Path of Evangelism IX: Sanctification | Behold Your God Podcast

Sanctification as the Daily Renewal and Mortification of Sin

Welcome back to the Behold Your God podcast. I'm Matthew Robinson, director of Media Gratia, and I'm here again this week with Dr. John Snyder, the host and author of the Behold Your God study series and pastor of Christ Church New Albany.

We're back here in John's study in beautiful New Albany, Mississippi, and we're on episode nine of our evangelism series. We're back to talking a little bit about Walker of Truro, an 18th century minister who wrote a good bit about dealing with core issues, not so much about tactics and how to go about doing evangelism, but what is evangelism and what are some of the big views.

Last week, we talked about this issue of the need for an evangelical view of God and how that promotes repentance in those that we are sharing the gospel with. Today, we're going to talk about how this evangelical view of God produces something else in the believer, and that is ongoing sanctification.

So sanctification, there's some great, more technical, confessional, orthodox language definitions of sanctification that we'll link to in our show notes at mediagratia .org. But Walker gives a very practical definition, John.

Tell us what that is.

This is how he defines it. He says, sanctification is a progressive work that contains, and he gives two things, the daily renewal of the graces on the one side and the daily mortification of the body of sin on the other.

You could probably use some unpacking. Let's talk a little bit about what does he mean by daily strengthening or renewal of graces?

If we think of the changes that have occurred within a believer in regeneration, the Holy Spirit works in that wonderful, mysterious, invisible way, putting life where there was death, a new nature, a new birth.

And we've talked about this a lot, where that is the cause of repentance in faith. It's because of the gift of this spiritual life that a man, you know, his first act as a living soul is to look up and to seek God and Christ and to turn from everything else to turn to Him.

So many changes come there, you know. We would say that it's like a garden with the seed planted and all these things start to grow on it. So there are new affections, new desires. There's a new love in the heart.

Repentance and faith are new. There's a yearning for obedience and there's the fruit of the Spirit, which would be a very simple way of saying it. So all these things have begun in the life now. They need to be cultivated.

Yeah. And so that's part, that's maybe half of how we understand what is this ongoing work of sanctification in the life. It's a daily renewing, a daily growth of the fruit of the Spirit, by the Spirit working in our lives.

So what about this issue of daily mortification of the body of sin?

Yeah, that's the other half. And you know, it's always tempting to try to take one half or the other, kind of depending on your personality. Like, some people love to focus on that. Being a Christian means a list of don'ts.

Other people say, that's such a gloomy view of Christianity. No, no. Be a Christian. Being a Christian is just a list of do's. But they're both there. And He's good to include both. The mortification of the body of sin.

And that reminds us of, you know, of Romans 6, because Paul there is very precise with his language. And Walker is following Paul's language. And we've got to stick with that.

Union with Christ, Justification, and Progressive Sanctification

Yeah, let's go to Romans 6, just to show the distinction between the old man, all right, who we used to be before conversion, and this body of sin that needs to be daily dealt with.

Yeah. So let me read just a section from Romans 6. We're jumping in at verse 6, where in the previous verses, Paul has basically said this, union with Christ through faith. When the Holy Spirit unites you to this mediator, two great things happen.

The old you is crucified with Christ. A new you is raised with Christ. So that's talking about our identity. Me at the core, me, the truest me, that old me is gone. That's right. And there is a new me now in Christ.

And then he goes to spell out some of the effects of that. Well, what does it mean that the old me died? Well, he talks about how that affects sin. And what does it mean that a new me is alive in Christ?

And he talks about the effects on obedience. In verse 6, he's just talking about the effects that it has on sin. He says this, knowing this, that our old self, that's very important, the old identity, the old you.

The old man. Yes, the old man was crucified with him. So that's complete. That happened. We don't repeat that. And we've all grown up with, you know, well-meaning metaphors of sanctification that say, you need to get up tomorrow morning, Matt Robinson, and you need to put old Matt Robinson to death.

Well, that certainly feels like what has to happen, but that does not have to happen. The old Matt Robinson has already been put to death. Right. Then he goes on to talk about this body and how that's connected with sin.

He says, so the old self was crucified with him, or the old man, in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves of sin. Now we need to understand what he's saying there.

He's not saying that this physical body is essentially a sinful thing.

Yeah. Some sort of Gnostic heresy that anything physical is bad and spiritual is good. Right.

So, we're not to despair when we wake up in the morning and we look at this body and think, I'm still stuck in this body, so it's really, it's inevitable, I'm just going to be sinful. Paul talks about the body of sin we might think of as the old nature.

This existence in this sinful world with this body, this, including our mind, this mind, this body, these appetites that we have, which have proven a doorway through which temptation reaches us so often.

So the old you is dead because you were united to Christ and His death has put to death the old you. A new you is alive because Christ raised from the dead, and union with Christ means a new you has been raised.

