We Must Be Changed (3)

(3) The soul that truly desires mercy and favour always desires power against sin. Pardon and power go together, both in God's gift and in the desire of a Christian's soul. There is no Christian soul that does not desire the grace of sanctification to change him as much as the grace of pardon. He looks upon corruption and sin as the vilest thing in the world, and upon grace and the new creature as the best thing in the world. There is no one changed who does not also desire sanctification.
Some weak notions would place all the change in justification. They separate Christ's offices, as if he were all priest but not a governing king; or as if he were righteousness but not sanctification; or as if he had merit to die for us and to give us his righteousness, but no efficacy to change our natures; or as if in the covenant of grace God only forgave our sins but did not write his law in our hearts. But in the covenant of grace he does both. Where God makes a combination, we must not break it. Efficacy and merit, justification and sanctification, water and blood, go together. There must be a change.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, pp. 104-05 [114-15]
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