New City Catechism, Week 32 (Question 32)

Q: What do justification and sanctification mean?

Children’s answer

A: Justification means our declared righteousness before God. Sanctification means our gradual, growing righteousness.

Adult/older children’s answer

A: 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.

Video explanation:

Song to assist with memorization:

Relevant Scripture to read:

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.

Children’s Activity (printable pdfs)

Younger Kids (pages 24 and 25)

There are no resources for older kids currently available for this lesson.

Special thanks to Del Rey Church for sharing their New City Catechism kid resources with us!

Devotional questions for individual/family/group reflection and discussion:

  1. Describe the Holy Spirit’s role in both justification and sanctification.

  2. What are 1-2 problems we can cause when we confuse justification and sanctification?

  3. The Westminster Shorter Catechism calls justification an “act” of God’s free grace while sanctification is referred to as a “work” of God’s free grace. Why this distinction?

  4. How does considering our justification help us in our sanctification?

For an additional “deeper” dive into this question and answer, check out this video from Dr. Michael Allen (which a few of the above questions are based on):