New City Q #32 What do Justification and Sanctification mean?
Justification means our declared righteousness before God, made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection for us. Sanctification means our gradual, growing righteousness, made possible by the Spirit’s work in us. 1 PETER 1:1–2 To those who are elect exiles … according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Collin Hansen, ed., The New City Catechism Devotional: God’s Truth for Our Hearts and Minds (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 141.