"When the doctrine of union with Christ is made the architectonic principle of the application of redemption ... the tensions which Lutheranism seems to feel between justification and the Christian's good works, or sanctification, begins to vanish. The one does not exist without the other, since both are effects of our union with Christ. ... Reformed theology is as anxious as Lutheran thought to safeguard grace. It has wrestled very seriously with the whole question of conditions. The term conditions has a certain infelicity about it. But there is a difference between what we might call 'conditionality' (which compromises grace by saying, 'God will be gracious only if you do X or Y') and the fact that there are conditions for salvation which arise directly out of the gospel message and do not compromise its graciousness. These conditions do not render God gracious to us, but are the noncontributory means by which we receive his grace."
Sinclair Ferguson, "A Reformed Response [To the Lutheran View]" in Alexander, ed. Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1988). pp. 34-35.