Now, the body of sin, the old habitual pattern of living for self, the old way of thinking and living in this world with this body, it has been done away with. Now, not crucified like the old identity.

The Greek there means to be weakened. So the old you, those old habits, that old nature has been dealt a death blow, like the root has been cut, and it is now withering, and it is now no longer that domineering tyrannical ruler that every day I got up and really the only choice was, how am I going to live for me today?

Yeah, you are enslaved. Yeah. Yeah. But now I get up and I say, I don't have to live for me today. I can live for someone so much more important, and that can be done away with. And Paul says that's the whole purpose of this, in order that, so the old body of sin has been done away with or weakened so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

It's so good to be clear here too, because good men and women have gone wrong when it comes to the subject of sanctification. So things like higher life theology, Keswick views of sanctification that were associated with this sort of Keswick conference movement that took place.

So men that we like, women that we like who are great, and so we're not talking about this makes you a bad person, but it can really trip you up if you get this out of order. So this idea that there's some great experience that we need to have, and if we can just have that experience, we can attain to a level of sanctification where sin's really not a problem for us anymore.

And if sin's a problem for you daily, you need to have this experience. You need to have the second blessing or you need to whatever, or the idea that, man, the old me is, I'm carrying it around on my back still.

It's still with me and it's like trying to, you know, it's still fighting every once in a while. I think it's dead, but then it trips me up. It throws me a punch. There's that illustration of, you know, you have a black dog in you and a white dog and which one are you going to feed, you know, the old man or the new man.

And that's just, none of that is native to Paul's view of sanctification, which begins with reckon that the old man is dead. Now the old body of sin has been weakened. It's been dealt a death blow and it is on its way out, but you join in that.

And so you put on this armor and you fight and you present your members now, not as slaves to sin, but as servants of righteousness and to God. And so we're called to join in that sanctification battle that takes place day to day.

So that is half of that that we've discussed in his definition.

So sanctification, according to Walker's definition, is waking up every morning, such a simple thing, going to God, the source of all our salvation, and constantly through the means of grace, which we'll be talking about in our next episode, constantly receiving all that we need to strengthen those things that he has begun.

And at the same time, to look at that old enemy, the old self-centered life, which if we could be simple and not maybe not so technical, it's the me, me, what's in this for me? And to daily put that to death because it no longer has the strength it used to have.

We recently went through Romans 6, feels recent, a couple of years ago. Yeah, it was about five years ago. Yeah, yeah. So we did that as a church and we also read Lloyd-Jones on this, who, in our opinion, I think is just so helpful on Romans 6.

You know, just get that volume, Romans 5 and Romans 6, and read through those carefully with a group of friends, and it's such a great thing. But one of the most encouraging things I found in that was when Paul gets to the place where he talks about our responsibility and he says, do not present your bodies as instruments of unrighteousness anymore.

He said, but do present yourself alive unto God and your body as an instrument of righteousness. Lloyd-Jones points this out. It's not a perfectly parallel statement. On one end of the equation, the negative, don't let your body be used for sin anymore because a Christian can let that happen.

On the other side, he says, but present yourself, your true identity, the true you, alive to God and your body as an instrument of righteousness. But on the negative side, he doesn't warn us. Don't present yourself as a slave to unrighteousness.

Yeah, because you can't. It's impossible. Yeah. And that is so encouraging. Your old self is dead. You can't present it anyway. Yeah, when you feel the struggle, when temptation seems so reasonable and you're willing, you're ready to look in the mirror and think, what hope is there for a man like me?

I mean, I've been a Christian for 30 years now and there are still things that are such terrible temptations and struggles and you cry out to God and the enemy's right there to say to you, you know, you're really no different.

You might as well just present yourself as my slave again. And then I read Romans and I have to say to myself, reckon it, John. It feels true, but it's a lie. Because the truth is, having been bought by Christ, you can never be the slave again.

That order is very important.

The Order of Salvation and Why Justification Cannot Be Mixed with Sanctification

Now, when we come back, we're going to think about how we connect this to the whole picture of redemption when we come back from this break in just a few seconds. So we're here on the last day of the Shepherds Conference 2019 at Grace Community Church and I've run into Justin Peters.

Justin is an evangelist and you will also recognize him from the American Gospel film. People who purchased this have been getting in touch with us and I've heard from pastor after pastor about every other week, we'll hear from someone who says, well, guys, we got four new families in our church and they've come from the church across town, which they didn't realize was a prosperity gospel church.

Indeed. And here at the Shepherds Conference, I've heard hundreds, literally, that's not an exaggeration, hundreds of comments from people here who have been impacted by this film. And I hear those same stories that I've heard pastors tell me that people have watched the film and come into their churches.

And that's the thing, is that God delivers his own out of deception. That's right. You can't be indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God and stay in that level of deception indefinitely. If you truly belong to Christ, then the Holy Spirit will lead you out of that.

