Robert Traill
Robert Traill (1642-1716) was a Presbyterian minister and a friend of such eminent ministers as William Guthrie and the younger John Welsh. Having fled to Holland from persecution in Scotland, he became an assistant to Nethenus, Professor at Utrecht University. He later held Presbyterian charges in London and Kent. A principal aim in his preaching was the promotion of practical godliness. This extract (slightly edited) is from Volume 4 of the Banner of Truth edition of his works and has been kindly given to us by a friend from Canada.
I SHALL add but two words of advice on this head, of the difference between justification and sanctification. Do not divide them. Do not confound them.
First, do not divide and separate them. No man can do so, but in dream and notion. Justification and sanctification God hath joined together, and no man can put them asunder. They are everlastingly united together, and every one that is a partaker of either is a partaker of both.
Secondly, do not confound them. I am persuaded that one of the main causes of the disorder that is in the spirits and conversation [conduct] of most Christians, lies in their confounding these two great blessings. They do not give them their proper place; they are not rightly exercised about them in their due sphere; therefore I shall offer a word or two of advice for preventing this confounding of them.
When you are seeking justification, let there be no mind of sanctification, I mean as to any merit; but when you are seeking sanctification, have a good mind to justification.
The reason [why you should have no thought of sanctification when you seek justification] is this: justification is an act of pure grace that we must betake ourselves to God for, as poor condemned sinners. If men will perplex us with qualifications, pray let it run this way (think of it like this), What is it that qualifies a sinner for justification? It is this only, that he must be a condemned sinner. God’s law must condemn him, and the man must come into God’s court with this sentence in his hand, “Lord, justify a poor sinner for Christ’s sake; the law hath condemned me, and sentenced me to hell, and thither I must go except gospel grace relieves me in Christ Jesus.”
When I say that in seeking justification you should have no thought of sanctification, my meaning is only this: that when you come to plead at God’s bar for justification, do not dream of bringing your sanctification with you, for it is altogether improper and impertinent at this court. Let men varnish their doctrines which way they will, and cover them with what pretences they please, they do but murder souls who advise them to bring something with them to God for the grace of justification. Bring thy sins with thee, and bring the curse of the law upon thy conscience, and lay these before the Lord, saying, “Lord, here is an undone sinner, have mercy upon me, for Christ’s sake.” There should be nothing else heard there but that.
But when you come for sanctification, you have good reason to mind justification, for it flows from it. When you would try your justification, in God’s name try it by your sanctification… The reason is that it is but a trying the tree by its fruit. If the question be, Am I a pardoned, forgiven, accepted sinner in the sight of God, through the righteousness of Christ? If that be the question, try it by your sanctification; for all who are justified by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, are also sanctified by the Spirit of God.
Now, sanctification, being the work of God in us, is far more easily discernible than justification, which is an act of God about us. Justification is the sentence of a judge. Sanctification is a gracious work of God on the heart and soul of a poor sinner; and that may be more easily known. Therefore try your justification by your sanctification. In short, they who bring sanctification as a title to their justification, they err the breadth of God’s whole heavens: and they who claim to have the blessing of justification, and cannot justify it by the practice of sanctification, do but deceive themselves. “If any man,” saith the apostle, “abideth in him, he ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked,” 1 John 2:6.
I would only add, it is the Spirit of God alone that can make the word of God, and the truths of it, powerful upon us. It is He alone who can lead us into them, and make us know spiritually and savingly the great blessings of justification and sanctification; our acceptance with God through the righteousness of another, even Christ; and our being adorned by the Spirit of God with a holiness of His own implanting in us.
We must not make our holiness our righteousness, nor our righteousness our holiness. Our righteousness belongs to another, and only the benefit of it accrues to us; our holiness is the work of the Spirit in us: and Christ is the root of both. He is the person we are justified by or through, and His Spirit is the root of all holiness in us; and both give us the possession of eternal life. Justification, by the sentence of the judge, is the ground of eternal life; and sanctification is that which makes us meet for it in His time and way.