Principles of Prayer from Isaiah 6:1-8

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30 DAYS OF TRANSFORMING GRACE

Studies in

The Dynamics of Grace

and

Grace Driven Sanctification

Jay Wegter

Copyright © Gospel for Life, 2010

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE..........................................................................................................................................11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................................................12

D A Y 1..................................................................................................................13 UNDERSTANDING GRACE-DRIVEN SANCTIFICATION..............................................................13

The role of the Gospel in our ongoing spiritual renewal.......................................................................13 I. Ongoing faith in the Gospel is the source of our spiritual renewal. 13 II. Ongoing faith in the Gospel produces a passion for God’s glory. 15 III. Ongoing faith in the Gospel produces a series of sanctifying “Grace Awakenings.” 16 IV. Ongoing faith in the Gospel shows us that sanctification is driven by relationship more than rules. 17 How abiding in Christ fits us for love, fellowship, and ministry...........................................................20 V. Ongoing faith in the Gospel allows us to reckon Christ’s righteousness imputed to our account (2 Cor 5:21). 21 D A Y 2..................................................................................................................27

WHO WILL DELIVER US?....................................................................................................................27

A Study in the Practical Value of Justification......................................................................................27 I. Understanding so great a salvation 27 D A Y 3..................................................................................................................33

FEAR OF JUDGMENT MAKES US COWARDS.................................................................................33

The fear of judgment answered by the power of Christ’s atonement....................................................33 I. Sin has made us cowards. 33 II. The power of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:56). 34 III. The Law was the ‘ministry of condemnation and death’ (2 Cor 3:7-9). 34 IV. The Law is not of faith; for the law says ‘do this and live’ (Gal 3:12). 35 V. The unbeliever’s response to God’s demand for justice and righteousness is enmity and fear (Rom 5:10; Eph 2:15, 16). 35 VI. The natural man’s condition is akin to being stuck in a vice. 36 VII. The flesh has strategies to avoid judgment. 36 VIII. Nothing can bring rest to the conscience of man but that justice which satisfies God (2 Cor 5:21). 37 D A Y 4..................................................................................................................39

GRACE MAKES HEROES OF US ALL................................................................................................39

I. Only a perfect atonement would end our guilt and fear of judgment. 40 II. The atonement disarms the condemning force of the law and frees from the fear of punishment. 41 III. Grace makes heroes of believers (courageous in dealing with indwelling sin). 41 IV. Justification gives us the legal right to come out of hiding and deal with our sin courageously. 42 V. Cowardice winds up hurting us and our relationships. Only Christ can protect us from fear of judgment (carnal self-protective strategies are ineffective). 42 VI. An attitude of contrition (born of heroism) is central if we to walk closely with God (Is 66:1, 2; 57:15). 43 VII. The call to Christian heroism is a call to live a sin-judged life. 44 D A Y 5..................................................................................................................45

SANCTIFICATION IN CHRIST.............................................................................................................45

I. The Biblical Starting Point 45

II. Sanctified in Christ 46 CHRIST CONTINUES TO SANCTIFY US BY HIS WORD AND HIS SPIRIT...............................48

I. Sanctification comes only by being conformed to God’s Word (John 17:17; Rom 12:1-2). 48 II. The cross of Christ makes true disciples (2 Cor 5:14-17). 49 III. Our response to cleansing, acceptance, and hope is consecration (we respond to God’s work by presenting ourselves back to Him each day, Rom 6:11-13). 49 IV. Justification and sanctification must stay joined in the believer’s experience. 50 SANCTIFICATION BY THE WORD AND THE SPIRIT...................................................................52

I. We are sanctified by the Word of His Grace. 52 II. Our sanctification is tied to the renewal of our minds by the Word of God. 53 D A Y 6..................................................................................................................56

OUR PURSUIT OF HOLINESS..............................................................................................................56

I. We are to pursue holiness as a lifestyle. 56 II. We are to be pre-occupied with the end goal of holiness (the study of what happens at the end is known as ‘eschatology’). 56 III. The Father’s faithful discipline of us keeps our progress in holiness on track. 58 LIVING BETWEEN THE CROSS AND THE RESURRECTION......................................................60

I. At salvation God sets the believing sinner right with His own righteousness. 60 II. How does our justification translate into living as God’s possession? 61 III. The most important sermons are the ones we preach to ourselves. 62 IV. “Gospel Formation” takes place as we live between the Cross and the Resurrection. 64 V. The moral aspect of sanctification is secondary to is soteriological reference (soteriology is the study of salvation). 66 D A Y 7..................................................................................................................67

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION..............................................................................................................67

I. The importance of assurance of salvation (2 Pet 1:10-11). 67 II. The three biblical pillars of assurance: 69 III. The biblical way of gaining and keeping assurance 71 D A Y 8..................................................................................................................73

THE GRACE OF PERSEVERANCE......................................................................................................73

I. The reality of perseverance 73 II. What does it mean to persevere? 74 III. The foundation, or ground of the saints’ perseverance 77 IV. Believers are responsible to exert effort in persevering 77 D A Y 9..................................................................................................................80

ELEVEN MARKS OF TRUE SALVATION FROM ROMANS 8.......................................................80

Part One (Marks of Salvation One through Six)...................................................................................80 MARK 1. Those led by the Spirit love the way that Christ has saved them. They eagerly confess Christ as Savior and Lord, and they show deep affection for the gospel (vv. 1-3). 80 MARK 2. Those led by the Spirit walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. Their thought life is characterized by thinking the things suggested by the Spirit; not the things suggested by the flesh (vv. 4-8). 81 MARK 3. Those led by the Spirit do not let the flesh set the standard for their behavior (vv. 7-8). 81 MARK 4. Those led by the Spirit are always putting to death what remains of indwelling sin by means of the Spirit. They practice mortification of sin as a daily habit, and life direction (vv. 12-13). 82 MARK 5. Those led by the Spirit manifest the pervading consciousness of sonship as the controlling factor in their Christian walk (vv. 14-15). 83

MARK 6. Those who are led by the Spirit enjoy assurance of salvation and confidence of the Father’s favor in Christ (v. 16). 84 ELEVEN MARKS OF TRUE SALVATION FROM ROMANS 8.......................................................85

Part Two (Marks of Salvation Seven through Eleven)..........................................................................85 MARK 7. Those who are led by the Spirit see the reality of being a co-heir with Christ, and are therefore are willing to suffer with Christ (vv. 17-18). 85 MARK 8. Those who are led by the Spirit are eagerly awaiting Christ’s return (vv.23-25). 86 MARK 9. Those who are led by the Spirit are those who pray ‘in the Spirit’—that is, they manifest dependency upon the Spirit—they are ever aware that the Spirit’s ministry is needed by them to assist them in their petitions to their Heavenly Father (vv. 26-30). 87 MARK 10. Those who are led by the Spirit depend upon Christ, their Advocate, to silence any charge of condemnation against them (vv. 31-34). 88 MARK 11. Those who are led by the Spirit are controlled by Christ’s love—Christ’s love is the animating principle in their lives (vv. 35-39). 88 D A Y 10................................................................................................................90

DELIGHTING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (PART ONE)........................................................90

I. To know God, identify the obstacles which block delight in God 90 II. To know God, recover the spiritual discipline of Scripture meditation 91 III. To know God, fix your eyes upon Jesus (Heb 12:2) 92 IV. To know God, seek the Lord as He is revealed ‘in the covenant’ 94 V. To know God, recognize that the exchange of Christ’s life for the life of His people is not only our entrance into the Christian life; it is the definer and the direction of our Christian life. 97 D A Y 11..............................................................................................................100

DELIGHTING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (PART TWO).....................................................100

‘Access Points’ to delighting in the Knowledge of God (Eph 1:15-23)...............................................100 D A Y 12..............................................................................................................108

DELIGHTING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (PART THREE)................................................108

‘Access Points’ to delighting in the Knowledge of God (Eph 1:15-23)...............................................108 D A Y 13..............................................................................................................116

THE MORTIFICATION OF SIN AND THE BELIEVER’S TRIUMPH OVER TEMPTATION.116

I. The Purpose of Mortification of Sin 116 II. The Place of Mortification 117 III. The Practice of Mortification 118 IV. The Tactics of Temptation 118 V. What are the steps of ‘rebounding’ after sinning? 120 VI. Tips for gaining Mastery of Mortification 121 VII. The Curative Role of Confession 121 D A Y 14..............................................................................................................123

TEMPTATION AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE..................................................................................123

I. Know the wiles of your foe; he is the accuser of the brethren 123 II. Know the strategies for overcoming in warfare; we overcome by the blood of the lamb 126 D A Y 15..............................................................................................................131

WHY AS A CHRISTIAN SHOULD I PREACH THE GOSPEL TO MYSELF?.............................131

The Role of Scripture Meditation in our Sanctification, Part One.....................................................131 I. The Gospel is the VOICE of Christ’s love to His sheep 133 II. The Gospel is the VERDICT of God’s justice at the cross 134 III. The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace 136 D A Y 16..............................................................................................................139 WHY AS A CHRISTIAN SHOULD I PREACH THE GOSPEL TO MYSELF?.............................139

The Role of Scripture Meditation in our Sanctification, Part Two.....................................................139 IV. The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ 140 V. The Gospel is the VANTAGE point whereby we see the kingdom 141 VI. The Gospel is the VICTORY won by Christ at Calvary 144 D A Y 17..............................................................................................................147

THE ROLE OF SCRIPTURE MEDITATION IN OUR SANCTIFICATION, PART THREE.....147

I. The meaning of meditating upon God’s Word 147 II. What are the steps for meditating upon God’s Word? 147 III. The necessity of meditating upon the Word 149 THE ROLE OF SCRIPTURE MEDITATION IN OUR SANCTIFICATION, PART FOUR........154

I. Meditation gives us an intimate knowledge of God’s ways. 154 II. Meditation helps us order our lives so that they are pleasing to God. 155 III. Meditation promotes spiritual passion. 156 IV. Meditation develops our ability to pray. 157 D A Y 18..............................................................................................................160

CHRIST’S PATTERN FOR HIS CHURCH (PART ONE)................................................................160

The life of the body: Is the church an institution or a living organism?............................................160 I. God has a specific plan or pattern for the Body of Christ. 160 II. The members of the body are vitally connected to Christ and to one another. 161 III. The corporate function of the body is gospel-driven and Christ-dependent. 162 IV. Christ is building His church; He commands every member to build with Him. 163 V. The believer’s sanctification takes place within the context of the body of Christ. 164 VI. Each believer is a steward of God’s grace for the purpose of building with Christ. 165 CHRIST’S PATTERN FOR HIS CHURCH (PART TWO)...............................................................166

Intentional body life: fellowship focused upon fulfilling the Great Commission..............................166 I. The priority of the Great Commission. 167 II. The gospel is the focal point of what God is doing in the world 169 D A Y 19..............................................................................................................173

CHRIST’S PATTERN FOR HIS CHURCH (PART THREE)...........................................................173

Intentional body life: training disciples to be disciple-makers............................................................173 I. Disciple-making is training in righteousness. 173 II. What are the major areas of content in our training of disciples? 174 III. The advantages of ‘mapping’ progress in Christian growth 176 IV. The blessed result of disciple-making 177 V. A mind shift is essential if we are to accurately assess our ministry direction and then realign it with the Great Commission. 178 CHRIST’S PATTERN FOR HIS CHURCH (PART FOUR)..............................................................181

The power of the cross of Christ in disciple-making...........................................................................181 I. It is Union with Christ that guarantees ultimate Conformity to Christ (Eph 1:4). 181 II. The Cost of Disciple-making 181 III. The Cross of Discipleship 185 D A Y 20..............................................................................................................189

THE SOURCE OF COURAGE TO SPEAK THE WORD OF GOD.................................................189

I. It’s Impossible to be a godly, obedient Christian, and at the same time have a casual relationship to God’s Truth (Josh 1:8). 189 II. In order for a believer to excel at speaking the truth, he must first be accomplished at using the Sword of Truth on himself (1 Tim 4:14-16). 189

III. The godly individual will not have conflict avoidance as his controlling motive (2 Tim 3:12).

IV. The greater our ambition to please Christ, the more courage we will have to speak the Word (2 Cor 5:9). 192 V. The more we regard Christ to be our “Source Person” for life, the more courage we will have to speak the Word (Col 3:4). 192 VI. The more reverence we have for God entrusting us with His Word, the greater our courage will be to speak it (Jer 23:28, 29). 193 VII. The clear conscience of the believer who abides in Christ will show itself in courage (Acts 24:15, 16). 194 VIII. The power of a holy life is beyond calculation: we must challenge those in our sphere with the biblical standard for honoring God. 194 IX. So often the pressure to be silent regarding the truth of Scripture involves the social enforcement of unbiblical ‘scorecards’. 195 X. As Christians who are following the Lord, we must be ever aware that those who need our witness and spiritual care are facing a constant choice between true worship and idolatry. 196 D A Y 21..............................................................................................................199

PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER FROM ISAIAH 6:1-8.............................................................................199

I. The Historical Background surrounding Isaiah’s Vision of God’s Holiness 199 II. Principles of Prayer That Flow From a Proper Contemplation of God. 200 III. Principles of Prayer which reflect the Posture of the Heart 201 God has chosen the conditions of humility and contrition to prepare a man to receive the presence of God in his soul. These conditions have no merit in themselves. They merely constitute the godly response to the loftiness, holiness, eternal glory and divinity of God (Vos, p. 262).....................................................................................202 IV. Aspects of Prayer that fit a Believer for Service 202 V. Overcoming the Cultural avoidance of the Holiness of God 203 D A Y 22..............................................................................................................205

THE VASTNESS OF CHRIST...............................................................................................................205

I. Understanding the Colossian error of Paul’s day gives us insight into contemporary counterfeit spiritualities 206 II. Christ’s Supremacy and Creation 207 III. Christ’s Supremacy and Redemption 208 IV. Christ’s Supremacy and Judgment 209 D A Y 23..............................................................................................................213

CREATED FOR MAJESTY, ISAIAH 40:12-31...................................................................................213

I. Perceiving the Majesty of the Lord is a function of Faith in His Word 213 II. God readjusts us to Himself by granting us transforming Views of His Majesty 215 III. Our Response to His Majesty is to be one of Wonder, Trust, Stillness and Waiting 217 D A Y 24..............................................................................................................219

SCANNING EVERYTHING FROM THE MOUNTAIN PEAK OF PROPITIATION (PART I). 219

I. The righteousness of God is revealed in the grace of the gospel (Rom 1:16-17). 221 II. The “bad news” part of the gospel shows the great need for a perfect propitiation 224 III. God’s grace is supported by the Pillar of Propitiation 225 IV. We can gain additional insights into the wonder of propitiation by reading accounts from ex-Muslims who have found Christ. 226 D A Y 25..............................................................................................................228

SCANNING EVERYTHING FROM THE MOUNTAIN PEAK OF PROPITIATION (PART II)228

I. The five pillars of propitiation are the foundation of divine grace. 228

II. The implications of Christ’s work of propitiation: 233 D A Y 26..............................................................................................................237

SCANNING EVERYTHING FROM THE MOUNTAIN PEAK OF PROPITIATION (PART III) ....................................................................................................................................................................237

A Lifestyle of Assurance; 1 John 4:13-18............................................................................................237 I. The Basis for Christian Assurance (vv. 13-16). 238 II. The Benefits of Gospel Assurance (vv. 17-18). 241 D A Y 27..............................................................................................................245

TRAINED BY SAVING GRACE, TITUS 2:11-15...............................................................................245

I. God’s Grace has appeared to Sinners in their Helplessness (v. 11). 247 II. God’s Grace Instructs Believers in the Art of Living unto God (v. 12). 248 III. God’s Grace instills Hope in the Hearts of Believers (v. 13). 249 IV. God’s Grace Purifies the Saints to Live as God’s Possession (v. 14). 251 D A Y 28..............................................................................................................253

GOD’S WISDOM IN THE CROSS HAS BECOME OUR WISDOM (1 COR 1-4) (PART I)........253

D A Y 29..............................................................................................................261 GOD’S WISDOM IN THE CROSS HAS BECOME OUR WISDOM (1 COR 1-4) (PART II)......261

D A Y 30..............................................................................................................269 A FELLOWSHIP OF FORGIVENESS.................................................................................................269

I. Our relationship with the Lord is grounded in the blessed reality of divine forgiveness (Col 2:13-14). 270 II. Believers are commanded to “incarnate” the character of Christ in their relationships. 271 III. The more deeply we prize the gift of forgiveness purchased for us by Christ, the more willing we will be to forgive others. 272 IV. Scripture warns that a lack of forgiveness can lead to a root of bitterness. 273 V. Understanding the steps of forgiveness 273 APPENDIX A........................................................................................................................................... 276

A. THE NEED OF JUSTIFICATION...................................................................................................276 B. THE NATURE OF JUSTIFICATION..............................................................................................276 C. THE AGENT OF JUSTIFICATION................................................................................................277 D. THE LEGAL BASIS OF JUSTIFICATION....................................................................................277 E. THE FOUR “DIMENSIONS” OF JUSTIFICATION......................................................................278 F. JUSTIFICATION AND THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.......................................................278 G. THE REALITY AND RESULT OF JUSTIFICATION...................................................................279 APPENDIX B...........................................................................................................................................282

I. Sin has made us cowards..................................................................................................................282 II. The power of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:56).....................................................................................282 III. The Law was the ‘ministry of condemnation and death’ (2 Cor 3:7-9)...................................283 IV. The Law is not of faith; for the law says ‘do this and live’ (Gal 3:12)......................................283 V. The unbeliever’s response to God’s demand for justice and righteousness is enmity and fear (Rom 5:10; Eph 2:15, 16).....................................................................................................................284 VI. The natural man’s condition is akin to being stuck in a vice.....................................................284 VII. The flesh has strategies to avoid judgment................................................................................285 VIII. Nothing can bring rest to the conscience of man but that justice which satisfies God (2 Cor 5:21)....................................................................................................................................................... 286 APPENDIX C........................................................................................................................................... 289

I. Only a perfect atonement would end our guilt and fear of judgment.........................................289 II. The atonement disarms the condemning force of the law and frees from the fear of punishment............................................................................................................................................290

III. Grace makes heroes of believers (courageous in dealing with indwelling sin)........................290 IV. Justification gives us the legal right to come out of hiding and deal with our sin courageously. ................................................................................................................................................................291 V. Cowardice winds up hurting us and our relationships. Only Christ can protect us from fear of judgment (carnal self-protective strategies are ineffective).............................................................292 VI. An attitude of contrition (born of heroism) is central if we to walk closely with God (Is 66:1, 2; 57:15).................................................................................................................................................292 VII. The call to Christian heroism is a call to live a sin-judged life................................................293

PROLOGUE

Why another book on the grace of God? In a nutshell, here is the reason why, God’s redeeming grace is very often separated from sanctification in the minds of many believers. In reality, justification and sanctification are joined like two sides of a coin, and are meant to operate together. When justifying grace operates in tandem with sanctifying grace, a certain life-transforming dynamic is present which we have designated, “grace-driven” or “gospel-driven” sanctification. This dynamic of grace-driven sanctification fills the New Testament epistles. It is our sentiment at Gospel for Life that the church of Christ today is weak primarily because it is weak on the gospel of God’s sanctifying grace in Christ.

Life under grace means learning to live upon Another, upon Christ our Savior and “Source Person.” The embattled saint needs frequent ‘views’ of Christ in order to begin to truly understand the infinite resources at his or her disposal. It is for this reason that we must be gospel-centered; for the gospel displays to the eye of faith the perfect suitability and sufficiency of Christ for every need the believing sinner has (Col 2:1-10).

It is our goal that this resource would be a tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit to more fully familiarize believers with their infinite riches in Christ. How we need to investigate our wealth in the Lord, for the gospel is utterly counter-intuitive. It is opposed to the works-law ‘religion’ we inherited from Adam. The gospel comes bringing everything we need to be accepted by God Almighty, for in Christ we have a perfect God-approved righteousness imputed to us by faith. Scripture refers to this as justification by faith through grace (Rom 3:24).

God’s gracious act of justifying believing sinners flows from the satisfaction of divine justice accomplished by Christ’s redemptive work on our behalf. However, what is frequently missing in the thought of many sincere believers is an understanding of how justification and sanctification are joined in their goal to conform the believer to Christ. Our goal at Gospel for Life is to help Christians understand how the gospel functions in the sanctification of the believer. One theologian, searching for simplicity expressed the relationship in this manner, “Sanctification means taking one’s justification seriously.”

How true this is—treasuring our justification in Christ produces holy living. Divine grace does not function merely as a kind of boarding pass to conduct the Christian past heaven’s security checkpoint. God’s grace received is anything but static—instead it is powerful, dynamic, energizing, and transforming. Our premise in this workbook is that when the sinner becomes the object of God’s redeeming grace there is a radical grace dynamic unleashed that begins to operate in person’s life.

The reception of saving grace affects concrete changes and it sets in motion a new set of values and behaviors (2 Cor 5:17). Grace received renews us; it makes us God’s possession; it grants us a new desire to know God; it plants in us a passion for God’s glory; it causes us to long for good works; it sets us warring against indwelling sin; and it transforms our relationships. This is but a partial list of the guaranteed effects of transforming grace.

Our common problem is that we all too often resign ourselves to a graceless form of Christianity that does not depend upon supernatural resources. By ‘graceless’ I mean that we settle for behaviors which can be performed in our natural strength. It reminds me of the story of the boy who filled the side of a barn with arrows. When the farmer saw the side of the barn, he exclaimed in amazement, “Why every arrow you fired is in the bull’s eye of a target!” “How in the world did you accomplish that feat?” The boy answered, “It wasn’t that difficult, after I shot the arrows, I drew the targets.” In many ways this illustrates graceless Christianity, we settle for a standard which can be accomplished in our own strength.

The grace dynamic reverses this fleshly trajectory. For grace living tells us that in Christ we have been given everything pertaining to life and godliness. What is impossible in the flesh is possible through the grace of Christ. It requires the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in order to love God and the brethren as ‘Christ has loved us’. The Apostle Paul lived by faith in the Son of God (Gal 2:20). So why is it then that so many Christians live as if they are stranded on a desert island of performance? The answer is that apart from being ‘saturated’ with the gospel, we tend to forget that our standing with God is carried by Christ. Once we forget that in Him we have perfect acceptance, favor, and status; we will tend to approach the Christian life from the faulty motive of achieving in order to be accepted by God.

The glorious gospel conquers this mindset by proclaiming to us that the true basis and foundation for our good works is the finished work of Christ. Therefore, the more regard we have for the matchless work of Christ on our behalf; the more our motive for good works will emerge from a posture of overflowing gratitude (Col 1:6-7). To be utterly smitten with the sufficiency of Christ’s work for us provides the incentive to abandon ourselves to God as His grateful servants. Luther reminds us that this is the only proper motive for service, “The believer’s deeds of mercy are aroused by the works through which Christ has saved us.” Thus, the proper impetus for doing good works issues from an abiding awareness of the completed work of Christ on our behalf.

Christ’s righteousness imputed to us is complete in itself—we cannot add to it. Our efforts at service, ministry, and sanctification can do nothing to enhance our position before God because it is already perfect in Christ.

As you explore this workbook, you’ll quickly notice that living upon blood-brought grace makes a believer active for God (Titus 2:14). The grace-motivated believer lives a God-ward life in which he or she is consciously offering themselves back to God each day. God has already taken possession of us at the moment of salvation; now it is our reasonable service of worship to daily present ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice. Thus the grace of God in the gospel has become our ‘rationality’ to give ourselves back to God as an ongoing lifestyle of presenting our members to God Rom 6:11-14). This is where real usefulness, sanctification, and transformation take place. Through this glorious dynamic of grace-driven sanctification, our progress in knowing the God of covenant love, mercy, and faithfulness increases as we learn to live upon Christ and His grace.

So many believers today are not tasting the goodness of the Lord as they could be. The reason why is because they are paralyzed by the guilt which issues from their shortcomings and failures. As a consequence of living under a cloud of condemnation, they lack a passion for the glory of the Lord. God’s solution is ever the cross of Christ—let us never forget that our wretchedness, pollution, and rebellion were not a barrier to God sending Christ for us—and yes, sending Him for the worst things about us, that He might bring us all the way to God. It is our prayer at Gospel for Life that countless believers will be helped by this book. We long to see Christ’s church living upon her Lord and entering into the ‘shared life’ with Him which He has purchased for her.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A special note of gratitude to the following individuals is in order: first of all deep appreciation belongs to my wife Michele for her tireless work in making our home run smoothly. Her multiplied labors of love as a housewife and mother have ‘purchased’ the time necessary for me to write this work. In addition, my editors have been, and continue to be an invaluable resource to this ministry. Thank you to Julie Simpson for your countless hours in formatting and editing. Your endurance and faithfulness on this project have been such an encouragement. Also a hearty gratitude belongs to Paul Kern for his work as an editor on this project. His careful work as a proofreader has saved me from many ‘typos’ and his editorial suggestions have been incorporated in nearly every chapter. Also thanks are in order to Rick Simpson for his vision to see this project through to completion and for supplying the printing of this resource and the shipping the books through his company.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 1

UNDERSTANDING GRACE-DRIVEN SANCTIFICATION

The role of the Gospel in our ongoing spiritual renewal

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the very “food” of the Church (Jn 6:53-58). The Gospel, or as Paul describes it at times, the “word of grace,” or “word of truth” is the sphere in which the church operates (Acts 20:32). It is her life breath and atmosphere. For it is by the Gospel that the Church worships, progresses in her knowledge of God, wars against her soul’s enemies, maintains purity, pursues unity, and fulfills her mission to the world.

The Gospel is “our canon within the canon.” It was the Apostle Paul who said, “For I determined, while among you, to be unconscious of everything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).

Those who disbelieve the Gospel are literally at war with who God is. They show themselves hostile to God’s self-revelation; and consequently hostile to the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:3-6; Rom 1:18-20). The only way to know God, and therefore to be saved, is to become a friend of the cross (for the Gospel of the cross reveals the glory of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ—2 Cor 4:6).

True believers literally love the way God has saved them. They love the truth and feed upon it; they “preach the Gospel to themselves.” They cherish Christ as revealed in the Gospel. They meditate upon the word of God’s grace, marveling at God’s wisdom in the cross. Therefore the Gospel is their constant meeting place with God; for it is the revealer of the heart of God toward us (1 Jn 4:9-10).

Our boldness to draw near to God in prayer and the confidence that we are heard is because the Father has graciously called us to meet Him at the altar of the slain Lamb of God (Heb 13:8-15).

The Gospel is the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:30). Oh how the Gospel towers over the human intellect. Consider that God has taken man’s salvation into His own hands—for the love of God and the wisdom of God have carved out a hiding place for believing sinners by means of the justice of God in the cross—so that by the sovereign calling of God the sinner may take refuge in the mercy of God from the wrath of God.

The fruits and dividends of preaching the Gospel to ourselves are immense. It will greatly help us keep a godly perspective that focuses our attention upon the cross of Christ. It will enable us to understand our life in the world and our identity in Christ. It will give us a vantage point by which we interpret everything; for the cross puts all things in true relation to each other. It will fill us with peace, hope, and joy in believing (Rom 15:13). It will cause us to live upon Christ by faith. In a word; it will exert a sanctifying force upon us.

I. Ongoing faith in the Gospel is the source of our spiritual renewal.

As Luther said, the fiends of sin and guilt are always beating up the believer and assaulting his conscience. How the saint needs to see that Christ was given for his sins. Renewal by means of the Gospel is our constant need.

Those who are willing to continually drink deeply from the well of the “word of grace” (the Gospel) are never bored with God. On the contrary, they are renewed by fresh views of God—views which produce awe, adoration, wonder, fear, and amazement. That’s why the Gospel is central to worship. For it is by the Gospel that God exalts, preserves, makes known, and glorifies His holy

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

character in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6). The saint is renewed and transformed as He continues to behold God in Christ (2 Cor 3:18).

By nature even saved men and women are prone to live by sight and sense. Like silt settling to the bottom of a lake, our thoughts find the lowest common denominator and eventually return to a temporal value system and a system of legal working. Only the Gospel can renew us, and lift us to another “dimension” by which we live grace-based, “God-ward” lives.

Just as gravity causes water to flow downward so that it eventually finds the bottomland, the swamp, and the stagnant slough, so also the old nature tugs at the saint, pulling him away from faith living. It takes energy and a plan to move pure water uphill to the water tower at the hilltop. So also, feeding on grace is a matter of intentionality.

In order to

rebound

from spiritual declension, one must

assess

the spiritual malnutrition in his own soul. He must stir himself past the carnal apathy that has left him contented with spiritual dryness and a lukewarm disposition toward Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel answers all of our spiritual hunger. We must keep feeding upon Him and not upon the dry

husks offered to us by

the world. Isaiah warned his readers about seeking to feed the soul on ‘bogus bread’ (Is 55:2).

The believer must take seriously the fact that Christ sharpens His rod of discipline to chasten believers who exhibit more complacency than zeal. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent (Rev 3:19-21).

The believer is frequently confronted by the gap that exists between what the N.T. requires of him, and what his actual obedience consists of. The true believer is always to be about the business of closing the gap by ongoing repentance. But, his efforts to close the gap must be by means of evangelical repentance, not legal repentance.

Evangelical repentance is grounded upon the fact of our union with Christ. Evangelical repentance looks to Christ as our

completeness, our entire eligibility for God’s acceptance and favor, for our right-standing with God, and for our qualification to be sons of God.

Our efforts in pursuing holiness MUST flow from grace motives that stimulate evangelical repentance. Ongoing repentance for the true believer flows from his foundation of union with Christ. (Every single sub-Christian cult practices the opposite—they all practice legal repentance; which is an effort, though religion and moral effort, to measure up and be approved and accepted by God so as to win His favor.)

Paul guarded against all forms of legalism; he consistently anchored N.T. commands upon the foundation of the gospel truths of grace and redemption. His arguments for obedience were soundly developed from the believer’s union with Christ.

Without that connection, Christians are left with free-floating exhortations that have the hollow echo of “be-good, try harder, just do it.” A discipleship approach, or ministry pattern, of attempting to improve the Christian life by right attitudes and behavior modification falls woefully short of the grace-based pattern set by the Apostle.

If the precepts we teach are disconnected from the word of grace, the struggling believer is frequently left with the impression that his Christian life is a non-stop effort to

measure up . To keep our

sanctification

gospel-driven,

the exposition of biblical principles must be joined to a glorious exhibition of the majesty of the Savior who loves the redeemed to the uttermost.

The Apostle Paul’s controlling burden for his converts was that they would be granted (by the Holy Spirit) a “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ” (Eph 1:17ff.). This prayer request for his converts involved a Spirit-imparted understanding of the doctrines of God’s sovereign grace and calling in a way that would penetrate their hope and affections.

The Christian life is a life of walking worthy of our calling (Eph 4:1). The first three chapters of Ephesians set forth the infinite riches and glory of our calling. The believer who understands, and highly esteems his calling by the Gospel of grace is in the best position to obey his Lord from right motives.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

(2 Pet 3:18a).

Our sanctification progresses as our knowledge of God increases.

We mature in the knowledge of God

as we keep on considering the Lord’s saving work toward us as it is spelled out in the Gospel of God’s grace (Eph 1:15-23; Phil 3:8-12).

When the saints are awakened to the all-pervasive spiritual reality that they owe their life, their future, their sonship, their status, and their favor with God in Christ solely to the unobligated sovereign mercy of God, it has a life-transforming and renewing effect. (The Holy Spirit keeps

renewing us by

ongoing faith in the Gospel of God’s grace given to us in Christ.)

II. Ongoing faith in the Gospel produces a passion for God’s glory.

Once the saint begins to understand (by means of a spirit of wisdom and revelation, not just

academically, but in his deepest affections

) that God’s sovereign mercy is not just how God is taking poor sinners to heaven, but it is the very center of God’s plan to glorify Himself—then the saint begins to see things from a different perspective; a perspective which we could designate the

Divine View Point (DVP).

A believer operating from Divine View Point takes to heart the message of Ephesians one; God’s

glory is exalted in the entire salvation of the sinner. God is lavishing grace on the sinner for His Name’s sake!

(Ez 36:22, 23.)

When the believer is stuck in patterns of spiritual defeat, it is frequently because he had not lifted his eyes above his own struggles. Unbelief keeps us focused upon our own circumstances and performance. As long as the saint is stranded in a Human View Point (HVP) perspective, he has little incentive to exercise passion for the glory of God.

By contrast, living by Divine View Point produces a kind of “grace awakening;” it elevates our thinking to live in compliance with Colossians 3:1-3.

“If this be so; if you were raised with Christ, if you were translated into heaven, what follows? Why you must realize the change. All your aims must center in heaven where reigns the Christ who has thus exalted you, enthroned you on God’s right hand. All your thoughts must abide in heaven, not on the earth. For I say it once again, you have nothing to do with mundane things: you died, died once for all to the world: you are living another life” (Expanded paraphrase of Col 3:1-3—J. B. Lightfoot’s Commentary, p. 208).

In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the believing sinner discovers to his utter astonishment that God has planned from all eternity to join His matchless glory to the unending blessedness and welfare of the believing sinner. (God’s glory is forever joined to His plan to make you glorious in Christ.)

In response to such infinite grace Calvin says, now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgement of our sins, praying to Him to make us perceive them more and more. And may He enliven us with the doctrine of the Gospel that we may see our own sins and shamefulness and be ashamed of ourselves, and also behold the righteousness which has been shown us in our Lord Jesus Christ, and lean upon it with the endeavor to be fashioned thereafter, so that daily we may come nearer and nearer to it, until we cleave thoroughly to it (Calvin’s Sermons on Ephesians, pp. 445, 446).

By God’s design, the glorious effect of grace—namely to be taken up and “intoxicated” with God (hungering and panting after Him and delighting in communion with Him) is the prerequisite for selfless ministry to others (including a zeal for evangelism—genuine ministry is the overflow of worship).

The Gospel of grace alone can make us leave our

comfort zones

on behalf of the needs of others. Grace alone can move us past self-protection. Transforming grace is what is needed in order for us to be lifted out of self concern and to be taken up with God. Apart from

Divine View Point, our tendency is to

settle into a relational life characterized by personal interests, independence, guarded privacy, prickly defenses, and cherished masks.

The saint “stranded” in the HVP perspective of things tends to operate from the carnal vantage point of self concern. His vantage point turns upon his self-ordered world of personal peace, protection, and prosperity. (EX. When God had extended Hezekiah’s life, the Judean king had settled into an HVP mindset of personal peace and prosperity—don’t let trouble or the troubled near my door—Is 39:8.)

HVP is a truncated “keyhole” vision of things which has no picture window to see what God is doing in the world. In spiritual practice he lives in a dingy hut, contenting himself with the “bread and water” of carnal security and comfort. Though seated in the heavenlies, he doesn’t stir himself to see past the tiny walls of his little stick hovel of HVP.

Religion has become a spiritual compartment characterized more by deadening duty than delight. Instead of glorying in an all-pervasive relationship with Christ that dominates exceptionally in his life, his heart is smothered in layers of guilt, obligation, and fear. He is like a prisoner in his grey castle of self.

The Gospel of grace is the cure. The kind of grace thinking enjoined by Paul is what is necessary to raise us from a state of spiritual lethargy to a pervasive consciousness of all that God is toward us in Christ. Only by a grace awakening can we be lifted out of carnal self concern to function from a DVP vantage point (

Divine View Point ) laid out by Paul in Ephesians 1-3.

And what a vantage point it is! Meditate for a moment upon God’s plan revealed in the Gospel. Consider what it means to be taken from dust to glory: “What is [God’s] goal? What does He aim at? . . . His ultimate objective is to bring [redeemed mankind] to a state in which they please Him entirely and praise Him adequately, a state in which He is all in all to them, and He and they rejoice continually in the knowledge of each other’s love—men rejoicing in the saving love of God, set upon them from all eternity, and God rejoicing in the responsive love of men, drawn out of them by grace through the gospel” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 81).

This is God’s glory and man’s glory bound up together in a setting in which the whole created order has been transformed (Packer, pp. 81-82).

Oh how the Church needs to feed on the grace of the Gospel. A passion for God’s glory in our lives is the blessed byproduct of walking through the gates of Ephesians chapters one through three, and (by the Spirit’s enablement) understanding what God is doing in the world—He is glorifying His grace, and He desires that the saints align their entire lives with His plan.

III. Ongoing faith in the Gospel produces a series of sanctifying “Grace Awakenings.”

The maturing saint has numerous “grace awakenings” as his Christian life progresses over time. The spiritual cycles of these awakenings bear a strong resemblance to one another. Every time, it is the Gospel order—first there is a withering and stunning view of our weakness, sin, pride, inadequacy, smallness, pettiness, unbelief, unmortified lusts, and frigid love for God. Exposure precedes clothing (as with Adam when he hid). We become utterly disillusioned with our Christian lives.

Then, just when we are ready to write ourselves off as useless to God, as unfruitful and failures as Christians, then the Holy Spirit inspires us to exercise “mustard seed” faith in a passage of Scripture, or a promise from the Word.

Even a single line of living Scripture believed anew with struggling faith can be a staging area from which God can give us fresh revelations of His faithfulness (and from which He can do new things in our lives).

Amidst our self-loathing, the Holy Spirit “

shows us the blood

” yet again. We feed our faith again upon the grace of God in Christ. We fall at the Lord’s feet and consent to be loved by Him for Christ’s sake alone. Suddenly duty becomes delight—we move all the way into renewed enjoyment of all that God is towards us in Christ.

It is through the lens of the Gospel that we see that we are God’s possession. Our identity as sons of God is drawn directly from the word of grace. To the degree that the saint defines himself by the Gospel, literally drawing his identity from what God says about him, to that degree his life will demonstrate eternal values.

By contrast, the saint adrift in the dwarfed faith of HVP tends to define himself primarily by temporal things. His job, his income, his possessions, his friends, his status, his hobbies, his appearance – all these define the HVP saint in his own mind, more than his holy, God-possessed status in Christ.

Preaching grace truths to ourselves regularly is not an option. Without a steady spiritual diet of the word of grace, of Christ and Him crucified, the lower nature will assert itself. Performing, pretending, self-protection, and a passionless spirit will dominate our lives if we are not feeding upon Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel.

Here is the unbreakable truth, if your own identity in Christ, as defined by the Gospel, is your controlling identity, then you will see the Gospel as your life. The Gospel through Christ’s constraining love will animate you; it will determine how you see everything. It will mark out your value system.

