Sanctification Is Spirit-Powered

In Galatians 5, the commands to obey God are given in the context of faith in the Gospel and living by the Spirit. This signals two things: First, we dare not pursue sanctification apart from faith in the Gospel. Secondly, we dare not pursue sanctification apart from the Spirit’s power. If we are to daily put to death sin and model godly attitudes and behavior, we need the Spirit.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
(Galatians 5:16 ESV)

Paul goes on to say in the same section-

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; (Galatians 5:22-23 ESV)

“….let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
(Galatians 5:25 NIV )

Paul makes it clear, if you read chapters five and six — there is a way we ought to live and a way we ought not to live. There are things we ought not to do and things we ought,  indeed  must do. That said, here’s the key point. Don’t miss this. In order to live the way God has called us to live, we need the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit to empower us.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
(2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV)

What Paul says here is that the Spirit continually illuminates the gospel to our hearts and as a result – we are changed.As I thought about this…(and I’m gonna stop the car analogy after this, because it only works so far)…the Holy Spirit is like the fuel pump. He takes the fuel of the Gospel and he gets it into the engine of the car to make it run.

So on Sunday, when we sing the Gospel, when the gospel is preached, we are counting on the Holy Spirit, the fuel pump, to transfer the gospel to our hearts, to get the car moving.

Commenting on the Spirit’s role in sanctification, Owen writes:

There is no good that we receive from God but it is brought to us and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. Nor is there in us any good towards God, any faith, love, obedience to his will, but what we are enabled to do so by the Holy Spirit. – John Owen

Similarly, Gordon Fee writes:

All truly Christian behavior is the result of being Spirit people, people filled with the Spirit of God, who live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit. – Gordon Fee

So from beginning to end, our sanctification is the Spirit’s work. Therefore, we are fools to depend on our own self-powered, self-sufficient – even fleshly- efforts to grow. We are fools to place our confidence in strategies for growth. I am not saying strategies can’t be helpful. I am saying, we shouldn’t place our faith in strategies, principles, good advice. Rather, our faith, our confidence needs to be oriented to the Gospel and the Spirit’s empowering presence. That’s what we must depend on.

This is why we must seek daily to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). If you go back and read Eph. 5:18 – you’ll see that command comes within the context of ethical exhortation, just as the command to walk by the Spirit in Galatians comes in a section of ethical commands.

Here’s the bottom line: To obey God, to grow in godliness – we desperately need the Holy Spirit. We desperately need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We absolutely cannot do the Christian life in our own strength. Have you been praying for God to fill you lately? Or have you been depending on your own efforts to grow?

We’ve seen – sanctification has a lot more to do with faith in the Gospel than at first we might realize. Now we’ve also seen – sanctification has a lot more to do with dependence on the Spirit than we could have imagined.

Sanctification Is Faith-Driven

Another way to say the same thing is sanctification is faith-fueled.

Christians know, we must believe the gospel to get in the door of Christianity. We know faith is necessary for justification. It’s necessary to gain right standing with God.  However, after conversion most Christians fail to realize the need to continually believe the gospel, to orient again and again to the gospel, to remember our justification and allow it to fuel, to empower holy living. Once saved, serious Christians can obsess over what they done wrong, done right, and how to improve. Their Christianity often morphs into a continual self-improvement project.  Meanwhile, faith in the gospel is left at the door. Believers overlook their right standing with God. We forget that in Christ, we are totally and unconditionally loved. We forget we are totally clean, totally justified, totally righteous in God’s sight.

This is the Galatian error. Their focus shifted from the gospel to Old Testament law observance. Tragically, they left the gospel at the door. So in this letter, Paul calls them back to the Gospel. He underscores what we often miss – the importance of post-conversion, ongoing faith in the Savior.

Let’s look at a few places in Galatians where we see this.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh [remember Paul is already converted] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20-21 ESV)

You see what Paul is saying? After conversion, as we continue in the Christian life, we don’t leave faith at the door. We don’t move on to more important, more spiritual matters of obedience and discipline. No – Paul says “I live” (note the present tense) – “I live” – meaning “right now” – I live by faith. Here we see – the Christian life-from first to last-is fueled by faith in the One who loved us unconditionally & sacrificed His own life for us! 

Let’s look at another text a little further down.

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3:1-6 ESV)

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11 ESV)

Theologian – GK Berkouwer – says the following. I think his words happen to summarize what Paul says in Gal. 3 so well.

….there is never a stretch along the way of salvation where justification drops out of sight. Genuine sanctification–let it be repeated stands or falls with this continued orientation toward justification and the remission of sins.

Did you get that? The Galatians certainly did not. If you want genuine sanctification, if you want to grow–know that your continued growth in godliness stands or falls with this continued orientation toward justification–toward the fact that you are right with God, you stand righteous before God,  not on the basis of your own performance, but on the basis of Jesus perfect performance for you.

