Christ Holiness Within Us — Dean Taylor

Christ’s Holiness Within Us

It's the second part to the message that I just preached on this series, the idea of God making us holy and how he does that. And with this, I wanted to focus today on particularly on Christ within us.

I touched on that in the last message and there was just several different things I don't feel I came to. I'd also like to take us to looking at the early Christian view of this and how the early Christians walk through this, but I'm not going to get to that probably today.

So today I'm going to focus again on the concept of Christ holiness within us and what that means. So again, if you wouldn't mind, just to help scatter my, to help gather my scattered thoughts, you mind just allow me to pray again as we get through these different distractions of this technical things.

So let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, and I do just pray that you would be with me throughout all these different distractions and these different things, God, and help me to present this message and to glorify you with all that you want it to be.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So there's a story that I felt I was going to tell about my journey in walking in holiness and walking in sanctification. And I don't tell, I don't have a lot of these types of events that happen in my life.

It's a very spiritual, very tender, a very, a thing in my life that happened. But when I was coming about 15 years ago, 20 years ago, perhaps close to it, when I was moving to Pennsylvania from Texas, we had gone through as a family, a lot of different transitions.

And as I was going through that, I was, remember, really struggling with this concept of my own righteousness and my own holiness. And it's sort of like what Nathan was sharing today in his message about this.

The Demand for Holiness and the Need for Christ

And as when you begin to look at the early Christians and understand that God does require a holy life, it confronts you. Thank you, Christian. It's very, it's very shocking in some ways when you realize this, particularly when you were raised as an evangelical and you come to this, it becomes something that's, I don't know, it's just, it's just very challenging.

And as I began to walk through that and walk through the different, the different ramifications of what that meant, I just felt that I was not able to add up to this. And I began to just sort of spiral further and further down.

Again, it was very much like what Nathan was sharing there. And I remember a moment where I was focusing on Christ and getting my attention off of myself onto Christ. And there was a particular devotion I was going through in the morning devotion, and I think it was the, an Andrew Murray 30 day thing on a focus on being in the vine or something like that.

I remember it was something that went through each day and in this particular passage that I was part of the morning devotion, it was focusing on Christ before the throne, interceding on our behalf for our holiness.

And then it took it to this last verse in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, that Christ is our sanctification, that Christ himself is our justification, that it is him. And something about that, and I don't know what it is, and I, again, I don't like have this all the time, but it was, this is one of the more significant moments in my life.

I got to a place in prayer that I literally was thinking, I've never been here before. I've never experienced this kind of a concept of being before the throne, allowing Christ to be in me in this way.

And there was a special and a sweetness to me, to this, that I, I don't know, it's hard to explain it. I don't know that the time seemed to go, and I remember being late to, to, to work. I remember it was snowing, and suddenly I remember thinking, oh no, I'm going to be late to work.

And I don't know how much time actually lapsed, but I came out of that and I, you know, kind of shook myself and I went to work and just lived my day. And as I thought back to that moment, there's something in that, that I realized there's this, this balance in living a life of holiness, that God does genuinely require us to be holy.

And we see that in scripture and in many of us kingdom Christians and people that have come to this and read the early church, we see that in it and it's terrifying. It's literally terrifying at times when you realize that and you see God's holy standards and you see the saints of old.

But then somehow in the midst of this, being able to apprehend at least a portion of it, that it is Christ that will do this in me, that it is his interceding on my behalf. It is, it is partaking of Christ within me, that this holiness of this, this sanctified life that Christ requires would be possible.

And that moment has given me a lot of strength and it's actually, it's become kind of, when I go to pray, I have an image in my mind of this, this place of intercession of Christ interceding for us and it becomes very dear to me.

Holiness, Separation, and the Early Christian Witness

And so I want to talk today about this concept in particular, Christ within us, in our sanctification, the presence of Christ in our sanctification. And so just a quick summary of what we've covered so far in this little series.

It's not like I went out to start a series, but this is different sermons and I'm not sure how many of this will go to, but I think this is the third, if I can recall. I talked about the idea of the word holy and how God, Hadash in the Hebrew, it literally means this concept of being separate, of not being like us, of something particular, something special.

And that God himself, it says three times singing around him, holy, holy, holy, that God is holy, that he's completely not like us. And in this desire that who God is, he wants us to be holy. And so I've thought of, I ponder this concept of in our day and age, how cheap and how light we make of this idea.

