Sanctification? God's Work OR Our Work? | Theocast

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One of the doctrines that can be really complicated and confusing and cause a lot of heartache is sanctification.

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It's a Christian word we use to describe the process by which God changes us or transforms us.

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And depending on your background, sanctification is either a work of God that's done through His power, or it's a work that's required on your shoulders, something that you must be doing.

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What we're going to do is we're going to go to scripture, and we're going to look at the Bible has to say about sanctification. And I'm going to just say this up front so that you can see where I'm going.

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I believe the doctrine of sanctification should be something that encourages you to trust in the sufficiency of God, and it should strengthen you day after day.

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It should not be something that discourages you. When I talk to most people about the doctrine of sanctification, it's not something they're excited about.

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What they hear when they hear sanctify is, you must do. There are things that are required of you, and most people feel like they're failing in that.

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And it even leads many to question their own salvation because they don't see themselves being sanctified like other

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Christians, or they should be farther along the road than they are now, and they're not. Let's look at what the

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Bible has to say about this doctrine. Now, when I talk to most people, they would give God all the credit for their salvation. It's His work, glory be to God.

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And not only that, they're going to give God all the requirements for our glorification.

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That is, that process of us being transformed into that new image in the new heavens and the new world.

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We definitely give God credit for that, and we believe that God is the one who's going to finally take us home.

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But in between the two, our new birth, our salvation, and then our transformation over to the new world, that part in between seems to be up to us.

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And you never really know why. Why is that up to you? What is it up to you to sanctify yourself?

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Well, there are many different explanations for that. Some would say, well, you need to prove that you truly are God's child, and so the rest of your life, you are sanctifying yourself so that you can prove to God that you deserve that end point.

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Right? He got you started. You keep it going. If you keep it going your entire life and you endure, then you will receive the final goal, the sign of the final prize.

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And I don't have so many words, but that's how most people feel about it, that the sanctification process is me proving to myself and to everyone else, the church, to God, that I am legit.

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I am a child, and therefore, fruit must come from that. So you will hear the encouragement to sanctify yourself or to be working on your sanctification, and that work can look very different for different people, right?

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Whether it's a certain amount of Bible reading or it's evangelism or church, tithing, whatever it is, that sanctification process could also be moralism, right, the things that we don't do.

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The emphasis becomes on sanctification as the things that we do and don't do. Well, let's look at the

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Bible, and let's see how the Bible describes this process of those who are adopted by God.

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I don't believe that there's a fear when it comes to our sanctification of, is this the process by which

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I can legitimize my faith? Almost like as if God handed me the keys, and now it's my job to drive straight and make sure

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I make it through the narrow way, and if I do, then we'll make it to the celestial city.

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That's not the language that the New Testament writers use, and for that sake, we could even use for the Old Testament, for that sake, even in reference when they talk about what justified them.

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Why did Abraham finally make it to glory? He says it's by his faith that he made it there, and we know there were a lot of bumps along the way for Abraham and even

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David, and we go back and read Hebrews 11 when we talk about this process of why is it that they are in heaven or with the

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Father right now? It's by faith. Well, the argument I'm going to make, and it's the argument that has been fought for for hundreds of years now, it's part of the

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Reformation tradition, is that our sanctification is not a work of us. It's monergistic, meaning that there's one doing the work, there's one who has the power.

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Synergistic would be the opposite of that, that would be two working together. We don't work with God not in our salvation, and we don't work with God in our glorification, and I think it shouldn't be a shock to us that we don't work with God in our sanctification.

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Here's why I would say that, and I'll get to the, you are required to obey, and we'll get to that in a minute.

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So stay tuned for the end, and your obedience is going to be something you smile about. It's not going to be something that you fear and dread and something that scares you.

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Paul talks to the Philippian church early on in Philippians 1, verse 6. He's commending them for their obedience, but what he wants to encourage them with is this.