This is an insight most of us overlook. We go to the Cross for forgiveness, when we sin or when we feel condemned. But we otherwise fail to orient ourselves moment by moment, day by day toward the gospel-toward the love of God for us displayed in the Gospel, towards justification and the remission of sins.  Consequently we lack the fuel we need to pursue holiness. We lack love for God, because we lack awareness his love for us. We lack patience with other people because we lack awareness of Jesus’ patience with us. We covet what we don’t have rather than rejoice in what we do have in Jesus because we’ve ceased to be amazed by the spiritual riches that are ours in Christ. We become sinfully angry when others fail us, because we’ve lost sight of the vast amount of sin we personally have been forgiven. We become anxious because we fail to realize the One we must trust is totally worthy of our trust. Through His death, Jesus has proven His compassion and kindness. Through His resurrection, He has proven He is the sovereign powerful God of all who is worthy of all trust. However, because we lose sight of Jesus – sometimes we can be like a car…just putzing along the side of the road… we don’t have enough Gospel filling our tank…we put the foot on the gas, expect the car to go, expect godly heart attitudes and behavior…but it just putters along.

This is so important. When you perceive even a small degree of your sinfulness – and look to Jesus – His life, His death, His resurrection- by faith – that’s where the fuel for spiritual growth comes from. When we realize that in Christ there is nothing I can do to make God love me more and nothing I can do to make Him love me less ¹ – that’s where the fuel comes from. This mindset is totally contrary to both legalism and license.

We look to Jesus and out of gratitude and love for God – we obey Jesus — NOT because we want to be moral people, not because we want God to like us,  and NOT because we fear God’s wrath…BUT because we want to please the One who has been so kind, so generous, so merciful to us.  That’s where the fuel for holy-living comes from. When we steadfastly see and savor Jesus Christ by faith, our “tanks” if you will get full

2 Cor 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

My passion – longing – is that we’d be a people totally captivated by and obsessed with Jesus Christ and what He’s done for us. That is  where the fuel for holy living comes from.

I concluded Sunday’s sermon from Mark 1:16-20 with this encouragement.
—————————————–

Mark 1:17 - And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Evangelism is not a program run by a church. Evangelism is the work of every disciple of Jesus Christ. In these verses Jesus is clear, a disciple is someone who responds to the call of Jesus by becoming totally committed to Jesus and His mission. And that commitment finds expression in following Jesus no matter what it costs us personally. It also finds expression in becoming a fisher of men.

Jesus told disciples in Mark 1, he was going to make them fishers of men. Fast forward a few years. In Acts 1, just prior to His ascension, Jesus tells Peter, Andrew, James, John and the rest of his disciples: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In Mark 1 Jesus tells the disciples they will fish for men.
In Acts 2, he empowers them to do it.

God has done the same with us. Just as Jesus called the twelve to follow Him, he has called us to follow Him. Just as Jesus empowered the original disciples at Pentecost  to bear witness to Him, He has empowered us with the Spirit to bear witness to Him.

Life is short. Every generation has the opportunity to glorify God by bearing witness to Jesus – to his person, His work. Every generation of believers has the opportunity to become fishers of men. The question is –  will that be us? Will we be faithful to fish? Will we be faithful to bear witness? Will we step out in boldness to proclaim Christ? Will we be faithful to serve the purposes of God in our generation as we reach out to lost people? Let’s pray we will.

Dane Ortland:

It sounds backward, but the path to holiness is through (not beyond) the grace of the gospel, because only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart. The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

Let’s pursue holiness. (Without it we won’t see God: Matt 5:8; Heb 12:14.) And let’s pursue it centrally through enjoying the gospel, the same gospel that got us in and the same gospel that liberates us afresh each day (1 Cor 15:1–2; Gal 2:14; Col 1:23; 2:6). As G. C. Berkouwer wisely remarked, “The heart of sanctification is the life which feeds on justification.”

Tullian Tchividjian:

It’s one thing to affirm the gospel; it’s something altogether different to experience its power where the rubber meets the road of life. How does the finished work of Christ become real to me at my point of need? How does what Christ accomplished for sinners two thousand years ago become vivid and tangible in the moment of temptation, or in the moment when I’m desperately longing for human approval and affection? As I make my way across the wilderness of this life, how does the reality of the ongoing power of the gospel change me, help me, and serve me here and now? How does the gospel connect with my daily grind? Thinking out the deep implications of the gospel and applying its powerful reality to all parts of my life is a daily challenge and a daily adventure…

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And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” - Mark 1:11 

At Jesus’ baptism, the Father affirmed Jesus as His own, God’s own beloved Son. This gave Jesus the public heavenly endorsement necessary to minister, not simply as a prophet, but as God Himself.

