Does Guilt Cause Corruption or Accompany It?

Over at Old Life, D. G. Hart has an important post dealing with the ongoing discussion about the relationship between union with Christ, justification and sanctification. You can read it here.  If you have not been following the discussion I would recommend that you listen to this recent episode of the Reformed Media Review. The central issue in Darryl’s post has to do with the identification of what John Murray called “definitive sanctification” (see volume 2 of The Collected Writings of John Murray for a defense of the doctrine of “definitive sanctification”). The use of this terminology is troubling to many on account of its absence in our historic Reformed creeds and confessions. We must be incredibly careful when asserting doctrinal positions that are not spelled out in the historic Reformed confessions. But does the fact that it is not mentioned in them mean that it is wrong? I would encourage anyone engaged in this debate to carefully weigh what both sides are saying. Do not be hasting to attribute anything to anyone unless you are sure you know what the other is saying. And, let me emphatically affirm, we are all uniformly opposed to the “Federal Vision” and “New Perspective on Paul” formulations of justification. All of the men at Feeding on Christ wholly adopt the OPC and PCA study committee reports on these issues.