Monergistic Sanctification: The Reformed Consensus

by on September 30, 2025 | Comment

Few doctrines touch both the heart and the mind like sanctification, for it shapes not only what we believe but how we live.

As Calvinists grow in their understanding of the doctrines of grace, one question often arises: Is sanctification monergistic or synergistic? Some may wonder if the distinction really matters. Yet this is no small question. It carries significant theological ramifications.

If we misunderstand sanctification, we risk distorting justification itself. And a defective view of justification can lead us back toward Rome, Arminianism, or two-stage schemes of justification.

Here is why: If sanctification is framed as synergistic—God does his part, we do ours—believers may begin to feel that their standing before God is conditioned on their holiness. Over time, this blurs the line. Justification is supposed to be the sole ground of our acceptance, but synergistic sanctification risks smuggling works back into the foundation.

That is why this question is so important. It is my conviction that classical Reformed theology has consistently taught that sanctification is a monergistic work of God.

Monergism, Synergism, and Regeneration

Historically, monergism and synergism were terms first applied to regeneration:

  • Monergism means that God’s grace alone acts to save.
  • Synergism means that God’s grace and man’s will cooperate toward salvation.1

But what about sanctification? Should it be described in monergistic or synergistic terms?

What Is Sanctification?

Herman Bavinck defined sanctification as the “gracious work of God whereby . . . the justified believer is renewed by degrees in his whole nature, so that Christ is formed in him and he lives for God in good works.”2

The Westminster Larger Catechism (WLC) 35 defines sanctification as:

The work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

That phrase, “the work of God’s free grace,” is essential. Sanctification, like justification, is not something we earn, but something God gives. In other words, sanctification is the work of God’s free grace—monergistic in its source and power, yet active in us by the Spirit—so that our striving is real but is derived from the Spirit’s work.

Synergism and Sanctification in the Twentieth Century

In the twentieth century, some well-meaning theologians began to use the word synergistic to describe sanctification. Their concern was pastoral. They wanted to guard against “cheap grace” and to remind believers that sanctification calls us to real effort in the Christian life. As a young Christian, I followed this teaching, believing that my sanctification rose or fell with my obedience.

Yet especially on this topic, the Reformed confessions and our classical theologians help us with careful precision. Writers like Turretin, Bavinck, Berkhof, and Vos—never described sanctification as synergistic. It would have been misleading, since it had long been bound to Arminian and Roman Catholic views of grace.

Turretin described sanctification as the means “by which God delivers the man planted in Christ by faith and justified (by the ministry of the word and the efficacy of the Spirit) more and more from his native depravity and transforms him into his own image.”3

Turretin described sanctification as both passive (wrought by God) and active (our Spirit-enabled striving). Yet, though well acquainted with the term synergism, he never employed it to describe sanctification. If Turretin chose not to use synergistic in the context of our role in sanctification, it is wise for us to follow his lead.

The Reformed confessions likewise preferred the clearer language of monergism—that is, “the work of God’s free grace” (WLC 35)—to guard against misunderstanding.

God alone is the source and power of sanctification, and yet believers, by the Spirit, actively strive to put sin to death and live unto righteousness.

Louis Berkhof is also helpful in this discussion. He wrote: “Sanctification [is] a divine operation in the soul, whereby the holy disposition born in regeneration is strengthened and its holy exercises are increased.”4

Yes, sanctification makes us conscious of our activity in doing good works. But, as Berkhof insists, sanctification is fundamentally a divine operation. Believers truly participate in living the new life, yet the power of sanctification is monergistically God’s alone.

Union With Christ Empowers Sanctification

Jesus said: “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5). Branches cannot decide to grow. Likewise, believers cannot sanctify themselves. All holiness flows from our union with Christ through the Spirit.

Likewise, Turretin says of the good works we do in sanctification: “Not one is ours, but all are gifts of grace and fruits of the Spirit.”5 Thus, every good work is a gift of grace and a fruit of the Spirit.

