works in us and we also work'.
What grabbed me
Ok, I was a little disappointed with this chapter. Murray in other writings (such as essays like this one) has been so good in teaching about the differences between 'definitive' and 'progressive' sanctification. And this is an important clarification as I often read authors who only appear to know about progressive sanctification without definitive sanctification. For example, Grudem's definition in his popular systematic theology defines sanctification as 'a progressive work of God'. No mention of definitive sanctification. To be fair, Murray did touch on the subject at the beginning of the chapter but I was surprised he didn't argue his case more clearly or at greater length.
Don't get me wrong, the chapter was good. But knowing Murray's work elsewhere, it could have been exceptional.
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