JC Ryle Verses John Calvin on the Separation of Justification and Sanctification
Originally published April 20, 2012
“Christ cannot be torn into parts, so these two which we perceive in him together and conjointly are inseparable—namely, righteousness and sanctification. Whomever, therefore, God receives into grace, on them he at the same time bestows the spirit of adoption [Romans 8:15], by whose power he remakes them to his own image. . . Yet Scripture, even though it joins them, still lists them separately in order that God’s manifold grace may better appear to us.” — John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), Bk. 3, chap. 11, sec. 6).
“But the plain truth is, that men will persist in confounding two things that differ–that is, justification and sanctification. In justification the word to address to man is believe–only believe; in sanctification the word must be ‘watch, pray, and fight.’ What God has divided let us not mingle and confuse” (JC Ryle, Holiness: Introduction).
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
I love JC Ryle. I came across him about 11 years ago with his book, Holiness, which is basically about living out our sanctification. His “Practical Religion” is good, too. Of course, I don’t agree with everything like his view of sacraments but he gets the big picture. I never thought I would be reading a Bishop of Liverpool :o)
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Like most evangelicals, Ryle didn’t really understand the foundations of Protestantism. Like everyone else, he didn’t understand that the Reformers redefined literally EVERY doctrinal term found in the Bible. For example, when the Reformers used the word, “grace” it ALWAYS meant justification. In fighting the Keswick-like movements of his day, he was really fighting the finer points of Calvinism and the Reformation gospel in general. Nothing will ever change until Christians come to grips with the fact that Protestantism is a false gospel.
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