“Grace-awakenings” have a sanctifying effect upon the Christian life. As Pastor Al Martin noted, the inescapable repetitive theme of Scripture from cover to cover is sin and grace. As pastors, we have the often unappreciated task, but awesome privilege of persuading folks that God loves people by

His active confrontation of their sin followed by the application of grace.

By His Word, His Spirit, and His ministers, God continually brings people to the crossroads of repentance. We are heralds of a message that is always timely: Repent, confess, mortify sin – experience renewed cleansing and restoration. Delight in God again, find new wonder and gratitude as you commune with Him; have the joy of your salvation restored. Experience joyful integration (as the Psalmists) when you come out of hiding and walk in the light again; living a sin-judged life of transparency before God.

But how do most of our parishioners live in the private world of their spiritual lives? What lies behind the guarded shutters of their souls? Beneath their quiet desperation and patterns of spiritual defeat is a fear that if their rebellion, and weakness, and failure were to come into the full light of God’s gaze, they would be devastated.

As a result, they shore up the little hovel that conceals their depravity with self-protective strategies to defend against judgment. Beneath that stiff upper lip is a proud, but fearful spirit that won’t take the “risk” of running to the atonement one more time.

The flesh works overtime to shield itself from any feelings of condemnation, shame, diminishment, and failure. Chutzpah becomes the rule of the day—the posture that is maintained says, “I have it all together.” Prickly defenses are employed to keep others from drawing too close. Personal brokenness is kept at arm’s length as a repugnant thing too filled with weakness to be considered beneficial.

What is needed is a grace awakening (a series of renewals in the Christian life). When Mike Horton wrote the book, Putting the Amazing back in Grace, he was addressing a pervasive problem—it’s all too common for believers to lose their wonder and awe of God’s grace. Why does this happen?

Amazement at God’s grace is a function of being conversant with our ill desert and ruin by reason of sin. The greater our apprehension of our need for Christ, the more we will marvel at God’s grace. The reverse is also true—without a deep awareness of our ill desert and ruin by sin, we will unintentionally devalue divine grace.

It’s needful, but humbling to wake each day with the intent of facing our utter dependency upon Christ. The alternative is choosing to be managers of our own depravity. When we lose our amazement at God’s grace, it’s generally because we have drifted into a lifestyle of managing our own dereliction and depravity with something other than the grace of God in Christ. Preaching the Gospel of God’s grace to ourselves each day is the solution! Do you do the ‘book keeping’ of your soul and conscience by the Gospel?

IV. Ongoing faith in the Gospel shows us that sanctification is driven by relationship more than rules.

Historically, the Church has always found it a battle to keep the doctrines of justification and sanctification joined (and operating in their logical relation—especially as set forth in the Pauline epistles). Pietism separates the two cardinal doctrines; as does quietism. Legalism and antinomianism mitigate against their unity as well.

Of all the groups in church history, the Puritans seemed to have best understood the essential and practical relationship between justification and sanctification (many of the Reformers did as well, but they did not write on it as prolifically as the Puritans).

As servants of Christ, our anthropology ought to reflect an extremely keen insight into the hearts of our hearers. We’re preaching to people who carry in their bosoms the seeds of the Galatian error. We should never be shocked at how religious the flesh of man can be. We should always keep in mind how enormous our capacity is to forget the Gospel.

Orthodoxy can be a forum for the flesh. We are preaching to folks like ourselves who carry in their souls an internal enemy of God’s grace, even though they are believers!

Carnal sense has no trouble understanding moral obligation, ethical responsibility, duty, performance, reward, merit, production, and law, BUT, it requires the ongoing work of God’s Spirit to understand and live by the grace of the Gospel. The flesh loves control more than grace.

The flesh of man prefers a formal, manageable approach to religion. True religion always tends to
degrade in the direction of heartless orthodoxy which is characterized by formalism and
compartmentalization. (See essays: Orthodox Formalism and Thoughts on Church Renewal,
www.frontlinemin.org).

Only fresh acts of faith take us off of ourselves and dislodge self from being at the center (even Christians would rather do some work of service than do the work of believing—note Hebrews 4. Christ was witness to this propensity in hearers; a tendency to work rather than believe—Jn 6:27-29).

Due to this bent in all of us, the challenge is to keep before the brethren the union of justification and sanctification. And the fact that grace is not primarily a principle or a possession; grace is a

relationship; it is relational.

God has made us His possession that we might know and enjoy Him and in so doing glorify Him—all flows from Christ, our “Source Person.” We are saved to commune with the Trinity and in so doing ultimately realize (that is be transformed into) our true identity in Christ.

Grace is a love relationship with our Heavenly Father through Christ our Lord in the power of the Spirit. Sanctification is the outworking of this love relationship. When the believer maintains his relationship with the Lord, he is living a “separated unto God,” or “sanctified” life. Thus sanctification involves caring for our relationship with God (David Peterson, Possessed by God). Grace is relational throughout.

FOR DISCUSSION:

1. Why does preaching the gospel to ourselves renew us?
2. Is it true that we will do more for God when we consistently hear what Christ has done for us rather than hearing what we ‘ought’ to be doing for God?
3. Why is repentance so closely associated with renewed fellowship with Christ? See Revelation 3:19-21.
4. Explain what is meant by, “The gospel takes us ‘off of ourselves’ by filling our minds with the Divine Viewpoint of life.”

5. What has to happen in our Christian walk in order for us to take delight in our spiritual duties?
6. What does it mean that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the very ‘food’ of the church?
7. What is the difference between legal and evangelical repentance?
8. How would you define a grace awakening?
9. How do these renewals and awakenings cure our fleshly tendency to be weary of the things of God?

UNDERSTANDING GRACE-DRIVEN SANCTIFICATION

How abiding in Christ fits us for love, fellowship, and ministry

Our relationship with God is manifested in our relationships with others (1 Jn 4:7-13; 19-21). As John Piper says, “

It is my greatest joy to experience the in-filling grace of God overflowing from me for the good of others.

” This is ‘reflexive love’—which overflows from our satisfaction in Christ (1 Jn 4:19). The habitual consciousness of who God is toward us in Christ in all His mercy and love is a major part of our equipping to love the brethren (Col 3:12-13).

Through ‘the word of His grace’, and union with Christ we are made “fit” to wear the garments of grace in order that we might serve the Body. The “garments of grace” are described especially in Ephesians 4-5 and in Colossians 3-4. The “garments of grace” are the Christian virtues and behaviors which constitute our Christ-like behavior toward one another in the Body of Christ.

The language used by the Apostle in these chapters is “put on” (put on like a garment the character qualities of Christ). Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Col 3:12b). Our practical sanctification is lived out by replacement behaviors as we put off the old behaviors and choose to “wear” the garments of grace in our relationships with believers.

In this way, others see that we have become partakers of Christ and of grace. The Gospel of grace provides the rationale for us to love sacrificially; to be spent on behalf of the brethren; to live for the edification of others. (Illustration for put off; put on: the college student who was sprayed by a skunk had to put off the defiled clothes and put on fresh clothes before he could enter the house.)

The word of grace gives us the reasons why we are to identify ourselves completely with Christ’s purposes: The believer is a member of Christ’s Body; as such each member is to contribute his part to the maturation of the Body of Christ as a whole (Eph 4:15, 16; Col 2:19).

Each member of Christ’s Body is to commit himself or herself to the Great Commission which is not only directed at evangelism, but equally at discipleship. And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man that we present every man complete in Christ (Col 1:28). (See the book, Instruments in the Hands of the Redeemer: People in need of Change helping People in need of Change, by Paul David Tripp). The mindset is, “The Lord placed me in the Body so I can be here for others.”

Such radical identification with Christ and His purposes requires that our affections be captive to the grace of God in the Gospel (to be captivated with the Gospel of God’s grace is synonymous with having a Divine View Point perspective. Only then does the believer gladly make the purposes of Christ his own purposes and his life’s direction.)

Without the Gospel of grace as our focus, there can be a tendency to preach principles and then recruit volunteers for ministry while the sense of obligation is weighing heavily upon the consciences of our listeners. As a consequence, church members can easily interpret ministry activity and “orthodox output” as the very soul and heartbeat of the Christian life (our ‘bottom line’).

Indeed, a form of this busyness for God is what happened at the church of Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7). Productivity “ate up” devotion to Christ as the highest value. If we are to be faithful to the logical relationship between justification (the Gospel) and sanctification, then we will want to follow the pattern set by the Apostle Paul. An understanding of “who we are in Christ” and our devotion to Him will have to precede “what we do for Christ” (Eph 4:1-3; Col 3:12ff.).

The Gospel of God’s grace is our constant corrective; it keeps liberating us from the pressure to “measure up” in order to be loved and accepted by God. Preaching Christ in the Gospel of grace is the key to an “identity-based” ministry that puts who we are in Christ ahead of what we do for Christ.

When we preach the Gospel to ourselves daily, it keeps reminding us of the holy character of God, of the loving heart of God toward us in Christ, of who we are in ourselves as sinners, and of who we are in Christ. The beauty of reckoning our union with Christ is a growing recognition of His Person (Phil 3:10ff.). With that growing realization of Christ comes our willingness to be radically identified with Him. In other words, as we know Christ better, our desire is to live out His purpose for us.

Our life as a disciple of Christ has far-reaching effects. Fulfillment of the biblical ‘plan’ for the Church to reach the world depends upon individual believers reckoning and living out their vital connection to Christ as it is unfolded in the Gospel. We could outline this in the following manner:

UPWARD: Gospel-centered abiding in Christ (fellowship with the Lord by the Word—Jn 15:5)

INWARD: The Body of Christ edifying itself (spiritual growth through discipleship—Eph 4:14-16)

OUTWARD: Outreach in evangelism and missions (fulfill The Great Commission—Matt 28:18-20)

V. Ongoing faith in the Gospel allows us to reckon Christ’s righteousness imputed to our account (2 Cor 5:21).

To be fallen, and yet bear the image of God, is a problem that cannot be repaired by anything in the creation. Our carnal bent is to dress in fig leaves instead of reckoning our righteousness in Christ. The Apostle Paul reminds believers in Galatians 3:27 that, “You have clothed yourselves with Christ.” When Christians lose their wonder at God’s grace, it’s often because they have been seeking to clothe their souls with something other than Christ.

Only Christ our Substitute as the perfect image of God can restore us to our created purpose (Col 1:15). As Bible students, we know where the problem of our guilt, brokenness, and nakedness of soul first began. When our first parents sinned, they lost their standing before God. A palpable ‘nakedness’ filled their consciousness. But this nakedness and embarrassment was not physical alone—they felt an inner shame of soul which made them seek estrangement from God. They could not raise their eyes to heaven (See The World According to God, by Greg Johnson, p. 140).

The absence of a covering for their souls drove our first parents into hiding and plagued them until God graciously ‘sacrificed’ the lambs from which their garments were made. Now since the fall, it has been a universal experience to crave a covering for our naked souls. The pride or life says, “I can provide my own covering!” Each man or woman is drawn to the covering of their choice: money, power, reputation, pleasure, atheleticism, morality, education, beauty, youthfulness, etc. (1 Jn 2:15-17).

Closely associated with the pride of life is self-justification. Self-justification is the action of seeking to secure or defend one’s intrinsic worth. “Self-justification divides the world into armed camps —whether tribal, national, local (warring)” (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, pp. 54-56). The apostle Paul summarizes the behaviors joined to self-justification in Gal 5:19-21 (“the deeds of the flesh”).

Self-justification is a proper description of sin which issues from the ‘principle of possession’ (that is ‘I demand to control my own value’)—self-justification says in effect: “I possess intrinsic differentiation from the other.” Self-justification is an attempt to hold our part of differentiated territory of independent, self-possessed, or contained being (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, pp. 54-56).

This is of course the polar opposite of experiencing the gospel each day—experiencing the gospel daily involves: Understanding the seriousness and guilt of my sin—which leads me to treasure the grace of Christ—which causes me to abound in gratitude— which produces goodness and obedience in my life. This daily experiencing of the gospel engenders new love in me which gives strength against sin and love for the brethren. This is the word of His grace at work in me performing gospel formation (Acts 20:32).

Paul dealt with the fleshly wisdom manifested by the Corinthians’ pride of life. 1 Corinthians 4:6-7 is the ‘divine atom bomb’ that devastates their false notion of self-possessed differentiation. Here’s the reason why: all true differentiation in God’s sight, all individual identity is a gift of sovereign grace by which the self is freed from the self by means of a different measure—the measure of God’s grace.

In other words, the differentiation recognized by God is the differentiation He affects by bestowing grace and a new identity in Christ. Only God can justify a person; and He does so graciously —basing it entirely upon Christ’s work on our behalf (1 Cor 1:29-31).

Only Christ can break the grip of original sin. It must be by substitutionary atonement—the innocent for the guilty (1 Pet 3:18; Gal 3:13; Rom 8:3-4; 2 Cor 5:21). Substitution is a one to one transfer of moral guilt. See John 19:30; Luke 23:46-49. Christ performed this transfer in freedom—He desired to do it (Jn 10:18). The transfer of guilt from one being to another (a divine being) is the content of the concreted good news—for the guilty there has been a burden-bearing transaction (Ibid, pp. 56-57).

Because God is just, He requires the death of innocent life in our place. God requires perfection from His human creatures. We know that the self that we are—exists under judgment—our reasoning plots ways to escape judgment (“if only I were another, etc.” “I have a history as a sinner I cannot escape —but I will try to escape it”). The blood metaphor (Lev 17:11) is based on the concept that blood carries life and transfers life. (i.e. the Mercy Seat under Levitical worship) (Ibid, pp. 60-63).

The robes of the saints are ‘washed in the blood of the lamb’ (Rev 7:13ff.). As we are attached to Christ the benefits of His blood are attached to us. The message of divine grace is amazing: The Judge finds the accused guilty, pronounces a capital sentence, descends the throne and pays the ultimate price— the Judge dies in place of the criminal. God is free to undertake such a reversal (Jn 1:29, 36)—He is able and free to effect a moral transfer (Jn 10:18).

Clinical and pastoral counsel experience reveals a gripping paralyzing fear of exposure (judgment). Paul says of himself, ‘sold under sin’—that person must pay the price of death (Rom 7:14) (Ibid, pp. 63-67). Biblical self-confrontation (self-criticism) is only possible by means of Christ’s atonement (self-confrontation is another way of saying ‘belief and repentance’).

Self-criticism is a mirror of Christian liberty. We meet God in the holy of holies as those who have been forgiven. Thus, we can be ruthlessly honest about our sin (James 1:23-25). Transparency with God in faith and repentance is a function of freedom from judgment. Freedom from judgment is the ground of Christian liberty—which has the potential to deliver us from our cherished defenses—defenses which harm our relations in the Body of Christ (Ibid, pp. 80-81).

Only the gospel can end the fear that keeps our defense mechanisms in place. The gospel literally dismantles the fear that generates our self-protective devices. Our fear generates our fleshly defenses (it is nearly always the fear of judgment). The atonement alone can achieve freedom from judgment. Submission to God’s act at Calvary results in the breaking of our chains. Christ’s shed blood and the resurrection are the foundation for self-criticism and repentance (biblical self-confrontation). The result is personal courage and heroism in dealing with what remains of our indwelling sin (Ibid, pp. 82, 94, 100).

The gospel of the cross must not be allowed to slip from its central place in our lives. How easy it is to allow the gospel to slip from its central place and status in our lives and into the realm of theory. How may we prevent this? Answer: Live upon Christ by faith as He is offered in the Gospel. The gospel starts my day with my wretchedness, God’s love, Christ’s substitution. That changes everything about my perspective. It overturns the world’s wisdom—that wisdom from below that is controlled by selfish ambition.

The earthy, demonic ‘wisdom from below’ is what comes so natural to us (James 3:13-18)—it is our ‘default wisdom’ unless continually overturned by the power of the gospel.

The wisdom from below is what moves us in our social relations to self-justifying differentiation manifested as: over-under, upsmanship, distinctions (man-made), pecking orders, systems of honoring men, cliques, people grading themselves into groups based on achievement, economic status, power, influence, financial independence. “That which is highly esteemed by men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

Only the cross can strip us of our natural penchant for man-made distinctions and keep our self-exalting flesh pinioned to the cross. The pride of life believes that man-made distinctions count as much as, or more than, the divine distinctions made by sovereign grace. As Paul rebuked the Corinthians, “. . . What do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it” (1Cor 4:6-7)?

Overflowing gratitude for the grace of Christ was the cure for the Corinthians’ penchant for making human distinctions. Thus to be gospel-driven is to eschew the pride involved in comparing self with others (2 Cor 10:12). Instead of our distinctions being a basis for ‘over/under’ differentiation; in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 our differences are treated as the very ‘glue’ that makes the Body of Christ function in interdependency.

Through the cross applied to the saints, the Lord is building a diverse Body in which differences are complementary producing a dynamic, interdependent organic community (1 Cor 12:12-27). Where the cross, the gospel, and completeness in Christ are regularly exposited in their dynamic of personal transformation; it will guard against a return to the pride of life with its self-protective, self-justifying wisdom from below (James 3:14-16). Only the gospel can keep that tendency in check.

Differences among the members (in interests, education, income, experience, race, background, maturity) ought to be embraced as an essential part of our complementary richness. Without that knowledge, we may find ourselves ‘huddling’ based upon our education, income, and interests. “Huddle” we should, but not merely to seek out the most comfortable social arrangements; but for the purpose of confessing our sins to one another and for the purpose of stimulating one another to love and good deeds (James 516; Heb 10:23-25).

Christ intends that the diversity of the Body (animated by His Spirit) help drive its commitment to the bond of peace—to unity (1 Cor 12:20-25; Eph 4:1-3). The pride of life is destructive to body life because it suggests that the Body may be divided up between, “those who are achieving God’s standard, and those who are not,” between “those who are the spiritually dependent, and those who are the spiritual ‘providers’ needing little or nothing from others”—the spiritual ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’

The cross is meant to slay our distinction-loving pride of life. The cross is God’s corrective ‘lens’—it gives us God’s view of the world, of our lives, and of our relationships. The more the cross is in view; the more our man-made distinctions fall to the ground. The cross is the great leveler of men. Apart from the application of the cross, the pride of life comes in and says, “Wow, brother so and so has something to boast about. Look how he has gotten on in life. His position and achievements are certainly enviable” (James 2:1-9).

The pride of life envies a ‘covering’ from below; from the creation and the creature—instead of from the Creator. Jesus warns us that society has a complex system of spurious values to which men appeal in order to feel complete. Here are the words of Christ regarding self-justifiers, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

So serious is the matter of ‘what makes us complete’ that Jesus sets up an antithesis between proposed sources of ‘completeness’. To buy into man’s system of completeness is to reject God’s work in Christ as the source of one’s acceptance with God. Again Jesus blisters self-justifiers by proclaiming, “How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (Jn 5:44) (Article, “Pride of Life Destruction” by Jay Wegter).

The behavior of the self-deceived Laodiceans of Revelation 3:14-22 typifies the universal tendency of seeking a counterfeit clothing of the soul. They boasted that they were rich, wealthy, in need of nothing. What a shock it must have been when Christ the Lord, with eyes like a flame of fire (Rev 1:14ff.), peered into their hearts and declared them to be wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

The mindset of the Laodiceans was the polar opposite of utter dependency upon Christ. Their boast was in things which they imagined would clothe their souls. As a result, not a small part of their blindness involved abject ignorance of their desperate need of daily divine grace. The mirror of God’s Word alone can keep us from self-deception in this matter.

How does God deal with our sinful tendency to seek “clothing” for our souls in things other than Christ our completeness (Col 2:10)? The answer is that God through His Spirit and His Word exalts Christ in all of His offices (Prophet, Priest, and King; Logos, Lawgiver, Loving Redeemer, Lion of Judah). In the gospel, the Father displays His Son to the saints so that they will come to understand that in all of His offices, Christ ever lives to represent us and bring us to God. The Father convinces us that apart from Christ we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

The safest place for the believer is to be constantly undergoing a “grace awakening.” Welcome views of personal sin, of personal depravity, dereliction and utter dependency—let them drive you to Christ. Invite the Sunrise from on high to shine upon your life (Luke 1:77-79). When you consent to be clothed by Christ alone; you will find the exit to the “grey castle of self.” (Yes there is some pain involved; but it is primarily to our pride. How fortifying this is to spiritual health to be scraped down to bedrock so that we are motivated anew to build upon Christ alone from grace motives.)

Paul placed all of the Corinthians’ carnal behaviors under the microscope of God’s wisdom in the cross and found each one of them to be symptomatic of the world’s wisdom; a wisdom antithetical to the cross of Christ (James 3:13-18). The Apostle stated in his Corinthian letters that the message of the cross-centered life is the spiritual diet of the mature. But only those who are sick of the world’s wisdom are ready for this diet (1 Cor 2:15-3:3).

The cross, the diet of the spiritually mature, produces substantial spiritual growth. The cross-centered believer increasingly perceives that his relationship with the Lord is the foundation for all of his other relationships.

Thus, the man or woman constrained by Christ’s love will have all of his relationships transformed because his motives will not be dominated by self-protection and self-enhancement (the flesh by natural instinct is committed to protection from judgment, criticism, diminishment, as well as to self-advancement). Instead of an agenda issuing from a self-directed life; the controlling, constraining love of Christ will equip the believer to love God and others (2 Cor 5:14-15).

If we are to excel in love and servanthood; if we are to be characterized by honesty and realism; and by heroism in dealing with personal sin, we will have to be in that habit of preaching the Gospel to ourselves. Only the man or woman who is constrained by Christ’s love and who lives a cross-centered (Gospel-centered) life is capable of dealing with personal sin at the depth enjoined in Scripture—the depth commanded of the true disciple of Christ (1 Jn 1:6-10).

Any attempt to “manage” our remaining depravity by a means other than the Gospel will produce destructive side effects. To seek to clothe our own souls by carnal strategies will tend to produce a host of masks, defenses, and personal agendas that keep us from being unhindered vessels of Christ’s love to the Body of Christ. As the Scotsman said, “There’s a stone in the pipe”—Christ’s love will not be free to pass through us to others.

Jesus said that His true disciples would not love their lives in this world (Jn 12:24-26). (The carnal love of one’s own life in this world includes all of the community-destroying, cherished, fleshly defense mechanisms employed to guard ourselves from others.)

By contrast, that man or woman who lives a sin-judged life by walking in the light will stand out amongst those who do not live in this way. Only the cross-centered life has the guaranteed power to transform our relationships (Phil 2:1-8; Rom 15:1-6).

The message of sin and grace is the starting place. 500 years ago Luther wrestled to the point of weariness with the problem of how a totally depraved person could be completely accepted by God. Once by God’s mercy he discovered the wonder of justifying love—Luther could exclaim with uncontainable joy that the believer is justified, yet a sinner.

This is precisely where so many believers are still stuck. “Justified, yet a sinner” has never taken hold of them in a life-transforming manner. Therefore they cannot be heroic in dealing with personal sin and failure. Why? Because deferring judgment, defending against condemnation, and protecting from perceived criticism is still a higher priority than fellowship with God and the saints.

Only the person secure in Christ’s justifying love can face his sin with courage; only the individual who solidly appropriates the word of justification can afford to hear the worst things about self. Apart from deep confidence in Christ’s justifying love—judgment, condemnation, and criticism (perceived or real) make our defense mechanisms go ballistic. Figuratively speaking, we are ready to cut off, attack, or “kill” the person who brought our failure to light and made us feel diminished.

This non-evangelical response to hearing about our sin is a destructive force that can tear fellowships apart (Gal 5:15). The foolish, and frequently the immature, cannot tolerate admonishment; it is the wise man that welcomes correction and shows gratitude for it (Prov 9:8).

For this very reason, the saints are in constant need of taking the good word of justification into their souls. If the Gospel is not their “food,” the temptation will be overwhelming to manage fear of judgment by carnal methods (the world is more than happy to oblige our longing to clothe our souls—it has a thousand counterfeits and “scorecards” by which we may pronounce ourselves “O.K.”).

If we are not made whole by Christ’s righteousness imputed, then we will attempt to find our completeness in other things. This self-deception must give way in order for the gospel to transform us. In order for gospel formation to take hold, the members of the Body of Christ must determine to be examined by the proclamation of God’s Word. Apart from the news of redemption in the cross, we tend to shoot the messenger. If the atonement is not our daily hiding place, we will have false refuges from judgment—and every false refuge has its social consequences (note how destructive the Corinthian “fig leaves” were to true community in that local church).

The believer who preaches the Gospel to himself each day will be equipped for heroism in dealing with personal sin. He will gladly make it his daily practice to ‘consent’ to be clothed by Christ’s righteousness, and thereby live by faith in Christ (Gal 2:20). As a consequence, his relationships will be characterized by supernatural love, humility, and unity.

“Ask God to change your heart so that, like Paul said in Galatians 6:14, you can say, ‘May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’” (C. J. Mahaney, The Cross-centered Life, p. 23).

Christ’s fulfillment has decisively met my failure. I daily exercise faith in the Word of His grace, the gospel, instead of trusting in my flesh. Living by faith in Christ exerts a powerful effect in equipping me for ministry in the Body. Again I affirm the ‘Gospel order’:

• What God expects and requires of me (Christ-like love and service)
• Why I can’t and won’t do it in my own strength and resources
• What I am, can be, and should be by His grace (Christ fulfilled perfect righteousness for me)

FOR DISCUSSION:

1. What must happen in our Christian walk before we are willing to see ourselves as ‘instruments in the hands of the Redeemer’ for changing lives?
2. What will alter our perspective so that we begin to see all of our relationships as opportunities to move people closer to Christ?
3. How does consenting to be clothed with Christ each day equip me for Body life?
4. Why does feeding upon the gospel produce a willingness to confess our sins one to another?
5. What biblical truths constitute the spiritual diet of the mature?

6. How would living upon Christ’s love motivate us to wear the ‘garments of grace’?
7. Only the gospel can disarm our fear of judgment. How does liberation from the fear of judgment (through the gospel) equip us for transparent, trusting relationships in the Body of Christ?

8. How does the gospel impart the courage to practice ongoing self-confrontation and repentance in the believer’s life?
9. Can you identify areas in your own life where the pride of life draws you away from the gospel alone as your standing, acceptance, and status before God?

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 2

WHO WILL DELIVER US?

A Study in the Practical Value of Justification

Due to the critical importance of this lesson, Appendix A includes fill-in the blanks, multiple choice, and true-false questions as an added instructional device corresponding to this section.

I. Understanding so great a salvation

It was Martin Luther who said that justification by faith through grace is the pillar upon which Christianity stands or falls. There can be no more vital and relevant topic than the subject of how God puts believing sinners right with Himself. How does a sinner go from ‘condemned’ to ‘justified’ in the sight of God? What has to happen for that to take place? Is this change in status before God (justification) something that the sinner is able to initiate?

How God deems a sinner ‘right with Himself’ in the sight of the law is the very content of the gospel. As a consequence, it is vital that we understand the doctrine of justification by faith through grace. If a person has no grasp of justification, it can be indicative of not trusting in the biblical gospel. John Gerstner (former mentor to R. C. Sproul) provides an alarming statistic: 80% of Christendom does not believe in the role of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in man’s salvation. Instead they trust that God’s grace comes through the sacraments.

Saving grace through the sacraments of the church is of course a denial of the doctrine of justification by faith. The Protestant Reformers wrote extensively on the role of the Holy Trinity in the salvation of the sinner. The Father allocates, or plans salvation. He elects those who will be saved and He sends the Son to earth to accomplish redemption. The Son purchases redemption by His substitutionary death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit convicts, calls, and quickens. The Spirit gives the gift of saving faith—applying the salvation Christ has purchased. Once the sinner believes and repents then the Father justifies that person based upon the finished redemptive work of Christ. This Trinitarian explanation of salvation is missing from churches which trust in a sacerdotal system of grace.

All false religion in the world offers man a do-able standard of performance. Justification is the opposite as we shall see. John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) captures the mystery of justification in the following quote: “Indeed this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world, namely that a righteousness that resides with a Person in heaven should justify me, as sinner on earth” (John Bunyan, Justification by an Imputed Righteousness, Swengel, Penn., Reiner Publications, 1967).

A. THE NEED OF JUSTIFICATION

1. God has given a pronouncement about the sinful state of mankind (Rom 3:9ff; 3:23; 5:12).
2. Every unbeliever has a legal standing before God of condemnation (Jn 3:36; Rom 5:16, 18; Mark 16:16).

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

B. THE NATURE OF JUSTIFICATION

1. Justification is a verdict about us (Rom 3:22-28).
2. Justification is a legal declaration by God in heaven concerning a person, that he or she stands righteous in God’s sight (Rom 5:18-19; 3:26).
3. The righteousness God is looking at when He justifies the believing sinner is resident in Christ, not in the believer. It is only because of Christ’s perfect righteousness accomplished on our behalf, that the believing sinner is regarded as righteous (Phil 3:9; Rom 4:23-25).
4. Man’s most perplexing need can be framed as a question, “How can sinful man be just before a holy God?” All the following ideas are false:

• God has lowered the impossible standard of His law since no one is able to keep it perfectly.
• God now accepts religious faith and devotion instead of perfect obedience.
• God makes people holy, ethical and good so that they might be pronounced just and acceptable in His sight.
• Through justification, God makes a person holy on the inside so that they can be accepted by Him.

5. The kind of righteousness a person must have in order to be accepted by God is absolutely perfect righteousness.
6. Sanctification is a gradual process including an internal change and righteousness imparted. Justification is an instantaneous, judicial decision and legal declaration including righteousness imputed and a change of status. Justification is not a process.
7. See Romans 8:1; Hebrews 10:14. Justification means that the believer has no legal guilt in God’s sight.
8. Read Romans 4:1-10ff. The idea that those saved in the Old Testament were saved by keeping the Law, not by justification by faith is false.

C. THE AGENT OF JUSTIFICATION

1. God justifies us by faith alone (Gal 2:15-21).
2. God justifies the person who looks away from himself and trusts in Christ alone (Titus 3:5-7; Rom 4:5-6).
3. The following are true of justification by faith:

• God justifies by faith so that we will know that our salvation is for His glory, is by grace alone, and through Christ alone.
• Faith is the “empty hand” that grasps Christ as Savior.
• Faith justifies because it concentrates all confidence upon Christ and looks away from self.

But the following is NOT true of justification by faith:

• Faith is so important, it is the very ground and foundation of God’s verdict that we are righteous.

4. Defining faith biblically: Faith is certitude (or full assurance) concerning the things hoped for; and the great conviction and confidence about the things you cannot see, hold, touch, or prove. Read Hebrews 11:1, 6. Faith cannot exist apart from its object.

• Faith is defined as conviction of the reality of the truths and facts which God has revealed. Such conviction rests solely upon the testimony of God in Scripture.
• Faith is not simply the assent of the intellect to revealed truth; it is the practical submission of the entire man to the guidance and control of such truth (Unger’s Bible Dictionary).

In our evangelism we frequently ask the following question, “If you were to stand before God and He asked you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven, what would you say?’” This question is especially revealing because the answer a person gives shows his or her source of trust. I’ll never forget the story of the dad who took his very sharp six year old son witnessing with him. One homeowner responded to the question, “Why should I let you into My heaven?” in the following manner, “I do attend church and try my best to be a loving person.” The six year boy looked at his dad and said quite boldly, “He’s not going to make it is he dad?”

Justification defines our relationship with God because justification so clearly articulates that Christ alone is the ground of the believing sinner’s standing before God. Justification answers the problem of the sinner’s infinite debt to God. Christ served the penalty for our sin—a penalty we could not have exhausted by an eternity in hell. Christ provides the perfect obedience to God’s law that we never could have rendered. Thus justification owns the fact that God has taken salvation into His own hands. In His grace and mercy He has done so since we could not contribute to the perfect obedience required by God’s law; nor could we have offset our penalty of death and separation from God.

Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). Because salvation is a miracle of God’s sovereign might, it is absurd to suggest that a sinner dead in transgressions has the power to invoke this miracle by his “free will.” Nothing could be further from the truth. If the sinner could command his own new birth he would have something about which to boast. But the Scriptures indicate, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Eph 2:8-9).

5. It is impossible to truly believe God’s truth without being transformed by His truth.

D. THE LEGAL BASIS OF JUSTIFICATION

1. The legal basis for God to justify the sinner is Christ’s finished work of substitution (2 Cor 5:19-21; Is 53:5-6; Gal 3:13).
2. The ground of justification is NOT the believer’s faith, but is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:24).
3. To impute is to charge to one’s account. When Christ was crucified, the believer’s sin was imputed to His account. He became officially guilty of our sin (Gal 3:13).

4. We might accurately say that justification is a “double imputation.” Christ’s righteousness is imputed to the believer and the believer’s sin was imputed to Christ (put on His account).
5. Christ’s life was His “active” obedience and Christ’s obedience in His death was His “passive” obedience. See Isaiah 53:7.
6. The requirements of God satisfied by Christ’s “active” obedience was perfect obedience to God’s law.
7. The requirement satisfied by Christ’s “passive” obedience was His reception of the penalty for breaking God’s law, required by the justice of God.

8. Justification involves both the gift of positive righteousness and the gift of forgiveness of the guilt of sin (2 Cor 5:21).
9. Every false gospel denies biblical justification by faith. No man can be right with God (have right standing) unless he receives the righteousness of God by faith (justification). Read Romans 10:1-4. Every false gospel, no matter how sincerely it endorses religion, morality, or uprightness, is a refusal to submit to the righteousness of God.
10. Justification could never have taken place without a perfect substitute who was given by God and accepted by God in our place. Read Romans 5:12-20. According to verse 14, Adam was a type of Him (Christ) who was to come. In verses 18-19, Christ is doing the work of a substitute.

E. THE FOUR “DIMENSIONS” OF JUSTIFICATION:

1. The believer is justified JUDICIALLY by God (Rom 3:26, 30; 8:30, 33). Justification takes place in the courtroom of God so to speak. Justification is legal, forensic.
2. The believer is justified MERITORIOUSLY by Christ (Rom 3:24; 4:23, 25; 5:8, 9, 18; 10:4). By “meritoriously” we mean that the merit or righteousness we need to be right with God is resident in Christ; not in ourselves.
3. The believer is justified MEDIATELY by faith (Rom 1:17; 3:26, 30; Gal 2:16; 3:24). “Mediately” is a reference to the agent, or instrument of justification—the means through which God works.

4. The believer is justified EVIDENTIALLY by works (James 2:21-25; 1 Jn 2:4, 15, 19; 3:6-10; 4:8, 20). A lifestyle characterized by works performed in the power of the Holy Spirit gives evidence that we have received God’s justifying grace.

F. JUSTIFICATION AND THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

1. Read 1 Corinthians 15:17. In this passage, Paul connects the resurrection of Christ with the forgiveness of our sins. We would still be in our sins if Christ were not raised from the dead, because His resurrection proves Christ’s work has been accepted by God.
2. Christ is said to be vindicated or justified in 1 Timothy 3:16 because Christ has been exalted to God’s right hand (Phil 2:9; Acts 2:32-33; Rom 4:25). The last view the unbelieving world had of Christ was of the form of a man who had just died—a man whose visage was marred beyond recognition. A man who perished in weakness, shame, and ignominy—who appeared utterly abandoned by God and humans. The vindication of Christ means that Christ has been exalted to God’s right hand. The shame associated with His passion has been replaced with eternal glory.

3. Prior to the Fall, Adam was in a state of innocence in the Garden of Eden. But even in innocence, Adam was not confirmed in a state of righteousness. In effect, he was ‘on probation’. By contrast, the true believer in Christ is more safe and more secure than unfallen Adam was because the believer has been confirmed in Christ in a state of unchanging favor with God.
4. Union with Christ means that our probation is over.
5. Read Philippians 2:5-11 & Hebrews 5:9; 9:28. Christ’s exaltation was based upon His meritorious obedience. His obedience merited salvation for all who put their trust in Him. Christ has always been God the Son; He was exalted in His humanity (as the God-man).

G. THE REALITY AND RESULT OF JUSTIFICATION

1. Read Ephesians 5:6 & James 2:17-21. Is it possible for a person to believe upon Christ for salvation, and then to go on living an unchanged life? (See James 2; 2 Cor 5:14-15; 1 Jn 3:9; Rom 8:1-13; 1 Jn 3:9) We are told in 1 John 3:9 that "no one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him and he cannot sin [habitually] because he is born of God." If a true believer did practice sin, he would be miserable. The reason why is because (as our verse states) he is indwelt by "God's seed" and he is a new creation with a new bias against sin.

2. The truly justified person will strive after holiness in heart and life. “Progress in holiness means that our condition spiritually moves ever closer to our position spiritually.” See Ephesians 4:1ff.; Colossians 3:12-17ff. This means that at salvation righteousness is IMPUTED and in sanctification, righteousness is IMPARTED. In other words, justification gives us a perfect position. Progressive sanctification is righteousness imparted because the believer increasingly yields to God in obedience and makes headway against indwelling sin.

3. When a true believer becomes presumptuous and careless, he will incur the displeasure of the Heavenly Father.
4. When God chastises His justified child, it may involve painful correction and the loss of the sense of God’s countenance. There is a difference between correction for sin and experiencing the just penalty for sin. Note Hebrews 12:5-17. God’s correction of a true believer is not penal (penal: the just penalty due sin).
5. Justification from the guilt of sin does not encourage sinning, because the saved individual is a changed person by reason of union with Christ in His death and resurrection. See Romans 6— Christ’s death was the believer’s death to the dominion of sin. Christ’s resurrection was the believer’s entrance into newness of life.

6. James 2 (by describing justification by works) is not dealing with the ground of justification, but with the evidences of faith. When God tested Abraham, it was for the demonstration of Abraham’s faith. See Genesis 22:1.
7. (James 2:22) “Faith” without works is a deception; it is false hope. The foolish and vain described in this verse do not have a sacrificial commitment to do the will of God.

8. (James 2:23) The kind of faith that justifies will always express itself in action in the works of faith.
9. (James 2:24-26) True faith must bring forth fruit in order to prove (before men) that it is a living faith.
10. In James 2, the Apostle cites the need for works, but only as an evidence of living faith as opposed to a dead faith that is merely a verbal empty profession. In reference to a profession of faith, James repeatedly indicates in chapter two, “if a man says he has faith.” In other words, a genuine saving faith will be backed up with a transformed life characterized by good works.

