“[T]hat we must be reconciled to God, and justified by the remission of our sins, and imputation of righteousness, before any sincere obedience to the law; that we may be enabled for the practice of it. They account, that this doctrine tends to the subversion of a holy practice, and is a great pillar of Antinomianism; and that the only way to establish sincere obedience, is to make it rather a condition to be performed before our actual justification, and reconciliation before God. Therefore some late divines have thought fit to bring the doctrine of former Protestants concerning justification, to their anvil, and to hammer it into another form, that it might be more free of Antinomianism, and effectual to secure a holy practice. But their labor is vain and pernicious, tending to Antinomian profaneness, or painted hypocrisy at best; neither can the true practice of holiness be secure, except the persuasion of our justification, and reconciliation with God, be first obtained without works of the law.”
Walter Marshall, Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (Lafayette: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2001), 14.
Resources
- How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia
- How to support Heidelmedia: use the donate button below
- The HB Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- Office Hours Season 5: On Sanctification: New Life In The Shadow Of Death
- Walter Marshall’s Antidote To Nomism
- Marshall: Meditate Before You Rush Into Law Keeping
- Resources on the Law/Gospel Distinction (Updated)
- Resources On the Doctrine of Sanctification And The Third Use Of The Law
- Resources On The Marrow Controversy
- Heidelcast Series: Nomism And Antinomianism
- Heidelcast 76: Was The Marrow Antinomian?
- The Marrow On Antinomians
Isn’t Marshall alluding to this verse, 1 Timothy 3:16, here in the ESV with its formatting probably not available in this comment? “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,taken up in glory.”
That Christ Himself is the mystery of godliness? The great mystery of it? Seems so.
And, by the way, whose godliness? His own? Doesn’t the sentence before give the first part of the parallelism, making “godliness” parallel to 3:15, “how one ought to behave in the church of God?” Christ is the great mystery of how one ought to behave in the church of God. That fits well with Marshall’s ordering of the furthering of holy practice to be after “our actual justification.” Is this right?
Hello Larry,
Can you expand and clarify on this question?
Thanks,
Marshall’s first and last paras:
“[T]hat we must be reconciled to God, and justified by the remission of our sins, and imputation of righteousness, before any sincere obedience to the law; that we may be enabled for the practice of it …. neither can the true practice of holiness be secure, except the persuasion of our justification, and reconciliation with God, be first obtained without works of the law.”
Is there any reason why these statements together cannot be applied to pre-resurrection believers? After all, no one, not a one has ever been saved by works of the law.
Excellent quote and wonderful new resource to go and get.
The original book is available as a PDF on Archive.org