If the Holy Spirit is strong enough to save us, he's strong enough to deliver us out of deception too. And so God in his good providence is using that film and the truth therein to open people's eyes and come out and get in good churches.

And that's vitally important. Well, I know that I speak on behalf of so many of the people who will see this to say thank you. Thanks for spending time with Brandon. And Brandon, great job. We love your film and we're grateful to see the Lord continue to use it.

For more information about American Gospel, Christ Alone, visit TheMeansOfGrace .org. Welcome back to the Behold Your God podcast, episode nine on evangelism. Before we go any further, let's connect this issue of sanctification with where it kind of fits in the whole picture of redemption, John.

It's always helpful. I mean, I think Lloyd-Jones was the one that probably taught us this most. When you're considering any significant thing in the Christian life to back up, you might think that it's helpful to pull out a microscope and just focus on one aspect.

So sanctification, it's such an important thing. It has so much to do with our happiness, has so much to do with the honor of God. But really to get a good understanding, we back up. So if we keep sanctification in the bigger picture of the work of redemption, particularly those aspects that have to do directly with us, it's helpful to just think of it in the long string.

Let me give you kind of an abbreviated list. When we think of the work of redemption, we think of the atonement, Christ's death covering the shame and guilt of our sins. We also think of Christ's perfect obedience being attributed to the believer when we embrace him through the gospel.

We think of regeneration being made alive by the work of the Holy Spirit. And in that new birth, the seeds of faith and repentance are placed, what we call conversion, to be turned. And when we believe, we are united with Christ, so union with Christ.

And then in this whole issue of union with Christ, there's just so much. And there's justification, being declared right with God. There's adoption, being brought near to God in his family. There is even what we call positional sanctification, and that we have been now set apart to God forever.

Then there is the outflow of those things. There's practical daily sanctification, the working outward into every area of life, the changes that the Holy Spirit has placed within by the help of Christ.

And that's really what we're talking about in these episodes. There's perseverance, where that sanctification continues no matter what obstacles the Christian runs into. We are preserved by God, and we will, by grace, persevere.

And then there's glorification, where all of it is completed when the believer is gathered with every other believer from old and new covenants, and all through the ages, and Christ receives his glory.

And from that throne of glory, we share in that we're transformed, and there's a new creation, and then everything begins, really.

So there's clearly a line there. There's an order. Theologians call it the order of salutis, the order of salvation. But I think it's important that we point out these things aren't linear. It's not like they happen in this temporal order.

And you have to experience this and feel this, and then you can feel this, and then you can go through that. So, I mean, unpack that a little bit for me. Yeah. I mean, you've mentioned two things there.

There is not necessarily a temporal order, and we don't necessarily experience these things. So many of these things, the only reason we know they exist is because God has stooped down and given us truth in the Scripture.

And we bank every bit of our future on his trustworthiness, because I have never felt justification. In fact, I never felt regeneration. You know, I never felt adoption, and I have not yet felt glorification.

So some of these things we do experience. We experience conversion because we are responding in faith and repentance. We experience daily sanctification. We experience perseverance, and one day we will surely experience glorification.

But some of these are non-experiential. These are things that God does for us. They are, in a sense, these great transactions that lie at the root of our hope that we don't feel, but they're real. And then, as you mentioned, there's not necessarily a temporal order.

It's not as if they happen, this happens. Sequentially. Yes. And so, you know, and you can tell there's a difference in time. So let's take that whole cluster. They come under the bigger umbrella, maybe we could say, of union with Christ.

When a man turns in repentance and faith to God through his son, the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ. He places us in Christ, like we once were in Adam. We have a new mediator. We have a new representative.

We have a new head, not only governmental head and representative head. We are now in a living union with this Savior. So because of that, there are so many things that happen, in a sense, we could say all at once.

There's justification, adoption, positional sanctification. And so we don't want to make people think, as you said, you've got to be able to map this out in your experience exactly, or maybe you're not a true Christian.

Right.

So, for instance, justification is instantaneous and it's complete. Whereas sanctification is progressive and incomplete. Now, there is a little place where we need to distinguish there because positionally, Christ is our sanctification.

Christ has been made our sanctification and by union with Him, there is a sense in which we are sanctified. Yes. Positionally. Yes. And we didn't contribute anything to that. That's something that happened monergistically.

But then what we're talking about, as you mentioned earlier, is this progressive sanctification that we actually experience and that we actually do contribute to. This is a synergistic sanctification where, you know, God doesn't tell us that Christ is going to add to our faith, all of these things.

We're told to add to our faith. We're told to work. And back to what we were saying before the break, after Paul lays out the old man is dead, he then says, now you present your members. And so what we're talking about now is what does it look like to live a life where we're progressively more and more presenting our members as slaves of righteousness?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Philippians, very clear. Work out your salvation. Work it outward. Work it into the furthest reaches of your personality. Work it into every place of your family and your job and your church and your friendships.