11. God tests our faith in order to prove it, refine it, strengthen it, and demonstrate it. See 1 Peter 1:4-9.
12. For the believer, Christ has removed the guilt of sin but NOT the mortal danger of sin.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 3

FEAR OF JUDGMENT MAKES US COWARDS

The fear of judgment answered by the power of Christ’s atonement

• The term “Dynamics of Grace” indicates that the grace of God received imparts a new life, and God’s grace issues forth in transformed living. In our previous lessons we have seen that God’s saving grace in our lives produces a ‘dynamic’ which is active, vibrant, and energetic.
• God’s grace received produces:

o Ongoing grace renewals (fresh experiences of God’s grace in our daily walk)

o A passion for God’s glory; desire and ability to draw close to other believers in love, fellowship,
and service
o Zeal for good works; carefulness to maintain our walk with the Lord
o A willingness to live for Christ and not for self

We would reiterate that the ‘grace dynamics’ listed immediately above are not the result of any natural power or ability in man. These godly behaviors are beyond our natural capacity. They are completely traceable to God’s grace received and the Spirit’s enablement.

I. Sin has made us cowards.

A. It was William Shakespeare who said, “Conscience doth make cowards of us all” (Hamlet, 3.1.56). Unsaved men are in bondage and slavery to the fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15; Job 18:14). The fear involved is a dreaded fear of exposure and punishment (1 John 4:18; Heb. 9:27; 1 Cor. 15:56; Job 18:14). The fear beneath all fears is one of ultimate judgment. When sin entered the human race, the fear of condemnation was its instantaneous companion (Gen 3:10).

1. Immediately after sinning, Adam and Eve utilized strategies to ward off the threat of judgment: Adam attempted to cover his shame. He was afraid. He tried to hide from his Creator and Judge. He engaged in blame in order to defer judgment away from himself (Gen. 3:7-13). What Adam did when God questioned him has been the behavior of the human race ever since.
2. According to Scripture, the guilt man feels as a sinner is not simply the irritations of conscience as psychology would suggest, it is actual legal guilt before God (Rom. 3:23; 2:5).

3. The human condition of guilt before God is characterized by fear of punishment. This fear manifests itself in judgment-avoidance strategies such as blame, shame, hiding, anxiety, flight and defiance (Jn 8:48).

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

B. By nature, we are like Adam—we do not deal courageously with our sin. The fear of punishment makes cowards of us all. The roots of cowardice penetrate deep in our lives because not only are we condemned in our acts of sin, but also in our whole nature and being (Jer 17:1, 9; Rom 3:9-18).

C. Only a perfect atonement can end our fear of judgment. The design of Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice was to deliver us from the bondage of fear, and to replace the fear with a spirit of adoption (Rom 8:15ff). Friendship with God (reconciliation) marks the end of life under fear of condemnation (Heb 2:14, 15). (By “propitiatory” we mean that the sacrifice of Christ quenched God’s wrath for all who would ever believe.)

D. Only when fear is cast out can we be perfected in love (progressively sanctified) (1 John 4:18). Our relationship with God begins when our guilt is cleared by God Almighty (Rom 4:7-8).

II. The power of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:56).

A. Central to the human dilemma is the fact that sin is charged to our account by means of God’s Law (Rom. 5:13). When we transgress the Law of God, iniquity is imputed to us. The Law declares death’s legal power over us as the just penalty for sin (Ez. 18:4; 1 Cor. 15:56).

B. The Law holds the whole human race in custody as capital offenders awaiting judgment (Gal. 3:22; Rom 11:32).

C. Sinners universally resist God’s verdict concerning their sin. Apart from God’s Spirit, men are not willing to condemn themselves, and they refuse to pronounce themselves deserving of eternal damnation. Repentance does not take place until the sinner says the same thing about his sin as God says about it.

D. Only by the Spirit’s convicting work will men be brought to see their ill desert before God (Jn 16:8-11). The Spirit ‘sets up court’ in the conscience of a man in order to establish the verdict called for by God’s Law. The cross is a great stumbling block to the proud intellect of man because the cross supports the verdict of God’s Law: “Sin deserves death and eternal separation from God.” One divine said it this way, “The cross is a monument to the human race that man deserves to die” (Gardiner Spring).

E. The legal condemnation of God’s Law hangs over a person like a huge sword ready to drop, pierce, and cleave. In our glorious gospel, the Son of God placed Himself between us and the “sword” of God’s wrath. In the substitutionary death of Christ for believing sinners, God’s wrath falls upon the Son of God in His death by crucifixion (Is 53:6).

III. The Law was the ‘ministry of condemnation and death’ (2 Cor 3:7-9).

A. The Levitical law served the purpose of raising the consciousness of personal sin to a height previously unknown in human history. The entire Judaic system continually imbued the worshipper with the awareness of his sin (Heb 9:9, 10; 10:1-3).

B. Sinful human nature staggered under the Law’s crushing demands. Instead of being able to control a person morally, the Law strangles, exasperates, and suffocates the sinner (Acts 15:10). The Law’s demands are absolute, but the Law grants no power or inclination to the sinner that enables obedience (Gal 2:15-16; Rom 3:19-20).

C. The Law came with a curse upon those who could not fulfill it (Gal. 3:10-13; James 2:10). It was meant to be the great revealer of man’s sinful condition (Rom. 3:20). Therefore, the Law is NOT a ‘ladder’ to climb to heaven; it is a ‘mirror’ to show us our sin and our desperate need of Christ and His provision for sinners (Rom 3:19-20).

Is it any wonder that the Apostle Paul describes the Law in the book of Galatians with a series of negative metaphors? In that epistle, the Law is pictured as a jailer, a condemner, and an executioner. This is the ‘ministry of condemnation’, and it is intended to urge the sinner to flee to Christ, the “City of Refuge.” Thus, the Law serves as the great avenger of God’s righteousness and holiness.

The Law demands justice against those who have dishonored God by trampling upon His commandments. The one positive metaphor for the Law in Galatians is the word, “tutor.” The Law has become our “tutor” to lead us to Christ. Therefore, the Law has a tutorial function with only one lesson to teach the lost sinner: by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in God’s sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20).

IV. The Law is not of faith; for the law says ‘do this and live’ (Gal 3:12).

A. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7), the spirit of the Law was driven home by Jesus’ preaching. Love for God and neighbor are not just externals, the demands of the law for perfect love to God and neighbor extend to what a man thinks, loves, speaks and longingly looks at!

B. Luther noted that the Sermon on the Mount exasperates the sinner and is therefore preparatory for belief in the gospel. Not only, does the Law exasperate, it may also exacerbate the sinner’s problem (Rom. 5:20). (Def. of exacerbate – increase severity of or bitterness of. Drive 55! It made people want to drive 65+ mph.) Mankind has no idea of the strength of the ‘river’ of his depravity. Not until he puts his feet on the bottom and tries to walk upstream against the current does he have any idea of his bondage to sin. Note: The Sermon on the Mount is not only preparatory for salvation, it also describes the life of the obedient believer.

C. The sinner must learn that the law way is closed as a way of obtaining right standing with God (Rom. 3:20; 10:1-4; 4:4-16). The present evangelical function of the Law is that of a tutor to lead a person to Christ as the only Way of right standing before God (Gal. 3:24, 25).

D. Though the Law is holy, righteous, and good (Rom. 7:12); the Law only brings death, wrath and condemnation because of the weakness of human flesh (Rom. 8:3-8).

V. The unbeliever’s response to God’s demand for justice and righteousness is enmity and fear (Rom 5:10; Eph 2:15, 16).

A. Unrepentant man has no sentiment for God’s glory. The natural man is an enemy of the purpose of God (2 Cor 10:5; Rom 1:18-23); and an enemy of the knowledge of God (Rom. 5:10; Phil. 3:18-19).

B. The N.T. Greek word for enemy (echthros), is closely related to the Greek word for enmity, (echthra). Paul asserts that the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God (Rom. 8:7).

C. The condemned soul is enslaved to sin and alienated from God and he or she cannot love God (Titus 3:3 ff). The good news of the gospel is that the solution to man’s problem is entirely from the outside of man. Man is not even part of the solution! God has acted unilaterally and alone to solve man’s dilemma.

D. Salvation by grace through faith removes our enmity toward God. His holiness is now beautiful to us. One believing “look” at Christ strikes enmity from the heart forever (John 3:14-18). The cross not only makes us acceptable to God, it also makes God’s holiness desirable to us (Ps 27:4). Discussion: Why is it true that a person can’t love God until he knows for sure he has been forgiven?

VI. The natural man’s condition is akin to being stuck in a vice.

A. People attempt to meet their needs by sinning; then their consciences justly accuse them for doing so. With a defiled conscience comes guilt, and fear of punishment (Prov 13:14).

B. The obligation to obey God remains in full force; but the inclination to obey God was decimated by the fall of Adam. This fallen condition places man in a crushing vice so to speak. Desires, needs and wants dictate one direction (the mind is set on the flesh Rom 8:6-8); at the same time, the Law of God demands that a man be righteous or face death and separation from God (Rom 6:23).

C. What the law says he should be and what his desires dictate form the two arms of the vice clamped upon him. As he seeks to solve his needs and problems by sin, the arms of the vice squeeze harder, producing more guilt, and fear of punishment. Wrath is stored up for the day of wrath (Rom 2:5).

1. Is it any wonder that sin makes cowards of us all (Heb. 2:14-15; 1 Jn 4:18)? Like Adam, we do not deal with our sin courageously. The principle of guilt before God’s Law seeks to dominate our lives through fear of punishment.
2. We tend to be cowed, defiant, self-justifying, and self-protective. In our flesh, we will run anywhere but to the atonement God has provided in His Son. We desperately need Christ’s work in order to be free of guilt’s captivity (Heb 7:25; 9:14).
3. Like Adam, all our fleshly strategies employed to avoid judgment utterly fail. Whether it is denial, appeasement, rationalizing or defiance, the efforts we make to escape the painful truth about ourselves fall short of the heroism God calls us to practice (Prov 28:13).

VII. The flesh has strategies to avoid judgment.

As you begin to study this section, keep in mind that our human nature will do practically anything to escape exposure to judgment. Jesus stresses this truth in John 3:19-21 where He indicates that, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed.” Exposure to judgment is what we fight against. The reader is encouraged to read the ‘strategies to avoid judgment’ listed below in a soul-searching way. Knowing how we attempt to deflect judgment will be of assistance as we turn away from these fleshly strategies and trust Christ and the gospel more fully.

A. Adam’s flight from God in Eden set the pattern for the entire human race: “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself” (Gen 3:10). The effort to ward off judgment is expressed in the form of strategies that fall under three heads:

B. The first strategy involves the effort to escape condemnation by flight. This constitutes an attempt to “turn off” the conscience by a denial of judgment. We can recall the attempts of a number of biblical characters who used this method, or fleshly strategy: Pilate in Matthew 27:24; Nabal in 1 Samuel 25:36-38; or Felix in Acts 24:25.

C. A second strategy that is used to ward off the threat of judgment is open resistance. This involves an attempt to take on the judgment “head on” with a defense or, even with defiance or hostility. Biblical figures who employed open resistance or were defiant in the face of judgment were: Pharoah in Exodus 5:2; Job in Jb 23:1-7; Zedekiah in Jeremiah 36:23-25; the Jewish refugees under Jeremiah in Jeremiah 44:15-18; Peter’s cursing in his thrice denial of Jesus in Matthew 26:69-75.

D. A third strategy used to ward off judgment is appeasement. Of the three, this strategy is dealt with in the greatest detail in Scripture. Saul of Tarsus sought to win God’s favor by Law keeping. Saul sought to obligate God and win His friendship by successfully adhering to the law (Phil 3:4-6; Gal 1:14).

The appeasement strategy recognizes the superior force of the judgment that is faced. It is aware of personal vulnerability. “This strategy attempts to negotiate for peace with the hostile powers of condemnation, hoping for the best” (Zahl, Who Will Deliver Us? p. 22). Appeasement ultimately fails to deliver from the threat of judgment.

Apart from the transforming grace of God, everyone lives by one or more of the judgment evasion strategies listed above. And, it doesn’t take much imagination to see how these fleshly strategies take a toll upon our most intimate relationships. Our strategies of denial, defiance, or appeasement will tend to short circuit the intimacy and trust called for in close relationships among true believers. This is why in our Christian marriages we so desperately need the gospel applied daily.

VIII. Nothing can bring rest to the conscience of man but that justice which satisfies

God (2 Cor 5:21).

A. Every strategy employed by man to elude judgment will ultimately fail. Every false hiding place will someday be revealed as a “refuge of lies,” (Is. 28:17). Because men do not know God, they take no account now of the fact that they daily “bribe” their conscience (Jn 15:21; 16:3).

B. The fact that man is made in the moral image of God means that man’s conscience can never be eradicated. All efforts to do so will only produce greater eternal anguish. The activities of the conscience are a constant reminder of the great judgment to come (Rom 2:1-10, 16).

C. Though men experience temporary “success” in quieting their consciences, a day is coming when the conscience will take its eternal revenge. On that day, the conscience will accept no bribes, it will demand strict justice. It will agree with God’s law verdict that man’s sin deserves eternal wrath. Then the verdict of conscience and the verdict of God’s justice will ignite in a conflagration of wrath that will never cease. The conscience will rise to its full stature as the moral image of God and it will take its eternal revenge (Rom 2:5-9; 16). This is why repentance is crucial. We must not remain in the strategies which we employ to defend against judgment. We must seek a genuine deep conviction of our sin. “Come to the light” so that our sinful deeds may be exposed and forgiven by the blood of Christ.

D. Against this dark fact of God’s coming comprehensive judgment, the atonement of Jesus Christ has a significance and wealth of grace beyond description. In the atonement, the believing sinner beholds Christ, the suffering God-man, bleeding and dying in his place. This is NOT to arouse sympathy—this is the satisfaction of objective justice on behalf of the believing sinner. The law of God and the conscience of man will accept nothing less than divine justice (Rom 3:24-26).

E. When the sinner casts a believing “look” at Christ, for the first time in his life his conscience is at peace and rest. He sees that justice has been served concerning his sin. With his sin forgiven, his formerly troubled conscience becomes like the placid surface of a lake—now he begins the blessed work of reflecting the character of his Creator, and beholding God’s glory (2 Cor 3:17-18).

1. There is no greater blessing than to have the court of heaven and the court of conscience be in full agreement concerning the sinner’s acquittal—all because of the sacrifice of Christ. The Christian must labor to have the verdict of heaven (in his justification) as the “loudest voice” in his conscience (Heb 4:1, 11, 16). We must continually educate our consciences by the gospel. We must learn the habit of taking Christ for our righteousness; for right-standing before God is only found in Jesus Christ.

2. God be praised that in justification, the Lord of glory writes His verdict of “righteous” upon the conscience of the sinner who casts himself upon Christ (Acts 24:15-16).
3. Only by a steady diet of the gospel and by ongoing repentance of sin will we overcome the tyranny of fear and no longer find liberty in Christ to be elusive (Gal 5:1). We need to take Christ as our eligibility for God’s love and favor. Only then will we consent to be loved by Him and find delight in His perfect acceptance of us in Christ (Rom 5:1-2, 5ff.).

CONCLUSION:

Hopefully we are gaining insight into the reality that the dynamics of grace constitute so much more than a series of principles to improve our Christian walk. Grace dynamics are God’s appointed means to grow in our knowledge of the Lord. As we live upon Christ and the gospel we are having communion with the Lord and we are learning more of who God is toward us in Christ.

We have seen in this lesson that in order to deal decisively with our fear of judgment, we must know what God has done in Christ to end that fear. Thus, the only way we will come out of hiding and desist from our judgment-evading strategies, is to begin living by the gospel as our source of safety and security. In the next lesson we will explore why the grace of God in the gospel is designed to make us heroic in dealing with personal sin.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 4

GRACE MAKES HEROES OF US ALL

We would define a ‘hero’ as someone who goes against his natural instincts of self-preservation in order to protect those around him. A hero places himself in great peril in the interest of others. The greater the risk of danger encountered in helping others; the greater we esteem that individual a hero. By that definition, Jesus Christ is by far the greatest hero in history. He faced ultimate peril, perishing on a cruel cross under divine wrath. He endured the loss of all personal wellbeing in order to accomplish our redemption. He was willing to be a victim for the sake of the world. He could have called 10,000 angels amidst His passion, but He went silent to the His death like a sheep to the slaughter.

It is Christ’s death on our behalf that makes us heroic in our dealing with personal sin. Christ has taken the sting out of death for all who believe. And we know what that sting was—it was the power of God’s law to justly condemn us for our sin (1Cor 15:56-58). As we saw in our last lesson, sin has made us cowards. We, like Adam, hide, blame and deny—we seek to escape the seriousness of our sin. Our natural instincts at self-preservation include a carnal desire to run from the light lest we should have our sinful deeds exposed. As we will see in this lesson, the grace of God purchased by Christ has become the source of our courage to deal with personal sin.

Heroism in facing our sin is firmly anchored in Christ’s work as Substitute. In bearing our penalty, dying in our place, the Lamb of God has disarmed the power of the Law to condemn us. The problem is that our natural instincts to flee judgment are still stubbornly in place. Only a steady diet of the gospel can bring us out of hiding and into the fellowship of the redeeming love of God. This of course involves ongoing faith in the gospel which is the Word of His grace to us (Acts 20:32).

Puritan Thomas Hooker’s comments are most appropriate on the necessity of faith joined to its object:

For, thou must NOT first have faith, and then go to the [gospel] promise, but first go to the promise for the power of that faith. From the promise thou must receive the power to believe. To expect faith without a promise, is as if a man should expect a crop of corn without seed; for the promise is the immortal seed of God’s Word, whereby the Spirit breeds this faith in the hearts of all that are His (Thomas Hooker, The Poor Doubting Christian Drawn to Christ, p. 113).

This same Puritan divine is very pastoral as he deals with the truth that we must come empty to God— we are unable to make ourselves ‘fit’ for God’s promise:

The Lord is offering Christ’s mercy and salvation without our cost, and saying, come, take it without money; and yet we will run up and down to borrow money from our prayers and other duties also, and from our prayer against corruption. If we go this way to work, we may quickly lose our labor, and ourselves. Many a poor soul not remembering this is kept from coming to the promise. For, O! saith one, “If I were able to master my sins and distempers as such a one can do, then I might bring money. But art thou content to have Christ free of cost; so as He may have thee, and rule in thee, and supply what is wanting to thee, and open thy sores, and heal thy corruptions (Ibid., p. 115)?

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

I. Only a perfect atonement would end our guilt and fear of judgment.

A. The natural man seeks to work his way out of condemnation by religious effort, by moral exertion, and by self-reformation. The sense of justice planted in man’s conscience demands some form of atonement to “offset” the punishment man deserves.

B. The management of human guilt by religion is ultimately self-centered, not God-centered. All false religion does not have the knowledge and glory of God as its goal; it never rises above human attempts to protect self from God (Bruce Demarest, The Cross and Salvation, p. 215). Natural men devise their own means of atonement. Unregenerate men falsely assume that a zeal for righteousness accompanied by sincerity cannot help but find favor with God (Rom 10:1-4). (Religious zeal is really an attempt to obligate God.) In our evangelism we are always running up against this natural religious instinct in sinners that seeks to offset condemnation by coming up with some personal form of atonement. Theologians refer to this man-made religion as ‘will worship’. In other words, men decide for themselves how they will worship God. The gospel alone overturns will worship. For the gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness (Rom 1:16-17); and the gospel is the revelation of God’s glory in the face of Christ (2Cor 4:4-6).

We could summarize God’s self-revelation in Christ and redemption by saying that God has made Himself known by how He deals with sin. This work of atonement is central to His self-revelation. There is but one true God, immortal, invisible, all-wise Creator. And, He has made Himself known by how He forgives sins. Every false religious expression in the world today is willfully ignorant of God revealed in the redemptive work of Christ.

Now this has everything to do with our profession of faith as Christians. God has made Himself known by how He deals with sin. Therefore, our profession of faith (in order to be biblical) means that we must deal with our sin the way God deals with sin, or we do not know God. It is just that simple—gospel faith makes us heroic in dealing with our sin. We worship the atoning and the ‘atoned for’ God of the universe.

1. BUT, the problem with atonement is that everything depends upon the value of the sacrifice as measured by the Judge (and not by what we think may cancel out our guilt). Scripture regards all efforts at winning God’s favor through the accumulation of merit to be dead works (Heb 9:14).
2. If the sacrifice is insufficient and not 100% successful in the eyes of God the Judge, then man’s guilt, fear, and condemnation remain in place (Rom 10:1-4). Everything depends upon God’s determination of the value of the sacrifice.

3. Atonement is called for when the first party in the transaction is in a position of actual guilt in regard to the JUDGE. Guilt has estranged and alienated the two parties. The power of atonement is its ability to remove guilt from the situation. (In the gospel we preach the reconciling power of the propitiation accomplished at the cross—Romans 3:23-26.)

C. God has publicly displayed His own Son as the perfect atonement (Rom 3:25, 26). God has endorsed the infinite value of His Son’s death. “He [Christ] was raised for our justification,” (Rom 4:25). This means that the resurrection is a powerful testament to the fact that God has accepted Christ’s atoning work on behalf of believing sinners.

The judgment due us because of our sins has been assumed by Another—Christ Jesus. Not only are believers freed from judgment, they are reconciled to the Judge! (Rom 5:10). In the gospel, the judge gives His authoritative endorsement of the atonement He has provided (Titus 3:4-7; Heb 6:17-20). (The atonement purchased the pouring out of the Holy Spirit for all who would believe.)

II. The atonement disarms the condemning force of the law and frees from the fear of punishment.

A. The gospel brings incredible news: our actual legal guilt and fear of punishment have been responded to decisively, eternally from outside ourselves (Eph 2:1-10).

B. God has intervened in our situation by sending His Son in human flesh in order that the full force of judgment might fall on Him (2 Cor 5:21). The whole oppression of judgment has descended upon the Son. For believers, this spells the end of the Law as a power to deal out death (Gal. 2:19-21).

C. In judging Jesus Christ to death in our place, the Law has done its worst. It has prosecuted its standard of obedience to the furthest possible limit—death to the lawbreaker in ultimate condemnation (Gal 3:10-13; Rom 10:4).

1. By disarming the law, the atonement frees from the fear of judgment. Gospel atonement bursts in upon the fear of judgment. Remember, the Law has not only judged what I do, but also what I am!
2. Our conscience bears witness against us. There is evidence of deliberate sins, conscious moral failures, compulsive patterns of lust and passion. At times, the believer loathes living in his body of flesh, (Rom 7:24-25).
3. Because of Christ’s perfect atonement, the Law is now powerless to condemn me before God’s bar of justice (Col 2:13, 14; Eph 2:14-16). The law cannot see me apart from Christ. Because of justification, I am morally and legally one with Him in the eyes of the Law (Col 3:3-4; Phil 3:9). (By union with Christ all the benefits of Christ’s work that He has earned for us are ours.)

III. Grace makes heroes of believers (courageous in dealing with indwelling sin).

A. Adam’s hiding revealed the need to be hidden from God’s wrath. Adam’s blaming revealed that sin is imputed to a person’s account and punished. Adam’s fear revealed that God’s condemning justice involves misery, exposure, shame, and suffering.

1. It was the fear of punishment and condemnation that made cowards of us all. We could not deal with sin courageously. Fear of punishment and shameful exposure dominated us and held us in a vice grip of guilt.
2. We sought to cope with that fear by hiding, denial, flight, defiance, appeasement, and other carnal forms of self-protection. In our cowardice, we could not affirm God’s moral government over us; we could not exalt His holiness and justice. We preferred hiding and self-protection over confessing and forsaking our sin.

B. Only Christ’s atonement could free us from guilt’s captivity. The liberating design of Christ’s sacrifice was to deliver us from the bondage of fear, casting it out, that we might be perfected in love (1 Jn. 4:18). To be ‘perfected in love’ means that being set free for fellowship with God and one another is the priority of grace (1 Jn 1:3-7).

IV. Justification gives us the legal right to come out of hiding and deal with our sin courageously.

A. Through justification, we move from cowardice to heroism. Through justification the very cause of our cowardice has been dug up by the roots. It is no longer necessary to turn to fleshly mechanisms in order to deflect judgment. Our bondage to fear is broken by the atonement (Heb. 2:14, 15; 1 Cor. 15:55-57). (The new covenant in all of its provisions answers every aspect of our fear.)

B. A mighty atonement is working in our favor. Through justification in Christ, we come out of hiding and deal with sin courageously in repentance and confession.

We need to be heroic in this matter; for consider what we are up against in our battle with sin. Transgression is the enemy of our soul; the enemy of God’s glory and honor. In spite of this awful truth our natural religious instincts push us in the direction of self-justification (Luke 16:15). Self-justification is a symptom of our cowardice. Self-justification is like placing a band aid on the entry wound from a 45 caliber bullet.

Only God can justify a person. And it is to His justifying grace that we appeal when we fail Him. As those who still carry a lower nature, we must learn to live dependently upon the gospel.

C. Because the believer sins every day, it is the believer’s responsibility to daily reckon Christ’s work on his behalf. Our natural inclination is to return to fleshly strategies of managing guilt, fear, and failure. But we must learn to balance the “account” of our conscience by the gospel. The atonement bids us to come out of hiding, and walk in the light of God’s truth in fellowship with Him (1 Jn 1:6-10).

D. Heroism is manifested when we believe the message of Christ’s work for us. Clothed in Christ’s righteousness, we may admit our sin without fear. The courage and confidence flows from the fact that honesty about indwelling sin cannot jeopardize my position in Christ (Rom. 8:1).

E. All of the pains taken to avoid the truth about ourselves utterly fail. Whether it is denial, rationalizing, blame, or defiance; all carnal methods of self-defense fall short of the heroism God wants us to practice (1 Jn.1:6-10). Gospel reasoning, (preaching the Gospel to ourselves), is the key to the victory (Gal. 2:20).

When we met God savingly for the first time in our lives, we consented by faith to deal with our sin His way. After a lifetime of self-justification we came out of hiding and fell at the feet of Christ. This is the gospel order—we come to God by coming to Christ, and we come to Christ not as self-justifiers, but as transgressors who have seen their sin as ruinous.

God’s way of dealing with sin is heroic and courageous. It is the very opposite of engaging in hiding and in conscience-bribing activities such as escape, flight, denial, defiance and appeasement. Christ has saved us from the false religion of self-protection from God.

V. Cowardice winds up hurting us and our relationships. Only Christ can protect us from fear of judgment (carnal self-protective strategies are ineffective).

A. When we choose defensiveness, hiding, appeasement, and blaming, it hurts those closest to us. Carnal methods of managing a sense of condemnation damage our relationships with others. When self is preoccupied with deflecting judgment, and with winning approval, we cease to demonstrate love toward the other person.

1. Every carnal attempt to escape judgment is a flight from realism and heroism. Cowardice moves us to retreat into blame, self-justification, hiding, and pretending. Our attempts to cover guilt end up hurting those around us.
2. The Scriptural formula for success is “confess and forsake the sin,” do not “cover it” (Prov 28:13; Ps 32:3, 5). Cowardice short-circuits confession of sin as well as conflict resolution which often involves needed admonishment (Ps. 141:5; Prov. 9:8; 13:1; 17:10).

B. Those who are justified by Christ can admit when they are wrong. There is no other way to uphold a spirit of unity and maintain the bond of peace. Meekness, deference, preferring one another, and receptivity to admonishment must be practiced in a fellowship of forgiveness (Eph. 4:1-3, 32; Phil 2:1-5; Col. 3:12-13 ff.).

The sinner justified by grace can freely admit when he fails others. He does not need to retreat into denial, escape, or defensiveness. Heroism through the gospel means that we can afford to hear even the worst news about ourselves. (Many Christian couples have found the following skill exercised in forgiveness to be exceedingly helpful in maintaining closeness to one another: Confront in love, forgive freely, reaffirm love, move on together in the cause of Christ.)

VI. An attitude of contrition (born of heroism) is central if we to walk closely with God (Is 66:1, 2; 57:15).

A. Contrition is a readiness to confess and repent of sin. All sin is against God (Ps 51:4). Contrition acknowledges that our sin is a slur upon God’s character. Those who are contrite are humbled over their sin and broken in spirit. The contrite believer is always ready to say, “God is incredibly right and I am terribly wrong.” This attitude involves heroism because all of our natural religious instincts move us away from heroism toward strategies of self-protection.

It is only the atonement of Jesus Christ that lets us deal with sin God’s way. In fact this is not a peripheral issue. For the ‘litmus test’ of whether or not we truly believe savingly upon Christ is how we deal with our sin. There is joy when we come out of hiding and receive His forgiveness anew.

When we deal with “unresolved sin” (sin which needs to be confessed and repented of), we will enjoy a sense of God’s joy, favor and presence. Joyful “integration” takes place when the conscience is clear and our fellowship with God is restored.

B. We desperately need heroism at this point because the pull of our self-justifying natures is so strong. Self-shielding is an effort to hide our deformities from God, from others, and from ourselves, lest they should invite judgment. Unresolved sin sits there like a malignancy spinning off blame, shame, alienation, guilt, self-recrimination, and depression.

C. Christians need to learn to run to the atonement. The Holy Spirit desires to bring us back to gospel reasoning. He wants to convince us of the wisdom of keeping short accounts with God (Acts 24:15-16). Gospel thinking appropriates the unlimited provision for forgiveness in the New Covenant (Heb. 8:12).

1. When we are occupied with rationalizing and concealing our sin, we won’t be able to make fellowship to the glory of God our priority. Ongoing trust in God involves the daily practice of gospel reasoning that means dealing with our sin and guilt by means of the atonement of Christ instead of by fleshly strategies.

2. God desires that by the word of grace applied, you might demonstrate a depth of personal repentance for sin known as contrition. Joy follows on the heels of contrition. It is the contrite who enjoy God the most. Peace floods the heart when we come out of hiding into the presence of God (Jn 3:21).

VII. The call to Christian heroism is a call to live a sin-judged life.

A. All of our “prickly” defense mechanisms look as if we carry our own value and worth. Our defenses make us appear as if our value would be decimated if we had to admit we were wrong (See 2 Tim. 3:3; Prov. 27:6; Lev. 19:16-18).

B. The justified man is equipped for radical honesty . He admits his sin in the interest of God’s glory, in the interest of the fellowship, and in the interest of Christian unity, and the bond of peace. Because of Christ’s atonement, we can afford to be wrong (James 5:16).

C. The justified man trusts in an alien righteousness—outside of himself. By his heroism, he puts to the test the incredible value of Christ’s righteousness imputed.

D. The sin-judged life is one of ongoing biblical self-confrontation. Believers must move into heroism by means of the Gospel and make it their habit to “run to the atonement” the moment their conscience agitates. The atonement of Jesus Christ is where all of our resources for heroism and realism are found. Appropriation is our blessed task, let us labor to enter “His rest” (Heb 4:11). When we relinquish our fleshly places of refuge, confessing our sins we walk in the light (1 Jn 1:7).

How we deal with our sin is a crucial mark of whether or not we truly know God. What does God require of us? Namely that we “meet with Him” at the altar of Christ crucified and risen (Heb 13:10). We bring our sins there and receive Christ’s imputed righteousness as a gift of God’s infinite grace. The result is the sweetness of fellowship with God.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 5

SANCTIFICATION IN CHRIST

Adapted from the book, Possessed by God, by David Peterson (from pp. 1-50)

I. The Biblical Starting Point

A. Sanctify (Greek, hagiasmos) – separation unto God (1 Cor 1:30).

Sanctification is the course of life befitting those separated unto God (1 Thess 4:3, 4, 7). The relationship with God into which men enter by faith in Christ (Acts 26:18). The sole title to sanctification is the death of Christ (Eph 5:26, 27) (The Expanded Vine’s Theological Dictionary, p. 989). “In the N.T. [sanctification] primarily refers to God’s way of taking possession of us in Christ, setting us apart to belong to Him and to fulfill His purpose for us. Sanctification certainly has present and ongoing effects, but when the verb ‘to sanctify’ and the noun ‘sanctification’ are used, the emphasis is regularly on the saving work of Christ applied to believers through the ministry of the Holy Spirit” (David Peterson, Possessed by God, p. 27).

B. Sanctification cannot be reduced to any one of the following: a process, a standard of righteousness, or, the attainment of holiness.

In the N.T. sanctification is seen as BOTH a one-time event and a process. God calls us to live as those possessed by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:11, 19, 20). The believer’s confidence that he is possessed by God conditions all of his motives for obedience. See 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 and Romans 12:1-2.

The believer lives as God’s possession with the confidence that he is God’s child. He is no longer living in fear, but has a new desire to please his Heavenly Father (1 Jn 3:1; Rom 8:15; 2 Cor 5:9). The believer is controlled by Christ’s love and no longer lives for self (2 Cor 5:14).

C. Holiness is the foremost description of God’s character (Hab 1:12; 3:3; Ex 15:11).

A wonderful “paradox” concerning our holy God is that He judges all that is not holy, yet He provides a way of sanctification and cleansing for sinners. Read Isaiah 6:1-7. Isaiah was devastated by the vision of God’s holiness; but God took the initiative in cleansing him. The sight of God’s holiness and the ruinous nature of Isaiah’s sin was important preparation for Isaiah to serve the Lord effectively.

In Evangelicalism today there is a tendency to avoid the trauma of facing God’s holiness and our personal sin. We ought to remember that the sight of God’s holy character produced a withering awareness of personal sin in Isaiah. This traumatic experience awakened Isaiah to his need of forgiving grace, and it produced a deep sense of gratitude for divine cleansing. Isaiah’s eager response to God’s invitation to serve was linked to Isaiah having seen the holiness of the Lord.

D. God is incomparable in holiness, majesty, splendor, and purity. He is the only source of holiness in His people.

God calls upon men to acknowledge Him as the Holy One (Ps 99; 100; Is 43:10-15ff). He manifests His holiness in Israel for the blessing of the nations, and He “sanctifies” (sets apart) His own name when He manifests His holiness. Read Ezekiel 36:20-27ff. Notice what God says His motive is here for giving these people a new heart. It is His regard for His holy Name. This passage

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

certainly corrects the most common misconceptions of God—that He exists primarily for the welfare of mankind.

God’s motive for giving people a new heart is inseparable from His regard for His holy Name. God changes men’s hearts for His own Name’s sake. God associates the sanctification of His Name (the setting apart of His Name) with the setting apart of a people unto Himself for His own possession. Those with a deficient concept of God tend to see Him as “helpful,” while discounting that He always acts in the interest of His own Name and glory—even in the redemption of sinners.

II. Sanctified in Christ

A. God’s holiness is not merely quantitatively greater than ours. His holiness is transcendent, unique, burning in purity; He is described as dwelling in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:15, 16). God is essentially holy (His essential nature is holy). We can only have a holiness that is derivative of His holiness. At the moment of salvation, God set us apart for an eternal relationship with Himself. This setting apart of the believer unto God (sanctification) was once for all by the work of Christ (Heb 10:10, 14).

The believer’s ongoing faith in Christ’s work of sanctifying us has an energizing dynamic effect upon our motives for obedience. The Christian trusts the sufficiency of Christ’s “once for all” sacrifice to keep him in a sanctified condition. (This provides strong motivation to obey as we will see in a moment.) Christ’s work exerts the power necessary to effectively consecrate those who believe. By faith the believer trusts that every redemptive blessing we enjoy has been earned for us by Christ. We have an unchanging standing before God because the Father regards us as in Christ (Eph 1:3-21).

B. Sanctification is both positional and progressive.

Because of the work of Christ, the believer has a position or standing before God that may be described as a “holy status in Christ.” This is positional or definitive sanctification. Ephesians chapter one catalogs these matchless benefits of definitive sanctification, referring to them as, “spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.”

1. The believer is sustained in holiness by the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit—this is progressive sanctification. The Holy Spirit enables the believer to exercise ongoing faith and trust in the finished work of Christ (Gal 2:20, Rom 15:13).
2. Trust in the Person and work of Christ is necessary for us to continually enjoy the blessings of salvation. As we exercise ongoing faith in God’s Word and obedience we are abiding in Christ. See John 14:22-15:11 for our Lord’s description of why abiding in Him is stipulated upon His Word abiding in us.

3. “[Christians] are sustained in holiness by the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit and the trust that He gives in the finished work of Christ. The essential work of the Spirit is to enable ongoing trust in the gospel so that the blessings of the gospel may be continually enjoyed by God’s people (Peterson, p. 24).
4. The spiritual realities of our riches in Christ are perceived by faith. The Spirit of God instills faith in the believer to habitually trust the finished work of Christ. The result is both continual enjoyment of the blessings of the Gospel as well as progress in practical sanctification. Joy and peace are experienced by believing (Rom 15:13). In the Gospel we see the heart of God. Our love and obedience are drawn out to Him as we contemplate His kind intentions toward us in Christ (1 Jn 4:10, 16).

C. Holiness is not simply acquired by human effort—it is the status or condition which God imparts to those He chooses to bring into a special relationship with Himself.

However, it is a status that carries with it certain responsibilities. Knowing God in Christ produces the practical benefits of moral change and transformation. All moral change is related to God’s sanctifying initiative in Christ.

1. Consider how radically different the above is from bare moral exertion, or simply trying to be good. Faith in God’s initial work in sanctifying us (setting us apart to Himself as His possession) is vital to our progress in holiness. In essence, progressive sanctification is the result of maintaining your relationship with God. Sanctification means living as God’s possession.
2. We are sanctified in a relational sense by maintaining our walk with the Lord because our relationship with Him is expressed in a lifestyle that is “God-ward” (we live as those possessed by God, as those set apart by God). Our progressive sanctification is advanced as we maintain fellowship and communion with the Lord. This is described as “walking in the light” in 1 John chapter one).

CHRIST CONTINUES TO SANCTIFY US BY HIS WORD AND

HIS SPIRIT

I. Sanctification comes only by being conformed to God’s Word (John 17:17; Rom 12:1-2).

A. The sources of the believer’s sanctification in John 17 are:

o Christ’s intercession (“I ask on their behalf. . .”—17:9-17)

o Christ’s work on the cross (“And for their sakes I sanctify Myself. . .”—17:19)

o The truth of God’s Word (“Thy Word is truth. . .”—17:17).

When considering the sanctifying power of God’s Word, D. A. Carson notes, “No one can be ‘sanctified’ or set apart for the Lord’s use without learning to think God’s thoughts after Him, without learning to live in conformity to the Word He has graciously given” (D. A. Carson in Peterson, p. 31).

