The Progressive Aspect of Sanctification — John Murray

Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we pray that Thy searching word might enter into our hearts and our consciences. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and the reproofs of instruction are the way of life.

May we receive Thy rebuke and correction. Correct us, O Lord, but with judgment. Not in anger lest Thou bring us to nothing, but do Thou reprove us, and do Thou grant that we may receive the reproof with humility.

And do Thou grant also that we may be led into the ways of holiness and righteousness and truth more and more, until we shall be presented faultless before Thy presence with exceeding joy. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Believer’s Ongoing Conflict With Sin

Though I began to progress in sanctification, I reserve to definitive sanctification a context which clearly indicates that there is still in the believer conflict of sin. And so, when we take account of the sin which still inheres in the believer, and take account of the fact that he has not yet attained all appointed for him, the condition of the believer here and now, that is both negative sanctification and sanctification, is the transition of the believer's life.

Mortification and Cleansing in the Christian Life

He of the believer himself, he of the believer, is enlisted, putting to death the deeds of the body, which we might think is logically excluded to be put to death. In the case of the Holy Spirit, put yourselves toward him and say, for he doth reside with Christ in God.

Until first thought on the earth. In the preceding verses, in this connection with definitive sanctification, I say as the language used in definitive sanctification is that of passivity. This news now is that of the believer himself.

Promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. Because flesh and spirit here are used to designate the person in his completeness, constituted elements of his being, his spirit, his body, his flesh, cleansing, mortifying, cleansing, cleansing, and separate from sin, conform to his likeness, similar emphasis.

Purification and Conformity to God’s Holiness

In 1 John 3 days, as we found earlier, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. It's not specifically Christ, but God the Father. Father John is speaking when he says, not yet hath it been made manifest what he shall be, but we know that when it shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Three earlier points, 3 .2, 3 .3, as 1 John 3 .2, we know that if it shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So God the Father is speaking, and consequently the demand is direct only that we shall be like the Father.

He said, ye shall be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. In other words, creation or the mortification contributes to it in the very nature which the believer possesses, and the goal to which that lay back about the 80s of the last century.

Take another word by believer. See here, you have a very simple datum of biblical teaching. One should not be blinded to the simplicities of biblical teaching by what may appear to be very plausible argumentation in favor of some other causes like that of suppression or that of counteraction.

The demand of these passages is nothing less than apostasy. It could not be anything less. We bear in mind that the ground of all suffering is negative, falsest of holiness. It is significant that the Apostle Paul, for example, in that passage which I just quoted to you, he had one cleanse of flesh and spirit, but he adds, by sanctification is the perfecting of holiness.

Transformation Through the Renewing of the Mind

The Lord Jesus Christ made no provision for the flesh. Perhaps the most explicit term in the New Testament, progressive sanctification, is that used by the Apostle Paul on two occasions. Romans 12 .2 of progressive sanctification.

Is that used by the Apostle Paul on two occasions. Romans 12 .2, Corinthians 3 .18. The verb metamorphosis, metamorphosis. It is the English word metamorphosis in the substantive, of course, metamorphosis, the exact transliteration of the Greek.

In Romans 12 .2, Paul says, be not conformed. He doesn't use this word. It's a very different word, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed, transformed, be metamorphosed. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect, the acceptable.

And the other passage, 2 Corinthians 3 .18. We, all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory. Be transformed, transformed, in 3 .18.

We are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory. Well, you remember, it is the verb, maybe transfigured, when we're giving the transfiguration of Christ. So it is also the idea of being transfigured, transfigured.

Conformity to the Image of Christ

Thus the goal of the whole redemptive process, conformity to the image of Christ, as the firstborn among many brethren, Romans 8 .29, conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn among many brethren.

Scripture defines for us significantly the method of progressive sanctification, the method of progressive sanctification, 2 Corinthians 3 .18. We, all with unveiled face, as you remember, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory.

And the other passage, 2 Corinthians 3 .18. We, all with unveiled face, conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn among many brethren. The method of progressive sanctification, 2 Corinthians 3 .18.

We, all with unveiled face, as you remember, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Lord's Spirit. What is the thought there is that we behold the glory of the Lord Christ, or that we reflect His glory as in a mirror or in Christ.

There is difference of opinion with respect to the importance of that particular verb, doctrine of the Lord, but in either case, whether it is beholding or reflecting, both ideas are involved. For if we reflect the glory of Christ, it is because we behold it, we behold it.

After the pattern of John, in John 1 .14, we beheld His glory glorious, of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And of course, in beholding, are being transformed more and more into His likeness.

And if we behold His glory, we cannot but reflect. We produce it within the realm of our own creature, death. The idea is this, that the eyes of heart and mind become so affixed, I say they become so affixed upon Him, that we behold Him as the Father's glory, and the transcript of His being, that we more and more take on the character of His image, from one degree of similitude to another.

Until finally, believers are completely transfigured, completely transfigured, and they leave no complete impressions of this present evil age. It is a law of psychology, that we become like that in which our interests and ambitions are absorbed.