Well, is it just us? No. For it is God who is at work in you, giving you the ability, the desire and the ability to obey. So, yeah, there's that synergism. There's that wonderful union. We labor together with God, or as Paul says in Colossians 1, you know, I labor striving according to the power of God that works in me.

So there's that wonderful union. And to err on one side or the other for fear of, you know, maybe overstating it. Generally, we make things worse, you know, by trying to say, well, look, it is still of grace.

Well, yes, it's of grace. But don't overstate that. But you still have a responsibility. Yes, you have a responsibility, but don't neglect the grace.

I can see that we're not going to get to Truro in this episode. So there's going to, we're going to need to, all of this is so important, though, setting up what do we mean sanctification? We're talking about justification and sanctification.

They can't be separated. And you know, so if we, like you said, when we overemphasize one, if we teach a justification without the effect of sanctification, well, then we have basically what makes up the cultural religion where we live, which is kind of an easy believism.

If you just say, uh-huh, to a sinner's prayer, you're justified. Now, you may not ever see any difference in that. You may live like hell the rest of your life. But you know, rest assured, we can comfort everyone at your funeral that you did say, uh-huh, to a sinner's prayer when you were in youth camp.

So you've separated justification from sanctification, and I think you don't have the gospel there. On the other side, if you teach a sanctification without justification, well, then you've just made a ladder of the law.

The law is now this thing that you're trying to, you know, your sanctification, am I growing in grace? Am I getting closer to the place where God might be okay with me? Then you wind up with a really terrible form of Pelagianism, really, where you've lost the gospel again.

So these two things are essential to keep in the right order. Justification comes first, and then from that position of justification, we see sanctification in our lives. But we certainly can't separate the two.

Justification Fuels Sanctification, Not the Other Way Around

Yeah, let's just kind of boil it down. They cannot be separated, as you mentioned. That's not the gospel. They cannot be shifted in the order. Justification always fuels sanctification. If you have it the other way around, as you mentioned, you have a works righteousness where sanctification is first, hoping to produce justification, and every act of obedience becomes a bribe instead of an expression of love and is rejected by God.

But also, they cannot be confused or they cannot be intermingled when we're thinking about the foundation of our relationship with God. It's like Daniel's vision of the great statue, you know, and he gets down iron legs, you know, gold and brass and bronze, and then down to the legs and feet, and the feet are made out of iron and clay, weak.

No Christian can rest the weight of our hope on the work of Jesus plus my sincere response. It has to be all Christ's finished work. Sanctification cannot be mixed with justification when it comes to the foundation of our relationship.

Then we get into, you know, into real problems. And you can always see this with people, because if a man thinks that his sanctification is mixed with his justification as the foundation of a friendship, of a peace with God, then he is always swinging from pride, I'm doing really great today, so God loves me today, to just the worst of despair, you know.

It's falling apart again, and I've yelled at my wife again. I've been a jerk at the office again. I've lost it with the kids again. I've had a cold heart again. And how could God still love me? Well, you've got sanctification in the wrong place, you know, and again, if you think that sanctification is part of justification, you find a person who uses sanctification to earn the love of God, they are so bitter, like the Pharisee.

I'm keeping my rules. I'm keeping all 10 of those commandments really strictly. And I look over and Matt, Matt's only doing seven of them, and he's, he has this peaceful, happy life. Why isn't he uptight?

You know, why would God freely love Matt just as much as me? I'm working for it. And so you can always spot a Pharisee when they're, when they are bitter about obedience.

Yeah, so we're, so we're talking about sanctification, working from a place of justification. We're working from salvation. We're not working to salvation. And it kind of brings us back to this whole idea of an evangelical site of God, which we're going to talk about a lot in the next episode.

But let me just remind everybody what we're talking about with this quote here from, from Walker of Truro, the real motive to delighting in God and choosing his service and the true ground of a due sense of the sinfulness of sin, of self-abasement, hatred of sin and actual rejecting it is an evangelical site of God.

When we sinners look on God absolutely or in the law, all his perfections are against us because he is privy to our offenses. He is present with us and he's displeased at us. He is a holy, a consuming fire.

He is just a terrible enemy. He is almighty. So that in these absolute or legal views of God, instead of turning to him, we must fly from him. It is his love that must draw us. And when we regard him in the gospel as a pardoning God, all his perfections change their face.

His power, holiness, justice, presence are delightful. So that evidently the motive and principle of conversion and daily sanctification is this evangelical site of God. It is faith that worketh by love, he says.

And so we'll unpack that even more in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the Behold Your God podcast. All the scripture passages and resources we mentioned in the podcast are available in this week's show notes at mediagratia .org slash podcast.

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