Yet, through grace, a recent realization of this relationship is this- at no point do we graduate beyond our justification. The only way we will ever be truly sanctified is through an ever-deepening, constant dwelling and reorientation towards our justification.
Some support...
Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology:
Justification - an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ's righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight.
Legal standing, Once for all time, Entirely God's work, Perfect in this life, The same in all Christians
Sanctification - a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.
Internal Condition, Continuous throughout life, We cooperate, Not perfect in this life, Greater in some than in others
William Hulme:
"The more one is able to love, the more he develops the qualities of integration and adjustment to reality that mark the mature person. . . . If our sanctification is allowed to become confused with our justification, then our motive for pleasing God is no longer one of love and gratitude, but one of earning and deserving. Hence we have the entrance of a self-interest motive into our living which is a deterrent rather than an incentive to growth."
Justification must come first and be completed experience, since the sanctification process is dependent upon the mindset which results from it. Each time the sinner is drawn to the cross in new repentance, he gains a deeper appreciation of the gift of forgiveness. This ever-increasing gratitude for the righteousness which is imputed unto him becomes the motive in his own righteousness. Because he knows that he is accepted of God by grace, his tension is released and he is free to love. . . . [T]he justification experience must precede that of sanctification to make either of them possible."
Tullian Tchividjian:
"We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone, and God sanctifies us by constantly bringing us back to the reality of our justification."
quotes brought to my attention by Dane Ortlund :
"The man who is relaxed because of what God has done for him will through that relaxation lose his preoccupation with self and forget himself, and be prompted into fruitfulness. . . . It is precisely the relaxation that inspires to effort. . . . Only he who no longer needs to serve himself with his works is able, since he is now free from himself, to do really 'good works,' works that mean something for the Other and the others."
--- Hendrikus Berkhof
"To understand the benefit of sanctification correctly, we must proceed from the idea that Christ is our holiness in the same sense in which he is our righteousness. He is a complete and all-sufficient Savior. He does not accomplish his work halfway but saves us really and completely. He does not rest until, after pronouncing his acquittal in our conscience, he has also imparted full holiness and glory to us. By his righteousness, accordingly, he does not just restore us to the state of the just who will go scot-free in the judgment of God, in order then to leave us to ourselves to reform ourselves after God’s image and to merit eternal life. But Christ has accomplished everything. He bore for us the guilt and punishment of sin, placed himself under the law to secure eternal life for us, and then arose from the grave to communicate himself to us in all his fullness for both our righteousness and sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). The holiness that must completely become ours therefore fully awaits us in Christ." ----- Herman Bavinck
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