1. Sanctification involves thinking God’s thoughts after Him. We could refer to this reprogramming process by means of God’s truth as the “transformation mandate.” It is a mandate because God requires the believer to be constantly renewed in his thinking. Transformed thinking occurs as we take in the truth of God’s Word and believe and obey it.
2. As we move toward spiritual maturity, our decisions will increasingly be guided by the Word of God (Heb 5:13-4). The spiritual man is the person who sees and discerns all of life through the “biblical grid” of Scripture (1 Cor 2:15). The key to transformed thinking is as follows: Errant thoughts are to be taken captive and submitted to God’s Word and replaced by God’s truth (2 Cor 10:5).

B. The Holy Spirit works through the Word to consecrate us, to sanctify us, and to establish us in the Word.

He brings us to the gospel and He brings about practical expressions of our relationship to God in our lives. Therefore there must be an echo of holiness in our lives. God is holy; those who know Him must share in His holiness.

1. Because we are made for God, it is only possible for us to be made eternally happy by being made holy (Heb 12:10). We are made to find our enjoyment in Him. There can be no enduring happiness without conformity to Christ who is the image of God. God is the source of all truth, light, life, love, and blessing—without holiness, the creature is alienated from God.
2. In the epistle to the Hebrews, the pursuit of holiness is explained as: 1.) Drawing near to God with full faith and a cleansed conscience, and 2.) A genuine acceptance of Christ as Savior and sacrifice for sin, bringing the sinner into fellowship with God (MacArthur Study Bible, p. 1920).

3. “God is holy and those who belong to Him must share in His holiness. . . [In the new covenant, we] share in His holiness in a new way. With the gospel message about Jesus and His work, God imparts His Spirit to us and binds us to Himself in love. That same word [the gospel message] keeps us in holiness and love, enabling us to share in His mission to the world” (Peterson, pp. 32-33).

II. The cross of Christ makes true disciples (2 Cor 5:14-17).

A. By means of the cross, the sovereign, consecrating work of Christ has produced a change in the attitude and behavior of those who believe (2 Cor 5:14-17).

The behavior flowing from those implications means that we are to live as “new creatures” (2 Cor 5:17). We have a new set of values and a new bias against sin. The old way of seeing things is gone.

The tyranny of the self life has been replaced by the constraining love of Christ. We now live for Him. The law of God is written on the heart of the believer, enabling him to know and serve God with selfless dedication (see Peterson, pp. 34-34, 39).

B. The biblical doctrine of sanctification cannot be reduced to mean simply moral progress (Heb 9:9, 14; 10:10).

The person sanctified must be cleansed at the level of the heart and conscience to be able to serve God effectively. This means that the message of the finished work of Christ is applied to the conscience in such a way that there is inner conviction of forgiveness, acceptance, and hope. A life dedicated to service results. According to Hebrews 9:14, if a person is not cleansed at the level of conscience, his attempts at serving God will be nothing more than dead works. Attempts to offset guilt by religious service produce works that are dead. Genuine “gospel faith” not only glories in the work of Christ on Calvary, but also in the work God has done in the heart and conscience of the believer.

III. Our response to cleansing, acceptance, and hope is consecration (we respond to God’s work by presenting ourselves back to Him each day, Rom 6:11-13).

A. We are sanctified for a relationship with God in Christ. Our new status in Christ is expressed in a lifestyle of living separated unto God, as His possession.

According to 1 Corinthians 1:2 and Romans 1:7, sainthood is a gift, not an achievement! ‘Sainthood’ is the status of right-standing in Christ which is graciously given (Rom 3:24). Biblically, a ‘saint’ is a person set apart to God by a work of sovereign grace in Christ.

In the moralistic perfectionistic view of sanctification, progress in sanctification is the result of legal working in which the focus is on the performance of self, rather than upon our holy status in Christ. “Sainthood” is consequently regarded as an achievement rather than a gift bestowed by God’s grace in Christ (Peterson, p. 41).

B. The saving activities of God given to us in Christ are described in 1 Corinthians 1:30 as: righteousness (right-standing with God); sanctification (set apart to God); and redemption (purchased by Christ).

1. In addition, in 1 Corinthians 6:11, Paul says that the Corinthian believers were washed, sanctified and justified. Paul is describing three strands of the same reality in this passage (Peterson, p. 42, 44-45).
2. The Pauline model for sanctification may be described as follows: our holy status in Christ is the basis for holy living (1 Cor 1:1; 1:30; 6:11; Eph 2:21, 22; 2 Cor 6:16-18).

C. Christ is the source of everything we obtain. The Holy Spirit communicates these blessings and benefits to us.

The Holy Spirit produces the Christian life in us making believers aware that they have been liberated from guilt and its consequences and control. The Holy Spirit has set apart believers as a holy people, destined to love and please God forever. Therefore, sanctification is about being possessed by God and expressing that distinctive relationship by the way we live (1 Cor 12:1-11; Gal 5:16-26).

IV. Justification and sanctification must stay joined in the believer’s experience.

A. Once sanctification is separated from faith and justification, certain problems are sure to arise. Church history has shown that when the two are separated, errors tend to emerge. Some of the errors that arise are: perfectionism, pietism, moralism, and the “need” for a second work of grace. Once justification is shoved to the periphery (that is devalued) a two-tiered approach to the Christian life sometimes known as the “Higher Life” tends to manifest itself. When this error is present, the Body of Christ tends to become divided into those who are achieving a standard of spirituality, and those who are not.

The moment justification is viewed solely as the initial stage of salvation it moves the believer off of the doctrinal foundation of living unto God in Christ. All real progress in sanctification is securely anchored to justification; therefore progress in sanctification is faith-based and faith-driven, and gospel-centered.

B. In Christ, the believer is regarded as righteous, pure, and washed.

But, in the believer’s experience, there is little to suggest that these blessings could be true in himself (the believer is painfully aware of his lack of Christ-like-ness). Ongoing faith in the justifying grace of God reminds us daily that these blessings (righteous, pure, and washed) are solely ours by our union with Christ.

1. All Christ’s work was vicarious in our nature—from His birth to His ascension to heaven, all that Christ did was as a substitute for His people. The benefits of Christ’s work become the believer’s possession when the Holy Spirit places the believer into union with Christ. When the believer looks at himself, he is quite aware of weakness and indwelling sin. When the believer looks to Christ by faith, he is able to perceive his completeness in Christ by virtue of his union with Him (Col 2:10).
2. According to Romans chapter 6, our union with Christ must be aggressively believed, for trusting in our co-crucifixion with Christ is the key to putting sin to death. The result of reckoning ourselves crucified and risen with Christ (as commanded in Romans 6:5-13) is that the rule of sin is resisted and overcome. The believer is able to live as one alive to God—that is to live as His possession. As a consequence of this daily reckoning, the presentation of oneself to God becomes a habit and lifestyle.

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom 6:11-13).

3. In summary we would affirm that Christ died to devote the Church to Himself in an exclusive and permanent relationship. By faith in the gospel we continue to live out our union with Christ. Living out our union with Christ is the very heart of sanctification.

Life by union with Christ is highly relational, in other words, maintaining our relationship with the Lord is maintaining the relationship given to us at the moment of definitive sanctification (when God initially set us apart to Himself at salvation). Ongoing faith in the gospel lets us live upon Christ and His grace as unfolded in the word of His grace. This faith walk described above keeps justification and sanctification joined as it drives our progressive sanctification.

SANCTIFICATION BY THE WORD AND THE SPIRIT

Adapted from the book, Possessed by God, by David Peterson (pp. 51-68)

When we think of habits of godliness which advance our sanctification, perhaps the first thing to come to mind is: “I have got to pray more, memorize more of the Word, and have more regular devotions.” All those spiritual disciplines are commended in God’s Word, but central to a lifestyle of godliness is to be satisfied in God. That satisfaction is a byproduct of meditating on the Word, particularly upon the “Word of His Grace.” The ‘Word of His grace’ is Paul’s term for the full-orbed gospel message as applied to all of life (Acts 20:24, 32). By “full-orbed” gospel message we mean that Paul normally begins his epistles with the glorious blessings the believer has in Christ: sonship; union with Christ; justification; throne rights; etc.

When we feed on the gospel as a life habit, we are filled with God as a result and we experience increasing satisfaction in God. Out of this joy in the Lord comes a desire to care for our relationship with the Lord out of delight rather than merely out of duty. In so doing, we learn to live upon Christ as our source of life—He is all we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3). Thus, to preach the gospel to ourselves is to keep presenting to the eye of faith that Christ is our source of: sonship; status; favor; acceptance; adoption; inheritance; power; truth; fellowship; love; completeness; wisdom from God; righteousness; and sanctification.

Our natural bent is contrary to grace—it is to reason that we are the sum total of our achievements and that we carry our own worth by means of our performance. This is why the gospel is radically counter-intuitive—our natural propensity is to lean upon an arm of flesh (Jer 17:5). Thinking the ‘grace way’ does not come natural to us. We have to learn to consent to let Another, Christ, work on our behalf—reckoning that He has earned every blessing we enjoy.

We must train our minds to take in God’s grace by preaching the glorious gospel to ourselves. Only by feeding on the gospel can we reckon, as a habit, that our acceptance and fellowship with God are grounded upon who Christ is and what He has done—not upon our performance. When we preach the gospel to ourselves we are affirming the following, “Christ is my ‘eligibility’ for God’s endless love and favor.” This is the central habit for godliness because everything in the Christian life comes back to your affections. The centrality of Christ and the truth are expressed in what you love supremely and what you trust most.

I. We are sanctified by the Word of His Grace.

A. As we feed on the gospel, divine grace becomes part of our reasoning processes. Our affections are drawn to the precious things of God.

Gospel reasoning ‘cuts new grooves’ in our thought life—it is the grace of Christ re-educating the mind, conscience, will, and affections.

As we learn to train our thoughts to travel in these new channels, we gain the sweet optimism that God desires to meet with us for fellowship and intimacy. And we become increasingly aware that God is glorified in giving His people endless installments of mercy, grace and love (Heb 4:15-16).

‘The Word of His grace’ then becomes the subject of our meditations on Scripture—and not for our comfort alone. For the gospel teaches us about our completeness in Christ (instead of looking for our completeness in created things) thus, the gospel has the power to slay idolatry and to lift us out of self-concern, enabling us to be burdened on behalf of others. It gives us joy in God which overflows into love for others.

B. Preaching the gospel to ourselves is a habit of godliness that is to be learned.

This discipline is not simply entertaining general thoughts of Christ and grace. The discipline of preaching the gospel to ourselves involves specific ways that Christ’s redemptive work answers our need and ruin, and our yearning. When Paul prays for the Ephesian believers, both of his prayers recorded in that epistle have the same theme: believers are to contemplate God’s saving activity toward them in Christ. To preach the gospel to ourselves is to contemplate God’s loving purposes toward us in Christ. Rather than general thoughts about God’s grace, we are to be always about the business of ‘matching’ Christ’s Person, work, and resources with our spiritual poverty, ruin, and need. The benefits of preaching the gospel to ourselves are intensely practical for growth in godliness.

In Acts 20:32 Paul attributes several important benefits to the gospel (“the Word of His grace”). And we need to remember he is addressing those who are already believers. According to the Apostle Paul, ongoing faith in the gospel causes the saints to be built up, established, and strengthened.

C. The message of God’s grace in the gospel is used by God’s Spirit to convey the benefits of Christ’s work to believers.

The Holy Spirit uses the gospel of grace to build up believers in the Church. By means of the message, believers are nurtured (2 Thess 2:16), united (Phil 2:1, 2), and strengthened (Heb 13:9; Col 2:7).

Our blessed task is to keep exercising faith in the gospel. Paul tells us that the gospel will build us up and will give us the inheritance (Acts 20:32). Ongoing faith in the gospel cultivates hope (2 Thess 2:16). And, the gospel of grace is the basis for unity (we are, by means of the gospel, to be of the same mind, the same love, and the same purpose—Philippians 2:1-2). The gospel is for believers—it is vital to their progressive sanctification (Peterson, p. 57).

II. Our sanctification is tied to the renewal of our minds by the Word of God.

A. When the Word of God is taken in and applied to everyday life and relationships, believers are built up and sustained in holiness—their minds are renewed (Eph 4:23; Rom 12:2). Despite constant pressures, the renewal of our minds by the Word of God makes it possible to go on obeying God’s will and to keep presenting ourselves to God for obedience (Rom 12:1-2; 6:13; 2 Thess 3:5).

B. “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 2:13-15.)

This passage is a “theology in miniature.” It covers the entire work of salvation from election to glory. Notice that it is God’s Spirit who initiates and who enables the elect individual to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Thess 1:4-10; 2 Thess 2:13-15).

This passage also contains the actions in the believer which provide confirming evidence of God’s call. Those evidences of salvation in the true believer are: giving of thanks, sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth, standing firm, and holding fast to the doctrines [“traditions”] taught by the Apostles. It is important that we understand that this passage (2 Thess 2:13-15) focuses more on the initial act of sanctification rather than the process of sanctification. Examine the passage again and you will find evidence emphasizing that salvation sets us apart as God’s possession (Peterson, p. 61).

1. Belief in the truth is central to our ongoing sanctification. Ongoing faith in the truth is the

means used by the Spirit to produce moral and behavioral change.

Now, what happens to a believer’s progress in sanctification when he ceases to make belief in the truth a continual habit? The answer is that the believer will cease to live out his union with Christ, his faith will weaken, and his graces will lapse. The Spirit will press the believer to exercise fresh acts of faith and repentance.

2. The habit of belief in the truth is not merely mental assent to the facts of the gospel. The habit of belief in the truth is intensely personal in its application. God’s promises are appropriated by the believer’s faith. This involves a pervasive confidence that God fully intends to fulfill His promises toward us and keep us to the end.
3. When we are renewing our minds upon Scripture we are deepening our reassurance of God’s

loving purposes for us.

God fully intends that we find motivation and direction for obedience by dwelling upon His loving purposes for us. Central to His purposes for us is the holy status He has given us in bringing us to Himself and the holiness of His character (2 Peter 1:1-4ff.). Our response to His loving purposes is to pursue Christian character with complete resolve as outlined by the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 1:5-11. “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love” (2 Pet 1:5-7).

C. Sanctification by faith in the truth is a continual process.

When we make faith in the truth a daily habit, it will have an “enabling” affect upon us that motivates us unto good works (Peterson, p. 62). “Being cleansed from sin and set apart for God’s service, however, brings the obligation to reflect the holiness of God in every aspect our lives” (Peterson, p. 67). The dynamics of grace in action means that we are “living out” our status and calling as God’s holy people.

Our holy status is our new identity God has graciously given to us when we were united to Christ. We live out our ‘holy status’ by regularly renewing our minds by meditating upon the Word of God. This goes beyond merely reading the text of Scripture—it involves making a penetrating application to ourselves from the Word. This will often entail ‘arguing’ with ourselves for the faith-based response of obedience God requires of us.

1. Crucial to our understanding of grace-driven sanctification is that our progress in practical holiness stems from the holy status God has given us by grace. “Sanctification means having a new identity, [and with that identity comes] the obligation to live according to that identity” (Peterson, p. 64). It is easy to allow our new identity in Christ to slip from view. The temptation is to define our relationship with God by how we are doing in our walk (“I avoided this particular sin so I must have God’s favor today”).

2. “The motivation and direction for obedience is the holy status which God has given us by bringing us to Himself and the holiness of His character, revealed through Scripture, but preeminently in His Son” (Ibid).

D. Faith in the truth renews our mind so that we can go on discerning God’s will for us in Christ. The more we believe God’s loving purposes for us, the more we will present ourselves to God for daily obedience despite the many pressures upon us (Peterson, p. 59). A lifestyle of presenting ourselves to God is clearly taught in Romans 6:13; 1 Peter 1:15-18; 2:9, 10; and Titus 2:11-14. In the Titus 2:12-14 passage the believer lives as God’s possession by living sensibly, righteously, and godly; being eager for Christ’s return; and living in purity while being zealous for good works. God has taken possession of us at the moment of salvation. We live as His possession by daily presenting ourselves back to Him for service rather than presenting ourselves to the invitations and solicitations of sin (Rom 6:11-13).

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 6

OUR PURSUIT OF HOLINESS

Adapted from Possessed by God, by David Peterson (pp. 69-92)

I. We are to pursue holiness as a lifestyle.

A. “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable, and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2) provides an excellent summary of the pursuit of holiness as a lifestyle. In these two verses we are able to see the relationship between the accomplished action of God in His sovereign mercy (the indicative) and the command of God (the imperative). The indicative is the grace truth that every true believer is the object of God’s mercies.

B. The imperative concerns the ethical responsibilities that flow from the indicative.

In this text the imperative is the responsibility of the believer to “present his or her body to God,” “and, to not be conformed to this world,” but, “be transformed” by the action of God’s Word. Transformation is by renewal of the mind. The benefits and blessings of obedience found in these verses are summarized in the closing sentence: the obedient child of God will prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Simply put, God’s grace is full and free to believing sinners; but with His grace comes the status that we are sons of God. The obligation to live as His obedient children is the imperative described above.

II. We are to be pre-occupied with the end goal of holiness (the study of what happens at the end is known as ‘eschatology’).

A. The eschatological feature of sanctification is that the end goal of holiness (Christ-likeness at His return) is moving closer to us!

A careful reading of 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 and 1 John 2:28-3:3 reveals that the eschatological feature of sanctification provides certain incentives and motivations for devotion to Christ. The incentives and motives which flow from the eschatological feature of sanctification are as follows:

• A desire to be clothed with our resurrection body (2 Cor 5:2)
• A desire to be fully prepared to live with God (2 Cor 5:5)
• A desire to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8)
• A desire to be pleasing to the Lord (2 Cor 5:9)
• A desire for a favorable judgment (2 Cor 5:9)
• A desire to greet the Lord with shameless confidence (1 Jn 2:28)
• A desire to be made like Christ in purity and glory when He returns (1 Jn 3:2-3)

As you look over the bulleted list above, perhaps you may be thinking, “Yes, I do desire these wonderful promises, but I am not entirely sure that they are mine.” Assurance that these promises

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

indeed belong to you is what the Scriptures describe as ‘hope’ (Rom 8:18-25). The gospel is filled with the message of God’s purposes for His people. Your hope will be deepened as you gain reassurance by feeding your faith upon God’s loving purposes for you. God’s loving purposes for His people are found in the gospel promises.

B. God’s ‘end goal’ for His people and for the creation is not a benevolent ‘wish’—it is the guaranteed future of the church and the universe.

God’s goal is the coming Kingdom of God. The people of God will be like Christ in holiness. God will be everything to everyone in the Kingdom. We will experience unbroken bliss while enjoying true community in a restored paradise. God’s love will be ordering all things (Peter Jensen, At the Heart of the Universe, pp. 32, 36-37). Does this sound too fantastic—too unbelievable? If so, we need to meditate more upon the gospel; for the promise is that the ‘word of His grace’ is able to build us up and give us the inheritance among those who are sanctified (Acts 20:32). Our daily task is to find joy in the gospel, and to identify ourselves as God does—as those having a status in Christ of holiness; favor; right-standing; acceptance; and sonship.

1. What has to happen in our lives for God’s end goal to become our end goal? The answer is to cultivate hope by focusing upon God’s loving purposes for us so that these purposes regularly fill our meditation. True believers are called by God to a life of hope (Eph 4:4).

We are commanded to hope, “fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:13).

2. This hope has a sanctifying effect upon our lives by consolidating our yearnings and centering them in the Lord Himself. For the true believer is described as, “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13).
3. When this hope is yours there is a longing for that end goal of life with the Lord. This hope is the opposite of a vague or general hope of heaven. Biblical hope has a precise and specific content which is intended to stir and satisfy the soul. It is the hope of glory with everything that promised glory entails from freedom from the presence of sin to the final installment of our adoption in Christ (Col 1:27; Rom 8:23).

4. How do you know if you have a lively hope? The answer is that God’s end goal will have become your end goal. Only then will you regard all other goals as lesser goals. And only then will you take the steps necessary to reach that end goal. Our goals and values will be increasingly conformed to the goal which God Himself has—the goal of conformity to Christ (Jensen, pp. 19-21).

C. Living by faith, and as a person “called of God” produces a different quality of life, a different character, and a different value system (Heb 11:13-16; 24-27; 1 Thess 4:3-7; 1 Pet 1:15-16). Let’s consider why living as an individual called by God produces resoluteness in striving toward the goal of Christ-likeness (1 Cor 1:2).

1. First of all, that to which we are called radically conditions how we live. God’s calling on us as believers in Christ defines us, identifies our Master, our purpose, our values, our mission, our priorities, and our ultimate goal. Believers are called to God as their true home and destiny.
2. Secondly, Christ-likeness is the “finish line,” the end goal of our sanctification. God has called us and set us apart as His eternal possession. All these values are antithetical to the world’s temporal values. “According to Hebrews 11, faith gives us a different value system, with different priorities, leading to a profoundly different lifestyle” (Peterson, p. 73).

3. This preoccupation with the ‘finish line’ is to fill the believer’s affections. Our hope of the future, characterized by Christ’s unending presence in glory, is designed to produce intense satisfaction as well as purpose and resolve. The specific content of this animating hope is the very opposite of vague concepts of the future. A specific understanding of the believer’s hope is necessary if we are to take the steps necessary to reach the goal God has for us His people.
4. Have we ever plumbed the depths of what it means to be made like God in holiness? This promise in Hebrews 12:10 is beyond our capacity to fathom completely; for God is promising that His loving purposes for us include being made like Christ in holiness. This is the only way God can make us eternally happy and blissful—that is to be made like our Lord in holiness.

III. The Father’s faithful discipline of us keeps our progress in holiness on track.

A. Our submission to the Father’s discipline is inseparable from our progress in sanctification. In Hebrews 12, God tells us precisely how He wants us to respond to His discipline (Heb 12:3-9). The believer must respond to God’s discipline with a compliant spirit of resignation and trust. We must avoid carelessness and we must brace ourselves for conflict and trial. We are to continue to esteem highly our infinite spiritual blessings in Christ. We must remember that God is disciplining us so that we might share His holiness (Heb 12:10) (Peterson, p. 75).

B. The author of the book of Hebrews is utterly realistic—discipline is painful to our flesh. But, the promise is that the Father is absolutely trustworthy, and that the discipline will produce the precise training we need for spiritual peace and fruit-bearing (progressive sanctification). The promised outcome of submission to His discipline is “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12: 9-11).

1. We are to continually recognize God’s holiness by our obedience (disobedience is a disregard for God’s holiness). Submission to God’s discipline is joined to our child-like trust in our Father’s infinite wisdom in training and correcting us.
2. Our text warns of the great danger in refusing to submit to His discipline (Heb 12:12-17). A refusal to submit to discipline can expose us to more severe forms of chastening. Turning away from God begins with devaluing His promises and ignoring His demands. The Christian is commanded to patiently learn while under the Father’s rod of discipline.

3. There is a great temptation to become sullen under the Father’s discipline and to turn to illicit sensuality for ‘comfort’. However, our text warns that stubborn insistence on self-gratification can be a sign of falling away from the Lord (apostasy) (Heb 12:16-17).

C. The Christian life is a life of ongoing repentance.

According to 1 Corinthians 11:28-32, when we “judge” ourselves (biblical self-confrontation) we are practicing repentance (1 Cor 11:31). In other words, by judging ourselves we are identifying sinful patterns and attitudes in our lives we must confess, and from which we must turn away. In our repentance, sinful behaviors are mortified (or ‘put to death’—Rom 8:12-13). When we mortify sin, we are ceasing to make a provision for their activity (Rom 13:14).

Ongoing repentance entails “course corrections” in which each area of the believer’s life is brought back under God’s rule and control. These course corrections occur when as we daily reflect on the character of God by faith in Christ and the gospel. When we ‘navigate’ spiritually in this manner, a life of dedication and separation unto God issues from our faith. Calvin states that definitive sanctification (positional sanctification) is worked out daily in life by repentance born of faith. Ongoing repentance consists of countless ‘course corrections’ in our Christian walk.

In summary we would stress that as we keep preaching the gospel to ourselves, our hope grows and we become more convinced and assured that God will accomplish all of His loving purposes for us. Perhaps you have had conversations with believers who have said, “I am not looking for rewards, I’ll be happy to just squeak into heaven, just to make it in.” This is an ill-advised sentiment because it often is symptomatic of a weak hope. Only a vigorous lively animating hope can move us to holy living now. And this hope comes from deepening our grasp of God’s loving purposes for us in Christ. The future— God’s ‘end goal’ is meant to shape, form, and condition all of our goals and values in the present. “And everyone who has this hope fixed upon Him purifies himself just as He is pure” (1 Jn 3:3).

LIVING BETWEEN THE CROSS AND THE RESURRECTION

Adapted from Possessed by God, by David Peterson (pp. 93-114)

We have seen in the last few lessons that at the moment of salvation the Lord sets us apart unto Himself to live as ‘God’s possession’. In this lesson we will continue to explore what it means to live as God’s possession, but we will do so from the vantage point of God’s righteousness. To receive God’s gift of justifying righteousness through Christ means that God’s righteousness has taken possession of us. We now live our lives out of our union with Christ, and we find that in Christ all that we need for communion with our righteous God is provided (Gal 2:20). By means of union with Christ the believer is ‘complete in Christ’ (Col 2:10).

The gospel completely overturns the idea that we give our righteousness to God; for in the gospel we learn that God gives His righteousness to us through His grace. This infinite wealth of grace we have received in Christ comes with specific ethical responsibilities for a believer. We will also examine these responsibilities in this lesson.

I. At salvation God sets the believing sinner right with His own righteousness.

A. The basis of our right-standing with God is His gracious act of regarding us as righteous in Christ.

Romans 1:16-17 captures the theme of the epistle: The gift of God’s righteousness is given to everyone who comes to Christ in faith. In vv. 16b-17 Paul is saying that “[t]he gospel is God’s effective power active in the world of men to bring about deliverance from His wrath in the final judgment and reinstatement in that glory of God which has been lost through sin” (C. E. B. Cranfield, A Shorter Romans Commentary, p. 19). The concept of God’s righteousness brought to bear upon our salvation is also inherent in the Old Testament. See Is 46:13; 51:5-8; 56:1; 62:1. In these Isaiah passages, “making known salvation,” and “showing forth His righteousness” are parallel expressions conveying the same thought (John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, pp. 28, 29). When Isaiah the prophet spoke of God’s righteousness revealed he meant more than its disclosure to human apprehension. He meant that God’s righteousness was revealed in its action and operation. It is divine righteousness made manifest with saving effect. Thus when the Apostle says, the righteousness of God is revealed, Paul means that in the gospel God’s righteousness is actively and dynamically brought to bear upon man’s sinful situation—divine righteousness is manifested with saving power and efficacy (Ibid, pp. 29, 30).

God’s righteousness here (1:17) is not merely a divine attribute; for His righteousness is actively brought to bear upon us unto salvation. It is His righteousness unto our salvation. It is God acting decisively regarding our ruin, death, condemnation, and alienation. In the glorious gospel it is God’s righteousness decisively answering the ruin of our sin and misery (Ibid.). God’s saving activity gives us His own righteousness by gracious donation. He does so in order to pronounce us just in His sight (to be justified is to have right-standing before Him). God’s gift of His Son is the gift of His own righteousness to helpless guilty sinners. By faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the sinner is united to Christ and is thereby given a God-approved righteousness.

Regarding 1:17 Cranfield notes, “‘God’s righteousness’ means man’s status of righteousness before God which is the result of God’s act of justifying” (Cranfield, pp. 21-22). Paul’s intent (v.

17. denotes the righteous status which is given by God. The sense of the whole sentence may best be understood as follows: “For in it (that is, in the gospel as it is being preached) a righteous status before God which is God’s gift is being revealed (and so offered to men), a righteous status which is altogether by faith.” “By [God] revealing and making available precisely this gift of a status of righteousness before Himself God is indeed acting mightily to save” (Ibid.).

1. The book of Romans is the book of ‘God’s righteousness revealed’. His righteousness is revealed in the gospel. “For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God’s power for the salvation of everyone who trusts, of the Jew first and then the Greek. For in the good news God’s way of man’s right-standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, ‘the upright man must live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17—The Williams Translation).
2. It is common to think of God’s righteousness as His constant goodness. This is true to a point, but God’s righteousness is much more than His unchanging standard of goodness. His righteousness is active and dynamic—God puts His righteous character on display in our salvation when He imputes moral perfection to us in Christ (Rom 3:24-26). God’s righteousness is inseparable from His zeal for His Name (Ez 20:14, 44).

B. God’s own righteousness is manifested in the justification of sinners who trust in Christ. Thus, righteousness is both the manner and mode in which God manifests Himself supremely in justifying believing sinners (Peterson, p. 101). God makes His righteousness the cause of our righteousness. Righteousness is not what we do to please God so much as it is the revelation of God expressed in our salvation. It means that God’s righteousness claims us as His possession, sustains us, and finds its final expression in eternal life (Peterson, pp. 100-101).

The upshot of God making His own righteousness the cause of our righteousness is that gospel salvation is intensely God-centered. This is precisely the opposite of natural religion which places the focus on the pietistic efforts of the devotee. Consider that in all false religion penance involves man managing his own imagined merit. By contrast the true gospel involves God clothing us with His righteousness like a robe (Is 61:10). The New Testament believer is said to have clothed himself with Christ (Gal 3:27).

II. How does our justification translate into living as God’s possession?

A. The emphasis in Scripture is that holiness is a divine gift (definitive sanctification sets us apart unto God as His holy possession).

Our definitive sanctification has implications which need to be worked out in daily life. Our holy status in Christ demands that our walk be one of separation and dedication to God (Rom 6:11-13).

Scripture commands us to set our affections on things above where Christ is (Col 3:1-2). The believer is not to live as a passive owner of spiritual wealth—he is to exult in of the glory of God (Rom 5:2). One of the results of faith in the word of grace is overflowing gratitude (Col 2:7). Ongoing repentance keeps our affections focused on Christ. When the believer labors by faith to have his affections conformed each day to the word of grace he is thinking God’s thoughts after Him and loving the truth. Concerning this great topic of our religious affections, in a future lesson we will deal more fully with what it means to take delight in the Lord.

1. Calvin notes that repentance means “the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and honest fear of Him.” The moment our progress is impeded, we ought to repent. Faith and the fear of God are primary as the cause of our ongoing repentance: “Therefore, having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1).
2. Our repentance is also joined to the indescribable wonderfulness of God. To see God’s glory in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6) is to repent—it is to have true sorrow over sin—it is to weep for having preferred idols to Christ our true treasure (John Piper, God is the Gospel, p. 108).

3. God has begun a renewing work in His people. Nothing must be allowed to hinder the progress of that work. The Apostle Paul places a high premium on unimpeded progress in the Christian life. Believers are not to live passively in their pursuit of holiness. Paul commands Timothy, “Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all” (1 Tim 4:15). We are to constantly be answering the upward call—that is, as Paul says, “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:12a-14).

B. In Romans 6:1-23 we learn how our union with Christ is to be lived out in daily life.

Our baptism was a “funeral rite” which marked our decisive break with the values of the present age (Rom 6:3-11). Now as those set free from the dominion of sin we show who our new Master is by our conduct. We are to revolt against sin in the Name of God who is our rightful Ruler and Master. Physical and emotional needs frequently attempt to usurp God’s rule if they go unchecked. Christians must guard against indifference to the glorious gifts they have through the gospel.

According to Romans 6:6, it was our old self that was crucified with Christ. The old man (old self) was crucified in order to set us free from slavery to sin, putting sin “out of business” as a ruling tyrant in our lives. Our old self was all we were prior to salvation in Christ.

C. The believer’s faith response to God’s work of co-crucifixion is to “reckon” or count our old self as having died with Christ.

When we reckon or count, it means we are regarding ourselves as God does (Rom 6:11). Our old self was what we were before we were created anew in Christ (2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:10). The sinful values of the “old self” are described in Titus 3:3 and Ephesians 2:1.

III. The most important sermons are the ones we preach to ourselves.

A. A biblical understanding of sanctification regards holiness to consist of our relationship with the Lord more than the mastery of a moral code.

In Romans 6:11-13 we learn that God has consecrated us to Himself by the death of His Son. Our obedient response to God’s action is that we must not let sin go on reigning unopposed in our daily lives. Our willingness to put sin to death is our “revolt” against sin. By our ‘revolt’ we express our loyalty to the Lord as our rightful Ruler and Owner.

As a young believer I found that reckoning myself dead to sin was a tremendous help in overcoming temptation (Rom 6:11). But part of my problem was I was still living with a ‘grit your teeth’ mentality. I was so centered on what I had been saved from (sin); I was forgetting what I was saved to (communion with God). I was neglecting the second half of verse eleven in Romans chapter six, “[reckon yourselves] alive to God in Christ Jesus. The saint must learn, as I had to learn, that we are saved to fellowship with God, and therefore our revolt against sin is crucial in maintaining our relationship with the Lord.

B. Every sin begins with a breakdown in faith first.

There are only two rulers; sin and righteousness. Unbelief takes us to sin as a false source for satisfying our needs. It is our love for God that drives our revolt against sin—the more we trust in His love by faith in Christ and the gospel, the more we will express our love to Him by putting sin to death. Reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God is inseparable from maintaining our relationship with God.

C. Romans 6:15-18 describes the believer’s new orientation to God as being “obedient from the heart.” At the moment of salvation, the cross of Christ produces in the believing sinner a form of obedience that is ‘from the heart’.

This means that the believer is united in mind, heart, will, and affections concerning the gospel and its ethical demands. The believer regards the true nature of freedom to be living life according to God’s design. Therefore the obedient Christian exhibits a joyful willingness to be ruled by God’s Word. In order to maintain a united heart in obedience, the Christian will have to frequently reason with himself (‘preach to himself’—even argue with himself) concerning the nature of true freedom (submission to God).

The world defines freedom as liberty from divine design—liberty from all external restraint and interference by others. By contrast, the biblical definition of freedom is union with Christ. For by union with Christ we have freedom from condemnation because of our unchanging state of justification. Those united to Christ are free from guilt, fear, condemnation, and sin. These freedoms mean that the Christian may approach God anytime in bold and free access (Eph 2:18) (Peter Jensen, At the Heart of the Universe, pp. 157-160).

D. The text of Romans 7:1-6 assists us in understanding that our sanctification is relational. “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God” (Rom 7:4). This is a ‘remarriage’ metaphor which assists us in understanding that salvation is a relationship given. Because of our depravity, our relationship to the law was like being married to an abusive husband. The law constantly condemned us and called for our judgment— even our death. The blessed news of the gospel is that we were made to die to the law through the body of Christ. In other words, by the death of Christ our Substitute we have been set free from the law’s condemning role in our lives so that we might be joined to Christ who is our loving heavenly Husband (Gal 2:19; Eph 5:25-32).

“Death to the law has the purpose of setting us free from the law so that we may be ‘wedded’ to Christ” (Rom 7:3). F. F. Bruce notes, “In [the Apostle Paul’s] experience, ‘allegiance to a Person had displaced devotion to a code. . .” (Peterson, p. 104). Every saving benefit the believer experiences is by union with Christ’s Person—Christ has earned every redemptive blessing for the church. In fact Christ does not give a single benefit apart from giving an eternal relationship with Himself. The believer’s grateful response is to exercise pure and simple devotion to Christ (2 Cor 11:3).

Believers have been released from the Law and are now joined to Christ in order to bear fruit for God (vv. 5-6). Because definitive sanctification is a particular relationship to God which is given; it cannot be reduced to a moral code. The believer must feed his faith daily on the truth that he has been transferred and discharged from the old era of sin by identification with Christ in His death (Peterson, p. 104). The intended result of our new relationship to God is fruitfulness. Through the death of Christ, the believer has been freed from his hostile relationship to the law that condemned him. He is now “remarried” to Christ (MacArthur Study Bible, p. 1704). The law’s condemnation and penalties no longer have jurisdiction over him. Christ rules by constraining love, and the law by constricting judgment.

Central to this fruitfulness is submission to God which results in our progressive sanctification: “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life” (Rom 6:22).

E. A genuine knowledge of God will be demonstrated by the lifestyle described in Hebrews 11:24-27, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”

Young believers today growing up in media-driven culture frequently wrestle with the question, “Can Christ make me truly happy?” Let us not forget that Moses faced similar temptations: fame, honor, popularity, worldly wealth, and the enjoyment of the passing pleasures of sin. His victory over temptation was the outcome of his faith. He was enabled by his faith to see Him who is unseen. This faith ‘seeing’ informed all of his values and choices.

To a great degree, our victory in spiritual warfare is tied to seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ. This ability to see Him who is unseen has a powerful impact upon our response to trial, doubt, temptation and affliction. The battle in which we are engaged is all mainly at the level of spiritual sight (John Piper, God is the Gospel, p; 169). As with Moses, the lifestyle of the redeemed will be characterized by the following: a willingness to suffer persecution for righteousness sake, a loving identification with the people of God, beholding God by faith, endurance and perseverance in doing good and holding fast to the truth, a rejection of the world’s values and promises, and a lively hope set upon resurrection life with the Lord. The Lord’s people rely upon the Spirit who is always working to make that separate and distinct lifestyle possible. A holy life reflects the character of God (Peterson, p. 88).

F. Training in godliness is never to be separated from dependence upon God’s grace.

Zeal for progress in holiness must not be exerted apart from trust in Christ’s sanctifying work on the cross. Without this New Testament perspective, in which we share in the life and character of God, one is left with only the uncertainty of moralistic perfectionism and the impotence of bare will power (Peterson, pp. 91-92). By preaching the gospel to ourselves we may keep remembering that effectiveness in the Christian life flows from faith in Christ and His finished work. Gospel faith helps us remember that holiness is the divine gift of a relationship given—meaning that the child of God is a set apart one unto God.

IV. “Gospel Formation” takes place as we live between the Cross and the Resurrection.

By “gospel formation” we mean that the gospel is the ‘mould’ into which God ‘pours’ our lives so that the word of grace increasingly shapes us into its form.

The gospel of Christ gives the believer’s new life its appropriate shape and pattern (Peterson, p.

102. God “pours” his new children into the mould of divine truth (Col 2:6; 2 Cor 6:14-7:1; Titus 2:11-14). Through the gospel’s transforming power, new believers have a compelling desire to know and obey God’s truth (MacArthur Study Bible, p. 1704).

A. The true believer lives between the cross and the resurrection—not only chronologically, but also as the focus of our gospel faith.

Here is the reason why: as we live the cross-centered life we are constantly reminded of what we were before Christ and who we are now in Christ because of His cross. The gospel functions as a corrective lens—showing us who and what we are in ourselves; but more importantly, showing us who we are in Christ.

