A feast is not made up of one ingredient, or even one dish. At the same time, culinary taste requires an appreciation for the different ingredients and techniques that go into an interesting meal. Each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, our salvation in Christ is pictured as a feast. The spiritual food is always Christ. Our entire salvation is found in union and communion with him. But this is not a mono-tone meal. While all the ingredients must be held together, or it would not be a meal, there is value to appreciating each flavor distinctly.

There are several places in the writing of the Apostle Paul where he warns that “the unrighteous shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” He goes on to furnish examples that, though not exhaustive, are comprehensive enough to catch any of our besetting sins, from sexual immorality and idolatry to envy. If the kingdom of God is to replace the kingdoms of the world, this is bad news for all of us who would be left out of the kingdom of heaven. But 1 Corinthians 6:11 turns from such a gloomy list to this encouraging word: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Whatever Paul had in mind with the terms “justified” and “sanctified” – and the introductory article in this series details the past completed, ongoing present, and future aspects of sanctification – distinguishing the once for all act of justification from the ongoing process of sanctification is a hallmark of the Protestant doctrine of salvation. But why do we need to keep them distinct?

A feast is not made up of one ingredient, or even one dish. At the same time, culinary taste requires an appreciation for the different ingredients and techniques that go into an interesting meal. Each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, our salvation in Christ is pictured as a feast. The spiritual food is always Christ. Our entire salvation is found in union and communion with him. But this is not a mono-tone meal. While all the ingredients must be held together, or it would not be a meal, there is value to appreciating each flavor distinctly.

Unfortunately, there is a trend, at least as far back as Augustine, of conflating justification and sanctification. Justification described an entire process of being made just or righteous in our dispositions and actions rather than as a distinct, once for all legal act on God’s part.

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