Heiligung bei Paulus

Can the sanctification of Jewish and Gentile Christians be considered as the goal of Paul's mission? Against the background of Old Testament, Jewish writings and the Jesus tradition, Hanna Stettler analyzes Paul's statements regarding sanctification. Unlike Lutheran Orthodoxy, Paul did not think that the Christian's part in sanctification could ever enter into competition with God's work of justification by faith alone. Indicative and imperative are not related in terms of a »paradox«. Rather, the imperative describes the new life to which the indicative - i.e., the new creation through Christ's atoning death and the gift of the Spirit - enables. It is God's work that he enables Christians to do his will. Only in this way is freedom from the law safeguarded from ethical indifference. Through the gift of the Spirit Christians can live in love, thus fulfilling the law.