spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

system of the Christian church (…). There never was, and there never can be, any true Christian
church without the doctrine of justification (…) the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae”.
The prominence of the doctrine of justification points to the significance of God’s grace in the
life of the believer. It also contributed, however, to the tendency to separate justification and
sanctification in the Reformed ordo salutis: the clear distinction between the event of
justification and the process of sanctification is a typical feature of Reformed theology, that did
not exist earlier. Prior to Luther, justification was indissolubly linked with regeneration (or
sanctification), and was perceived as a comprehensive event, in which the sinner was declared
righteous before God and simultaneously underwent a substantial change of life. The external
status (before God) and the internal nature of the believer were transformed in the moment of
conversion through faith in Christ. It was later that Luther introduced a decisive break with
current medieval Western theology, by declaring that the believer was internally sinful and
externally righteous (McGrath 2005:213). Justification by faith in Christ alone, means that
justification is localized in the relation with Christ. The implication of justification as a union
with Christ is that the justification of the believer entails that the believer is being ‘covered’ with
Christ. In Luther’s perspective, the believer is not actually made righteous, but he or she is
considered as righteous in the eyes of God through Christ. Justification is, thus, that the imputed
righteousness of Christ reconciles the believer with God. This understanding of justification as
imputed righteousness of Christ means that the aspect of the believer’s transformation received
less emphasis in order to avoid the suggestion that the believer was actively involved in his or
her own justification and salvation. In typical Protestant Reformed terminology, justification is
to be expressed in forensic language, while the process of sanctification refers to the
transformative aspects of Christian life. Sanctification as the regeneration of the believer, based
on his or her active righteousness, is a process that is viewed as separate from the initial and
instantaneous event of the justification of the believer.
The Reformed forensic understanding of justification encouraged an emphasis on spiritual
transformation: the union with Christ involved primarily the soul, since the union was perceived
as fully spiritual, without any physical elements (McGrath 2005:255). The sinner remained
sinful, but the spiritual union with Christ meant that the sinner was justified simultaneously. The
central importance of justification thus led to the perception of transformation as the renewal of
the spiritual life of the believer, while the aspect of an all-embracing transformation that includes
the physical dimension was left behind.
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