Now, not only are we cross-centered, we are also focused upon our future resurrection—we live between the cross and the resurrection. Fixing our hope upon the resurrection to come reminds us that we shall be like our Savior—holy, immortal, and glorified. Thus we live between the cross and the resurrection.

Romans chapter 5 helps us understand what it means to live between the cross and the resurrection. This chapter of Romans serves as a “bridge” passage which conducts us from the doctrine of salvation to the doctrine of sanctification. Romans five begins to concentrate on the outworking of the gospel in relation to the individual. Romans 5:1-11 contains an “already, not yet” tension.

The believer does not yet actually reign with Christ over the earth in a resurrection body, but does already belong to that new age and rule of life in Him (see vv. 17, 21). Being joined to Jesus Christ, we experience the outworking of the “reign of grace through righteousness to eternal life” (v. 21).

1. The role of ongoing faith in the gospel increases our cognizance of our participation in the reign of grace and life (v. 17). Ongoing faith in the gospel is necessary for a life-transforming awareness of the reign of grace.
2. As we exercise ongoing faith in the gospel, our assurance, hope, and joy are deepened. With this growth in hope comes confidence in the unshakable fact that the reign of grace cannot be frustrated, no matter what tribulations we face (Rom 5:1-5). This life-changing hope produced by faith in the gospel is essential to victorious Christian living.

B. According to Romans 6, progress in holiness involves both the cross and the resurrection. We pursue holiness by putting to death what God has already sentenced to death (our sin and old man) on the cross (crucifixion). And, we live out the new life given to us by the indwelling Spirit of Christ (resurrection).

God regards us as being dead to sin, and alive to Himself in Christ Jesus. We are to regard ourselves the same way (Peterson, p. 100). Preaching the gospel to ourselves each day helps us see ourselves as God does.

1. ‘Reckoning’ involves both the cross and the resurrection: the cross secures our death to sin, and the resurrection our newness of life. Though our absolute freedom from sin will not take place until our resurrection, Christ’s resurrection gives us the promise of defeating sin and living for God here and now (Peterson, p. 99).
2. “Preaching the gospel to ourselves daily” assists us in living between the cross and the resurrection so that both of these aspects of Christ’s finished work exert sanctifying value in our lives (Rom 6:11-13).

C. Romans 6:1-8:13 establishes us as beneficiaries of Christ’s death and resurrection. Calvin notes that mortification (putting sin to death), and vivification (new life) are an essential demand rising out of union with Christ in His death and resurrection.

A radical life change or “moral renewal” takes place after conversion. Change proceeds from our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. There is no “fiction” in the believer reckoning himself dead to sin and alive to God, for sin and death have truly lost their hold on those ruled by God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

1. The moral benefits of being united to Christ are guaranteed—there will be deliverance from the old era of sin and there will be newness of life lived out toward God. Our Lord’s death and resurrection cannot fail to produce the effect the Father intends. “Christ’s death and resurrection have made possible a profound change of attitude and motivation, a real sense of belonging to Him, a new freedom to resist sin and serve God because of justification” (Peterson, pp. 95-96, 101).

2. Union with Christ necessarily brings us into conformity with Christ. However, the believer is not passive in this moral renewal. He has a profound obligation to the One who has brought him from ‘death to life.’
3. The believer has life because of the righteousness of justification (Rom 8:10-11; Phil 3:9). The indwelling Spirit presses upon the believer the obligation of rejecting the dominion of the flesh (Rom 8:12-13). The Spirit, our pledge of ultimate victory, continually leads us to put sin to death. There is an unbreakable link between ultimate victory and a life of putting sin to death by means of the Spirit (Rom 8:9-13).

V. The moral aspect of sanctification is secondary to is soteriological reference (soteriology is the study of salvation).

A. We are to keep in mind that sanctification is primarily a relationship to God given, more than it is a moral quality attained.

The believer’s moral obligation rises out of God’s saving activity by which He consecrates us to Himself. Believers are His distinct, dedicated people, possessed by Him. This means that our responsibility to live as God’s obedient children rises out of His saving purposes for us and His ownership of us (Titus 2:11-14).

B. God’s purpose is to purchase (redeem us) and purify for Himself a people for His own possession who will glorify Him by reflecting His holy character through their good deeds (Titus 2:14).

To embrace salvation through grace is to embrace God’s plan outlined in these in Titus 2:11-14. Faith in Christ’s redeeming work (2:11-14) becomes a basis for victory over sin.

CONCLUSION: So we have seen that our walk of obedience flows from being ‘right with God’s righteousness’. In other words, our faith, love, and honor are directed towards God’s Name (His Name is expressed in His righteous work of salvation). This “drives” our practical righteousness. God’s consecrating us to Himself is accompanied by a change in our nature. To live as one “possessed by God” is to live with self dethroned.

Our relationship to God is to be lived out through the ongoing presentation of the members of our body to God (6:12-13ff.). The result is a life of unselfish love to God and neighbor. Holiness is preeminently expressed in love (Rom 5:5). God has taken possession of us and the benefit of this new relationship with God results in a God-ward life in which our consecration to Him brings Him honor and brings us joy.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 7

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

I. The importance of assurance of salvation (2 Pet 1:10-11).

A. Assurance of salvation is not assurance that God’s promises are true; it is assurance that God’s promises are ours.

Assurance is the essence of hope. The grace (or essence) of hope is, according to Scripture, a personal, confident expectation of salvation (Rom 5:2, 5; Phil 1:1-20).

A well-grounded assurance is important because it is related to joy, comfort, and Christian service. And, as we will see assurance of salvation is also intensely practical for progress in personal holiness (Ernest C. Reisinger, Lord and Christ, p. 110). (Note that the title of Thomas Brooks’ excellent treatise on Christian assurance alludes to the great joy and comfort of assurance, Heaven on Earth, Banner of Truth.)

1. Assurance of salvation is a God-given conviction of our standing in God’s grace; it is ‘stamped’ on the mind and the heart supernaturally by God’s Spirit (Reisinger, p. 113). “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16).
2. True believers may have assurance in this life. God desires that His redeemed know that they belong to Him: “These things I have written to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:13).

B. There may be hypocrites and there may be ‘temporary believers’ who think they are Christians, but are not (there is such a thing as false assurance) (Matt 7:21-23).

The Bible teaches that some unconverted men and women presume that they are saved but are not. They are deceived; they have placed their hope upon faulty or insufficient grounds. “Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which, no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

1. People are easily deceived in religious matters. Because self-deception is common, there are many warnings in the Bible. “The hope of the hypocrite shall perish” (Job 8:13). The Pharisees of Jesus’ day imagined that they possessed eternal life. Jesus warned them: “Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one convert, and when he is won, you make him twice the son of hell as yourselves” (Mt 23:15).
2. Jesus will say to the ‘religious’ who were unconverted, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Mt 7:23). Those who make confident claims of assurance of salvation are in reality deceived if they have no corresponding holiness of life (Samuel Waldron, A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession, p. 227).

C. The fact that false assurance does exist should not keep us from genuine assurance.

God promises in His Word that true believers may have assurance in this life (Rom 8:16; 1 Jn 2:3; 3:14, 18-19, 24; 2 Pet 1:10). The genuine assurance that God gives will not deceive or fail.

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

Christians who possess God-given assurance are not mistaken regarding the confidence that they stand in God’s grace.

Therefore, believers who desire assurance should not be fearful about the possibility of deceiving themselves. God offers to true believers an assurance which will not deceive. It is assurance about which a true believer will not be mistaken (Rom. 5:1-5.)

D. True assurance is inseparable from a ‘savor’ for spiritual things.

250 years ago Jonathan Edwards penned his magnum opus, The Religious Affections. He wrote this work in order to address the problem of false conversions. His book is a masterful exposition of the marks of true salvation with particular emphasis placed upon the supreme mark of salvation known as the religious affections. Edwards argued that true salvation must have a foundation that goes deeper than self-interest. Genuine salvation is characterized by a Spirit-engendered sight and savor of God’s glory.

Hypocrites lack this mark of salvation. In his book Edwards presses his case stating that the truly converted man has seen Christ spiritually whereas the world has not seen Christ in this way (Edwards, The Religious Affections, p. 23). Edwards constantly stresses that the religious affections are the fruit of a new heart, and that these affections are what moves the Christian life like a watch spring (Ibid., pp. 28-31). The Holy Spirit takes up residence forever in the true child of God and confirms to His child that God’s glory and our happiness are bound up together (Ibid., pp. 166-167). Satan cannot counterfeit this sentiment—no natural man sees God’s glory and the creature’s happiness woven together in Christ.

We might also express it in this way: in false conversion, Christ is added to one’s life. In true conversion, Christ is one’s life (Phil 1:21; Col 3:4). The true believer ‘feeds’ upon Christ.

The hypocrite, says Edwards, speculates about spiritual things whereas the soul of the truly converted feeds on spiritual truths, upon Christ’s perfect suitability to save (Ibid. pp. 172-173, 197-200). The true believer is always growing in his affection for divine holiness, and as a consequence his disgust for what is unholy grows (Ibid. p. 317). Strong love for Christ expresses itself in fruitfulness, self-denial, and mortification of our lusts (Ibid. pp. 352-354, 371, 374-375).

E. God’s promise of assurance is His pledge to His redeemed children.

“In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us” (Heb 6:17-18ff.).

How we need strong encouragement from Scripture. “Most Christians live between fears and hopes, and hang, as it were, between heaven and hell. . .they hope that their state is good, at other times they fear that their state is bad” (Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth, p. 11).

Spirit-given assurance moves salvation from the realm of probability to that of absolute certainty. Thus the command, make your election and calling sure (2 Pet 1:10) involves the exercise of diligence necessary to NOT content oneself with probability of salvation; but to press all the way to certainty of salvation.

1. Assurance is attainable; it is worth the effort and diligence necessary to gain it. God’s free and gracious promises of salvation (purchased by the blood and righteousness of Christ) are the central basis for this certain (or infallible) assurance (Waldron, p. 228).
2. Believers ought to know the differences between true and false assurance:

• True assurance produces genuine humility and overflowing gratitude (Col 2:6-7).

• False assurance produces spiritual pride.
• True assurance leads to increased diligence in pursuing holiness (Ps 51:12-19).
• False assurance leads to laziness, self-indulgence, and lack of caution concerning sin.
• True assurance leads to transparency before God and self-examination—a desire to be

searched and corrected by God (Ps 139:23-24).

• False assurance leads to an attitude of self-satisfaction with appearances; an avoidance of accurate self-examination by Scripture.
• True assurance seeks after intimacy with God and makes it a priority to abide in

Christ (Jn 15:1-10).

• False assurance does not seek after greater intimacy with God (A. A. Hodge, “Assurance of Salvation,” in Confession of Faith, p. 239).

II. The three biblical pillars of assurance:

A. The first ‘pillar’, or ground of assurance, is the promises of God in the gospel.

Saving faith in the gospel, and knowing for certain that we are saved are not the same thing. Faith bears a relationship to assurance as a root does to a flower. The root may exist without the flower; but the flower cannot exist apart from the root. Assurance is supported by our faith in the gospel. Assurance does not rest upon a subjective impression; for saving faith is ‘hard-wired’ to its object—God’s immutable promises in Christ.

We will have assurance in proportion to our faith in the promises of God. The unsaved sinner dead in sins (Eph 2:1-3) is blind to the things of God. The sinner needs both sight and light. He needs sight (spiritual illumination, 1 Cor 2:12-15), and he needs light (the ‘light’ is God’s truth in His Word). In regeneration, the Spirit applies the Word of God opening up the sinner’s understanding. “Lydia, . . . a worshipper of God, . . . was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 16:14b).

The promises of God in the gospel are ‘made alive’ by the Spirit of God. It is not just the promises of God alone; they are applied to the believing sinner by the Spirit’s gracious work. The promises of salvation in Scripture are made real to us by the Holy Spirit. As newborn babes we are to long for the pure milk of the Word that we may grow in respect to salvation (1 Pet 2:2-3).

1. The above aspect of assurance is the essence of saving faith because the principle acts of saving faith consists of accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life (Reisinger, p. 119). We saw in our previous lesson that saving faith is not merely mental assent or bare agreement with the truth; it is the soul’s response to Christ—the whole man is involved (mind, will, conscience, affections). This ‘whole-soul’ faith issues forth in a new life direction.

2. To believe in Christ alone for salvation is to be persuaded or assured that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ibid.). When clouds of doubt cast shadows over the soul, we must continue to look to Christ alone for salvation. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever (Heb 13:8).
3. The following questions provide an additional way to personalize the first ‘pillar’ of assurance: Do you take great delight in God’s way of salvation? Do you see God’s holiness, kindness, love, and wisdom in His plan to send His only begotten Son for sinners? Has the gospel reconciled you to God so that you are no longer His enemy and so that you no longer walk according to the flesh and the world? Can you attest with joy that the only possible solution to your guilt and enslavement was for Christ to die in your place?

B. The second ‘pillar’, or ground of assurance, is the witness of the Spirit.

The Spirit imparts assurance to the hearts of believers of their salvation and sonship. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16). “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father’” (Gal 4:6). The ‘Spirit of adoption’ is given to all believers (Rom 8:15-16; Gal 4:4-6; 3:2). The indwelling Holy Spirit gives believers the consciousness, or awareness, that we have been adopted by God. Therefore, it is natural for the true Christian to behave toward God as Father, and to call upon God as his Heavenly Father in prayer. You have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:15b).

1. The Spirit’s testimony gives believers the assurance of their adoption and consequent safety. The internal witness of the Spirit is not divorced from our faith and behavior. The Apostle John says, He who believes in the Son of God has the witness within himself (1 Jn 5:10).
2. Questions to help personalize the second ‘pillar’ of assurance: Do you have peace with God so that you know your standing before God? Do you have the confidence God has forgiven you? Do you bring your hopes, fears, requests, and sins to your Heavenly Father? Do you count it your greatest treasure to be an heir of God?

C. The third ‘pillar’ of assurance is Christian character and conduct (a changed life). Christian character and conduct give evidence that a person is regenerated (born again). Theologians refer to Christian character as evidence of grace, or the ‘marks of grace.” Regarding these ‘marks’, the epistle of 1 John provides four major ‘tests’ of eternal life:

o The test of belief—“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 Jn 5:1). The ‘belief’ mentioned here is not merely mental agreement. It is belief in which the sinner responds to the Savior in faith and repentance. It is belief which reaches the whole man—his mind, affections, and will.

o The test of obedience—“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him ” (1 Jn 2:3-5).

o The test of love—“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren” (1 Jn 3:14). “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 Jn 4:7). To be a child of God is to love those who are members of God’s ‘forever family’.

o The test of doing righteousness—“You know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him” (1 Jn 2:29). Righteous living is evidence of the new birth and genuine faith. “Faith without good deeds is worthless” (James 2:20).

The true believer is led by the Spirit away from sin and lust. He welcomes his obligation to put sin to death. “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:12b).

Questions to help personalize the third ‘pillar’ of assurance: Do you find that you have a whole new principle operating in you with new affections for the Lord, His Word, and the things of God?

Do you have a new bias and power against sin? Does your gratitude for salvation motivate you to please God and to daily fight indwelling sin (by the power of the Holy Spirit)? Do you have a solid, well-grounded gospel hope that Christ will receive you favorably into His eternal kingdom?

III. The biblical way of gaining and keeping assurance

A. Keep the three pillars of assurance together! The Word of God keeps them joined.

The three ‘pillars’ of assurance are: a.) faith in the Gospel promises of God, b.) the witness of the Spirit, and c.) Christian character. The believer’s assurance of salvation rests upon all three pillars. To eliminate any one of the pillars is to distort the meaning of assurance. In the case of false assurance, one or more of the ‘pillars’ is missing in that person’s life.

B. Be diligent in seeking solid biblical assurance; Scripture regards assurance to be our duty. The Scriptures command us to be diligent in seeking to attain a solid assurance. “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling you and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble” (2 Pet 1:10). In this passage, Peter bids his readers to seek full assurance by adding to their faith the graces of the Spirit—in other words pursue Christian character and sanctification (1:5-9). Determine to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (3:18).

Welsh evangelist Howell Harris issued the following warning150 years ago, “Churches are filled with folks who have a détente with sin; they are at ease under its dominion. They won’t study the fruits of faith or make their election and calling sure, but turn the grace of God into licentiousness” (Edward Morgan, The Life and Times of Howell Harris, p. 71). Harris has a powerful insight here: those who are apathetic about assurance of salvation commonly have a peace treaty with sin. By contrast, those with strong assurance do not have a peace treaty with sin.

C. Utilize the biblical means of gaining assurance.

We cannot expect to enjoy biblical assurance if we do not utilize the means of grace that God has given. The means of grace are: baptism, the study of the Word of God, prayer, Christian fellowship, the Lord’s Table, corporate worship, and the preaching of the Word. Solid assurance is only enjoyed by those who walk uprightly before God. Allowing secret sins to remain in one’s life will erode one’s assurance. Obedient Christians live a sin-judged life—they keep ‘short accounts’ with God (1 Jn 1:5-10).

D. Realize that assurance is not for our comfort only; it promotes our sanctification. Assurance does not produce pride, presumption, and wickedness. According to God’s Word, it produces purity. “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 Jn 3:3). Assurance ‘enlarges’ our peace, joy, hope, and comfort (Rom 15:13). In so doing, it adds strength and joy to our duties and Christian service (Rom 6:11; Col 3:1-4).

E. Accept the fact that a Christian’s sense of assurance may vary.

A true Christian may lack assurance. The answer is still to be diligent in seeking it. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you be not sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Heb 6:11).

The pressures of life can also impact our assurance. Doubt can enter when we face any of the following: sudden temptation, emotional trauma, overwhelming trials. At times God hides His smile that we may seek Him more diligently. Note the prayers of the Psalmists.

QUESTIONS:

(I.A.1-2) 1.) In what ways is assurance not only comforting, but also valuable for one’s Christian walk?

(I.B.1-2) 2.) Why are there so many warnings in Scripture about false assurance?

(I.C.) 3.) How would you counsel a young believer who said the following: “I don’t dare seek assurance because I don’t trust my own heart.”

(I.E.2) 4.) What positive marks of true assurance made the greatest impression on you? What marks of false repentance are the most sobering to you?

(II.A.1-3) 5.) Using ‘pillar’ one as a reference, how would you answer a person who said, “Assurance is only a feeling; no one can be ultimately sure of their salvation in this life.”

(II.B.1-2) 6.) Read Romans 8:14-16. How does the Holy Spirit let a true believer know that he is really saved?

(II.C.) 7.) Why do you suppose that the third ‘pillar’ of assurance (Christian character) is the most neglected pillar in the church today? (Hint: Note that it is very common to offer people full assurance of salvation even when the third pillar is missing from their lives.)

(III.B.) 8.) Is assurance a duty, a privilege, or both? Why?

(III.C.) 9.) If a professing Christian is neglecting the means of grace; should it be a surprise if they lack assurance? Why or why not?

(III.D.) 10.) How would you answer a person who said that assurance promotes a careless, sinful lifestyle?

(III.E.). 11.) Read Psalm 88. Is it possible for a strong believer to ever doubt his salvation?

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 8

THE GRACE OF PERSEVERANCE

INTRODUCTION: When we study the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Madam Curie, or Jonas Salk, one unifying factor is evident; each of these famous individuals achieved their accomplishments by means of extraordinary levels of perseverance. If such endurance and perseverance is needed to accomplish temporal earthly goals, are we to assume that the grace of God negates the need for perseverance to enter heaven? The Apostle Paul would tell us otherwise. “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

We will investigate in this lesson the need for perseverance. And, we will address the common misconception that the biblical doctrine of eternal security eliminates the need for perseverance.

I. The reality of perseverance

The Christian life is running, enduring, striving, holding fast, fighting, and guarding. The English word, perseverance, is defined in one dictionary as follows: to continue doing something in spite of difficulty and opposition. Our Christian life, especially as it touches discipleship, has been described by one author as “long obedience in the same direction” (Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction).

A. Perseverance is necessary because the Christian’s life is a ‘fight’ (2 Tim 4:7).

1. At the end of Paul’s life, he speaks of having persevered: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7). Paul goes on to say in the next verse, “in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim 4:8).
2. Perseverance is needed because there are many enemies which seek to keep us from being saved in the end. The world, the flesh, and the devil all oppose the Christian’s progress toward glory. Therefore we must not be surprised when our Christian life seems filled with resistance, setbacks, and sins. True believers persevere to final salvation in spite of these obstacles (Waldron, p. 218).

B. Perseverance is a gift of God’s grace to the elect.

It is because of God’s grace that the truly saved will persevere to the end. We, true believers, persevere because God perseveres in keeping us. Those given the gift of perseverance are described in several ways: the redeemed are accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:3-6). They are the effectually called (Rom 8:30). They are sanctified by God’s Spirit (Rom 15:16). They are given the precious gift of faith (Phil1:29). They cannot lose their salvation—“For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29).

1. Believers are eternally secure because God preserves His saints and keeps them secure by means of perseverance in faith (1 Pet. 1:5). What is important about this verse is that God does

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

not keep us apart from faith; but through faith. In other words, God will not believe and repent for you; but gives His elect the grace to keep believing and repenting. It is God’s power that does the keeping, but that divine power is manifested in the saints’ endurance and obedience (2 Thess 2:13).

2. When Jacobus Arminius of Holland opposed the teachings of Calvin’s followers regarding the predestination of the elect, the Dutch Calvinists responded by affirming that God is sovereign in dispensing saving grace.

The Dutch Calvinists organized the doctrine of God’s predestinating grace at the Synod of Dort into five points which form the acrostic TULIP. Those five points are: Total Depravity; Unconditional Election; Limited Atonement; Irresistible Grace; Perseverance of the Saints. Our doctrine in this lesson, Perseverance of the Saints, forms the “P” in the TULIP acrostic. (The Synod of Dort took place in 1618-1619. John Calvin lived from 1509-1564.)

C. The doctrine of the believer’s security is often called ‘eternal security’. This is an unfortunate term because it suggests that security is NOT joined to perseverance.

The Bible stresses the believer’s security, while at the same time calling for diligence and perseverance. “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13). Rather than a ‘trembling’ induced by a constant fear of falling away, the fear spoken of here alludes to the reverence commensurate with the plan of God to make us like Christ in holiness.

The Holy Spirit who lives in the true child of God is intimately involved in prompting holy thought and affections. Therefore, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling is to exercise the proper awe that God is at work in us. We are to cooperate with the Spirit’s purposes by not grieving Him or quenching Him as He seeks to advance our sanctification (James 4:5).

God has provided believers with all the resources necessary to make growth possible (2 Pet 1:2-4). In light of these divine resources, Christians are commanded by God to match their calling and resources with growth in practical holiness. To “apply all diligence,” is to persevere in godliness; it is to keep striving for growth in Christian character (2 Pet 1:5). God requires that our faith be translated into moral excellence (2 Pet 1:3-8).

1. In Scripture, God’s preservation of believers is never separated from the believer’s perseverance; there is an unmistakable link between the two. The person savingly joined to Jesus Christ will persevere in faith, holiness, and obedience and he will not abandon the means of grace (baptism, prayer, the Word of God, corporate worship, fellowship, and the Lord’s Table).
2. Preservation and perseverance operate together. “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me” (Jer 32:40). God’s promise is to preserve His people, “I will not turn away from them.” His promise to preserve is joined to the gift of perseverance—“they will not turn away from Me.”

In John 10:26-29, the believer’s safety is joined to a disposition to know the will of God —“they hear His voice.” And it is linked to a disposition to do the will of God—“they follow Me.” It is God’s keeping grace which gives us this disposition in both our hearing and our doing the will of God (Ernest C. Reisinger, The Faith of the Saints, The Assurance of the Saints, the Perseverance of the Saints, pp. 46-47, Mt. Zion Publications).

II. What does it mean to persevere?

A. To persevere is to continue in faith, hope, repentance, and joy in the Gospel.

It is ongoing faith in the truth of God’s Word that sanctifies us (Jn. 17:17). When God’s truth is believed and loved, it translates into ethical action. Faith in action makes the believer an overcomer. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world—our faith” (1 John 5:1-3; 4-5).

1. The believer’s relationship to God’s truth goes far beyond agreement and admiration. The true Christian loves the truth so as to be transformed by it (Rom 12:1-2). Transformation by the Word of God takes place when the truth is central in one’s life governing thoughts, affections, and decisions. True believers are constantly renewed by the truth—they practice ongoing repentance (Eph 4:23). By ‘ongoing repentance’ we mean that our affections and behavior are in constant need of being conformed to the truth of God. Thus when we keep repenting, we are readjusting our behavior to what God requires of us. It resembles a course correction made by a navigator of a ship or plane.

2. “Overcoming the world” is the final condition of conquest in the Christian life. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God” (Rev 2:7). We overcome through Christ’s work of overcoming. Every true believer ‘participates’ in the victory over the world which Christ has won for His Church. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil—to break sin’s dominion (1 Jn 3:8). He came to earth to be ‘Overcomer’ for the sake of His bride. He gained the victory over sin, death, and hell in order to give it to His church. To ‘overcome’ is another way of saying that the believer has persevered to the end of his earthly life.

3. The victory Christ won is the rightful property of His church. Everything Christ endured from His birth to His ascension was for His people. His vicarious life was for His people—to give them life, righteousness, sonship, pardon, holiness, adoption, and victory. He gave His life to make you an overcomer. His conquest over the enemies of our souls was not merely an example to follow—His conquest and victory belongs to us as believers. By faith and obedience, we participate in His conquest. We enter into His conquest by faith—it is a conquering of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Victory is obtained by disciplining our thought life through Scripture truth (appropriating gospel promises by faith).

How do we participate in Christ’s victory? When we allow the Word of God to dominate exceptionally in our lives, its power carries over into our daily obedience. We find that we love the brethren, we stop making a provision for sin, we keep mortifying sin, and we serve whole-heartedly in the Body of Christ.

B. Victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil is not an option; it is the condition necessary to finish the race.

The citizens of heaven are said to be overcomers (Rev 21:7). Those who live by faith in Christ are said to be overcomers (1 Jn 5:4-5). Overcoming is set up in stark contrast to those who are overcome by the world instead. Scripture refers to them as ‘cowardly and unbelieving’ and not heirs of eternal life. What a cause for sober reflection. According to Scripture, those who do not overcome, but instead are ultimately overcome by sin and the world, will not enter heaven (Rev 21:8; 2 Pet 2:18-22; Eph 5:6).

1. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Rom 13:14). Preaching the gospel to myself is the way in which I am to live out the victory Christ won for me. Co-crucifixion with Christ is the ‘staging area’ from which the practical work of mortifying sin takes place. I reckon who I am and what I am in Christ—a child of God who is dead to sin—THEN from that perspective of co-crucifixion I make my forays against temptation and indwelling sin.

2. How can I live consistently as an overcomer? The only possible way to live for God is to ‘die with Christ’—this is exactly what happened—our sin natures were judged in the body and soul of our Savior 2000 years ago so that we would no longer live for self; but for Him who died and rose on our behalf (2 Cor 5:14-15). By reckoning these truths (or spiritual realities) by faith, they are worked into our daily walk so that they become inseparable from our progress in godliness in the Christian life.

C. To persevere is to continually put sin to death (Rom 8:12-13; 6:11-14; Col 3:1-5). Christians are under obligation to be active at putting sin to death by the power of God (Rom. 8:12-17). They are to put to death the deeds of the flesh and reckon themselves alive to God and dead to the misdeeds of the flesh (Rom. 6:11-13).

The Holy Spirit sanctifies us. He communicates the benefits of Christ’s life and death to us. The power of the cross is active in both our justification and sanctification. Faith accepts Christ’s work as the ground of both (See Romans 6, 1 Cor. 1:30, Heb. 2:11; 12:2). We are dependent upon Christ for our sanctification (See Romans 6, 1 Cor. 1:30, Heb. 2:11; 12:2). As we cry to Him who is our merciful High Priest, He gives us new measures of mercy, sanctifying grace, and power to resist temptation (Heb 4:15-16; 2:18; 1 Cor 10:13).

D. A summary of the reasons why the Scriptures call for perseverance:

• Perseverance is necessary because the Christian life is a fight (James 1:12; Heb. 3:6; Acts 14:21-22). We are called to be overcomers—living out Christ’s victory in our life and walk (1 Pet. 2:21; Rev 2:11; 1 Jn 5:1-5; Heb 6:11-12). “The righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity” (Prov 24:16). The difference is the righteous man gets up and perseveres in righteousness.
• Perseverance is necessary because it is a vital safeguard against presumption, or assuming that all is fine with your spiritual state when actually the fruits of faith may be absent (1 Cor 6:9-10). Believers are warned against the prospect of self-deception (Eph. 5:1-6).

• Perseverance is necessary because hypocrites walk for a time, become careless, then fall away (Matt. 13:18-23). Christ warned that only those who endure to the end shall be saved (Mt 24:10-13; Jn 8:30-32).
• Perseverance is necessary because God uses exhortations and warnings to admonish, to awaken diligence, and to instill holy fear in the saints. Scripture gives us sobering warnings about the potential for: neglect; drift; hardened hearts; sluggishness; and unbelief (Heb 2:1-3; 3:12; 4:1-2; 6:12).

• Perseverance is necessary because it is such a clear revealer of a person’s relationship to God’s truth (Col. 1:9-14; 2 Thess 2:8-12). Perseverance is the proof of genuine faith. Our faith is made visible through our perseverance in obedience (James 2:14-26).
• Perseverance is necessary because when Christ returns, He will find His people ‘dressed in readiness’ (ready to meet Him)—they will be pressing along the path of duty and using the means of grace (Luke 12:35; 21:34-36; 1 Pet. 4:7; 1 Jn 2:28).

• Perseverance is necessary because God has promised to keep us safe and preserve us through perseverance. God protects His own by means of the grace gift of perseverance (1 Pet 1:5; 2 Thess 2:13-15; Rom 6:22).

III. The foundation, or ground of the saints’ perseverance

A. Believers are called by God and given faith because of the unchanging decree of election. We need to hear about the Lord’s sovereign choice of His people. The doctrine of perseverance is not us holding on for dear life; but it is us holding the hand of the Almighty who has chosen us and who holds us. The Christian may draw great comfort from the unchangeableness of God’s gracious choice of us in Christ. God’s eternal gracious purpose in Christ preceded the action of our wills in receiving Christ (Matt 24:31; Jn 15:16). Our persevering does not rest upon our decision to choose Christ; our perseverance rests upon God’s gracious choice of us (Eph 1:4). Every true believer is elected to glory, therefore he cannot finally fall away (2 Tim 2:19).

B. The elect have been chosen ‘in Christ’—He is their covenant of life—in Christ all the conditions for life are satisfied.

As our perfect Representative, Christ has assumed our debt to God’s Law. In Him we are ‘complete’ (Col 2:10). We have a God-approved righteousness in Him; we have an unchanging status of sonship in Him (2 Cor 5:21). Christ intercedes for us (Rom 8:33-34).

The New Covenant in Christ’s blood cannot be broken; it guarantees the salvation or perseverance of those within it (Jer 31:33-34; 32:40; Heb 8:7-8; 10:11-18). Our union with Christ, once formed, can never be broken. The living power of Christ in the believer will cause the Christian to persevere. Believers are kept by the power of God; they cannot perish (Jn 10:28-29). Christ will lose nothing of what He has purchased by His blood (Jn 6:39; Heb 9:12; Titus 2:14) (Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, pp. 280-283).

C. Believers are permanently indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has sealed the believer as God’s own possession forever. We can never change ‘owners’ again (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13; 4:30).

1. The Greek idea of sealing contains several concepts: authenticating as genuine (Jn 6:27); protecting from tampering (Mt 27:66); marking out as one’s possession (Rev 7:3-4; 9:4). When applied to perseverance, these ‘dimensions’ of sealing assist us in understanding the Holy Spirit’s role in preserving us as God’s own (Waldron, p. 219).
2. The Spirit is also described as an earnest; a deposit; a pledge, or down payment (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14). These terms attest to God’s promise of faithfulness—He will not allow a true believer to fall from grace. How marvelous is this promise, that to possess the Holy Spirit as God’s pledge, or ‘first installment’ is the guarantee of all the eternal blessings to follow (Rom 8:23; Eph 1:2:6-7).

IV. Believers are responsible to exert effort in persevering

A. God preserves us so that we may persevere.

Believers must be diligent so as to avoid neglecting the means of their preservation. According to God’s Word, some of these means of grace are: prayer (Eph 6:18; Luke 22:46); hearing the Word (Jn 15:5-7; James 1:21); fellowship with believers (Heb 10:24-27); serving one another (1 Pet 4:8-11); abiding in Christ (1 Jn 2:28). The believer’s comfort and consistent assurance flow from a life of diligent attendance to one’s calling (2 Pet 1:10-11; Eph 4:1ff.; 1 Thess 2:12; 2 Thess 1:11-12).

B. Believers ‘backslide’ when they neglect the means of their preservation.

o A backsliding believer grieves God’s Holy Spirit and incurs God’s displeasure (Ps 38:1-8; Is 54:5-9; 1 Thess 5:19). Our sins affect those around us (Titus 2:5; 1 Cor 8:9-13).

o A backsliding believer will find his comforts and graces are impaired (Ps 51:10-12).

o A backsliding believer will experience God’s discipline and correction (Gen 19:30-38; 2 Sam 12:14-23; 1Cor 11:27-32; Heb 12:4-13).

o A backsliding believer hardens his own heart and wounds his own conscience. He tends to lose his tenderness toward God and his sensitivity to sin (Ps 32:3-4; 73:21-22).

C. True believers are diligent; they are always renewing their faith and repentance in Christ. To renew faith and repentance is to always be turning from sin to God with a determination to serve Him with all of our being.

1. Our hearts are restless; it is our duty to engage in perpetual watchfulness and prayer; and to resolve to recover from any backsliding (Prov 4:23; 2 Jn 1:8; 1 Thess 5:17). Therefore, we must not become weary in well-doing 1 Cor 15:58; Gal 6:9). The Lord requires of us that we be faithful; that we run the race with endurance (Heb 12:1-4; 10:36).
2. We must be active and not passive in our fellowship with other believers. We are to consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Heb 10:24-25). We are to always be considering how to edify members of the Body of Christ (Eph 4:25-32).

D. Consider the great benefits of diligence in our perseverance:

• You will walk in step with the Holy Spirit and live consistent with your calling (Gal 5:16).
• You will take delight in God’s gracious promises, and you will find that the world’s allure and appeal is increasingly diminished (Gal 6:14-15).
• You will develop Christian character that will make you useful in Christ’s service (2 Tim 2:21).
• You will enjoy confidence, comfort, and assurance in great measure as you make your election and calling sure (2 Pet 1:8-11).
• You will enjoy the Lord’s presence as you commune with Him which will result in more spontaneous worship (Jn 14:21).

• You will greet the Lord in confidence instead of shame on the last day. Your works will survive the judgment seat of Christ (1 Jn 2:28).
• You will experience a clear conscience which is necessary to enjoy God’s love (Heb 9:14; Acts 24:14-16; 1 Jn 3:18-23).

QUESTIONS:

(I.A.1-2) 1.) Why is perseverance necessary? What obstacles oppose the Christian’s spiritual progress?

(I.B.1-2). 2.) According to 1 Peter 1:5, through what means does God protect His people?

(I.C.) 3.) Read 2 Peter 1:2-4. Write down the phrases from this passage which speak of the believer’s resources for godly living.

(I.C.) 4.) According to 2 Peter 1:5-8, what kind of growth does God expect in His people? Does this growth come automatically, or does it require diligence?

(I.C.1-2) 5.) What is the relationship between God preserving the believer, and the believer persevering? How would you answer someone who said, “God will save a person who believes in Christ—no matter how they live?”

(II.A.1-3) 6.) What is the Christian to overcome? Do you think that it is possible to go to heaven without being an overcomer? Why or why not?

(II.C.) 7.) Read Romans 6:11-13. In this passage Paul sets forth the strategy for putting sin to death. According to this passage, what are we to believe, and what action is to follow?

(II.D.) 8.) Review the reasons why perseverance is necessary (II.C.). Which of the reasons are new to you? Which reasons provide the strongest motive for you to persevere?

(III.A.-C.) 9.) Why doesn’t our security ultimately rest upon our decision to accept Christ as Savior?

(III.B.-C.) 10.) How does Christ preserve believers from falling away? Name at least three reasons why the believer is safe in Christ.

(III.B-C.) 11.) In what ways does the Holy Spirit secure, or claim, the believer as God’s own?

(IV.A.) 12.) Read 1 Thessalonians 2:12 and 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12. What do you think it means to attend diligently to one’s calling?

(IV.B.) 13.) Read Psalm 38:1-8. Name some of the consequences of backsliding that the believer is experiencing in Psalm 38?

(IV.B.) 14.) Read Hebrews 12:4-13. List the benefits of God’s discipline from this passage.

(IV.C-D) 15.) Which benefits of diligence are found in your Christian walk? Which benefits do you desire to experience more?

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 9

ELEVEN MARKS OF TRUE SALVATION FROM ROMANS 8

Part One (Marks of Salvation One through Six)

INTRODUCTION: The book of Romans is the longest treatise on salvation in the entire Bible. In chapters 5 through 8 the rich benefits of our union with Christ are opened up to our understanding. The eighth chapter of Romans describes the infinite blessings of being indwelt by Christ’s Spirit. We may accurately say that the third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, produces the Christian life (the Holy Spirit empowers our faith; our fruits; our service; and our Christian character).

It was Jonathan Edwards who said that the work of the indwelling of the Spirit is so important to our Salvation that we may describe Christ’s work on Calvary as purchasing the Spirit for the people of God. The Spirit’s initial work of calling us to Christ involves the impartation of a new life through His work of regeneration. This new life in God we have received is worked out in our lives through the Spirit’s ongoing ministry of indwelling and enabling the believer to do the will of God.

The Holy Spirit expresses this newly imparted life in a series of new orientations and behaviors which mark out, or contrast, the true Christian from the ‘natural,’ or unsaved man or woman. When we are walking by means of the Spirit and are rightly ‘adjusted’ to the Spirit (by not grieving; quenching; or resisting Him); we will manifest the character of Christ.

This proper adjustment to the Spirit is described by Paul in Romans eight as being led by the Spirit. Being led by the Spirit is not some esoteric, subjective experience. The Spirit’s leading always involves both the enablement and the disposition to do the will of God found in Holy Scripture. Now Romans eight has a particularly large concentration of evidences or marks (behaviors) of those who are led by the Spirit. The marks of salvation found in Romans eight are by no means exhaustive—many additional marks can be found throughout the remainder of Scripture; but the sheer concentration of markers in Romans eight which manifest the mindset, affections, and behaviors of the person who belongs to Christ provide an invaluable portrait of a true believer.

