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Romans 8:30 states, "Moreover whom He predestined, these
He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and
whom He justified, these He also glorified." Then, does this
passage support the doctrine of incremental sanctification?
This passage is does not teach
about incremental sanctification. Many theologians and false
preachers have taught, "Those who believe in Jesus will
change gradually and will become completely sanctified in
the flesh and the spirit," and many have believed it.
But as a matter of fact, Christians who have not yet been
born again find themselves becoming more and more stubborn.
The sin in their hearts grow as they get older. How can our
sanctification depend on time? The words 'incremental sanctification'
are the ones that God hates the most and the ones the devil
loves to use.
We can only become righteous
when we have no way out from sin by ourselves. Because Jesus
washed away all our sins with His baptism and sacrificed Himself
to pay for them Himself, we owe our righteousness solely to
the baptism and blood of Jesus. We become righteous through
faith in the fact that Jesus took all our sins onto Himself.
The word 'sanctification'
means 'to become holy.' Trying to become sanctified
by oneself is not to believe in the truth, but to be persuaded
by one's own weak flesh.
Hope for gradual sanctification
also comes from our own spiritual desires. Each religion has
its own word of sanctification, but we who believe in Jesus
should never place importance on the word itself.
We do not become sanctified gradually
by believing in Jesus; we become righteous once and for all
by believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus, the gospel
of spiritual circumcision. The truly righteous are those who
have been born of the faith in the gospel of the baptism and
the blood of Jesus.
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