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He says this, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you, once that work, the work of faith, the work of regeneration, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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So he's describing that time period between the two, right? The time period between they started and the day of Jesus Christ coming back.

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He's going to finish that work he started. Another way of saying that is he's going to complete this process of sanctification, not you.

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Another one would be Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. It says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of your faith.

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Well, I would describe this, and I think it's a pretty good argument from the New Testament, that sanctification is the process of you having a greater awareness and stronger faith in Christ, because from faith comes our obedience.

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We will never be perfect in this life. It's never going to happen, but our faith and dependence upon God can always grow and always should be growing, and that's the power of the

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Spirit working in us. So he's saying, look to Jesus who founded it, who started your faith, and who's going to bring it to end.

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That's why Paul gets so angry at the Galatians. Galatians chapter 3, verse 2 and 3, he says to them, let me ask you only this.

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Did you receive the Spirit, this work of transformation, by works of the law, by obedience?

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Did you do that? Or by faith, by hearing with faith, hearing the gospel? Obviously they believe it's in the gospel, by hearing.

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So then he compares it to their ongoing life. He says, are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected or sanctified by the flesh?

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That means your own works. He's saying, if you think that, then you're foolish. That's not what's going on.

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One other passage I think is helpful, James also gives this. James is the first one to write a book of the New Testament, for those of you who don't know, before the gospels.

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In James, he's trying to encourage the church that just got scattered all over the place after Jerusalem persecution.

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And he says this, if you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to them.

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And wisdom, we think, is like intelligence or street smarts. James doesn't describe it that way. He describes it this way in James 3, 17.

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But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, sincere.

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I think we're getting the idea. He's describing the works of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit. He's saying, where does this come from?

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Where do you have the capacity to do these things? He's saying, it comes from God. It doesn't come from you or your capacity or your discipline or your work.

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It's the thing that's given to you. And how is it given to you? Well, in James 1, verse 6, he says that you have to ask in faith or it won't be granted to you.

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So, all of this is always coming to us by faith, which makes sense because Hebrews 11, 6 says, without faith, it is impossible to please him.

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Why? Because your actions can't please him. You're not perfect. You don't have enough obedience in you.

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There's too much sin. We, in order to please God, we must walk by faith. This is why

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Paul says, walk by faith or walk by the Spirit, is what he says, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

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Well, what power are we trusting in this point? Where are you looking? He's saying you're looking to something that's outside of you.

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All of this language is always pointing you back to Jesus and the power of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit. It's outside of you.

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Your sanctification is not in your hands. It's not your process. It's God's process. And it's different and varying for everyone.

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And the confessions lead to this. And you can even, the chapter in our confession that Theocast, the guys that we hold to, is 1689 in the

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Lenten Baptist Confession, chapter 13, verse 2, it says this, this sanctification extends throughout the whole person, that it was never completed in this life.

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Some corruption remains even in part. From this arises a continual and irreconcilable war with these desires of the flesh against the

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Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. So we're not perfected in this life, but definitely there's a war.

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And this is the war, the power of the Spirit sanctifying us and our flesh wanting to go against it. We're going to be wrestling with that back and forth.

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And the greater we have a dependence on Christ is that our faith being increased, that's that process of sanctification or that war that we are fighting.

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And even in point 3, it says, in this war, the remaining corruption may greatly prevail for a time.

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There are times where we can get caught in sin. And as we're caught in sin, this is Romans 7, the things

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I don't want to do, I'm doing them, things I shouldn't do. Galatians 6 .1 says that there are times we can be trapped in sin and we need to be pulled out of it.

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This is why church discipline exists within our church, because we can give into the flesh at times, because we have this war that happens where we give in to the temptations instead of relying on the

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Spirit. So what does sanctification then look like as far as how does

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God sanctify us is the question. And this is where we started with, are we sanctifying ourselves or is it a work of God?