Therefore, it is paramount for us to study this chapter in depth, and to comprehend these marks as evidences of the reality of salvation life. And as those intent on being involved in ministry, in order not to ‘trifle’ with souls, we must study to show ourselves approved if we are to be wise, careful, and discerning physicians of the souls of those around us (2 Tim 2:15).

A saved individual is a person who is led by the Holy Spirit. The following eleven marks of salvation are not produced by mere will power or by moral self-reformation—they are evinced in the life of an individual led by the Spirit—they can only be produced supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. Therefore these marks constitute a powerful diagnostic to help determine an individual’s spiritual condition.

MARK 1. Those led by the Spirit love the way that Christ has saved them. They eagerly confess Christ as Savior and Lord, and they show deep affection for the gospel (vv. 1-3).

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do,

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:1-3).

To love the way in which God saves (by means of the penal substitution in Christ)—that is to love Christ as He is offered in the gospel—as our suffering Substitute, crushed and raised for us in our place. But the ability to love the gospel is above the power of flesh and blood. The gospel is foolishness to the natural man (1 Cor 2:14). Only a person born of the Spirit rejects all natural, instinctive religion in order to embrace the gospel of Christ crucified for sinners.

Paul’s victory cry in verse one of Romans eight, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” is his ‘exit’ out of Romans seven. For Romans seven contains Paul’s commiseration with other true believers over the fact that they are dismayed at the reality of indwelling sin. But Romans eight begins with the exultation that the true believer is free from condemnation despite what remains of his indwelling sin.

Therefore, to love the way God saves us through Christ is to rejoice that sin’s grip has been cancelled. It is to understand that the power of sin is broken only when our guilt and condemnation are broken through Christ’s work on Calvary. To love the way God saves not only affirms the cross; but repudiates all false refuges from judgment and all false solutions to guilt and condemnation.

Diagnostic: Does this person you are discipling show a love of the gospel, an understanding of the gospel, and an overflowing gratitude for the way in which God saves? Our text says that, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death. . .” In other words, the truly saved person will be living a life liberated from the dominating principle of sin—that saved person will be rejoicing in the freedom won for them by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they will treasure the blessed way that God saves through the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

MARK 2. Those led by the Spirit walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. Their thought life is characterized by thinking the things suggested by the Spirit; not the things suggested by the flesh (vv. 4-8).

“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom 8:6). The Spirit’s quickening and indwelling work produces both the ability and the inclination to obey the moral law of God—this is an obedience which begins in the thought life. By contrast, those who think thoughts suggested by the flesh are hostile to God, are not in submission to God, and cannot please God (8:7).

The true believer is a person who walks according to the Spirit. The Spirit is the believer’s ‘sphere of operation’ and source of divine enablement (v. 5). Paul is setting up an antithesis between those who are of the flesh and those who are of the Spirit. It is all a matter of orientation which centers in the thought life (vv. 4-5). God’s people have God’s Spirit living inside of them; therefore they are willing and desirous of being ruled by God’s Word. It is therefore natural for them to always be thinking, “What does the Lord require and expect of me? How may I please Him today?”

Diagnostic: Does this person have a ‘runaway thought life’ that is characterized by listening to the suggestions and thoughts proposed by the flesh? Is a flesh-suggested thought life the general direction in their life? The person led by the Spirit, welcomes and cultivates the kind of thoughts suggested by the Spirit (he practices occupying his mind on “things above”—Col 3:1-3). The Spirit-led person has the truths of Scripture dominating exceptionally in their thought life; therefore they walk “according to the Spirit” (that is according to the dictates of the Spirit—see 8:4).

MARK 3. Those led by the Spirit do not let the flesh set the standard for their

behavior (vv. 7-8).

The person led by the Spirit is the person who is “according to the Spirit”—that is a person whose life is characterized by the Spirit’s constant influence. In other words a true believer allows the Spirit through the Word to set the standard for their behavior. By contrast, the person who is “according to the flesh” is a man or woman who is not in the habitual frame of mind of saying “no” to the flesh. Therefore when they consult what they want; or how they may solve a problem—they permit the flesh to set the standard for their behavior. Paul tells us that the man or woman who is “according to the flesh” is hostile to God and is unable to please God (8:7-8).

To live according to the Spirit is a fight. The day we are born again we realize we have a bottle in one hand (the milk of the Word), and a sword in the other hand (the Word our spiritual weapon). Needless to say, the true believer feels the constant battle between flesh and Spirit. For the standard of behavior set by the Spirit runs across the grain of the standard set by our flesh. It says in Galatians 5:7 that “the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please.” To do what you please is to allow our natural fleshly desires to set the standard for our behavior as opposed to doing what God commands.

The true believer gains victory over the desires of the flesh by the approach approved by Scripture. This means that the believer conducts his or her life by dependency upon the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. The biblical way to gain victory over the flesh is described by Paul, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal 5:16).

Diagnostic: We are not preaching sinless perfection here. What our text is telling us is “life direction.” In other words, what is the normal direction, the path, or course that a person is following? The individual who is led by the Spirit will NOT habitually allow the flesh to set the standard for their behavior. In other words, they don’t live by their emotions or by their natural desires. The person who is “according to the Spirit” makes it a habit to submit to the Spirit—the Spirit has His way with this person —the saved man or woman submits to the Spirit by allowing our heaven-sent Comforter to set the standard for our behavior through the Word of God.

MARK 4. Those led by the Spirit are always putting to death what remains of indwelling sin by means of the Spirit. They practice mortification of sin as a daily habit, and life direction (vv. 12-13).

Our text says that the true believer is “under obligation, not to the flesh. . .” (8:12). Now regarding the Christian’s responsibility to daily put sin to death—it is not a burdensome task to a genuine believer. Those who love God do not find His commandments “burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3)—they fully embrace their obligation to put indwelling sin to death by the Spirit’s power. To shoulder that responsibility of obedience ‘willingly’ is what characterizes a true believer. It is the “easy yoke” Christ spoke of (Matt 11:30). This of course means that a true believer will not be living in détente with sin (not living in a ‘peace treaty’ with sin).

We put sin to death by saying “no” to its overtures. We put sin to death by refusing to give in to its invitations—this involves denying it an opportunity or an occasion to express itself. It can help us to think through this issue if we remember that sin behaves like a parasite which needs a willing host in order to operate. It is important to think of killing sin not only as abstaining from evil; but also as replacing disobedience with its opposite—put off falsehood; put on truth speaking (Eph 4:25).

As we consider the Spirit’s assistance in this effort to mortify sin let us remember that the Spirit does more than simply help us to grit our teeth and say “no” to sin. He leads us into obedience by assisting our efforts to put off fleshly behaviors and put on Spirit-enabled behaviors (see Ephesians 4:20-32 and Colossians 3:12-25).

Putting sin to death is not instinctive, it has to be learned. The battle is for the mind. Our success in killing sin will improve as we learn to use our thought life to build a case for obedience (with actual reasoned arguments of the benefits of obedience), and by building a case against disobedience with a riveting set of the consequences of disobedience. These must be consistently presented to the mind.

Now our text indicates that those who are of the Spirit put sin to death by the power of Christ’s Spirit. In other words, the Spirit’s ‘sphere’ is Christ and His finished work. Thus, to put sin to death by the Spirit is to reckon that through ‘co-crucifixion’ with Christ, we are dead to sin and alive to God (Rom 6:11). Christ’s work as the focus of the Spirit’s ministry is underscored by the words of Christ concerning the Spirit in John 16:14, “He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.”

Diagnostic: The true child of God will have a holy fear of offending His heavenly Father by willful sin. The genuine believer will be cautious about falling into sin. Those led by the Spirit are always killing sin—they labor to maintain with care the preciousness of unbroken fellowship with the Lord. By contrast, the false believer will be reckless, apathetic, and presumptuous about sin—and the false believer will be half-hearted about putting sin to death.

MARK 5. Those led by the Spirit manifest the pervading consciousness of

sonship as the controlling factor in their Christian walk (vv. 14-15).

Our faith plays an immense role in our willingness and ability to fulfill the will of God in mortification of sin and in holistic obedience. Our faith is joined to the reality of sonship. Concerning the spiritual reality of sonship; we can’t manufacture or ‘gin up’ a sense of sonship. Producing the consciousness of our sonship is solely the domain of the Holy Spirit.

However, the Spirit incorporates the Word of God in granting us the conviction that we are sons of God indeed. We cooperate with the Spirit of sonship as we feed our faith on the sonship truths of Scripture. These truths constitute a deep goldmine which leads us to awe and loyalty at the thought that Christ, through our adoption, has given us His own right-relatedness to the Holy Trinity. In fact, the new covenant name of Almighty God is “Father.”

Through adoption in Christ Jesus, true believers have become ‘sons of God.’ When the Spirit of Christ comes to live in a true believer at the moment of salvation, there is a pervasive consciousness that God has become our Heavenly Father who loves and accepts us. According to 1 John 3:1, the reality of this adoption by God the Father indicates the measureless privilege of being the object of His paternal love (adoption to sonship by the Father is an exotic, other-worldly love that excels any earthly natural love).

Now as to why this is a “mark,” or evidence of salvation: it is the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit who produces the mindset and consciousness of a son in us. We do not produce that confidence. It is the Spirit’s doing to constantly manifest the relational reality that the true believer is God’s child (Gal 4:5-7). The Spirit enables our prayers to rise above dry, stiff, formalism so that we are enabled to honestly habitually cry to God as our beloved Father. The Aramaic here (“Abba”) suggests an intimate heart cry of, “papa, daddy.” “Now shall not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?” (Luke 18:7).

Because sonship is at the heart of our relationship with the Lord, we could say along with Lewis Sperry Chafer, “Sonship is the motive and meaning of gospel holiness.” So fully does the reality of sonship permeate the life of the true believer that the promises of sonship are indeed a source of eternal wealth to the believer. The saint treasures the sonship promises, many of which are found in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. God promises in this passage to dwell with us; to walk among us; to be our God and us His people; and to be a Father to us. But, the enjoyment of these promises is stipulated upon our willingness to separate ourselves from evil (2 Cor 6:14-17).

The exhortation to holiness which springs from the privilege of sonship is as follows: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1). The fear of God in this context includes the concept of filial fear —that is the reverential respect a son or daughter has for their father. Thus we would ask, “Does the person you are discipling or counseling find great preciousness in their sonship; OR, are they able to live under the displeasure of God for a lengthy period of time? The issue then is this: are the sonship promises regarded as exceedingly valuable—so much so that the individual lives with an active principle of separating from sin? The child of God with filial fear values sonship so deeply that he or she turns away from behaviors which would incur the displeasure of their Heavenly Father.

Diagnostic: Does the person you are dealing with enjoy the Father’s presence? Do they talk to God intimately? Do they have a mindset of sonship—wanting to share their thought life with God and desiring to always be pleasing to their Father above? Are they troubled when God hides His face? Do they stir themselves to restore fellowship as soon as they are aware that they have offended their Heavenly Father? It was Lewis Sperry Chafer who said of the importance of sonship, “Sonship is the motive and the meaning of gospel holiness.”

MARK 6. Those who are led by the Spirit enjoy assurance of salvation and

confidence of the Father’s favor in Christ (v. 16).

No person ever manufactured genuine assurance of salvation and confidence of God’s favor. Many men have boasted of assurance when it was not in their actual possession—they never went beyond mere presumption (or assumption of salvation when nothing was there). Genuine assurance is a gift of the Spirit which He is desirous of granting to His true child. The Spirit gives to the genuine child of God a blessed awareness of forgiveness of sins. The Spirit testifies to the true believer’s heart that a work of saving grace has passed upon the soul. Thus the Spirit allows the child of God a grace-given vantage point to “see” that all things have become new: God is reconciled—His wrath propitiated—the child held now in the bosom of God’s love and favor. As a consequence of the Spirit testifying to the reality of adoption by the Father, the child of God is done with craven fear, religious superstition, and endless doubts—for the “Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God” (8:16).

One of the great glories of Romans chapter eight is its ability to function as a mirror of the true believer’s heart experience in Christ. We look into this chapter with overflowing gratitude as we find that the Apostle Paul has found words to describe our Christian experience and spiritual affections. As a result we find deep consolation; for we are reassured that the comforts, longings, hopes, and affections we experience are produced in us by God’s Spirit. This chapter is a picture of how we flourish in Christ by the power of the Spirit. Every genuine believer is overjoyed to find that this chapter is autobiographical (it portrays his own life in the Lord).

Diagnostic: False assurance makes men reckless about sin. True assurance makes men careful to please the Heavenly Father. Which “kind” of assurance does the person have whom you are counseling? In order to be established in the faith—to grow to maturity—to succeed in the fight against sin; the child of God must enjoy his or her sonship. Those led by the Spirit manifest a pervasive consciousness of the reality that they belong to God as His precious child.

ELEVEN MARKS OF TRUE SALVATION FROM ROMANS 8

Part Two (Marks of Salvation Seven through Eleven)

INTRODUCTION: As we study Scripture, the Holy Spirit illuminates to our understanding the wonder of God’s redemptive work in Christ. The Spirit elucidates the glorious fact that God has identified the believer with Christ so that He is our Representative and Substitute commending us to God so that we are accepted in Him and have life in Him.

The word of His grace, the gospel, is addressed to our faith. We are to keep ‘rolling’ the welfare of our eternal souls upon the Savior as He is offered by God in the gospel. This action of casting our eternal welfare upon the Lamb of God makes us Christ-centered. We esteem Him in love; we march under His orders and command. His purposes become our purposes. Our destiny is wrapped up in His destiny—and Christ’s destiny is heir of the world, Lord of the cosmos, and Monarch of the kingdom of God. This leads us into our next mark of salvation. We are co-heirs with Christ, and the reality of being co-heirs with Him contains ethical ramifications for our walk.

MARK 7. Those who are led by the Spirit see the reality of being a co-heir with

Christ, and are therefore willing to suffer with Christ (vv. 17-18).

The reality of our destiny wrapped up in Christ’s destiny needs to make a profound impact upon us; for it is the very goal of the universe that the glory of Christ should fill eternity and that the church should “gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 2:14). The awe-inspiring promise to believers is that they will enter a glorified state in which they will share in the very glory of Christ and will thereby reflect His glory.

Now in earthly relationships, a wife normally assumes the station in life of her husband. If he is a bush pilot, she may live in a primitive dwelling and will often accompany him in many heart-pounding take-offs and landings on short airstrips. If he is a corporate president, then his wife may live in a mansion and will entertain clients at formal gatherings.

As the body of Christ, we are joined to our heavenly Bridegroom, and His station in life is majestic Lord of the cosmos. This means that our station in life is inseparable from our status as the Church, the Bride of Christ. Our station in life (and eternity) is bound up with who Christ is; what He is doing; and what He will do next in human history.

Scripture tells us that He will usher in the Kingdom of God on earth. He will consummate the ages, and He will bring the elect to glory. Our clarity of perception concerning this glory to come undergirds our willingness to bear His reproach and suffer with Him now; for our text states that, “the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (v. 18). This means that the maturing Christian is always weighing, pondering, and considering the value of the eternal over against the temporal.

Speaking of our title as ‘co-heirs’ our text states, “heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may be glorified with Him” (8:17). As those radically identified with Christ, the true children of God are willing to “bear the reproach of Christ” in the process of serving Christ (Heb 11:26; 13:13; Jn 15:18-16:3). This willingness to suffer ridicule, mockery, or actual physical suffering for the sake of Christ is evidence that we are truly heirs with Him (8:17).

As we saw in our introduction to this lesson, the Spirit has radically identified the believer with Christ—placing the believing sinner into union with Christ so that all of the benefits of Christ’s life; death; resurrection; and priesthood become the property of the saint to be utilized and enjoyed by the saint. Now this promise of being ultimately glorified with Christ (8:18, 21, 23) is precious to the believer. He gladly identifies himself with Christ’s present purposes in the world (evangelism; discipleship; the building up of the body of Christ; etc.). And, he has understood (as Christ’s own words state), “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you” (Jn 15:18).

This willingness to suffer ridicule, mockery, or actual physical suffering for the sake of Christ is evidence that we are truly heirs with Him (8:17). Those willing to suffer with Christ have seen by faith the infinite privilege of knowing Christ (Phil 3:8ff.). They have assessed the priceless weight of the glory to come. This is because salvation imparts both spiritual sight (vision), and spiritual savor (taste). Those who know the Lord can see past the world’s temporal values to the eternal wealth of the Kingdom of God (8:18ff.). This infinite treasure to come informs their present values and resolve.

Diagnostic: Those who are led by the Spirit do so much more than maintain a set of high ethical standards; they see the eternal value of reigning with Christ; they have counted all things as loss compared to the privilege of knowing Christ. But, those who are “according to the flesh” and not the Spirit, will ultimately show themselves to be enemies of the cross of Christ because their core values are temporal and not eternal (Phil 3:18-19). By contrast, those who are led by the Spirit have consolidated their hope in the their heavenly citizenship in Christ (1 Pet 1:13; Phil 3:20ff.; 1 Jn 3:1-3). The true believer has ‘made his peace’ with the privilege of suffering with Christ. The saint can say along with Paul that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12).

MARK 8. Those who are led by the Spirit are eagerly awaiting Christ’s return

(vv.23-25).

The true child of God is intimately aware of his daily battle with indwelling corruption. Therefore he longs to be rid of sin and to be with Christ in glory. “With perseverance we wait eagerly” for our final redemption (8:25)—for our resurrection bodies! Now in the mean time the genuine believer ‘groans’ in his present state of imperfect sanctification, and his present state of weakness and decay and corruption. That means that the child of God has fixed his hope completely on the grace to be revealed at the coming of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:13).

The genuine believer is not trying to make a heaven out of this present life!—the child of God has his hope fixed upon Christ, and, because the believer is so aware of daily warfare with his own flesh—he looks eagerly for the day when he may put his weapons down and enjoy his Savior in perfect holiness.

The Apostle describes the entire creation as ‘groaning’ under the curse. But let us remember that this bondage of decay was the judicial act of God in judging the creation because of Adam’s sin. Paul’s use of personification here (the inanimate portion of creation ‘groaning’) alludes to the condition of a deteriorating universe as well as nature red in tooth and claw groaning under the bondage of suffering and decay. The creation, says Paul, was subjected to futility. In other words, the wearying cycles of death, disease, decay, and corruption seem to be futile and pointless.

The good news is that the creation was subjected in hope, states Paul—that is with a view to the ultimate deliverance of the universe from bondage and decay. The creation’s bondage to decay and corruption will someday be lifted. Pain, corruption, suffering, and entropy itself will be removed when Christ makes all things new. But what is thrilling is that the creation’s coming liberation from slavery to corruption is linked to the public presentation of the sons of God.

Paul continues using personification describing the entire creation as ‘longing for’ the revealing of the sons of God (v. 19). Wonder of wonders, in the plan of God, the liberation of the creation from corruption is synchronized with the glorification of the saints and their revelation to the watching universe (the holy angels). This means that the creation cannot be set free until we are glorified and revealed publicly with Christ. Our revealing as the glorified sons of God, freed from corruption, indwelling sin, death, and decay is the event which signals the deliverance of the whole creation.

Notice our text says that those led by the Spirit are eagerly awaiting Christ’s return with “perseverance” (8:25). This is an important part of the mark of salvation—the reason why centers upon the content of Christ’s parable of the soils; for Christ indicates that every false believer is a ‘temporary’ believer (Matt 13:18-23). False believers initially hear the gospel with gladness—but when persecution, suffering, and the cares and desires of this life press in upon them they fall away from their profession of faith—proving that they were never born again. By contrast, the child of God perseveres and keeps renewing his hope by fresh acts of faith in God’s promises (1 Jn 3:3).

Diagnostic: Those who are led by the Spirit manifest Spirit-engendered perseverance. They do not fall away; they do not ‘cool off’ to the point of caring little for Christ’s return. Instead they are controlled by hope in Christ’s return and the promise of the liberty of the sons of God (8:21). Therefore they are diligent to abide in Christ (1 Jn 2:28). By contrast, the false believer has only a bare statistical hope, “I hope things work out spiritually at the end of my life.” This is not a Spirit-produced hope—for the hope produced by the Spirit takes our emotions; affections; and spiritual disciplines ‘captive’ so that we demonstrate stamina, endurance, and perseverance in our loyalty to Christ and our following Him in love and obedience.

MARK 9. Those who are led by the Spirit are those who pray ‘in the Spirit’— that is, they manifest dependency upon the Spirit—they are ever aware that the Spirit’s ministry is needed by them to assist them in their petitions to their Heavenly Father (vv. 26-30).

This awareness of the Spirit’s assistance in our prayers is something the true saint experiences. Our prayers are not conducted from the perspective of a ‘shopping list’ which we read off in prayer, hoping that the Lord honors. No, our prayers are touched with a deep transparency—they reflect our weaknesses and ignorance of what we really need from God and they show our continual need for wisdom and guidance (8:26). Therefore the true child of God does NOT pray in order to spend his request on his pleasures (James 4:3)—no, instead he ‘prays in the Spirit’ (Jude 20). The person led by the Spirit is thus aware of both his own weakness and ignorance; but also the Spirit’s enablement. The Spirit knows the mind of God and therefore the Spirit “intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (8:27).

This of course is connected to the fact that the overarching will of God for every child of God is ultimate conformity to the Son of God (8:29). Someday the true child of God will share Christ’s moral perfection in glory. It is toward this end that the Father is working. This is needed to place Romans 8:28 into its proper context. So often Romans 8:28 is quoted out of context—as if the “all things working together for good” are no more than what we would designate our personal welfare in this life. But, Romans 8:29 defines the ‘good’ toward which all things are working. The ‘good’ is God’s purpose to ultimately conform us to Christ (8:28-29). “Working all things together for good” refers to the infinite ability of God to weave every blessing, failure, loss, and cross His child experiences into the fulfillment of His plan to make the elect like Christ. This is all in order that in glory the Son “might be the First-born among many brethren” (8:29).

Puritan pastors were always exhorting their parishioners to ‘improve their situation’ spiritually. By utilizing the term ‘improve’ the pastors intended that their hearers would understand that God has boundless power and wisdom enabling Him to lose none of the benefit of any situation. Thus, to ‘improve’ means to think and act biblically; for every cross, loss, blessings, honor, dishonor, humbling, or promotion can be used by God to advance the believer’s sanctification.

God wastes nothing. He does not waste a single tear that is shed, or sigh, or moment of grief in His beloved children, but causes all things to work together for good. Now the growing saint has learned to think in this manner—he understands that God is relentless in His purpose to make us like Christ. For we see in our text that the good toward which all things are working (for those who love God) is the likeness of Christ (v. 29). The end goal is as follows, in glory God will have formed a new humanity around His eternal Son—a new humanity which reflects His own moral perfections. Then, Christ will be with ‘His brethren’ in a kind of fellowship which produces overflowing endless joy and glory to God.

Diagnostic: Again this mark of salvation is addressing spiritual sight. The true believer is able to see past temporal issues of personal welfare to the ultimate goal and purpose of the Father—which is to make the elect like Christ. As a consequence, the true believer prays with a radical dependency on the Spirit—acknowledging that he needs the Spirit’s intercession because he does not know how to pray as he ought to pray. Eternal values are in view here. The Spirit-led person knows that the Spirit works through our groaning, longing, and yearning and always chooses for us what is best in light of eternity— the Father’s will to make us like Christ. These eternal values are made manifest in the true child of God. By contrast the false believer prays for personal welfare for himself and for others—but never with a view to producing ultimate conformity to Christ in holiness.

MARK 10. Those who are led by the Spirit depend upon Christ, their Advocate,

to silence any charge of condemnation against them (vv. 31-34).

One of the most telling marks of the true child of God is how he or she does the ‘book keeping’ of conscience. The true child of God sees by faith (through the Word) that his heavenly High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father interceding on behalf of the saints (8:33-34).

Christ silences the charge of legal guilt against His people—and He does so by pleading the merits of His own blood which satisfied the trampled justice of divine law. Christ ever lives to make intercession for His people—thus is able to save them to the uttermost (Heb 7:25).

Christ brings the charges of the accuser to nothing—for no charge can ‘stick’ to God’s people because Christ, by His work, has nailed that accusatory document to His own cross and paid for those charges with His own life blood (Col 2:13-14). The people of God are set in contrast to those who do not know God in the following way: true believers take refuge in God and in so doing they reject all false places of refuge (Ps 118:6-9). We honor God when we freely admit that nothing is able to bring the accusations of conscience to a full stop except that which ultimately satisfies God’s unbending justice. And Christ’s death alone has satisfied the just wrath of God against our transgressions.

The saint speaks to his own heart about the matchless benefits of Christ’s atoning work. He brings the work of Christ to his recriminating conscience and reasons with himself saying, “At Calvary, real objective justice has been accomplished in the case of my sins. Therefore, I will rest in my Savior’s promise of complete pardon for God Almighty is satisfied with Christ’s death for me.”

Now, unlike the true Christian, the false believer sees conscience as a kind of two-sided scale in which good deeds and religious exercises are weighed against misdeeds and transgressions. The unbeliever attempts to bring peace to the conscience by carnal means and not by the atonement. Unlike the unbeliever, the Christian keeps exercising gospel faith—perceiving that his heavenly Advocate is successfully pleading the merits of His blood on the believer’s behalf.

Diagnostic: We have seen that the false believer looks to some other method to balance his conscience. He may plead his giving; church attendance; moral life; or personal reformation. He assumes that these activities, along with his sincerity, will offset any guilt and thus ‘balance the books’ of conscience. But since he is actually a stranger to the blood of Christ, he does not have the gospel on the throne of conscience. His arguments against guilt do not flow from the sufficiency of Christ’s work and the constancy of Christ’s advocacy as High Priest. By contrast, the true child of God applies gospel ‘logic’ to the rumblings of conscience. The true child of God finds that the indwelling Spirit never tires of pointing to the blood of Christ as the foundation for freedom from guilt. Therefore, because he is led by the Spirit, the true child of God ‘runs’ to the atonement yet again every time he fails (1 Jn 1:9).

MARK 11. Those who are led by the Spirit are controlled by Christ’s love—

Christ’s love is the animating principle in their lives (vv. 35-39).

Those led by the Spirit are convinced, along with the Apostle Paul, that nothing can separate them from the love of Christ. In every hostile circumstance, the child of God has the assurance that he possesses Christ’s victory. We “overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (8:37). At the moment of salvation, the Spirit places the believer into real, living, abiding, organic union with Christ. This means that all that Christ has won by His perfect life, cross-work, and resurrection has become ours —we literally are now participants in His victory. We face every trial from the safety of the blood-bought privileges of the new covenant. We have the assurance that Christ’s love will not let us go—the work He began in; He will complete (Phil 1:6). Now this cognizance of the love of Christ is not merely for our unbroken peace, joy, hope, and comfort. Christ’s love to us puts in us a backbone of steel. His love controls and animates us (2 Cor 5:14-15). His love makes us willing to take up our cross daily—denying ourselves. His love moves and enables us to practice sacrificial service to our Lord.

Christ’s love is a determinate resolute love which made Him willing to lose all well-being for the sake of His own. Christ’s love is active—He assumed our mortal form in order to export His love to us and to bring us from polluted dust to sinless glory. The Lord will bring the redeemed, the objects of His eternal love, to God their true home.

Now our attempts to comprehend Christ’s particular love for His own will not rise above remote abstraction and bare sentimentalism apart from the work of God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the great Testifier. He convinces us of the undeniable truth of spiritual realities. He makes this ‘other worldly’ love of Christ real to us (1 Cor 2:12-13; 15-16). He causes Christ’s love to be shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5).

Diagnostic: The saint’s trials and deprivations are not the compass by which he navigates. Instead he navigates by the love of Christ—no matter how deep the waters are through which he is sailing. The love of Christ, by means of the cross has produced real changes in the child of God. Those changes are massive and immense. The cross of Christ has caused the child of God to no longer live for self; but for Him who died and rose on his behalf (2 Cor 5:15). This animating love in Christ which caused our Savior to be betrayed for us is the object of our faith. Paul said that his daily faith was fixed upon Christ’s ‘Gethsemane’ love for him (Gal 2:20). This animating love controls the child of God— making him willing live as Christ’s ‘slave’ and disciple (2 Cor 5:14-15).

Now, by contrast, the false believer’s concept of Christ’s love never rises above bare sentimentalism. The false believer’s concept of Christ’s love is a bare benevolent wish. But, the love of Christ, as apprehended by the saint, is able to ‘see’ a love so vast that it controls his life—and through the cross of Christ makes the child of God a willing disciple who denies himself and follows Christ.

CONCLUSION: The eleven marks of being led by the Spirit which are described above are produced by the Spirit of God. A person without evidence of these marks has no reason to believe that he is led by the Spirit. These marks give a multi-dimensional portrait of the believer’s faith in day to day action. If these marks sound too idealistic for us, perhaps it is symptomatic of the fact that Evangelicalism today has set the bar quite low. Is the behavior of the average church member set by the standard of the Word of God? How far can we drift from the scriptural description of a true Christian and still be safe and secure? These eleven marks are not reserved for pastors and missionaries. These marks are NORMATIVE for the Christian life. A true believer is one who is led by the Spirit—and these eleven marks describe how the Spirit leads the true believer in his daily walk.

Now our sanctification is imperfect—but we ought to know what it is that the Spirit seeks to produce in our lives as a direction and course. The better acquainted we are with the Spirit’s direction for us (as outlined in Romans 8); the better able we will be to take personal inventory and then submit to his will, aligning ourselves with His perfect purposes for us. These eleven marks provide an incredibly useful tool for us to exhort, admonish (nouthetically’ counsel one another) and instruct one another, and thereby stimulate one another to maturity and to love and good deeds (Col 1:28-29; Heb 10:22-25).

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 10

DELIGHTING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (PART ONE)

INTRODUCTION: This lesson is an introduction to a mini-series on delighting it the knowledge of God. This series of chapters is a call to believers to sit for a moment and consider how central the affections are to true religion. Delighting in the Lord is intended to be an incentive to handle the Scriptures as God’s living Word addressed to the affections of sinners.

As servants of Christ committed to the faithful preaching of God’s Word, we’re grateful for the example set by today’s expositors; they have taught us by example to preach to the mind, and to the conscience, and to the will. But a question arises; are we preaching to the affections? Are we exalting the excellence of our God and His glorious perfections in the truths we declare? Are we setting forth the desirability and beauty of Christ, the Lord of the truth? Would it trouble us if we found that we are content to leave souls informed and challenged but not ravished by the God of all grace?

This author finds his own conscience pricked at this juncture. Welling up inside is a growing compulsion to be ever more effective in carrying out the privilege of displaying Christ first to my own heart as a precursor to displaying Him to my hearers and readers. As those who are called to handle the Word of God with precision, our job is not complete if we stop at crisp exegesis alone—we must strive to move our hearers from accuracy to awe, from appreciation to apt obedience, and from duty to delight.

I. To know God, identify the obstacles which block delight in God

A. It is all too common for professing believers to content themselves with a ‘concept of God that is vague and void of passion. Our purpose in this chapter is to recover our passion to know the Lord and in so doing pursue a biblical strategy for knowing God and delighting in Him.

God’s missionary heart may be expressed in the following phrase, “God wills to be known through Jesus Christ.” Jesus shares the identity of Yahweh, and Jesus performs the functions of Yahweh—He is Creator, Ruler, Judge, and Savior. The most quoted Christological text in the New Testament captures the wonder that Jesus of Nazareth is sovereign Lord of all: “The Lord said to my Lord ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’” (Ps 110:1) (Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God, pp. 104-118).

The Apostle Paul’s all-consuming goal was to grow in his knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw knowing Christ as his whole life direction, and as the answer to ‘God’s upward call’ (Phil 3:7-16). The Apostle’s daily habit was to ‘weigh’ the infinite privilege of knowing Christ against every temporal thing this world could offer—from earthly security to personal honor and prestige. The apostle’s assessment: compared to knowing Christ, all earthly gain was but rubbish. Paul is a wonderful example of focused passion to know the Lord. He was discontent to know Christ at a distance; he refused to know Christ theoretically; he never would have settled for secondhand convictions—Paul could certainly be described as ‘panting after God’ (Ps 42:1).

Part of our problem in living out our biblical faith is that we have too often allowed the culture to define what is ‘normal’ in terms of life pursuits. We live in a society which imagines it is healthy to live for the present without being controlled by eternal hope. As a consequence, we

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

find it all too easy to be ruled by the tyranny of the urgent. When searching for knowledge of a particular topic, we don’t have to take a trip to the library—we ‘Google’ the subject—simply hit a few keys and we find our answer in seconds. By contrast, knowing God is a lifetime endeavor which is worthy of the best of our time, focus, sacrifice, and affection.

B. In a society of instant information it is becoming far too easy to lose our grip on the practice of the spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are the very opposite of immediacy. They take time —the exercise of spiritual disciplines requires that we come to a full stop. Spiritual disciplines cannot be ‘done on the fly’ or while engaged in some diversion. Waiting upon the Lord means that we are subject to His timetable not ours (Ps 25:3).

Successfully meditating upon Scripture means we will have to be silent, with patient concentration, until our thought processes and affections are captive to the Word of God (Ps 145:5). Modern culture has us swimming in options (consider how many areas in our lives where this is true: social, recreational, self-improvement, travel, amusement, etc.). In our over-scheduled, over-stimulated lives, we tend to be obsessed with the temporal, allowing ourselves to be pulled away from ‘kingdom consciousness’ as if the core meaning of life revolved solely around the plaudits of men and the achievement of our earthly goals.

Our flesh is attracted to society’s ‘scorecards’—as if our accomplishments in the area of vocation represent a true measure of personal success. We face the temptation to affirm our worth by means of our performance in the world, as if we truly are the architects of our own identity and value (1 Jn 2:15-17). But, if material wealth were the true standard of worth and success, then Jesus would have been a failure. For He told His disciples that, “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matt 8:20).

II. To know God, recover the spiritual discipline of Scripture meditation

A. The path to know God better centers especially upon the activity of contemplating God’s saving work toward us in Christ. This is the Apostle Paul’s great emphasis in Ephesians chapters 1-3. Paul wants the believer to live out his shared life in Christ. But how are we to live upon Christ unless we know who we are in Him in the first place? Living our shared life in Christ depends upon studying and meditating upon our new identity in Christ.

The central focus in our contemplation of redemption ought to be upon our relatedness to the Godhead as it is settled in Christ. As opposed to philosophy, Christianity is about relationship with God who came to us in Christ Jesus, thus we are to more principally consider Him (Heb 12:2). We are to frequently dwell upon our relatedness to the Godhead as it is settled in Christ. This is the most crucial point in our relationship with God.

The Divine Being we are called upon to delight in is not remote. Our Christian God was among us. He took on our nature. He entered our experience on our behalf. Therefore delight in Him is as natural as saying ‘hello.’

What is it about God’s nature that generates delight? If we compare the intimate acquaintance of a fellow human to intimacy with God; God’s communications are more intimate, constant, powerful, efficacious, delightful, and satisfying than any earthly friendship (The Works of the Reverend John Howe, “A Treatise on Delighting in God” (Soli Deo Gloria) 1:474-664. The Devoted Life, Kelly M. Kapic and Randall C. Gleason, eds. (Intervarsity Press), “A Treatise on Delighting in God,” summary of Howe’s treatise by Martin Sutherland, pp. 225-237).

Corresponding to this crying need is the inspired grace-driven ‘logic’ of the New Testament authors. They repeatedly focus upon the following ‘grace cord of four strands’: Who Christ is, What He has done for believing sinners, Who we are in Him, and How we are to live upon Him. Thus it is Christ’s supremacy; Christ’s atonement; our union with Christ; and our abiding in Christ. This four-strand cord has everything to do with our progress in the knowledge of the Lord; for God’s grace is relational—we grow in our knowledge of Christ by caring for our relationship with Him.

We come to a working, experimental knowledge of Christ best by meditating upon Him from the perspective of union with Him. In other words, we do not study Christ as passive spectators walking through a ‘theological or historical museum’, but as those who have abundant life in Him by virtue of living organic union with Him (Col 3:3-4). As one pastor quipped about the epistle to the Ephesians, “It is Christ and the believer—compacted ‘chock o’ block’ together in nearly every verse in the letter.”

B. Ephesians is the great epistle of the believer growing in his knowledge of the Lord by means of meditating upon the ‘mystery of union with Christ,’ the ‘mystery of Christ Himself,’ and the ‘mystery of the gospel’ (Eph 3:8-12; Rom 16:25-27). Christ, as the last Adam, came to restore what the first Adam had lost. God, in His infinite wisdom and goodness in Christ is restoring members of the ruined race of Adam to the perfect image of God. Through the Last Adam, God is forming a new humanity of men and women who are ‘complete in Him’ (Col 2:10). Through Christ the redeemed have perfect sonship, status, favor, acceptance, righteousness, and right-standing. In Christ they have right-relatedness to the Holy Trinity. In Christ they bear the perfectly restored image of God. In Christ they have the Spirit of God making His permanent abode in them.

Those who belong to Christ are His spiritual ‘seed’. They make up His progeny—they have life in Him (Col 3:3-4). Their lives are bound up in His life. They live upon Him (Gal 2:20).

This all-encompassing spiritual reality of our existence and identity in Christ can easily appear remote, distant, and unreal. As a consequence, the question many believers have is, “What will bring these glorious truths of life in Christ into the present for me; what will transport them from lofty concepts into real Christian experience?” The answer involves living upon Christ now.

III. To know God, fix your eyes upon Jesus (Heb 12:2)

A. The world’s promises of security and significance are addressed to sense, sight, and feeling. Christ’s promises are addressed to our enduring faith. John Calvin offers a very practical reason for continually ‘looking unto Jesus’,

We can be fully and firmly joined with God only when Christ joins us with Him. If then we would be assured that God is pleased with and kindly disposed toward us, we must fix our eyes and minds on Christ alone, for actually, through Him alone we escape the imputation of our sins to us —an imputation bringing with it the wrath of God (Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, John T. McNeill, editor, vol. xx, book II, p. 506).

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith” (Heb 12:2). “Looking,” or fixing our eyes on Jesus means looking away from one thing to concentrate on another. The word is a present active participle, thus looking is to be a habitual action. We look to Christ in faith, hope, expectation and trust. It is not merely an intellectual exercise—it is an act of the whole soul in faith, trust, and reliance. “Look unto Him and be saved all the ends of the earth” (Is 45:22).