And we think, well, everything is holy and in modern evangelicalism and this type of thing, anything can be holy. We don't need sanctuaries. We don't need these things, but we must be careful. And I wrote these two things.

If everything is holy, then by definition, nothing is holy because nothing is separate and called on purpose for God's glory. And then also the point, and I'm gonna get to this mainly in our last passage with worship, just because everything can be holy, we can meet anywhere, we can do, you know, it doesn't mean that everything is holy and that this process of purposely setting aside a worship and a life to God and how important it is.

I talked about the different views of God and how this one over here is a proper way that God is not part of us. Now he's close. This isn't like distance. It's not that God is distant from us. He's very close to us, but he's by nature, nothing like us.

And these different views of God, I talked about that particularly in the first episode. But in that way, he makes through the incarnation of Jesus Christ and through his grace, through sacraments and through this, his pouring out of his grace, he ministers to us by grace what he is by nature, this beautiful part of what God is.

And so I talked about that it was one of the things that kingdom people like us usually come to realize, and it causes a light bulb to come on, is when you start to realize that a lot of Paul's letters are arguing about the Gentiles coming into the covenant.

And when particularly dealing with circumcision, and when we deal with that, we kind of get this kingdom epiphany, I call it, where, you know, things, your whole Bible begins to look different in so many ways.

You start to see the kingdom in the Old Testament and into the New Testament and into Revelation and how powerful that is. And but then sometimes with this, I find it, we have to be careful in our kingdom and Anabaptist type circles is that sometimes in our zeal for this, there's sort of what I call a kingdom reductionism, that we understand these things superficially and doctrines like salvation, atonement, and we almost, you end up hearing amongst our people, a legalistic or sarcastic in way.

And we have to be very careful that there's a depth to these things, and there's a something to this that's this powerful. I looked at, I'm not going to do a lot of early church today, but I'm going to probably do that in the next one, but I took to us how even in the early church that we see in the, from origin, in particular, how he spoke of salvation by faith, and how he even would use the terminology, although we wouldn't, he used the terminology of faith alone and understood in the way the early Christians understand that it's a powerful concept because it's not just a theological subject.

It's not just an empty mental game, but it's a life of faith that's genuine and faithfulness as the Greek would show that. In origin, I showed in the other messages, how he says this does not give us an excuse and a license to sin.

And so as we look at sanctification today in this, the other thing that I showed in the other episodes that human effort is not bad, it is actually expected. As we see through all the scriptures and through all the early church, and you see this in so many different ones, and even you see this when you read, it's funny when I read like Puritan writings, even though by their theology, they would say they would not believe this and they have some really funny views on human effort and such, but coming out of those ones that really seem to know God, they just can't help but realize we must be holy.

And it's something that's very, it terrifies us in a way without the grace of God. We saw that, we also saw in the other messages that God cares about our works on judgment day and that God accomplishes all these things in our life, that is the working of the Holy Spirit and sanctification by His grace.

We looked at grace reductionism, and we talked about the idea of grace as a gift, and even that our capitalistic understanding of gift is wrong, and that in other cultures, and particularly in the culture of their day, a gift is something you circled.

It went around a circle, just like I showed a picture of a peace pipe here, that you don't just take it and put it in your car and say, oh, this is mine. You would share that in your community, and it's something that's very powerful and tender.

Then also, of course, this concept that grace is power, and we come to this passage for the grace of God that bring a salvation has appeared to all men, and this is what grace does teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust.

We should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age. I shared and preached on this passage. This part that I'm going to focus on, this part that I don't know, that I try to find the words to explain a little bit of what happened to me and understand my life, and what I try to come back to when I lose my way, is Christ within us and how this is discussed.

Faith as a Whole-Life Reality

When you look at the different, this is not me, this is many people that talk about this, the difference between the Greek mind and the Jewish mind, and this is a common theme in theology is to look at those different things, and if there's one thing I think that needs to be understood about the Greek mind and the biblical Hebrew mind that they would have come out of is this idea of separating a mental thought from a whole life of action.

We're looking at these different passages here that men create. The Greek mind usually thinks of ideas of, I mean, as faith, as just ideas, as mental constructs, as just different things, as a concentration on the individual, and the Hebrew idea, it was walking, it was following after, it was a life, it had to do with community and action.

Let's see what this does here. I'm going to have to do this, but I can't read my slides because my screen's a little broken if y 'all don't mind. The early church took these Hebrew concepts, these Jewish concepts, and brought them into the Greek world, and they wrote.