And we become like that in which our interests and ambitions are absorbed. Now that law of our psychology is not suspended in this state. It is really a law of our being, according to the constitution, the psychological constitution that is our being.

The Holy Spirit as the Agent of Transformation

But this natural factor is not the secret of this transformation of which Paul speaks. It is from the Spirit of the Lord that this transformation proceeds. The Spirit of the Lord. To Rio, to Rio, to Rio.

I don't suppose anyone can finally determine what the correct remedy should be. Whether it is to be taken in the order in which it occurred, in one of two ways, from the Lord of the Spirit, or from the Lord of the Spirit, where pneumatophs would be an apposition to Rio, or whether you take it in the opposite order, from the Spirit of the Lord, or when the impact of the evil on the Lord of the Spirit, and then the Spirit is identified with the Lord, by way of apposition, from the Lord of the Spirit, when, in that case, Christ can be represented as exercising lordship over the activities of the Holy Spirit within the realm of sanctification of this twenty-five crosses, or you take it the other way, which is the more traditional, from the Spirit of the Lord.

But whatever way you render it, the apposition to the Holy Spirit, the apposition to the Holy Spirit, cannot be eliminated, because pneumatophs, here in verse eighteen, part back to verse six and eight, in the same chapter, verse six and eight, were equating power and the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit to the preeminence of the new covenant as distinct from the old.

It was the Lord of the Spirit there referring directly to the Lord Christ. He is even more strikingly reflecting on the way in which the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in Christ, of bringing to his help the sanctifying crosses, rendering even as well as the other rendering the Spirit of the Lord.

We are reminded of Jesus' own words, and he, that if the truth is come, he will guide you into all the truth, but he will not speak from himself, but whatever things he hears, those he will speak, will glorify me, because he will take of mine and show it to you.

John 16, verses 13 and 14. You see here that in a way that is more significant, more helpful than any one, in any one passage in the New Testament, how this positive process of confirmation into the image of Christ takes place.

Growth in Love, Knowledge, and Grace

The progressiveness of sanctification, of course, is also set forth in other ways of his use. Yes? Positive sanctification set forth in other ways. For example, Paul in Philippians 1, 9, Philippians 1, 9, represents it as love abounding more and more in knowledge and in all discernment.

Abounding more and more in knowledge and in all discernment. Is there, come back to it again, notice there, that it is love that grows, that abounds more and more in knowledge and in all discernment. It's that coordination of that correlativity.

Or let us think of Peter. 1 Peter 2, 2. He speaks of this as growing by the sincere milk of the Word unto salvation, unto salvation. They're used in the eschatological sense, not in the sense of special profession, but for the eschatological consummation.

As newborn beings, by the sincere milk of the Word, that he may grow thereby unto salvation. That's the proper text. That he may grow thereby unto salvation. That is the eschatological salvation used in the eschatological sense.

In 1 Peter 1, 5. Again Peter, in 2 Peter 3, 8. That presents this process as growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3, 8. In the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It isn't there simply growing grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but grace and knowledge goes with the genitive, as Paul has said, both in conjunction with the genitive. And it is therefore growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There again, you see, you have the same kind of coordination which you find in Philippians 1, 9. I think that we might turn to one passage and carry on that a little longer than on any other one passage in this connection.

Progressive Edification in Ephesians 4:12–16

And that is Ephesians 4, 12 -16. Because here again, you have a great deal that bears upon this progressive edification, as we may call it, progressive edification. Ephesians 4, 12 -16. And if you know your...

If those of you who know Greek, some of you may be juniors and not very far advanced in Greek yet, but some of you who know your Greek, if you turn to Greek, to Greek texts, one might look at this, first of all, just before the bell rings.

Ephesians 4, 12. Well, you remember in the preceding verse, Paul says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Then he goes on at verse 12. Unto the perfecting of the saints, that is, unto the fitting out of the saints.

Fitted out perfectly for a certain end or purpose. Unto the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. Unto the edification of the body of Christ. Unto the building up and the edification of the body of Christ.

Until we all come, that is, until we all arrive, until we all come unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Unto a perfect man. Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

In order that no longer we may be bathed and around with every wind of teaching and every wind of doctrine in the traitory of man, in the trustiness unto deceitful scheming, which is the word, verbal form of truth.

Speaking the truth in love. In love we may grow in all things. Who is the head, the whole body, and the neck again, to every joint of the supply according to the working in the measure of each one part.

The edification of itself in love. Now, for you to be following the Greek, you know, if you have paid any attention, you can see what ordinary combination of thoughts brought into that one passage. And you can see, you could have heard very readily, the repeated emphasis that falls upon progression.

That particular aspect of it in which we are interested now, and of course, that to which the progression is directed and the means by which the progression takes place. But in any case, in reference to our apology, you can see the goal ahead, towards which there is movement, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God and to a perfect man and to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And we'll be dealing with that at the beginning of next hour. That will be all for today. Amen.