In looking unto Jesus, we are to look away from all the things that divert our minds and discourage us: oppositions, discouragements, mockings, persecutions, afflictions, personal injustice, setbacks, failures. It is so easy to become fixated upon negative circumstances; but the believer is to be characterized by “looking unto Jesus” (Heb 12:2). The Greek word here for ‘looking’ (afahrao) means to look away from one thing and to concentrate on another. In order to make progress in our knowledge of God, we must fix our eyes of faith on Jesus. This consists of not only contemplating His Person, but also His saving work toward us, His sufficiency, and His will for His people. Christ Jesus makes God known to us—for Christ is communicating the Father to us, “He is the radiance of His glory and exact representation of His nature” (Heb 1:3).

The ongoing act of looking unto Jesus reveals the secret of perseverance in this long distance contest. Our gaze must be continually fixed upon the great object of our faith—the Lord Jesus Christ; for from Him alone we derive our renewed energy, refreshment, and encouragement (John Owen). The ground of our stability in the Christian life is a constant looking unto Christ.

He is the Author, or Beginner of our faith. Jesus is the pioneer and forerunner of our salvation (Heb 2:10). He is the High Priest of our confession (Heb 3:1). He effectively worked by His Spirit to plant faith in us at our conversion. He is also the Perfecter and Finisher of our faith. He grants faith by His sovereign grace and mercy; He upholds our faith; and He perfects and finishes our faith—it is His work in us.

The Word promises, “For I am confident of this very thing that He that began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6). The Christian is “protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet 1:5). The One we love and in whom we trust birthed faith in us. Christ is our ‘Sanctifier’(Heb 2:11)—He is our Mediatorial King who rules us and who subdues us to Himself.

As our Lord and Master, He chooses the trials through which our pride and self-will are broken. He disciplines us to bless us—to do good to us in the end. Our response must be, “Lord, you know best; I trust you and put you first above my own carnal reasoning.”

We must not neglect the duty of fixing our eyes on Jesus; our comfort and holiness depend upon this blessed duty. Christ is our life and covenant, but He is also our example of endurance. He exercised faith; looking at the unseen, not the temporal. He endured for our sake amidst incredible opposition; He finished the work His Father gave Him to do. His whole earthly life was the embodiment of trust in God (Heb 5:8).

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet 2:21-25).

Now He calls us to exercise a habit of faith in Him. We live between the cross and the resurrection. You are to live upon what Christ has done for us at the cross and what He will do for us at the resurrection to come. The finished work of the cross disconnects us from the world and the hope of the resurrection fixes our sights on the glory to come. We will come to know God better only as we strengthen our focus on Christ and deepen our habit of reliance upon Him.

B. Looking to Christ’s excellence is the feast for the believer’s mind and the heart—we will come to know the Father’s love who brought Him into the world for us. His redeeming love is held out to us amidst our great difficulties and discouragements. We must note the comfort here and the inducement to perseverance in believing—Jesus is not merely our example; He is the Author and Finisher of our faith—He begins faith in us and He carries it on to perfection.

Jesus is our example unto encouragement; what He suffered was “for the joy set before Him.” “Joy” pertains to the things in which He rejoiced—the joy set before Him was the salvation of the Church and the glory of God. He had joy at the prospect of accomplishing all of the counsels of divine wisdom and grace unto the eternal glory of God. His love for the elect and His desire for their eternal salvation was inexpressible. These things were all a matter of joy. “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One My Servant will justify the many as He will bear their iniquities” (Is 53:11).

Before time in eternity past, these things regarding our salvation were assured in a covenant within the Triune Godhead. This was the covenant that planned the birth of Messiah in Bethlehem. Thus as Jesus contemplated the fulfillment of this covenant, He had joy that supported Him amidst the trials of His soul. He knew that His sufferings would make peace between God and man; seal the covenant of grace and make Him the Mediator of it; open up the way of salvation to sinners through Christ; effectually save all those given to Him by the Father; and that He Himself would become the Firstborn among many brethren. He paid the price of the cross to gain the joy set before Him. His faith looked past the cross to the eternal joy (Heb 10:1-14).

“He endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” He patiently endured the most horrific suffering and ignominy and insults. But by faith He saw past these hideous agonizing circumstances to the joy that His suffering was accomplishing. He despised the shame—that is He did not succumb under it or faint because of it. He counted it as nothing in comparison to the blessed and glorious effects His sufferings would bring.

He was assured of the outcome which is eternal glory and joy. Likewise we are called to suffer. “If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him” (see 2 Tim 2:12; Rom 8:17). Our duty is to fix our eyes on Jesus in all of our difficulties, hardships, and failures—and know that our suffering is an essential part of our race to the glory and joy set before us. If we trust in God’s purposes in our suffering, we will be safe. As we saw in our last lesson on Romans eight, the attainment of the beauty of glory is tied to sharing in His sufferings—the fellowship of His sufferings is always tied to the power of His resurrection. His cross is the gateway to His joy and ours!

IV. To know God, seek the Lord as He is revealed ‘in the covenant’

A. In the new covenant it is God’s own glory and excellence that have granted to us His magnificent promises (2 Pet 1:4). These new covenant ‘promises’ are gospel promises. God has literally ‘harnessed’ His own infinite power and perfections and put them to work in our redemption and adoption. We are to live upon gospel promises that are ‘backed up’ by the exertion of God’s glory and excellence. God’s attributes, perfection, and character have been put on display in our reception of His grace.

We must seek to grasp the truth that God has willed to make Himself known to us by way of the covenant of redemption (Matt 26:28; Heb 9:13-15; 1 Cor 11:25; Heb 10:5-25). How paramount this is in our apprehension of life and completeness in Christ. The fact that God’s own glory and excellence have formed and fashioned every gospel promise in Christ is significant beyond words. It means that God’s glory, excellence, and perfections have been moved out of the realm of abstraction and into the category of covenant. Consider the wisdom of God’s plan—in order to bring us all the way to God and glory, the Lord exercises His perfections on our behalf— placing these perfections on display in the process of our redemption.

Beholding God’s perfections is inseparably joined to the saints’ true happiness. Beholding God’s perfections is so appealing to the saved man that he places his highest delight in those things; then he will desire them as he desires his own happiness because they are inseparably joined. The saints’ love to God is the fruit of God’s love to them. The ability to love God is God’s grace gift to believing sinners. God’s love to particular elect persons is discovered by conversion (Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, p. 166).

God’s precious and magnificent promises are not bare propositions (such as, ‘if you do this, such and such will happen’), no, these magnificent promises are God’s covenant faithfulness in action—for the promises are God’s commitment to keep exerting His own attributes on our behalf. By His own glory and excellence, He caused us to escape the corruption in the world by lust. He made us partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4). By His own power and excellence He transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col 1:12-14ff.).

By the exercise of His infinite attributes He removed us from being children of wrath in order to make us heirs with Christ. In Christ, the Father is taking us from defiled dust to grace and glory. HOW He is taking us to glory is the source of endless wonder and meditation for the holy angels. He is taking us to glory in such a way that His excellence and perfections are being put on display —being exhibited to the watching angelic hosts who marvel at God’s wisdom in perfecting the church through Christ (Eph 3:8-12).

At conversion the believing sinner comes to know the wonder of God’s perfections exercised towards him. In his book, The Religious Affections Edwards captures the transforming truth that the gospel gives us God (the glorious saving knowledge of God). States Edwards, in conversion, the redeemed man experiences a great manifestation of God’s moral perfection and glory exercised toward him. The fruit of this discovery is the excitation of love to God born of holy gratitude. Thus the spiritual occasion of gracious love in the saints arises primarily from the excellence of divine things as they are in themselves, and not from any conceived relation they bear to the sinner’s immediate self-interest (Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, p. 175).

God’s love is the foundation for all of our gracious affections. God’s love lays the foundation for these grateful affections. Gracious gratitude arises when saved men are affected with the attribute of God’s goodness and free grace, not only as they are concerned with it as it affects their own interests, but as a part of the glory and beauty of God’s nature. In the Gospel of grace, God’s goodness as part of the beauty of His nature is set before our eyes – His exercises of it for us is the special occasion of our mind’s attention to that beauty. It fixes our attention and heightens our affections (pp. 176-177).

Joy, spiritual delight, and pleasure in God are not primarily born of immediate self interest as its foundation. Instead, it primarily consists in the ‘sweet entertainment’ the believer’s mind has in the view and contemplation of the holiness, glory, and beauty of divine things in themselves. By contrast, the hypocrite rejoices in himself—self is the foundation of his joy (ibid.).

B. In opening up the storehouses of divine wealth to bestow it upon sinners, God is making His majesty known. God’s great self-revelation is through His plan to glorify His grace (Eph 1:3-

6ff.). From the standpoint of finite humans and angels, it would seem impossible for God to bridge the ontological (uncreated versus created being) and moral barrier (holiness versus defilement) that separates Him from His rebellious creatures. For, the meeting of God’s burning holiness and man’s sinfulness results in an eternal conflagration of divine wrath. Thus the question is, “How is it possible for our holy self-existent God to export His wealth of blessedness; life; light; community; and love into the lives of rebellious creatures? How can God shower the guilty with eternal kindness without violating His own immutable character?” (1 Tim 6:15-16.)

How can God bestow His infinite divine wealth on those with infinite demerit? Believe me, no one wants to know this more than angels (1 Pet 1:12)! And angels are glorying in the answer (Eph 3:8-11). This is the most marvelous thing about God’s grace—it has a goal even higher than bringing us to heaven. That goal is to magnify God. This is the great and lofty goal of grace—that God might be glorified and made known through the means by which He bestows His infinite wealth upon guilty, polluted, undeserving rebels. God is putting His excellence and perfection on display in the plan of redemption. God’s wisdom and power have been exerted in His ‘bridging’ the apparently hopelessly formidable barrier between Himself and sinners (1 Cor 1:23-25).

The divine wisdom and power by which God redeems escapes the understanding of those who have a reputation for wisdom (1 Cor 1:21). In fact, all of the world’s false religions, with their ‘conventional wisdom’, have something in common—they trust their own standard for wisdom. And they all attempt to obligate God through moral and religious striving. News flash! It is impossible to obligate God. It is impossible to mollify or soften up God and make Him propitious or kindly disposed toward you. Why? Because even what you think you have is not yours; it is on divine loan to you. Thus, it is impossible to trade or barter with God—He rejects out of hand any and all attempts to transact with Him, “For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things” (Rom 11:36).

The message of grace in Christ cannot coexist with the ‘fig leaves’ we use in an attempt to cover our moral nakedness. The gospel comes at us like a 10.0 earthquake—it sends seismic waves throughout our natural intuitions about religion. It trashes our religious instincts. It comes claiming that God has taken our salvation out of our hands and placed it into His own hands. It humbles us, devastates us; then it thrills us with the prospect that God wishes to love us, cleanse us, and pour out His kindness upon us for Christ’s sake.

The gospel is God making Himself knowable and accessible by way of the promises of blood bought grace. The gospel is the great revealer of God. Through the Spirit of God the gospel floods our heart with light (2 Cor 4:6). By faith in the gospel we come to know God for the very first time—for the gospel reveals three invaluable truths at once that are a requisite to knowing God: 1.) The gospel reveals God’s attributes; His unbending holiness, and just character. 2.) The gospel reveals the heart of God to be that of love, compassion, and mercy in His plan to send Christ to be Savior. 3.) The gospel reveals man’s darkened, lost, guilty, condemned, helpless condition.

All three of these elements are indispensable to the biblical gospel. If any one of the three are removed—the biblical gospel is compromised and is made void. Central to the gospel is God’s plan to bring sinners to Himself through Christ. But what must be ‘displayed’ to the sinner is the fact that God’s plan of redemption is based upon substitution. The gospel is about exchange— Christ’s life for the life of His people—Christ’s righteousness for the sins of His people. Christ’s blood for the guilt of His people. All fellowship and communion with God, from the moment of salvation to timeless eternity is based upon this glorious exchange of Christ in our nature and stead assuming our liabilities (Eph 2:16-18; 2 Cor 5:21).

This is absolutely foreign to natural reason that God should satisfy His own offended justice by inflicting agony of the soul and body upon His only begotten Son. It is the gospel of penal substitution alone that reconciles sinners and preserves the Name of God in so doing. Whoever truly has faith in Jesus—has faith in Jesus as suffering Substitute (1 Pet 2:24; 3:18). No one can come to God BUT by the provision of forgiveness in Christ as Substitute—thus to bow before God is to bow before Him as He is revealed in the gospel—as the One who has not withheld His only Son (Rom 8:32). As the One who can only be known through His provision of the slain Lamb (Jn 1:29). The stumbling sinner’s failed quest to be accepted by his Creator through works ends at Christ crucified for sinners—for “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4).

V. To know God, recognize that the exchange of Christ’s life for the life of His people is not only our entrance into the Christian life; it is the definer and the direction of our Christian life.

A. The gospel promises ‘map out’ our Christianity, we ‘navigate’ by these promises—gospel promises constitute a mould which is designed to ‘shape’ our Christian life. These promises are joined to our new identity and purpose, for they reveal: the source of divine enablement for obedience; the Father’s will for us; who we were before Christ; who we are in Christ; who we are to others; and who we will be in glory.

The gospel promises in Christ are efficacious; they give us access to God—they bring us ‘near’ to God (Eph 2:13-18). In our walk with the Lord, we are to grow in our knowledge of Him by testifying (or ‘preaching’) to our own hearts the truth, content, and preciousness of the gospel promises. As we ‘feed’ upon the gospel promises, the net effect is that Christ is displayed to our understanding and affections. We begin to see Him as ‘Source Person’—in other words, we begin to really understand that everything we need for life and godliness is found in Him (2 Peter 1:2-4).

To recline upon Christ as source Person, so as to live upon Him is the exchanged life in action. This is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20 when he said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me [through me].” This concept of the exchanged life is not merely the ‘secret’ to effective Christian living—it is the very means of growing in our knowledge of the Lord—for we are commanded in Scripture to reckon; consider; count; calculate who we are in Christ (Rom 6:11; Col 3:3-5; Gal 2:20).

B. We are to reflect upon our Savior from the perspective of our radical identification with Him. In His condescension; His incarnation; His humiliation; and His passion—He became radically identified with us (in our helplessness; hopelessness; guilt; shame; separation; condemnation; pain and dereliction). How we need to understand that He became radically identified with us and our dilemma that we might become radically identified with Him as our life (Rom 6:3-9). How vital it is to understand that this brings the value of Christ’s cross into the believer’s present experience.

God requires that we believe something outside of anything in our earthly experience— namely that the sin natures of believers were legally judged in the body and soul of our Lord Jesus Christ in His death—all that we might be legally set free from the dominion of sin (Rom 6:5-11). Thus to live by faith in Christ is to live out the ramifications of radical identification with Him every day. Ongoing communion with the Lord is fueled by ongoing reckoning of the great exchange Christ accomplished (2 Cor 5:21). As Puritan John Owen exhorts, we are communing with God when we keep taking Christ for all the reasons God gave Him to us.

What a glorious thought. The gospel is not designed to ‘jump-start’ and then abandon us to the impotence of flesh power. No, the promises in the gospel are designed to equip us to ‘live upon Christ’ as He is offered in the gospel. Oh how perfectly this answers the quiet desperation of the average Christian who is often mired in self-recrimination—bemoaning his lukewarm-ness, carnality, and unfruitfulness.

C. Christ is waiting for our acts of faith to ‘seek Him out’ in His sufficiency. He is a merciful High Priest who waits to hear our cry that He might bestow fresh provisions of grace and mercy (Heb 2:18; 4:15-16). Christ is a divine Person—He is sensitive and responsive to our faith. He waits for us to reach out to Him in our faith. Our faith toward Him is a measure of our longing to know Him better.

And since our hearts as believers are already His home, our faith toward Him is a measure of our hospitality towards Him. Our heart hunger for His love and presence will be manifested by our faith. In other words, our faith will seek Him out through the gospel promises in His Word. We will want to ‘meet’ Him at the gospel promises to learn more of His heart toward us. This is the believer feeding upon Christ—for Christ is the bread of heaven, the food of the regenerated soul.

Christ’s responsiveness to our faith means that He waits for us to answer His gospel love out of a desire to ‘sup’ with Him in fellowship (Rev 3:19-21). Our faith demonstrates the level of our heart’s hospitality. Have we been aloof from Him—too busy to seek Him out? Have we given up panting after Him because the disclosures of His love have been few and far between? Christ is there none the less—waiting for our faith to reach out to Him; to desire Him; to adore Him and take delight in Him.

How passive we often are in this area—we easily forget that His Spirit is there ready to assist us to ‘press on to know the Lord’ (Hosea 6:1-3). This vital topic of Christ responding to the believer’s faith is highlighted in the following expanded translations which seek to capture the emphasis in the Greek, “And that Christ in His love, through your faith, may make His permanent home in your hearts” (Eph 3:17) (Williams Translation). “That the Christ might finally settle down and feel completely at home in your hearts through your faith” (Kenneth Wuest Expanded Translation).

Do you see the impact of this verse? Our trust and dependency and longing to live upon Christ as our ‘Source Person’ is our message of hospitality to the Christ, “I desire that my heart be your hospitable home.”

Our growing knowledge of the Lord is not merely an academic exercise, nor can it be reduced to an experience. It is actually intensely practical. To grow in the knowledge of the Lord is a rectifying, sanctifying process. It weans us from the world. It gives us a growing desire to mortify indwelling sin and smash all of our heart idols. It shakes us out of our stagnancy and spiritual apathy. It perfects our ability to live as true reflexive, spontaneous worshippers. It convinces us that we are carried by Christ—thus freeing us up to be burdened on behalf of others.

Therefore, in light of the fact that the Christian life is ‘mapped out’ by the gospel promises, how can we content ourselves with a bare ‘God concept’? Obviously we cannot. We must break out of our lethargy which has been too willing to live with a passionless, vague concept of God. We must rouse ourselves to meet the Lord in the gospel promises—to meet Him who first met us by His sovereign grace. We must humble ourselves, learning to meditate in such a way that we are always ‘matching’ our spiritual weakness and poverty with His infinite sufficiency and grace. We must keep presenting ourselves to Him as our Master who employs us in service as stewards of divine grace (1 Pet 4:10). Then we will be growing in the knowledge of the Lord and taking delight in Him.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 11

DELIGHTING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (PART TWO)

‘Access Points’ to delighting in the Knowledge of God (Eph 1:15-23)

INTRODUCTION: It has been said that a swine has never seen a star. That is no doubt true, but it is not because their vision is vastly inferior to ours. In fact their vision is roughly equivalent to ours. The reason they don’t see stars is because they have no interest in stars. They simply were not created to seek out the majesty of the night heavens because they were not created to be worshippers. Mankind is created to worship. Therefore man is endlessly curious—he maps, explores, adores, investigates, composes, sings, lauds, wonders, and interprets. Humans were created to be enthusiastic spectators of God’s excellence. You might say that inside of us is a little ‘radar’ turning—always looking for beauty, excellence, virtue, pleasure, and nobility—something outside of us greater than us which deserves our admiration, adoration, and reverence.

God has created us to find happiness in Himself—by pursuing God as our object of desire. But that God-given yearning was perverted by mankind’s fall into sin. Romans chapter one tells us that since the entrance of sin we continue to worship, but that the object of our worship has changed from God to the creature and the creation. Every unregenerate person is subservient to created things because of the inescapable fact that we serve what we worship (Rom 1:25). Only by the gracious miracle of regeneration is a person delivered and restored to become a true worshipper of God.

Our text (Eph 1:15-23) is about finding our source of excellence in God. When Paul wrote Ephesians one, he was opening up the topic of ‘transformed seeing’. Paul was not a pragmatic moralist; he didn’t commend morality solely for its practical advantages. No, he always anchored Christian duty and ethics in heavenly realities. In his epistle to the Ephesians he sends us to the heavenlies—which is where we find our matchless position in Christ—Paul does so in order to instill in us transformed seeing. Paul knows that transformed seeing produces transformed living.

In both of Paul’s prayers in the book of Ephesians (1:15-23; 3:13-21) he is praying for supernatural sight and comprehension on behalf of believers. Transformed living (born of transformed seeing) includes a lifestyle of worship in which we function increasingly as a living sacrifice. That means that our faculties of thought, speech, and affection are devoted to Christ and focused on things above as our highest source of satisfaction (Col 3:1-3).

Now as to this topic of delight in God, it ought to be self-evident that we cannot have love and fond affection for what we do not know personally. And we cannot know personally what we have not beheld or perceived. Therefore our exhortation throughout this lesson will be “stir yourselves to improve your spiritual sight. You were created to be a worshipper—therefore you cannot, NOT worship. Your heart refuses to live as a dry desert with no object of desire. This helps us understand why idolatry is a perversion of true worship. You are always on the lookout for excellence. You are always pursuing your object of desire because happiness is the byproduct of that pursuit.”

Our hearts know well our object of desire. Christ refers to one’s object of desire as a man’s ‘treasure’. Every man is always reviewing his treasure, adding to his treasure, speaking of his treasure, guarding his treasure, and is ultimately ruled by his treasure. No wonder Puritan John Howe

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

referred to delight in God as “the top, middle, and foundation of true religion.” Jonathan Edwards offers a similar observation—namely that true religion consists primarily in the affections. And John Piper makes his entry on the topic, “Delight in God will take you from duty to desire – it will make you holy and it will enable you to love others supernaturally.”

I recall a story about the Scottish divine, Thomas Chalmers. He was a faithful expositor of the Word of God, but after five years of ministry he was distraught that his congregation was so cold and passion-less for spiritual things. Chalmers took a summer sabbatical. During times of extended prayer he asked the Lord to give the answer as to why the church members were stagnant.

The Scottish pastor was hit with a life-changing impression: “Thomas, you are preaching to the mind, the will, and the conscience, but not to the affections!” Well he returned to his parish and penned his most famous sermon, “The Expulsive Power of a new Affection.” In that sermon Chalmers unfolded the biblical truth that idols of lust won’t budge unless they are displaced by a higher affection. His message was not lost on his hearers or upon his fellow pastors. His emphasis on the role of the affections in true religion began a new chapter of lasting fruitful ministry.

What Chalmers and other divines have discovered was that the clearer your view of God (specifically who God is toward you in Christ), the more strength you will have against sin and the greater motive to release and smash your idols. Nothing is a more powerful influence in your life than to know you are beloved of God and to feel that in your whole soul.

Chalmers explains that the practical moralist attempts to displace the love of the world from the heart by showing its unworthiness. But because of the constitution of our nature, the moralist way is altogether incompetent and ineffectual. Only setting forth a more worthy object will avail to expel an inferior one. Chalmers observes that when affection or love sees its object at a distance, it is desire. While under the control of desire, the soul pursues a path of activity toward gratification. If the object is not gained, it results in pain, abandonment, and fatigue for the ineffectual efforts.

The ascendant power of a second affection will do what no forcible exposition (or display of unworthiness) of the first object can do. A naked demonstration of folly won’t kill the charm of the first object. One must address to the eye of the mind another object with an attraction powerful enough to dispossess the influence of the first object. Only this will engage him in the prosecution in interest and hope, as exhibited toward the former object (The Protestant Pulpit, Andrew Blackwood, compiler, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” by Thomas Chalmers, Baker Books, pp. 50-62).

This stamps the word, “impotence” upon all moral and pathetic declamation about the insignificance of the world. Railing against the dissipation associated with the world does not change the heart. A man will not consent to the misery of being without an object of affection merely because it has been displayed as frivolous and fugitive. He would rather voluntarily submit himself to torture. To be without desire and exertion toward an object of affection is to be in a state of discomfort and violence to our nature. We were designed to worship; therefore we cannot live with the heart as a dry salt waste with no object of affinity (Ibid.).

Only a superior object can displace the power of a previous reigning affection. You cannot rid a man of desire for an inferior object by destruction; it must be by SUBSTITUTING another superior object of desire. None of our tastes disappear by the process of natural extinction. What is to be destroyed must be dispossessed—one taste gives way to another (a superior taste) in order to lose power as a reigning affection.

By example, boys’ appetites are replaced by manlier tastes. I think of the five year old boy who pleaded with his parents that no girls should be allowed to attend his birthday party because “they are so boring.” At five girls were a bore; at sixteen the young man cannot stop thinking about girls. Youthful pleasures are supplanted by the idol of wealth. Love of wealth can be supplanted by the love of influence, recognition and political power.

Desire for an object which exerts a more powerful preference must be there in order to tear the soul away from its first adhesion. Grasping and desire is the tendency of the human heart; the heart must hold an object. Heart and soul without any object of affinity is desolate, void, and vacant; it is an intolerable misery if left just with the burden of its own consciousness (this will be part of hell’s desolation to be totally without diversions and objects of desire that may be pursued).

Because we are made for God, Chalmers cautions that over indulged fleshly hedonism leaves the heart an arid desert. The heart revolts against its own emptiness, usually pursuing its idols with even more slavish resolve. The soul refuses to live with an inner wasteland—it refuses to live empty, having no object of desire (Ibid.).

I am reminded of Jesus’ kingdom parables in Matthew chapter thirteen. Spiritual sight allows those who believe the gospel to ‘see’ the incomparable wealth of the kingdom which Jesus describes as ‘treasure hidden in a field,’ and as ‘the pearl of great price’.

Moralistic preaching is powerless to evict the idols of the heart. The moralist seems to be oblivious to man’s created nature. He tries to dispossess without cooperating with the heart’s created mechanism; for the heart is created to love and hold with affinity that which it regards to be excellent. Nature abhors a vacuum in the affections. The natural man loves nothing above the horizon of this world. Therefore it is absurd for the moralist to pass sentence on every ‘inmate’ of the natural man’s bosom without substituting another love in its place.

It is totally unnatural to leave nothing in the room of the heart. Moralistic preaching is not strong enough to pull down strongholds. “BE GOOD!” “TRY HARDER!” “MAKE MORE SACRIFICES FOR THE KINGDOM!” “HAVE PASSION FOR SPIRITUAL THINGS!”—to utter these exhortations for their own sake cannot do it. To think that moral admonishments can dislodge heart idols is to imagine that moral absolutes contain their own incentives for obedience—this kind of preaching shows a great naiveté about man’s nature.

What can subdue the moral nature of man? We must address to the mental eye (the ‘eyes of the heart’) the worth and excellence of the latter so that the old is done away with (all things new). This is the Apostle Paul’s great purpose in Ephesians—it is transformed seeing; for Paul not only prays for increased spiritual sight in his readers, but also presents to their eyes of faith the desirability of heavenly things (Ibid.). Lewis Sperry Chafer (founder of Dallas Theological Seminary) was wont to say, “If men preach less against the world and more about who believers are in Christ and they will voluntarily release their compromises with the world.”

Only the love of Christ in the gospel makes a man “revolt” against his former love of the world. How does one obliterate present affections? A moral revolt must take place in the affections that causes a man to rebel against his love of the world. There is charm in effectually preaching the gospel. The love of God and the love of the world are rival affections. They are irreconcilable; they cannot dwell in the same bosom.

The heart with only the world yet in front of it cannot reduce itself to an empty wilderness. Transformed seeing is required in order to release old affections. The heart is constituted so that an old affection is only expelled by a new one. A radical change must take place in man’s character for him to love God more than the world (1 Jn 2:15-17).

The “crucifixion” of the old man is a most fitting description of this radical change. Only the cross can produce a change this deep. Paul attributes to the power of the cross the fact that the world is crucified to him and he to the world (Gal 6:14). In the gospel God is displayed so that we may love God, have confidence in Him, and approach Him through our Mediator. He shines His glory on us in the face of Christ and freely grants full pardon and gracious acceptance. The Spirit of adoption is poured in; we are delivered from the tyranny of our former desires. As sons of God we reciprocate God’s love to us (1 Jn 4:19).

Justification by faith produces the sinner’s change—and the greatest moral and spiritual achievement conceivable. It is simply not enough to display the destructive consequences of sin and the folly of temporal and illicit pleasures—displaying the deceitfulness of the heart, the follies of society, and the stench of corruption will not eradicate these inmates from the heart.

Only a faithful expounding of the gospel testimony can avail. The good news of the gospel is the only instrument that can cast out the love of the world. The recesses of our nature can only be conquered by being made new creatures in Jesus Christ. The display of God’s wondrous economy is the only way to reclaim a sinful world to Himself. By feeding their affection for God believers keep their hearts in love with God, they shut out the love of the world, they place no confidence in the flesh, and they renounce earthly things (Jude 21). Only a new affection can expel the impulsive power of the old affection (that old affection being the love of the world—1 John 2:15-17).

Why do people keep old affections? The answer is as follows: because new ones are out of view and beyond sight because of unbelief. God’s truth in the gospel raises new affections though Spirit-enable spiritual seeing. Transformed seeing raises our spiritual eyes above the horizon of this world to behold eternal things (2 Cor 4:17-18).

In Psalm 49, the spiritual dullness and blindness of unregenerate men is compared to ‘the beasts that perish’. Unsaved individuals are caught up in temporal things—that is where their hope is invested (Phil 3:18-19). By contrast, God’s sovereign mercy in regeneration opens up loveliness, glory, delight, and joy in the things of eternity. Unbelief cannot see (so as to feel) the love of God in sending His Son into the world. But one Spirit-enabled, amazing look at God’s love in sparing not, His tenderness, and the sufficiency of the atonement causes the sinner to pass from a state of nature to godliness. This Spirit-enabled transformed seeing makes us rock builders and no longer sand builders (Matt 7:24-29).

True discipleship is driven by delight in the Lord. Doctrine and demand (the demand of true discipleship) are brought together by desire and delight; that is how a true disciple is made! Without desire and delight, the religious professor will never rise to devotion to Christ; he will remain in a state of legal working, legalism, antinomianism, or dead orthodoxy.

The Christian’s battle to live as an overcomer is the successful effect produced by the greatness of the cause—the cause of our success is a moral resurrection (by means of the new birth) to the truths and precepts of Christianity. The glorious and wonderful object displayed in the gospel pacifies the sinner’s conscience and purifies his heart. It is the love of the world that continues to mar the heart and the conscience of the unregenerate. The reason why is due to the fact that every lust of the flesh is filled with enmity toward God’s moral majesty (Rom 8:5-8). Only a pure affection can cast out the impure affection. The love of evil is expelled by the love of God.

The matchless grace of God in the gospel makes us new creatures with new desires; thus we must preserve the freeness of the gospel offer. The freer the gospel, the more satisfying the gospel is. Grace is according to godliness. By contrast, if you hold God to be a pensioner to be paid back, “do this and live,” (as under law); it will issue forth in fearfulness.

The “debtor’s ethic” (a term coined by John Piper to describe the pensioner view) says in effect, “God has done this much for you, you ought to do your all for Him.” The “debtor’s ethic” is inadequate to elicit a selfless motive of overflowing gratitude. The redeemed sinner is already battling a flesh which is attracted to legal working (evidenced by the Galatian heresy of perfection of the flesh through law-keeping). The Christian life must never be presented as a legal bargain in which the believer is seeking to square things with his Maker.

Repentance is sometimes falsely described in this way as a legal bargain, as if when the sinner’s level of willingness to release his idols reaches ‘critical mass’ then the Lord is willing to save him. Piper notes that the “debtor’s ethic” mentality is actually driven by self-centeredness, not the desire for God’s glory.

The “command to eternal life” is to come and buy without money and without cost (Is 55:1ff.). Pure divine grace delivers the afflicted conscience from the hand of justice, and delivers the heart from its ungodly tenants. Once awakened by grace, the heart sees its new moral existence and it overflows with gratitude as a result.

Don’t add conditions to the gospel; don’t raise a shred of legality in presenting the gospel or you will raise distrust between God and man. When you place legal conditions upon the gospel, you take away its power to melt and conciliate. The redeemed sinner is under a mighty moral transformation when he is under the belief that he is saved solely by sovereign grace; he is thereby constrained to offer his heart a devoted thing and to deny ungodliness.

Man either operates by the channel of the senses or the channel of faith; only the latter leads to delight in God. We keep the love of the world out of the heart by the love of God. We keep our hearts in the love of God by building ourselves up in our most holy faith (Jude 20). Faith works love, and faith works by love (Gal 5:6; 1 Tim 1:5). It is by gospel faith that love, love which fulfills the law, is admitted to the heart (Rom 13:8, 10). The ability to love supernaturally is the result of being born of God—a work of regeneration which causes us to apprehend God’s love for us (1Jn 4:7-8, 19).

The sinful creature operates either by the channel of senses, or the channel of faith. Only by the latter will he release temporal objects to behold superior objects. This the spiritual seeing Paul sets forth in Ephesians. By the love of God in the gospel, we die to the present world and live to a lovelier world (although at a distance for the present). Says Chalmers, by the love of God in the gospel, a new affection expels the old; all without doing violence to the constitution of man’s moral nature (Ibid.).

Our theme from Ephesians centers upon the truth that God is known by means of the way in which He saves us—by His sovereign grace and mercy. The chief object of our meditation is our relationship with God as it is settled in Christ. “Our theology is that of a crucified God who is “Lamb” and “Husband” to us forever—who in His infinite purity said to us in our filthiness, “Live! Live!” He saw the mystery of iniquity in my heart and still betrothed me and adopted me” (Edward Morgan, The Life and Times of Howell Harris, p. 194).

Salvation imparts a relationship which is to control our lives—our purpose is to press on to know the Lord in worship and devotion by means of considering His saving work towards us. In these next two lessons we are going to gaze upon the Lord through three “portholes,” or access points found in Paul’s first prayer in Ephesians. The three access points are: the hope of His calling, His inheritance in the saints, and His power toward us who believe.

Ephesians 1:15, 16 -- Paul is thanking God for His intervening grace in the life of the Ephesians. The content of Paul’s prayer is an extension of the praise he has offered for God’s sovereign grace in vv. 3-14.

Paul is expressing his gratitude to God for divine intervening grace in the life of his readers, the Ephesians. The Apostle’s prayer of thanksgiving is the recognition that God’s sovereign grace is exemplified in their faith, love and spiritual progress.

Key to our message is WHAT Paul is going to ask for; AND, that he is asking on behalf of folks who are already believers. He wants them to go on in their knowledge of the Lord. The knowledge of God transforms us by degrees—thus growing in your knowledge of Christ is indispensable to your progress toward maturity.

Vs. 17 – Paul’s prayer of intercession concerns the accomplishment of God’s purpose in the lives of these believers; namely that they would grow in the knowledge of the Lord (2 Pet 3:18).That is God’s will for us as well.

What can we learn from this prayer regarding how we can grow in our knowledge of the Lord? Paul’s prayer is a model for us in our apprehension of the knowledge of God. Begin by

approaching God in prayer and asking Him to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in order to know Him better. This is a prayer request to have our capacity for spiritual seeing heightened. Our posture in this prayer is one of worship characterized by overflowing thanksgiving for God’s gracious self-disclosure; He sovereignly initiated the relationship with us. We remember His grace as we pray, that God grants your request solely on the basis of the merits of Christ.

What is the means necessary to achieve the end of knowing God better? Answer: The granting of a spirit of wisdom and revelation (1:17). When Paul refers to the knowledge of the Lord; he uses the strengthened form of the Greek word for know, epiginosko. This intensified word for know means to be personally familiar with and conversant with the object of knowledge.

The Christian is dependent upon the Spirit of God to reveal more of the Lord and His ways to us. The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God. It is His blessed task, His ministry to unfold them through the Word to us (see 1 Cor 2:9-16). He continually gives light—His ministry is to illuminate spiritual truth, giving us understanding and captivating our affections. It is only by His work that we can we know God better.

A spirit of wisdom and revelation is vital because there is nothing more important than knowing God. Your experimental knowledge of God is the one thing you will bring to glory. Your delight in the knowledge of God is your strength (Neh 8:10). Growing in the knowledge of the Lord is to be our consuming passion: “Let us press on to know the Lord” (Hos 6:3).

V. 18 – “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” The prayer is for the insight needed to grasp certain truths that are revealed by the Spirit. The “EYES OF THE HEART” is a fitting metaphor. The Spirit reveals, but we must have certain faculties enlightened in order to receive and grasp what He reveals. The heart of the saved man ‘sees’ what the five senses cannot see. Our physical eyes need light in order to work and the eyes of our heart need spiritual light in order to function.

The Apostle uses a perfect participle to describe the Spirit’s work of enlightening the eyes of the heart. The use of the perfect tense suggests that the enlightenment of our heart’s ‘eyes’ continues to produce a life-transforming result.

Paul frames the object of their knowledge (which the Spirit will enable them to recognize) as three questions. The FIRST truth to be revealed in order to know God better comes from the question,

“what is the hope of His calling?”(v. 18).

‘Calling’ is a salvation term describing God’s sovereign power in bringing us to Himself—to be called is to be saved (1 Cor 1:26). The HOPE of one’s calling is that aspect of salvation for which we are waiting—what we are looking forward to in the future. That hope refers to life in the new heavens and the new earth in the presence of God (Rom 5:2; Eph 5:27; Col 3:4).

PROBLEM: In our generation we reflect too little on the future and almost never upon eternity. This is why you need urgent help from God in order to be able to know the hope to which you have been called. Only then will you be able to navigate with eternity’s values before your spiritual eyes. It is very common today for professing believers to have vague and general thoughts of God, of grace, and of Christ. In our pursuit of the knowledge of God through spiritual seeing we move from vague thoughts to specifics.

When God answers our prayer for a spirit of wisdom and revelation and enlightened ‘eyes of the heart’—He is providing specific heart-thrilling content to our hope. But again, we are not passive in receiving this answer to prayer. The Spirit reveals by means of diligent study and meditation upon the Word of God (Ps 145:5).

Regarding the specific content of our hope—redemption has a result; a consummation. Your right-relatedness to the Trinity through Christ has a very clearly defined goal; it is ultimate conformity to Christ at the moment of glorification. Our election before the foundation of the world is aimed at this goal —“chosen that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love” (1:4).

You’ve been called out of darkness into His marvelous light for this very purpose—that you may gain the glory of Christ (2 Thess 2:14). The more fixed your hope is on the final goal and outcome of redemption, the more straight and resolute will be your walk towards that goal. Perfect conformity to Christ in glory is our necessary ‘fitness’ to please, worship, and enjoy God perfectly.

All history is moving towards this event in which the sons of God are presented publicly to the rational universe (that is before the holy angels). The entire creation is poised for this event (Rom 8:18-25). It is a soul-ravishing thought that God has synchronized our public presentation as the sons of God with the remaking of the universe (into the new heavens and the new earth—see Romans 8:18-25).