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It is definitely a work of God. And the way in which God has traditionally, the church has seen it, we're going to argue this here for a moment in Ephesians, but the church has always seen that God sanctifies

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His people, strengthens their faith by means of His grace. So we have means of grace that God, we believe

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God uses, which is ordinarily, traditionally the Reformed have held and argued for hundreds of years now, this isn't new, that the preach and taught word, sacraments, the

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Lord's table and baptism and prayer are the primary means that God strengthens our faith.

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And by means strengthened, He sanctifies us. So a great passage we get this from is

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Ephesians chapter four. It's probably one of the strongest arguments for the means of grace and how God uses it to strengthen

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His church. It says in Ephesians 4 .11, He gave the apostles and prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers,

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He meaning the Spirit. So the Spirit gives them something. What does He give them? He gifts them with the capacity to study

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God's word and preach it and teach it and give it to His people. What are they doing with it?

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Verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

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So the Holy Spirit is doing something outside of you again. He's gifting men to preach the word, to equip saints.

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As they do the work, what happens? Our body is being built up. To what measure?

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Until we attain the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to the mature manhood, to the measures and the statures and the fullness of Christ.

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So that process of a greater awareness, a greater trust happens within the local body by means of the power of the

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Spirit. It's always a work that's outside of ourselves. So if there's a means of discipline, church, make sure that you are there to receive of the means that God has provided in His word, through His means of the church.

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Listen to this. It says in verse 15, rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head and to Christ, from whom the whole body, joint and held together.

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So this is not an individual sanctification. This is a growth. This is a together.

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We are adventuring this together. By every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

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And love is the final conclusion of our faith, right? Love God, love one another.

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So that the ultimate obedience that we have been called to, the two greatest commands is to love God and love others.

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And he's saying the Spirit comes, sanctifies you through means of the word and through the use of the church.

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As he does that, you will be built up and you will love God. Listen, even your capacity to love

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God, we love. Because He first loved us. So all of this worry that you have, are you being sanctified enough?

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You know, even this passage, work out your salvation. I agree. This is what it means.

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If you believe, as James says, then act like you believe. But it's not act so that you believe.

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And it's not act to prove your belief. It's like human beings. If you're alive, you breathe.

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This is what you do. And you realize that if you believe in God, then as weak and as much of a failure you might be, you go out and love

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God and you love others. And as you fall into sin, you repent and you trust and you confess. If you get trapped in sin,

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God through His Holy Spirit's power in the church is going to be there to restore you and carry those burdens. Sanctification is a wonderful doctrine.

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It's this. This is what it is. It's a promise from God that if He started the work in you, while you remain on this earth,

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He's going to continue to develop you and work with you by means of His word, through the power of the church.

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And you will have a greater joy and dependence upon Him. And you will have a greater capacity to love

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God and love others. That doesn't mean you aren't going to struggle. You are going to struggle.

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You're going to have this constant war of your faith as it's being sanctified in you and your flesh.

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And that battle isn't gone until we reach glorification. So you can take heart every day knowing

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God is the one working in me. And I need to make sure that I pay attention to the means that He has provided to me through His word and through His people so that I can continue to grow in love.

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Dear worried pilgrim, you are not to sanctify yourself. Let the Spirit do that. What is your responsibility?

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To obey God. And here's His commands. Love Him. Love each other.

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Trust His word. And what does His word say? He began a good work in you. Gather together.

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Hear of His word. Do ministry together. And be built up in love. While you await, you reach the lost.

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You care for each other while you await your final glorification. That final process where He transforms you into His image.

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And you're in the new heavens and the new earth. Don't let sanctification be something that discourages you. And that process isn't like this, by the way.

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Our confession proves that. And I think the Bible proves that. Christians, our faith, we battle our flesh.

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It goes up. It goes down. It goes up. It's down. Sometimes it goes really down. Trust in the power of the Spirit.

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Trust in His means. And know that, as Romans tells us, He will not let anything separate you from His love.

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Nothing can separate you from His love. And trust that. Hope this is encouraging. Ask any questions. Engage with us in the comments below.