The backdrop of this verse is the Old Testament. In Ex. 4:23 God calls Israel “my son.” Yet as God’s son, Israel failed to rightly represent God to the peoples of the world and miserably so. Israel was a rebellious son. Israel was a sinful son.

Now at Jesus’ baptism, God the Father affirms Jesus. He says, this one is  “my beloved Son.” But this Son is different than Israel. With this Son, with Jesus the Father is well pleased. Jesus came to succeed where Israel failed. Jesus came to succeed where we have failed.

As those united to Christ, we need to realize God affirms us like He affirms His Son.  God says of us “My beloved son”….”My beloved daughter with whom I am well pleased.” There are times we all go through in life, where relationships disappoint—where we feel unloved and uncared for. This can be disappointing, sometimes devastating. When that happens remember God’s love for you never changes. At a certain level, that’s all that matters, not another person’s love or lack of love.

There are also times we sin, and do things that aren’t pleasing to God. When conviction comes, we might be tempted to discouragement or despair. In those moments we need to remember, nothing we can do can make God love us more and nothing we have done can make Him love us less (I’m indebted to JD Greear for this terminology). God loves us, He is pleased with us, not on the basis of our moral record, but Jesus’ moral record transferred to us.

Excerpt from 9/16/12 Sermon —  ”Jesus: Equipped to Win The War“

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:34-35 ESV, emphasis mine)

Jesus’ words ‘for the gospel’s sake’ remind us, the salvation of even a single soul is worth laying your life down for. I’m grateful for how I’ve seen the gospel advance. I want to see it advance more. I long for revival. I long to see the gospel-preaching local churches in Middletown and other parts of Delaware full. There is plenty of gospel work to be done!

How will the gospel advance? Of course God must move by His Spirit. But what means will He use? Evangelistic programs? Big churches with lots of resources? I’m thankful for those things. Evangelistic programs often bear good fruit.

However, as individual Christians Jesus gives us no right to lean on a gifted preacher or the programs of the church or church staff for gospel-advancement. He calls every Christian, in response to God’s great mercy to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him. God calls every Christian to help build the gospel-proclaiming local church they’re part of and to share the gospel with unbelievers they know.

May God bless our sacrifice and the sacrifice of our fellow believers in this area and beyond by saving many for the glory of His Name.

Chris

The  following article by Erick Raymond,  if applied, has potential to make a significant difference in our relationships in the family and in the church.

There is little doubt that we have all experienced the following circumstance and reaction. Someone comes to let you know about something that you have said or done that is wrong. Whether it was ignorant or blatant, the bottom line is the consequence. The other individual is offended, hurt, or aware of something that you did that needs to be addressed.

Sadly, it our reaction that really gets us in hot water. It is our sinful reaction that shows our betrayal of the gospel just as much as the first sin itself.

These sinful reactions show themselves in a variety of ways. One of the chief methods of my own sinful heart is to back up the dump-truck of personal merit.

Click here to read the whole thing.

HT: The Gospel Coalition

Notice how Paul uses the language of the Cross throughout his letters. In 1 Corinthians 1:23 he says, “But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” In 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 he says, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” In Colossians 1:28-29 he says, “We proclaim him [Christ], admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”

When Paul says he focuses on the crucifixion, this is his shorthand summary for the entire work of Christ. He isn’t saying that he only teaches people about Jesus’ death. If you look at Paul’s teaching along with the other biblical writers, it includes everything from Jesus’ heavenly glory, the incarnation, his life of suffering and obedience, his death on the Cross, his resurrection, his ascension, his present intercession on our behalf, and his future return! When Paul and the other biblical writers focus on the cross, they do it to emphasize that, without Jesus’ sacrificial death for sin, none of the other benefits that are ours in Christ Jesus would be possible! We needed a substitute. So when we talk about living a Cross-centered life, we are including everything about Jesus, his work on our behalf, and all the benefits we enjoy because of him: our election, calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and ultimate glorification.

From p.158-159 How People Change by Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

The Gospel is better than unconditional love. The Gospel says, “God accepts you just as Christ is. God has ‘contraconditional’ love for you.” Christ bears the curse you deserve. Christ is fully pleasing to the Father and gives you His own perfect goodness. Christ reigns in power, making you the Father’s child and coming close to you to begin to change what is unacceptable to God about you. God never accepts me “as I am.” He accepts me “as I am in Jesus Christ.” The center of gravity is different. The true Gospel does not allow God’s love to be sucked into the vortex of the soul’s lust for acceptability and worth in and of itself. Rather, it radically decenters people—what the Bible calls “fear of the Lord” and “faith”—to look outside themselves. - David Powlison