Reproducing the Image of the Resurrected Christ

The Reformed tradition defines justification as the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and the acquittal of sin’s guilt. The Spirit imputes Christ’s active and passive obedience to his people by faith alone. And therefore, by justification, God’s people share in Christ’s righteousness, one facet of the glory of the resurrected Christ. Adoption and sanctification also contribute to moving believers from one degree of glory to another. In adoption, believers are received into the family of God and become heirs according to promise. Through sanctification, the power of sin is broken, and they are set apart as holy to the Lord. Throughout the rest of their earthly lives, the Spirit applies the death and resurrection of Christ to them, making them die increasingly to sin and raising them to newness of life. These distinct salvific benefits contribute in particular ways to reproducing the image of the resurrected Christ in each individual believer.

 

Camden Bucey, The Triune Gift of Self a Reformed Critique of Karl Rahner's Theology of Divine Self-communication: PhD Dissertation (Glenside, PA: Westminster Theological Seminary, 2013), 194