# “The chain of salvation cannot be broken” by Herman Bavinck

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2021/08/04/the-chain-of-salvation-cannot-be-broken-by-herman-bavinck/
- Published: 2021-08-04T12:00:05-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“After Paul in his letter to the Romans has first dealt with the subject of justification(**
Romans 5:1ff**) he proceeds in chapter 6 to the subject of sanctification (**Romans
6:1ff**). Just as there were later on, so there were in the days of the apostles
certain people who thought that the doctrine of free justification would affect 
the moral life unfavorably.

They feared that people, prompted by such a confession, would proceed to sin in 
order that good might issue from it and grace be made to abound (**Rom. 3:8** and**
6:1**). Paul refutes this charge and says that it is impossible for those who have
died to sin to live in it any longer (**Rom. 6:2**).

He proves this by pointing out that the believers who by their faith have received
the forgiveness of sins and peace with God have also by witness of their baptism
been buried with Christ in His death and been raised with Him to a new life (**Rom.
6:3–11**).

For Paul believers are always persons who have not only accepted the righteousness
of God in Christ unto the forgiveness of their sins, but also have personally died
and been raised in the communion with Christ, and therefore are dead to sin and 
alive in God (**Gal. 2:20; 3:27; Col. 2:12**). In other words, the death of Christ
has justifying power not only but also sanctifying power (**2 Cor. 5:13**).

And the faith which has the true stamp upon it accepts Christ not only as a justification
but also as a sanctification: in fact, the one is impossible without the other. 
For Christ is not to be divided and His benefits are inseparable from His person.

He is at the same time our wisdom and our righteousness, our sanctification and 
our redemption (**1 Cor. 1:30**). Such He became for us of God and as such He was
given us by God.

The sanctification which we must share, therefore, lies perfectly achieved in Christ.
There are many Christians who, at least in their practical life, think very differently
about this.

They acknowledge that they are justified through the righteousness which Christ 
has accomplished, but they maintain or at least act as though they hold that they
must be sanctified by a holiness that they must themselves achieve.

If this were true, then we, in flat contradiction of the apostolic testimony (**
Rom. 6:14; Gal. 4:31; 5:1** and **13**), would not be living under grace in freedom
but under the bondage of the law.

However, the evangelical sanctification is distinguished just as well from the legal
one as the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is distinguished, not in 
its content but in the mode of sharing it, from that which was demanded by the law.

It consists of this: that in Christ God gives us the perfect sanctification along
with the justification, and that He gives us this as an internal possession through
the regenerating and renewing operation of the Holy Spirit.

Sanctification is therefore God’s work, a work of His righteousness and of His grace
at the same time. First He reckons Christ and all His benefits to our account, and
thereupon He shares Him with us in all the fulness that is in Him.

For it is He who circumcises the hearts (**Deut. 31:6**), who takes away the heart
of stone and supplants it with a heart of flesh (**Ezek. 12:19**), who pours out
His Spirit upon them (**Joel 2:28**), who creates a new spirit within them (**Ezek.
11:19** and **36:26**), who writes His law in their hearts, causes them to walk 
in His ways and makes them His people. (**Jer. 31:33; 32:38; Ezek. 36:27** and **
28**)

The matter is, if possible, put even more strongly in the New Testament where we
read that the believers are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (**Eph. 2:
10**), a new creature (**2 Cor. 5:17** and **Gal. 6:15**), and the work of God (**
Rom. 14:20**).

There the believers are also called God’s husbandry and God’s building (**1 Cor.
3:9; Eph. 2:20; Col. 2:7; 1 Peter 2:5**), and there we are told that all things 
are of God (**2 Cor. 5:18**).

When they were buried with Christ and raised with Him, they were also washed and
sanctified (**1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Titus 3:5**), and they continue to be sanctified
in the future (**John 17:17; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Thess. 5:23; Eph. 5:26; Titus 2:14**;
and **Heb. 13:20–21**) until they have been wholly conformed to the image of the
Son. (**Rom. 8:28; 1 Cor. 15:49**; and **Phil. 3:21**)

The chain of salvation cannot be broken because from beginning to end it is the 
work of God. He whom He has known, called, and justified, him He has also glorified(**
Rom. 8:30**).”

–Herman Bavinck, [_The Wonderful Works of God_ ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733627227?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
trans. Henry Zylstra; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 1909/2019), 457-
459.

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