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What is the Truth about Our Sanctification? |
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What is the Truth about Our Sanctification? |
All the false religions in the world teach in one manner or another that a person becomes righteous and earns his salvation by his own good works and efforts. God, on the other hand, teaches us that we are justified by faith without any works on our part. The righteousness that saves and eternal life are God’s gift to us through Jesus Christ.
We might wonder, then, where do good works fit into our spiritual life under God? Surely God’s forgiveness of sins cannot be a license to sin all the more. The purpose of this discussion is to learn what God teaches us about our life of good works, and about his law.
(A) Ps.118:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his love endures forever.
(A) 1 Jn.4:19 We love, because he first loved us.
(A) Ro.12:1,2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.1. To express our loving thanks to God for justifying us, we will dedicate ourselves to him.
2. Having our minds spiritually renewed by God’s good news of justification and salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, we will live holy lives that are pleasing to him and carry out his moral will for us.(A) Jn.14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
(A) Ro.6:11 And so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
(A) 2 Cor.5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away, behold new things have come!1. God’s justifying us will inspire us to be a new person spiritually. We will not live in sin as we formerly did, but we will live holy lives as God’s holy people.
(A) 2 Cor.5:14,15 For the love of Christ impels us, having come to this conclusion: that one died for all, consequently, all died; and he died for all, in order that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.
1. Christ’s love and sacrificial death for us motivates and urges us to serve him.
(B) Js.2:17,18 And so faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. . . and I will show you my faith by my works.
1. This new, holy life of loving service and thanksgiving is the fruit of our faith, the good work we do in response to God’s justifying us.
The Truth Is: A. God’s justifying us moves us to love and thank him by serving him with holy lives which obey his will and commandments.
B. This new life of loving service and obedience is a fruit of our faith.
Note: Our Christian life of loving service and of the good works of obedience to God’s commandments is called our Sanctification. Sanctification follows justification, not in the sense of time, but in the sense of a logical sequence, like a cause and its effect.
(A) Gal.2:20 The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me.
(A) 1 Jn.5:3 For this is love for God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
(A) Ps.33:8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world revere him.
The Truth Is: A. A good work is whatever we do by faith in keeping with the commandments to fear and love God.
(A) Mt.5:48 You shall be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1. God’s law demands perfection from all of us. It does not permit the slightest sin.
(A) 1 Jn.1:8 If we say that we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
(A,B) Gal.3:10, 11 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED ARE ALL WHO DO NOT ABIDE BY EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW IN ORDER TO DO THEM.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, because “THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH.”
(B,C) Gal.2:16 . . . because we know that a man is not justified by works of law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of law, because by works of law no person will be justified.
The Truth Is: Our good works cannot save us, for:
A. We are sinners who fail to do everything perfectly God’s law requires.
B. Our failure to fulfill all of God’s law perfectly puts us under the curse of God’s punishment in hell.
C. No one is justified by their works of obedience to God’s law but through faith in Jesus Christ.
(A) Ro.3:20 . . . through the law comes a consciousness of sin.
(A) Gal.3:24 Therefore the law has become a supervisor to prepare us for Christ, in order that we may be justified by faith.
(B) 1 Tim.1:9,10 . . . knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and rebellious, the ungodly and sinners, the unholy and worldly, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, fornicators, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to the sound doctrine.
(B) Ps.119:120 My flesh bristles with terror of you; And I am afraid of your judgments.
(C) Ps.119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word.
(C) Ps.119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path.
The Truth Is: The purpose of God’s law is threefold.
A. It serves as a mirror to show us our sin and our need for the Savior Jesus. This is the chief purpose of the law.
B. It serves as a curb to hold our sinful nature in check, which otherwise would lead us into sin.
C. It serves as a guide to living a holy life which is pleasing to God.
(A) Col.3:10 . . . and have put on the new self that is being renewed in the knowledge according to the image of the One who created it.
1. When God created the human race, he created it in his own image, which included a perfect knowledge of his law.
2. We Christians are being renewed in this knowledge.(A) Ro.2:15 (The Gentiles) demonstrate the demands of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or excusing them.
(B) Ex.34:28 And he (Moses) was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, nor did he drink water. And he wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant – the Ten Commandments.1. Since our natural knowledge of God’s law was darkened by sin, God gave his law a second time, writing it down, first in stone for the Jews, and then in the Scriptures for us all.
The Truth Is: God gave his law,
A. First writing it in our hearts.
B. Then writing it in the Bible.
(A) Isa.28:13 So the word of the Lord to them will be: Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, law upon law, law upon law, a little here, a little there, so that they will go and stumble backward, and be broken, snared, and captured.
1. The wayward priests and prophets of the Old Testament had mocked God’s Word as a great many laws of do’s and don’ts and rules. God said this is just what his Word would become to them as his judgment on them.
2. God’s law does consist of many moral instructions for our learning and for our Christian life of faith.(B) Ex.34:28 And he wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant – the Ten Commandments.
1. God summarized his moral law in ten, simple commandments, so that we may better remember what his law forbids and demands.
(C) Mt.22:37-40 And he (Jesus) said to him, “LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOUSELF. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
1. Jesus further summarized the moral law of God into but two commandments.
The Truth Is: A. God’s moral law contains many instructions for our learning and life.
B. God summarized his moral law in the ten commandments.
C. Jesus summarized God’s moral law into two commandments--love the Lord our God above all and our neighbor as ourself.
1. Define sanctification.
2. What is the relationship of sanctification to justification.
3. How can we express our thanks and love to God for his justifying us?
4. Define a good work.
5. Why can’t the good works we do by faith save us?
6. When asked why they think they will go to heaven, people often answer that they have tried to lead a good life. Evaluate their answer on the basis of what we have learned from Scripture in this lesson.
7. Those who try to save themselves by obeying God’s law will receive what from him in the end?
8. Why do you feel compelled to live by God’s commandments?
9. How do the three purposes of the law apply to you personally?
10. In what ways has God given you his law?
11. Summarize the law of God.
12. Why is love the fulfillment of the law?
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Unpublished work. Copyright © 1995 JCS of Christian Inconnect. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced for distribution or publication without prior permission from Christian Inconnect. |
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All Scripture verses on this web page, unless otherwise indicated, are a translation of the pastor of Christian Inconnect and are a part of the Christian Inconnect Version (CIV), on which he is working. He reserves all rights to his translated verses and to their copyright ©. They may not be quoted without his prior permission.
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