Quote:
Originally Posted by MOSES 
Thanks ADKing for the good response
I wanted to emphasize the "active" part of sanctification. Of course we good calvinists understand that salvation and all that it entails is wholly the work of God.
Note: Are you familliar with Christopher Loves book on Grace?
Notice the definition I used was not simply exercise ourselves.
But..exercise in grace.
Or...being active in grace. Love's book was very influential in bringing up in my mind the ACTIVITY of the believer in grace as sanctification.
Can we think of the sacrament of baptism as passive and a picture of justification...and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as active and our communing with him in grace and sanctification?
Can we say that participating in the Lord's table is an exercise of grace? The Spirit enables us to come to Christ, and we desire and actively come because of his enabling. Is our coming, by the Spirit, an exercise in grace (sanctification)?
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I appreciate your emphasis on the (necessary) element of the believer's activity in sanctification. I by no means wish to deny it (any more than you wish to deny the Spirit's role). In fact, in some circles of the church today we could do with a much stronger emphasis on the believer's striving and "working out his salvation with fear and trembling".
However, in sanctification the Spirit's work and the beliver's activity are not equal elements. The Spirit's work is primary. This, I think is made clear in the confessional forumlations. The definition "exercise of grace" has as its subject (I presume) the
believer's exercise of grace. As you note, it still includes grace, but the emphasis seems to fall too heavily to the believer's activity and not include any statements about the priority of the Spirit's work.
Again, please understand, I am not saying your defiition is heterodox. In some instances it may be very helpful for a Christian to hear that. But as a
definition I think it lacks some of the fulness of the catechism's answer.