They talked about these things, and they tried to do this, and when you read their writings, you can see these two worlds contrasting in a way that I think is powerful. I might be able to present some of this.

I'm going to show you just a few quotes that I got from the early church about this. Here's one by Clement of Alexandria. He says, those who are particular about words and devote their time to them miss the point of the whole picture.

Clement is arguing that if it's just a theology in your head, now keep in mind, Clement of Alexandria was a kind of a philosopher himself. He had a whole school, and he taught a lot, but he says that if this just exists in your mind, then you're not getting the whole picture.

Another one by Justin Martyr, and he says here that the matter of religion lies in works, not in words, and this idea that we must see these things in our life. I love this one by Mark Felix, who was in this debate, and how he frames this idea of the meaning and what our faith should be like.

He says this. Mark Felix, in his debate, he said this. He says, we despise the bent brows of the philosophers. In other words, that idea of the philosophers looking down on you and looking very scary and that kind of a thing.

We despise the bent brows of the philosophers because we know them to be corruptors, adulterers, and tyrants. They have great eloquence, but they're speaking against vices that they themselves live in.

We on the other hand, who do not carry our wisdom in our clothes, but in our minds, don't speak great things. We live them. We boast that we have found what they have sought for with the utmost eagerness, but have not been able to find.

I love that quote. It's a beautiful idea. Let me see if I can make this a bit bigger. Yeah, it's a little bigger. And so this idea that they were talking about, when you read the early church, when you read them in this, is this idea that Christ is in me, the hope of glory.

Christ as the Center of Faith and Sanctification

And I'm going to talk about this. You know, one of the passages that I grew up with a lot from the evangelical background is from this 1 Corinthians 2. And the passage here is, for I determine not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And you know, it's amazing when this passage is frequently given, that it's given in such a way that we just focus on Christ crucified, but it's really a powerful passage. And I think that it's important for us to get that Paul made a specific point.

I'm coming here to preach to you Jesus Christ. And if there's anything that I want to leave with you this evening, if there's anything that I really want you to understand, is that our faith, our life, our sanctification, our church, our relationship with others must be in the very person of Jesus Christ himself.

Jesus is the answer to these things. It is Jesus Christ, not just some theology. And so he comes here to preach, I know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. When we look at this idea of this Christ within me, we see that over 70 times in the scriptures, over 70 times in the scriptures, we get this concept of Christ in me.

We also get this idea of we in Christ, but this concept, we don't need to just quickly brush over because the early church understood their salvation in this way. I believe the biblical writers understood their salvation in this way because it's not, you see, getting an aha.

It's not just understanding it or some kind of theological thing. It is literally having Jesus Christ within us. This presence of God and not just a theological construct. And so union with God in Christ is both the means and the motive for attaining this perfection in Christ.

And we see this in this concept of God within us. One of the passages that I look to and that I just ponder, ponder this passage again. I mean, it's crazy powerful when you think of the words that are mentioned here in this passage.

Partakers of the Divine Nature

2 Peter 1 verse 4, chapter 1 verse 4. Think of it as a new and this concept that we're trying to focus tonight on Christ within us. And he said this, by which you have been given to us exceeding great and precious promises.

We've given these promises of the scriptures that through these, those promises of God that through these, you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Now, I want you to see something in this passage that Peter is wanting us to understand that by the promises of God, by the scriptures and what we read about God, we get to partake of the divine nature.

But notice it's not just some mental trip. It's not just something that we have some something. Then that divine nature causes us to escape the corruption that's in the world. This presence of Christ within us is real enough to act in us in such a way that prevents us from that, that allows us to be free from these, the corruption that's in this world through lust.

Life in the Spirit According to Romans 8

In Romans chapter seven, eight, excuse me, Romans chapter eight, verse seven. See if I can move this. There we go. There's this beautiful passage. And again, one of the things that I've been amazed that just recently we've been looking at as, as we've been looking at some of these scriptures and it went right with Nathan's devotion this evening.

Brother Finney's also been going through this assurance of salvation series. And I've loved this part that he's bringing in there that, and it's very important that assurance of salvation is part of the inheritance of what we're supposed to have as a Christian and that we shouldn't live in fear that there should be something real inside of us that is part of our inheritance.

And then, and as he's been preaching through that series, I've been thinking how in my series also that I'm going through here and how important this, this, this concept is and Romans chapter eight, verse seven, starting at verse seven, read these passages with me again.