When seen this way, it becomes clear that:

  • People cannot sanctify themselves, for all holiness proceeds from God.
  • Sanctification, like justification, is a gift.
  • Though justification is instantaneous, sanctification is progressive, occurring by degrees over a lifetime.6

The Spirit is the leaven that slowly but surely permeates the dough.

At the same time, believers are not called to stand by passively, waiting for holiness to arrive. We are called to actively strive against sin, to put it to death, and to pursue righteousness —“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). This truth is pastoral gold: If sanctification depended on me, I would never find assurance. But knowing it is God who works in me gives courage when I stumble and hope when progress feels slow.

The Reformed tradition has always held this balance clearly: Sanctification is entirely God’s gracious work, and yet it calls believers to genuine effort. Our striving is real, but it flows directly from God’s prior, sustaining, monergistic grace.

Geerhardus Vos said this as a way to encourage us: “God is the author of sanctification and not man.”7

Grace is the beginning, the middle, and the end of salvation. Sanctification is not our gift to God—it is his gift to us.

Why Monergistic Sanctification Matters

Everything in salvation is God’s gift. Sanctification is no less a gift than justification. John Murray captured this beautifully:

Union with Christ . . . embraces the wide span of salvation from its ultimate source in the eternal election of God to its final fruition in the glorification of the elect.”8

Regeneration is the seed out of which faith, justification, sanctification, and glorification grow. Salvation is a package deal. To misunderstand sanctification is to risk distorting justification. This is why sanctification cannot grow in “synergistic soil” without danger.

Distinguishing Sanctification and Good Works

Part of the confusion comes from failing to distinguish sanctification itself from good works. Geerhardus Vos is especially helpful here:

  1. Sanctification is God’s work in us; good works are acts of ourselves for Him.
  2. Sanctification is the source; good works are the waters that flow.
  3. Through sanctification something new is brought into us; through good works something already present is expressed outwardly.
  4. By confusing the two, sanctification is reduced to pietism.9

Practically, this distinction means that when we strive against sin, we do so with confidence that our striving is Spirit-enabled. When we fall, we do not despair, for even the smallest beginnings of obedience are fruits of grace, not conditions of God’s love.

Conclusion

The Reformers chose their words carefully not for academic precision alone, but for the comfort of struggling believers. Monergism means that our growth in holiness is undergirded not by our faltering strength but by God’s invincible grace.

In the last analysis, as Geerhardus Vos declared, “We do not sanctify ourselves. It is God who sanctifies.”10 And Wilhelmus à Brakel drives the point home: “We repeat, sanctification is an efficacious work of God. God alone is its cause. As little as man can contribute to his regeneration, faith, and justification, so little can he contribute to his sanctification.”11

Our justification does not depend on our sanctification. We strive for holiness not to earn eternal life, but because our Father is holy and we long to reflect him. Sanctification is not our offering to God, but his gracious gift to us.

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23).

Notes

  1. Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Spirit and Salvation, Vol. 3 (Crossway, 2022), 372.
  2. Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith (Eerdmans, 1956), 451–52.
  3. Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol. 2 (P&R, 1992), 689.
  4. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Eerdmans, 1938), 532–34.
  5. Turretin, Institutes, Vol. 2, 710.
  6. Geerhardus Vos, Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos (P&R, 1980), 235.
  7. Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4 (Lexham, 2012–2016), 192–94.
  8. John Murray, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), 165.
  9. Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4, 212.
  10. Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4, 212.
  11. Wilhelmus à Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, Vol. 3 (Reformation Heritage Books, 1999), 4.

©Anthony Faggiano. All Rights Reserved.

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    Post authored by:

  • Anthony Faggiano
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    Anthony Faggiano is an elder in a URCNA congregation and holds a BA in Theology from The Master’s University. He writes for the Reformed Dogmatika blog, focusing on Scripture, the Reformed confessions, and the solas of the Reformation. He is married and has two adult children.

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