Now, he does talk about justification progressively in the sense of a continual increase in the virtue of justice on behalf of someone who is already justified. The virtue of justice is “giving someone their due”, and is, in the life of a Christian, a reorientation of the believer’s actions, by God’s grace, to doing unto God what is right unto God. This sort of progressive justification, from the Augustinian view, is probably better described as sanctification, but we can’t knock Augustine, or James for that matter, as using the word justification in the second sense.

The Reformers read Augustine, and some believed in “progressive justification” (as distinct from instantaneous justification).

A couple of quotes from Luther:

“For we understand that a man who is justified is not already righteous, but moving toward righteousness.” (initial justification)

and

“Our justification is not yet complete … . It is still under construction. It shall, however, be completed in the resurrection of the dead.” (progressive justification)

Also, Swiss reformer Martin Bucer regarded man as receiving a two-fold justification. First he received the iustificatio impii, or primary justification, in which he was declared righteous before God, and then he received the iustificatio pii, or secondary justification, in which he was actually made to behave righteously.

Of course, Calvin did not like using the concept of progressive justification.

To our Protestant ears, I think it is easier to read Augustine, if we just substitute the process of “sanctification” whenever Augustine talks about justification as a process.

I see when I transfer this from the previous website I failed to list the author in the introduction to the paper. Please do credit Dr. Van Lees as the author and I’m sure he would be please if you would share this with your class.

Blessings,
Sharon

http://www.preteristblog.com/?p=5180#comment-9982

Please spend some time to go to this link and read the post. It really is very, very good.

Sharon