If you have your Bibles and let's look at this in Romans chapter eight, verse seven, it says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

So then those who are in the flesh can not please God. You know, it is amazing to me that in America today, there's so much of Christianity has come to the feeling that we can just go on living a carnal life when it is so clear.

And it's amazing to me that Romans is so frequently used to defend this, this evil practice. But Romans gives it to us in such a beautiful way, because again, just like Peter did, it's Christ within us, but that it's real and it's active.

He goes on in verse nine, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. So let me ask you all here that are sitting here tonight, everyone look at me. Do you have the spirit of God in you like what Paul is talking about here?

He's saying this, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. It's a very important question, because he goes on to say, now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his.

This is not just a theological idea. This is not just some club we join. It's communion. It's relationship with Christ. In a real way. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. I see in that passage there this idea of a living a holy life, and he's giving us an incredible inheritance.

He's saying that the same spirit, the same power that came and raised Jesus from the dead inside of us will cause us and quicken us in a life of holiness. And he goes on and says, therefore, brother, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. And then here's the powerful passage for as many as are led by the spirit of God.

These are the sons of God. Let me say it again. I know you've heard this passage so many times, but don't let it become too familiar for as many as are led by the spirit of God. That word led is like it's driving.

It's a passion. The Greek word there is the concept of driving you forward for as many as are driven forth by the spirit of God. These are the sons of God for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom you cry of a father.

The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and of children than heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

John Wesley and the Reality of Christ Within

I brought up this analogy or this story at the end of one of brother Finney, when he spoke on this passage in the assurance of salvation. I'll bring it here because it's a different whole sermon series.

There's this incredible story where John Wesley is on as a missionary going to America, going to Georgia. And he's an Anglican priest at the time, not converted by his own statements in his journal. And he's in there, he sees a, he goes through what people think is a hurricane.

When you read his actual journal, he just talks about this great tempest, this great storm. And it's so bad that the main mast of the ship cracks over and falls into the ship. And you can imagine, I mean, I would be terrified.

I have to confess. And he was there and he was witnessing all this. And they're in the middle of, I guess, the Atlantic ocean. And it's the middle of the ocean, this going through a hurricane, the entire main mast sail.

And he looks over though, and these Moravians were singing and praising God. And he looked and he saw even their children were singing and praising God. So afterwards, the fire, the hurricane is over.

He goes and he speaks to Bishop Spangenberg. And he said, I got to talk to you. How, how did you go through all that and keep singing to God? How? And as he writes this in his journal and Bishop Spangenberg, he saw this and he realized that there was something lacking in John Wesley's life.

And he said to him, does the spirit of Christ dwell within you? Does your spirit bear witness with God's spirit that you are a child of God? And he, John Wesley writes in his journal that he said something just sort of art, you know, sort of light and everything.

And he's, and he goes on, but he said that he believed that Bishop Spangenberg saw through him. And that, that set with John Wesley. It's, it, it ate away at him, that his, his faith was artificial. He had a mental faith.

He later writes that this was like a demonic faith. It was, it was just a faith in creeds, a faith in mind, but there was not a presence of Christ within him and that he lacked that. And so this passage that, that I, I brought up this analogy again is, is you see the picture there of the candle?

Everybody put your, kind of imagine there that you're, you're like that picture there. And if we could do this with an analogy here, I'll, I'll, I'll present this. So, you know, with this, this idea that the glow is on the hand there and that that presence of that glow is there only when it's, when it's, when it's the, the candle is, is lit in this passage.

Christ Our Wisdom, Justification, and Sanctification

As I ponder here is, is, is this is the one that, that came to me in that, in that moment of prayer in first Corinthians one 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him, are you in Christ Jesus?

Listen to that. But of him, are you in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom? This is like the, the, in Proverbs, we see that, that, that wisdom has, has, has found a house. Christ is that wisdom, Christ and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

This, this idea in, in, in theology and it just drives me crazy sometimes that of separating and siloing these different portions of, of theology. You have your justification, your sanctification and your glorification and people have these different silos and different theological points, but all of this first Corinthians one 29 and 30 is telling us is Christ.

Christ is our wisdom. Christ is our justification. Christ is our sanctification and you can't have that. You can't have any of those things, justification and wisdom in any way like that. So like this picture here again, I go, Oh, well, in that picture, in this picture, if you could imagine the hand there now blow out the candle, but keep the glow.

Go ahead. Try it. See the hand there, blow out that candle, but I want you to keep the glow on your hand. You cannot. So the glow is only there because of the presence of the fire that is. So it is with Christ.

He is our wisdom. He is our justification. He in God will not give us something particularly as something as, as precious as salvation apart from his presence. It is Christ. It is him. And we cannot accept anything less than this.

Let me again, break this so I can see. We cannot accept anything less. And listen to the way Paul now speaks of his testimony. And then because of his experience, how he pastors his churches that he is a missionary to listen to this.

Christ Formed in Believers

Paul, speaking of his testimony, look at Galatians 4, 19, or actually beginning at 115. But when it pleased God, Paul, speaking of himself, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me.

Did you hear that? But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me. This is Paul's testimony that Paul has been converted to reveal the presence of Christ within him, that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who are, who were apostles before me. But I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. So likewise, now with that personal experience, this is how Paul pastors.

Listen to now in Galatians 4 now, 6 and 7. And because you are sons, this is that, that assurance that brother Finney was preaching on. And because you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, father, that you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. I see many here having the Charlton family here, and I was rejoicing so much when I got the little message that your adoption went through. And I, and I remember through the years of all the things that y 'all been there.

What an incredible thing that is. What a powerful thing that is. Children, that's, that's beautiful. I, we rejoiced at my house over this. God is saying that this is an inheritance to every Christian, this adoption.

You who are adopted can relate to this better than we who don't understand this as well. You have a special understanding that father God adopts all of us in that way. Now look into the way Paul forces this home now and at the end of chapter 4, and he says this, my little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

This is not until you finally get it. I'm going to labor until you answer all the right questions or I'm going to labor with you till you finally get it. I'm going to labor to you till you get this list of rules and this list of don'ts.

No, until Christ is formed in you and he is a pastor is laboring for this and, and crying for this and sleeping and not sleeping and wanting that the Galatians would truly experience Christ within them.

He says the same things to the Colossians, Colossians 127 to them, God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Do you have that hope of glory? Do you have that hope of glory in you? He says that this is a great mystery. This is a treasure that God gave to the Gentiles and he wanted us to get this idea that Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Praise God for that. That's such a beautiful concept that we have here in the future and probably the next one. I'd like to talk on the human conscience and sanctification and also some early Christian quotes.

I still have this in the series I'd like to get off, but this concept of this, this freeing of the heart, it goes from this passage. He goes on into the next chapter and talks about someone who's torn their conscience and everything, but he starts all that with this concept of Christ within us.

Working Out Salvation by God’s Power

Now, looking at some of the passages that I did last week, but just bringing it home again with this, this idea here of, of, um, of Christ within us being our salvation and Philippians 2, 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God this powerful for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

The analogy that I gave here with this, with this picture that you can see is like God gives you this field called salvation, which is in presence in Christ. And he says, and he gives us this idea. We must work out that salvation, work out that field with fear and trembling because he has a purpose for you.

He's called you and saved you for this reason. We are created unto his good works. Um, now looking at this Ephesians passage again in this, this, and then what I'm going to show you next time we speak on this, some incredible passages from Chrysostom and some of the early Christians and talking about how God does this inside of us, this, this Christ within us, this passage.

Now, again, focusing now our attention that our sanctification are being holy, called out special unto God starts from Christ within us and continues in Christ within us. Ephesians two, four through seven, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love of which he has loved us, even when we were dead and trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved.

And look at this and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come, he may, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

This is amazing. And you'll see next, next on my next series in this series, Chrysostom speaking on this, just the amazing idea of what it was. He's actually saying here that he's raising us up to be in Christ, that we get to take part of his being exalted.

It's too much. But then he brings us back down with this passage. Chrysostom says that, and I'll show you. Chrysostom says he lifted us up so far in the other verses that he has to bring us back down in these.

And he says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, not of works. Lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

This beautiful concept of God working in us. Now, you got to understand, we came, we preach nothing but Christ and him crucified. At least Paul was saying that. All those prophecies about the Messiah that you read in the Old Testament and all those foreshadowing that comes, you know, about what will come in the new covenant, the new times and like the passage that I read to you from Ezekiel 36, that I will gather you from all the nations and I will take that heart of stone out.

I will put a heart of flesh and we get this concept of Christ of the new covenant. We must understand that when Christ came to earth, all of Christ, all that he accomplished and everything he did to establish his way, his church, his people, his salvation is part of that, not of ourselves.

It is a gift of God. God came and preached to us the beautiful teachings of Christ and gave us a way and gave us a cure for humanity. It wasn't us that came up with this. It is him. And then moreover, just like we read in Philippians, it's him that continually now works through us in this way.