The goal of redemption is not adequately described as simply the absence of sin, death, and sorrow and a new immortal body. The consummation of redemption will be the enjoyment of God in Christ communicating Himself to us forever. Regarding the bliss of the eternal state, Howell Harris notes, “It is eternal love attending you: it is Christ given to be your life, light, and blessedness without cessation. And it is the redeemed enjoying God and pleasing God perfectly.”

In glory the Church will be a spotless reflection of the character of the Godhead—God’s communicable attributes will have reached maturity in her—she will be as much like God as creatures can possibly be. Through Christ the new humanity will perfectly reflect the moral majesty of God. Relations within the society of the redeemed will reflect the excellence of relations within the Trinity (perfect love, honor, deference, goodness, humility, wisdom, and truthfulness).

Now all of this is to fulfill God’s vision (dream if you will)—for He has never desisted from the goal He announced originally in Genesis to make man in His image and likeness. What is His dream? It is to have an eternal temple to dwell in. Not a temple made of inanimate things, but a temple of living stones. That is how God describes in Christ, the redeemed, the saints—as living stones that are growing together, being fitted together, being built up into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit; a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (Eph 2:21-22; 1 Pet 2:5).

Heaven is not an eternal vacation—it is an eternal vocation for beholding God’s glory will be the source of our bliss. Randy Alcorn observes in his book, The Treasure Principle, “Heaven will be a place of rest and relief from the burdens of sin and suffering; but it will also be a place of great learning, activity, artistic expression, exploration, discovery, camaraderie, and service,” (Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, p. 36.)

At the consummation the ages, the aim of redemptive history shall be realized (as announced by an angel who is filled with wonder and joy)—“Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them” (Rev 21:3).

There’s an old Chinese proverb, “fish and guests smell after three days.” If we are careful about who stays in our home for an extended period of time, how much more do you think God cares about who His eternal human companions will be? This should give us some insight into our tests and trials, for they keep surfacing where our affections lie. God is wise to test us. Testing exposes our loyalties. Affliction shows us what we really love—it makes us choose, declaring our loyalties—it detaches us from the love of the world and anchors our hope more securely to God as our true ‘home.’

When Puritan pastor Richard Baxter went house to house visiting church members, he always asked his parishioners this question, “Do you see all of life as preparation for the next life?” Only if one can say ‘yes’ is that person truly in touch with the hope of his calling. Thought of heaven is a ‘litmus test.’ It has been said of the Apostle Paul, ‘His religion was supremely the religion of heaven.’

CONCLUSION: To respond to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians chapter one means that we will take action. We will not content ourselves to walk spiritually with eyes half closed. We will stir ourselves to focus on things above. We will meditate upon the Word of God in order to think on another level. We will confess that we have allowed the cares of life to obscure our view of heavenly things. And we will repent of walking by sight and not by faith.

Spiritual seeing produces true knowledge—a growing knowledge of the Lord. We believe in order to better understand. We focus the eyes of our heart so as to take increasing delight in the Lord. As Chalmers has stated so well—only when we are resolved to dwell upon our spiritual blessings in Christ will we cease to be mesmerized by old affections.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 12

DELIGHTING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (PART THREE)

‘Access Points’ to delighting in the Knowledge of God (Eph 1:15-23)

Desire for God is founded upon assurance that we are His children—that we are securely held in His heart of love. Knowing and delighting in God requires that we stir ourselves to seek Him (Deut 4:29). It is our privilege and responsibility to cultivate that desire. God promises that in our search for Him through the scriptural means; He will let us find Him. But our seeking after God must be characterized by a passion which will not give up or settle for distance and remoteness (Jim Berg, Changed into His Likeness, pp. 119-124).

Our panting after God will incorporate the scriptural path of meditation on the Word of God. When we feed on Scripture, we are thinking upon and applying to ourselves what we know of His works, ways, and wonders (J. I. Packer). This involves displaying to the eye of faith the beauty and desirability of God. Without this step we cannot expect to find our ultimate satisfaction in unseen things (2 Cor 4:16-18).

Lest we forget, delighting in God is commanded in Scripture (Ps 37:4). I don’t believe I’m going out on a limb to say that delighting in God is a felt experience. For the Scriptures utilize such terms as taste, pant after, thirst, pleasure and enjoyment. Romans chapter five describes the love of God being shed abroad, or poured out, in the heart of the believer (v. 5).

But this experience of delight in God is not the result of passivity on our part. Maurice Roberts says that if we do not stir ourselves to have fresh encounters with God, a chill will come over the soul and our hearts will go in search of other lovers (The Thought of God, by Maurice Roberts, “Christ Lover of our Souls,” Banner of Truth, 57-66).

Your Christianity is not safe in a compartment partitioned off from the rest of your life. The saving faith granted to every true believer produces a ‘whole-souled’ response to God. In other words, every part of our soul, every faculty of our being is engaged in trusting, enjoying, obeying, and worshipping God. Our affections play a central role in our devotion to the Lord. Delight in God is therefore not an option—we were created for it; it unites the heart and keeps us from dead formalism (protecting us from a divided heart characterized by outward religion only). Our active response to gospel love drives every proper motive in our Christian life. This is the Pauline model of sanctification.

Ecstasy and delight in God are essential to the believer’s soul—they promote sanctification. We are not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration. When the heart goes for long periods of time without warmth from God’s presence, there will be the temptation to find the emotions satisfied from earthly things, not the Spirit of God (Ibid.).

The soul of man was made to worship, to adore, and to pursue happiness. Our daily duty and privilege is to seek this experience from Him until we are joyful partakers of it. To taste this once is to not be satisfied nor rest content, but to seek to have it again and again.

Consider the example of George Muller who ran a large Christian orphanage in early 19ᵗʰ Century England. Busy as he was with the needs of the orphans, George Muller believed that his number one

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

responsibility each day was to begin by finding his highest happiness in the Lord. Muller tended to remain in his quiet time until the joy of God had swept over his soul.

The experience of biblical enjoyment of God is not abnormal or extraordinary, but part of our inheritance—“the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge our inheritance” (Eph 1:14). “Pledge,” “earnest” or initial payment is not confined to the doctrinal, or theoretical, the “down payment” of our inheritance strongly implies that the enjoyment of God is to be expected, looked for (Ibid.).

When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He makes His wonderful love real to us. This gracious communication to us in this life by the Spirit generates felt joy and exhilaration in connection with the consciousness that one is a child of God. This experience is not confined to the N.T. God is my exceeding joy (Ps 43:4). Taste the goodness of the Lord (Ps 43:4). “Tasting” is experiential; it is the ecstasy of the Spirit poured out in the heart—that we might pant after Him, thirst for Him, desire to appear before Him, and long to enjoy His loving-kindness forever.

The godly expect this ongoing “tasting;” it is not just mental understanding, but heart-warming experiences. It is felt enjoyment of the love of God (Ps 63:2-7). How different is the heartless formalized religion that so often passes for genuine holiness. Without heart affection, our religious knowledge is offensive to God. True worship is not a function of rote learning. It is through true worship that believers find this felt blessing.

Delighting in God, as any other aspect of faith, is a spiritual art learned from the Word of God. But how do we go to God for the sense of His love? It begins with an act of faith. We must believe that such a thing as a sense of His love is to be had in this life. We must expect such an experience.

Stoic professors of Christianity may scoff in their imagined wisdom at such a religious experience (and condescendingly smile at our reports). But the scriptural enjoyment of Christ is not fanaticism; it is the subjective fruit of the gospel in the heart-experience of the believer (Ibid.).

Are you convinced that the experience of Christ’s love can be felt? Then go to God in prayer for it. Go to the throne of grace for the choice favor of tasting, so as to be made aware (subjectively conscious of) the love God has for you in Christ. We often stray at this point—our tendency may be to come to God in prayer to tell Him how much we love Him. But, to experience God’s love it is necessary to put one self as far down as possible. Start in prayer by admitting how piteously low our love to God is. Assume a lowly place in praying, “For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Is 57:15) (See also Is 66:1-2).

Don’t make it a habit to pray without God’s power in your heart—it is folly, and it is harmful to treat prayer merely as an exercise of mind without expecting to emerge from the presence of God without a fresh token of His love. In true prayer there is a concurrence of man’s spirit WITH God’s Spirit. The Spirit assists with groaning too deep for words (Rom 8:26).

We are to treat God with the awe His majesty deserves—lowness, contrition, self-abasement; yet not with detached politeness. He expects us to wrestle with Him as Jacob did, casting ourselves at His feet and making mighty demands—deadly earnest to get His blessing, expiring at His feet if we do not succeed. Such concentration in prayer demands undistracted focus and an unhurried, settled mind before His felt presence. The believer rises from his knees at times with joy inexpressible at the prospect of having received the unforgettable impression of Christ’s love upon his spirit (Ibid.).

Spiritual decline sets in when we lack the commitment to take hold of God and when we fail to pursue delight in Him. Without a commitment to take hold of God in the above way, there is a danger of learning to tolerate living away from the experience of the love of Christ. Our corruptions work against daring to draw near. We tend to retreat into the shadows away from Christ for months on end until we become strangers to the inward enjoyment of the love of Christ in the heart.

A spiritual chill comes over the soul—callousness insulates the spirit from intimacy with God. Worldliness, like cracked layers of paint, coats the soul and makes the believer accustomed to feeling nothing. Busy-ness for God may continue. But it is dangerous to live without the heart-warmings that are all important to spiritual well-being.

The next step of spiritual declension involves slipping into dead formalism (outward religion void of spiritual passion). Prayer becomes mere duty and routine. Bible reading is kept up for appearance, or to salve the conscience. There is an accompanying loss of joy in things spiritual—without relish for the things of God. In this condition we tend to choose companions that are cool regarding devotion to Christ, who do not challenge us spiritually. It is surprising that this condition is not more readily diagnosed—but like the church of Ephesus of Revelation 2, works, labor, patience, zeal, and orthodoxy may conceal a heart that has left its first love of Christ.

A heart that is spiritually lukewarm is often concealed in Christian workers who may be actively fighting against ecumenism, liberalism, and secularism. Countless folks are convinced that they are serving God even though they are engaged in spiritual decline.

When we stir ourselves to experience the love of God, we will have strength against temptation and we will have effectiveness in service. Without fresh encounters with Christ, the soul becomes restless for pleasure. It is unfortified against an ambush by Satan. The love of God experienced puts iron into the backbone—the believer relishing God’s love can easily say no to the world’s solicitations. But without these heart warmings of God’s love in Christ, the soul is far too ready to compromise when temporal things compete for its affection.

The Lord requires we walk close to Him. Without conscientious fellowship we will lose the opportunity for genuine service. Spiritual effectiveness comes out of the secret place with God.

Guarding time with the Lord in which we seek Him passionately births new vision and new triumphs. To pray well is to have studied well (Martin Luther). Nothing must be permitted to weaken our cultivation of fellowship with Christ. All of our outward duties need to be re-molded to be a means of fellowship with God. Fruit-bearing is a byproduct of abiding in Christ (Jn 15:4-5).

Abiding in Christ is our number one priority—we are to live unto God, upon God, and for God. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil 1:21). To be effective we must excel at fellowship with Christ. The power to influence others spiritually is a function of emerging from our prayer closets as those melted by gospel love (Maurice Roberts).

The SECOND truth on delighting in the knowledge of God to be revealed from our passage is, “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints?” (v. 18b). This truth continues the “glory” theme. At the consummation of the age our sonship will become instantly visible to the watching universe (see 1:14; Rom 8:19, 23; 1 Jn 3:1). Now concerning God’s glory in the Church, the Bride of Christ, the Apostle John tells us in his gospel that the saints are a gift from the Father to the Son (see Jn 6 and 17). In essence the Father selected out a “Bride” for His Son—the redeemed make up this celestial Bride. God’s valuation of us His people is established by His valuation of the Son (Jn 17:22-23).

It is precisely at this point where we need the Spirit’s help. Our slumbering spiritual eyes must be opened to take in this glorious spiritual light. We need to know who we are and what our destiny is as God sees it. We must move from doubt to certainty in the matter of these spiritual realities if we are to grow to maturity. When we are preoccupied with basing our intrinsic worth on temporal things it inhibits our ability to reason spiritually—the issue is not net worth in the world, but our identity in Christ! Paul prays that his readers would grasp the riches of God’s inheritance in the saints.

God’s inheritance is not the holy angels, nor is it the nearly infinite rainbow of beautiful galaxies, it is a company of redeemed sinners who are conformed to their Savior and Head; the society of the redeemed that make up God’s eternal companions. This is precisely why Paul prays for a spirit of wisdom and revelation, and for enlightened eyes of the heart—this will not grip you so as to captivate and ravish your heart unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. When He does reveal it to you, it will prove to be an incentive to live in light of the glory of God and in view of heaven and the riches of glory to be lavished upon you (see Eph 1:8; 2:7). Is it any wonder Paul that wants us to grasp who we are in Christ, for God has made us to be His inheritance in Christ.

We who make up the company of the redeemed are Christ’s inheritance, His Bride—that the Lord Jesus Christ might be the First-born among many brethren (Rom 8:29). Wonder of wonders— He inherits us and we inherit Him!

Not only do we form Christ’s inheritance, the riches of God in Christ comprise our inheritance (including the physical creation)! Abraham, a type of every believer lived in tents his whole life even though he was heir of the world—Rom 4:13. Yes, the meek shall inherit the earth. Abraham is the prototypical heir of the world. He was willing to live in a tent, owning no land except for his wife’s grave plot. He could hold things loosely in his mortal life because he knew that in the age to come he would inherit it all as ‘God’s country, God’s city’ (Heb 11:14-16). It’s reminiscent of ‘Pilgrim’ leaving the city of destruction in order to enter the celestial city (in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress).

The subject of the saints as Christ’s inheritance opens up for us the mutual love typified in the marriage covenant. Heaven is about mutuality—I am my Beloved’s and He is mine (Song of Songs 6:3). In heaven mutual ownership will take our joy over the top. This is to be a source of delight to us—the marriage metaphor is a figure of speech filled with incredible promises of mutuality and intimate love. “And I have made Thy Name known to them and will make it known; that the love where with Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:26). Concerning this ‘other worldly love,’ C. S. Lewis offered the following contrast: compared to the Lord dwelling with the redeemed in glory, the most ideal romance among mortals is like a glass of milk mixed with water—it’s insipid by comparison.

Mutuality means that we give ourselves to God and He to us in a covenant of co-ownership. As Spurgeon said, “I’ll be able to say on that day, God on yonder throne is mine!” This is where God is taking us—glory is moving closer and closer to us. In glory our fellowship with the Lord will be one of perfect intimacy. “Our communion with God lies in his giving himself to us and our giving ourselves and all that he requires to him” (John Owen, Communion with God, abridged version, Banner of Truth, p. 3). Heaven will be the consummation of the great mystery, Christ in you and you in Christ (Col 1:27.)

To be in God’s presence is to behold God. The pure pleasure involved in beholding God has begun in the saints (2 Cor 3:18). But for the present in our beholding we see in a mirror dimly—then it will be face to face. “And it will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us” (Is 25:9).

Mutuality is alluded to in a number of Scripture passages on heaven. “And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bondservants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads” (Rev 22:3-4).

Regarding the bliss of seeing the glory of Christ, the Reformers referred to “The beatific vision.” To beatify is to bring a person to a state of exalted joy above anything possible on earth. It means the vision that makes us blessed, or happy. ‘Beatific’ is from two Latin words, “beatus”, blessed, and “facere,” to make. To look at God will change us and make us like Him, “We shall be with Him and see Him as He is (1 Jn 3:2).

The beatific vision which will bring us endless exalted joy will be our beholding of Christ in His glory (this is what our Lord prayed for in John 17:24—that the saints would behold His glory.) The sight of Christ glorified will ravish our souls (2 Thess 1:10). We will never cease to marvel at the sight of God looking out at us through eyes of flesh—our amazement will never cease as we behold our glorified Savior with the marks of our atonement on His glorified body. The slain Lamb is the center of heaven; the Light of heaven. The invalid Puritan Isaac Ambrose, who from his convalescent bed meditated on the glory of Christ for thirty years, said, God’s desire is to converse with us after our [human] form (Isaac Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus, p. 210). In other words, our communion with the Godhead is through Christ —God in our human nature.

This vision of God in Christ will be the consummation of our knowing God and will give us full delight and joy for all eternity. “In your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps 16:11) (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, pp. 189-190).

Your present ability to behold the Lord, albeit in a mirror dimly, is what differentiates you from the unsaved around you. Scripture describes the redeemed in 2 Corinthians 3:14-18 as the unveiled ones. Beholding the glory of the Lord is a gift of sovereign grace that has begun for the redeemed (2 Cor 4:4-6). Our present beholding is preparing us for eternal beholding.

Though you behold in a mirror dimly now, you are being fitted to behold face to face. In order to behold face to face, you must be a partaker of God’s holiness so that you can look upon Him without fear, shame, and covering your face. This will happen the moment the true believer sees Christ—when we see Him we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is (1 Jn 3:2; Phil 3:20-21).

Your eternal vocation will involve beholding—it will be your source of ravishment and bliss. We would ask by way of application: is beholding so as to delight in the Lord a part of your vocation now? If so, then you are experiencing the answer to the prayer in our text—the petition for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of the Lord with the eyes of the heart being enlightened.

Our blessed privilege of beholding the glory of the Lord now by faith in His Word requires a brief clarification: this beholding does not mean attempting to picture Christ’s glorified appearance. What it does mean is thinking upon Christ’s humiliation; character; majesty; vastness; and sufficiency. Christ’s glory is revealed in His character and in His work of redemption. His redemptive work purchased the grace for us described in the gospel promises—dwelling upon Christ as He is offered in the gospel promises is inseparable from beholding.

I find myself agreeing with Maurice Roberts and other divines who caution us about studying God’s attributes in a cold, sterile, philosophic manner. Our study of God ought to be in a doxological mindset (or worshipful mindset) – that is for the purpose of delight and enjoyment and adoration and relational knowledge of Him. This exhortation is a logical bridge to our third access point in Paul’s prayer.

Vv. 19-20 – Now referring back to our passage in Paul’s prayer, the THIRD truth to be revealed in order to increase our knowledge of God is, “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe?” (v. 19, 20 ff.) What comes to mind when you think of a demonstration of God’s power? Perhaps the parting of the Red Sea? Or the very act of creation when by the Word of the Lord trillions of plants and animals sprang to life from dust. Or maybe the explosion of a supernova creating a glowing cloud scores of light years in diameter.

Well, Paul’s choice for our knowledge of God’s power is in keeping with the acts of God that concern you directly—that is His sovereign grace revealed in the gospel. Paul highlights the power of God exerted when Christ was raised from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the vindication of Christ. It is the destruction of sin; it is the conquest of death. It is the guarantee of our justification. It is the proof positive and pledge of your eternal glory. No wonder Paul regarded God’s power in the resurrection to be an avenue for a growing knowledge of the Lord. Paul wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection (Phil 3:10).

Beloved, the death and resurrection of Christ is the cause of your new birth. God can make a sinner a new creature by means of the new birth because Christ has dealt decisively with sin and spiritual deadness by means of the cross and the empty tomb. To be made alive spiritually at the moment of regeneration is described in Ephesians 2 and Colossians 2 as “being raised with Christ.”

But in these verses (19, 20 ff.) the Apostle tells us something amazing about our new birth. “The same superhuman power was needed to make us believe, as was needed and exerted to raise Christ from the dead (vs. 20)” (JFB Commentary, 1 vol. p. 1282). Paul is stating concerning the greatness of God’s power toward us who believe—that these acts of God are “in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (1:19-20).

Think of it, the magnitude of power necessary to raise Christ from the dead was also exerted by God when He reached down and saved you! This is tied to your knowledge of the Lord; it must sink in deeply; it must be perceived by the “eyes of your heart” that a miracle of Almighty God was necessary to produce spiritual life and saving faith in you (prior to your new birth, spiritually you were as dead as stinking Lazarus in his tomb).

Not only is the resurrection of Christ the cause for the new birth, resurrection is an analogy for the new birth (see Eph 2 and Col 2 a continuation of the same line or argument. Salvation analogies include: creation, resurrection, and birth). In each case there is not cooperation, but divine (unilateral) action upon dead matter, a dead creature, or an utterly dependent fetus.

The new birth is a spiritual resurrection which joins us to Christ and seats us in the heavenlies (Eph 2:6). That is our destination—because of union with Christ heaven is the proper place we belong. But our right to be there, our qualification to be there, our fitness to be there is all due to our union with a Perfect Savior who is able to save to the uttermost (Heb 7:25).

What a deep mystery, for our sakes, the only begotten Son of God lay in a dark stone tomb as a human corpse—the Creator of the universe a cadaver. Then He was raised with power (Rom 1:4) and seated above all authority. God, by means of the wounds of Christ, was conquering His enemies and ours. And our enemies were: sin, death, hell, the world, the flesh, the devil, and the condemnation of God’s law.

After His death on the cross, He went from a corpse to Ruler of the universe. He did all this to resurrect His eternal Bride, the Church. He had to span the chasm that lay between dust and glory by taking on a body of dust; He had to span the chasm that lay between death and the throne of heaven so that we could go from dying to glorified. He had to span the gap between depravity and burning holiness so that we could go from rebels to worshippers.

This is why it says He is the Alpha and Omega: because He has first place in everything—as He says of Himself in Revelation 1:18, “I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” He has first place in everything; that is the Father’s purpose (Col 1:18). Christ completely spans the infinite gap between self-existent holy God and the defiled creature of dust. By the sacrifice of Himself, Christ has dealt decisively with everything that separates us from God, and He has dealt decisively with everything that disqualifies us from eternal life and blessedness. How we need to ‘feed’ upon Christ as our qualification for divine favor and acceptance.

God’s attributes were not put on display all at once until the work of Christ. Understanding this fact is an important access point to your growth in the knowledge of God. Here’s why, consider that God has literally harnessed His attributes and put them to work in your salvation.

Think of it—He is exercising His infinite love, wisdom, and power (which are all resident in Christ) in order to bring you to glory. God is exerting His attributes for His own glory; but also for your eternal welfare and glory. This is so important to our topic—God wants you to grow in the knowledge of Him by seeing His attributes at work, harnessed in order to save you.

God can only be known in covenant because He dwells in burning holiness—the cherubim cover their faces as they call out holy, holy, holy. God says who would dare to risk his life by approaching me —I dwell in unapproachable light (Jer 30:21; 1 Tim 6:16).

God cannot be known and enjoyed apart from a place of safety—creating a place of safety is what He has done in placing us in Christ, our ‘City of Refuge” (Heb 6:13-20). By His wisdom, power, and love, God has carved out a place of protection for us in the wounds, blood, and body of Christ. Christ is given to us as our covenant with God (Is 42:6; 49:8).

Let’s go even deeper—the unsearchable riches of the Godhead are put on display in Christ— which means that HOW God is taking the Church from dust to glory has become the primary revealer of the Godhead to the holy angels (Eph 3:8-10).

It says in 2 Peter 1:3-4 that the precious and magnificent promises of the Gospel are given to us out of (or by means of) God’s own glory and excellence. Thus the Gospel promises to forgive you and to adopt you in Christ are promises cast in the foundry of God’s attributes. God took His own attributes and poured them into the mould of the Gospel promises. God wants you to know Him better and better as you take delight in all that He is toward you in Christ. We are to dwell upon Him as the God of all grace who is exercising His mighty attributes on our behalf. This makes us an owner, not merely a spectator or observer.

God exports His life, love, blessedness, and righteousness across time and eternity and gives Himself to us in Christ. This is why at the moment of salvation (2 Cor 4:4-6) the believing sinner beholds God Almighty’s glory in the face of Christ. The sinner sees for the very first time WHO God is —that God plucks out His own heart (so to speak) in the giving of His Son in order to reconcile hostile sinners to Himself. It’s God’s attributes harnessed in the Person and work of Christ in order to bring us to God.

When the sinner sees by faith that his own eternal welfare and God’s glory are forever joined and bound up together in the Person of Christ—hostility toward God is purged from the sinner’s heart; it’s impossible for the former enmity to remain there. When by faith the believing sinner beholds this display of divine love; it casts enmity out of his heart—it makes a friend of a former enemy (it reconciles – Col 1:21-22). The exercise of God’s immutable and glorious attributes (in the redemptive work of Christ) accomplishes not only our highest good (eternal salvation)—but it also is the highest form of God’s self-revelation; this revelation of God in our behalf will redound to the eternal glory to God.

We will experience delight when we meditate upon who God is (it is always who God is toward you in Christ. It is always Christ’s perfect suitability for our every need. It is always Christ who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30). Christ is the wisdom and power of God; He holds His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King in order to bring you all the way to God.

This is the truth of the Gospel which dispels lies about God; lies that kept the soul in its dark dungeon. Now that we are sons of light; we find that we have communion with God when we take Christ for the reasons God gave Him (acceptance, forgiveness, righteousness, access). God is exalted when you keep taking Christ for the reasons the Father gave Him.

Consider what Owen says in his book, Communion with God, “We must assure ourselves that there is nothing more acceptable to God than to keep our hearts filled with him as the eternal source of all that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus. Our resistance to walking close with God stems from the fact that we do not behold and receive his love. The more we see God’s love by faith, the more will we delight in him” (Owen, p. 32).

God’s giving of himself as an all-sufficient God, to be enjoyed by his creatures, to provide for all their needs out of himself, is only revealed in Christ. In Christ, God is in covenant with his people to be a Father to them. In this covenant he has promised to lay out himself as the one who alone can meet the needs of his creatures. In Christ, God has promised to give himself to them for their eternal good and to be their exceedingly great reward (Ibid, p. 87).

We must be convinced that God will use all his glorious attributes for our good. He has set forth Christ to be the Lord our Righteousness (Isaiah 45:24,25; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:18). We must be convinced that His attributes are powerful and able to bring us into eternal glory. To assure us of this, God wraps up the whole covenant of grace in one promise: “I will be your God.” Now we know that this Gospel covenant is confirmed in the blood of Christ. To be in Christ by faith is to know the wonder, excellence, wisdom and knowledge of God exercised in the salvation of sinners (Ibid, pp. 88-89).

Going to Christ as one’s sin bearer is the believer’s daily work. Christ calls the believer to daily lay the burden of their sins upon him. By faith the saints are to see God laying their sins upon Christ. This is what it means to know Christ crucified. Believers draw near and take from Him that righteousness which he has wrought for them, so fulfilling what Paul taught (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ is delighted that his saints should always hold communion with him by giving him their sins and receiving his righteousness. We commune with Christ when we keep taking Him to be our righteousness (Ibid, p. 144).

Vv. 21-23 – In these verses Paul declares the power of Christ over everything for the sake of the church. The living, ruling Christ pervaded the consciousness of the early church. The saints who made up the early church exhibited a fearless trust that nothing could stand in the way of their inheriting of the promises; for Christ, our Mediator and Priest is our Mediatorial King—He orders all things from His sovereign throne. This enabled them to witness with boldness and to face a martyr’s death.

CONCLUSION: When we come to the place where we attempt to comprehend God and worship Him, our meditation must focus upon HOW God has revealed Himself—we must return to our passage— that God has revealed Himself in guaranteed hope, in promised inheritance, and in matchless saving power—these three are access points to delight in God.

God wants you to learn to pray personally for spiritual understanding; for it is God’s way of furthering disclosures of Himself. It is God’s way of moving us from beholding to delight to worship. The benefits are so great; to have a proper estimate of your riches in Christ; to have a well-founded hope of salvation is the support and stability for the soul. A full Christ-centered assurance that the promises will be realized by you is a living sanctifying force! This is the joy for which we were created anew. Christ has purchased this for us; it is our birthright in Him. The more we believe this to be true; the more we will find happiness in the Lord accessible to us.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 13

THE MORTIFICATION OF SIN AND THE BELIEVER’S

TRIUMPH OVER TEMPTATION

(adapted from The Enemy Within by Chris Lundgaard)

INTRODUCTION: In this lesson we will discover together that success in resisting temptation begins far in advance before the temptation strikes. The action which must precede resistance of temptation is known as mortification of sin. To mortify sin means to put it to death. Believers are commanded in God’s Word to put sin to death by reckoning that the members of their body are dead to sin by reason of union with Christ (Col 3:5ff). Ongoing mortification of sin is absolutely essential if we are to resist temptation consistently. The believer who is experiencing victory over the solicitations of sin is an individual who is constantly engaged in the mortification of sin—or the putting of sin to death. Obedient believers are always cutting off the occasion to sin by refusing to make a provision for the flesh (Rom 13:14).

The true believer knows that of the three enemies of his soul: the world; the flesh; and the devil —one of those three, the flesh, resides in his own person. Therefore he keeps a constant watch upon his own soul knowing that the temptation to be ruled by his own desires is ever present. When David king of Israel committed adultery with Bathsheba, he had become vulnerable to sexual immorality because he had drifted away from the constant habit of mortification.

Christians who study their Bibles are aware of the human condition—namely that the entrance of sin has not only brought guilt, wrath, pollution, and rebellion; it has also decimated our sense of security, significance, purpose, and meaning. Sin has driven a wedge into our human unity, fragmenting our souls. By contrast, when man was in a state of innocence, God was at the center of man’s being—our Creator provided unity, purpose, identity, and meaning. But since the fall, self and sin have rushed into the void. As a consequence, depraved man has been charmed by the world’s overtures. The world promises to integrate the soul and to supply man’s deepest needs—offering a pseudo security and significance. As a result, nothing is easier than to worship created things (Rom 1:25). Thus the child of God is to fortify his heart against the deceptions of sin by loving God’s truth and by pursuing satisfaction in Him.

“All sin comes from not putting supreme value on the glory of God—this is the very essence of sin” (John Piper). “Oh how horrible our sins look when they are committed by someone else” (Chuck Smith). “The pleasure of sin is soon gone, but the sting remains.” “Sin has the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages” (Thomas Watson). “Christian, you are never out of danger of sinning” (Spurgeon). “Sin goes in disguise, and thence is welcome; like Judas, it kisses and kills; like Joab, it salutes and slays” (George Swinnock).

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

I. The Purpose of Mortification of Sin

The purpose of mortification (putting sin to death) is to arrive at the goal for which God in His grace laid hold of us—namely, conformity to Christ (2 Thess 2:14; Rom 8:29ff.). God always accomplishes His purposes with a precise goal in view. God declares the end from the beginning (Is 46:10). God decrees, He predestines, He foreordains—He works with the end in mind. Discussion: what specific end or goal is described in the following verses Eph 1:4; Rom 8:28-30?

We must learn to cultivate the habit of mortification of sin with the END in mind. Mortification of sin is not an end in itself. We are not putting sin to death merely for the purpose being practical moralists, or because a virtuous life is superior to an unethical life. Why is having the right end in mind in our mortification of sin so important? In part, the answer is that it is possible to engage in mortification for the wrong reasons. Some ‘knuckle under’ to a coercive moral structure for the purpose of gaining respectability from their peers or superiors. Others pride themselves on their ability to adhere to a moral code. In the case of the Colossian believers, their efforts at mortification were often linked to asceticism—the severe treatment of the human body for spiritual purposes. Paul refutes asceticism in Colossians 2:20-23—asceticism had the wrong end in view, for it suggested that those who engage in such practices were able to attain the highest levels of spirituality. The focus was on self; not on Christ.

In our struggle with the flesh; we must begin with the right end in mind. The goal of mortification is life with God in glory. All we do in our efforts at sanctification by way of mortification should serve an ultimate end—the end for which we were created anew in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:17; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Eph 5:27). Sin has twisted the image of God. The Lord recreates and restores His people to the perfect image of God. Since we are new creatures created anew in Christ, we are to abandon the old sinful behaviors and attitudes and adopt the new. Our efforts at mortification are not merely focused on abstinence; but upon replacement behaviors. Therefore in mortification we are to put on the new man and put off the old man (Eph 4:22-32; Col 3:8-17ff.).

II. The Place of Mortification

Mortification is absolutely necessary if you want to have spiritual life. It is not optional like a vacation home or elective surgery. Mortification is not easy. We are not to weigh the benefits against the cost. Mortification of sin is mandatory for every true believer (Rom 8:12-13). No one who hopes to live in God and with God can decline his or her obligation to mortify sin. The nature of our flesh demands constant mortification.

Romans 7:7-25 depicts indwelling sin as an operative principle:

• Sin dwells in us as an operative principle
• Sin offers the incentives of power, pleasure, and freedom
• Sin is parasitic; it depends upon our consent
• Sin seeks to press us into its mould in order to bring us into subjection
• Sin wants sole (unshared) rule over an individual
• Sin wants to catapult the individual toward death

You can’t do anything pleasing to God unless you are putting the flesh to death. Because the struggle is constant, you’ll have to keep overcoming the flesh. In order to have victory, you’ll have to think self-consciously about the battle: “This is for all the marbles.” “How I use the members of my body is a declaration about the identity of the one I serve.” “Those who are deceived go with the flow instead of mortifying sin.” Discussion: see Gal 5:17ff. Why does Paul speak of the prospect of being deceived in Ephesians 5:6? Does the deceived person in this text imagine that he may tolerate some sins and still be spiritually safe and secure? Do you think it is common in our society for people to be living a divided life—an outward form of religion with an inward rebellion against God?

III. The Practice of Mortification

The believer must know his divine resources for mortification (see 1 Cor 10:13; Jn 3:34; Rom 8:32ff.). We are not teaching a ‘bootstrap’ approach to sanctification—even the spiritual discipline of mortification is a function of grace-enablement. The cross, the Word, the gospel, and the Spirit comprise our divine resources for resisting temptation. We must know the present value of the cross for present change. A new record in heaven and a new power over sin go together (Timothy Lane, Paul David Tripp, How People Change, New Growth Press, 2006, p. 32). Discussion: See Romans 6—describe again the divine provision for victory over sin as a result of the present value of the cross.

The believer must not receive divine resources passively. Instead there must be diligent application and appropriation of the divine enablement provided for us. If you receive your resources passively; there will be very very slow spiritual growth. In order to actively appropriate our divine resources for mortification, the following features will characterize our efforts:

1. FIRST: Dedicate yourself to mastery of the means of grace (the disciplines of grace) in order to defeat sin and the flesh. In other words, know your spiritual resources and appropriate them. To do so you will have to exert constant resistance against the flesh by the Spirit’s enablement.
2. SECOND: There is an immense difference between reading the Bible and meditating on the Bible. Reading is only ‘brushing against’ the truth. Meditating on the Word is what is required in order to have your life ordered and transformed. “Meditation is the best beginning of prayer, and prayer is the best conclusion of meditation” (George Swinnock). “If I have observed anything by experience, it is this: a man may take the measure of his growth and decay in grace according to his thoughts and meditations upon the Person of Christ, and the glory of Christ’s kingdom, and of His love” (John Owen).

Discussion: See Hebrews 5:12-14, then describe the role of the Word in the thought life of the mature.

3. THIRD: Meditation requires interpretive skills; time for reflection; and penetrating application to one’s own life. Those who meditate are deadly serious about what the Word says as it intersects with their lives—it is the work of a lifetime. It is continual biblical self-confrontation—this is absolutely essential to the ‘Transformation Mandate.” That mandate, found in Romans 12:1-2, indicates that we are either being transformed by the action of God’s truth renewing our minds, OR, we are being conformed to the world and its desires and values. The category of ‘static’ or stationary does not exist; here is no neutrality, no ‘de-militarized zone’, and no pacifism in the battle.

IV. The Tactics of Temptation

God has given us the knowledge in his Word that the primary way temptation works is by deceit (Eph 4:22). To yield to sin is to be hoodwinked by our own desires (James 1:14ff.). The sinful flesh has one goal—death. You are trying to mortify the flesh; the flesh is trying to kill you (1 Pet 2:11; James 1:15; Rom 8:6). In order to avoid being deceived, we must know that the flesh pretends to be your friend—offering to make you happy if you sow to its desires. But, the flesh has an agenda of slavery to sin and spiritual death. The solicitations by sin offer the false promise of fulfillment while hiding the price tag of guilt; shame; bondage; hopelessness; loss; and alienation.

It is vitally important to know that the flesh is armed to deceive you, enslave you, and slay you. If a burglar invaded your home, you would immediately call the police to prevent your possessions from being ransacked. We need to know why we behave so differently when sin threatens to break in and wreak destruction upon our souls. Why do we let our guard down; unlock the door; and put out the welcome mat?

Discussion: Describe how the flesh is a covert enemy that has a secret truce with Satan and the world.

The degrees of temptation are spelled out in James 1:12-15:

1. The mind is dragged away from being a watchman of the soul
2. The affections become entangled and interested in sin’s offers
3. The will is overcome and consents to sin’s offers
4. The will and actions give birth to acts of sin
5. Sin as master enslaves and results in death (not a description of believers)

The faculties of our soul must operate in unison in order to resist temptation.

1. The MIND is renewed by God in order to discern what pleases God. The mind is a watchman of the soul—it makes discerning judgments about what is proposed (Prov 4:23).
2. The AFFECTIONS respond to the mind. “Yes, this is a good thing.” Or, “No, this may look attractive; but I hate this—there is revulsion in it.” The affections respond to what the mind says whether good or bad. “Do, or don’t, develop an appetite for this.”
3. The WILL seeks to consent to, and carry out, the ruling desire of the affections (whether holy or unholy). Notice the number of times the phrase, “I will,” or “I shall” appears in Psalms 57, 101, and 145.

The flesh tempts the mind; seeking to convince the mind of the legitimacy of its overtures to sin. The battle is for the mind. The mind is the sentry posted to keep the thief of sin out of the soul. What happens in mind renewal? In scriptural mind renewal, we feed on the truths of Scripture. In so doing, there is a renewed commitment to love the Lord and the truth of God; to see its preciousness; and to build our lives upon God’s truth as upon rock. In mind renewal, there is strong emphasis on the contrast or antithesis between the two paths; the two ways; and the two destinies (Matt 7:13-14).

The flesh has countless tactics to persuade us that a temptation is no real danger. The flesh seeks to weaken the perception that there is real danger in sin. The flesh wants to weaken our understanding of the purposes of God’s grace (Titus 2:11-14). The antinomian (lawless) thrust of the flesh is to separate the remedy of grace from the design of grace. To only focus on forgiveness is a ‘half gospel.’ The ‘half gospel’ neglects the gospel mandate of conformity to Christ and deliverance from the power of sin.

The flesh uses a ‘half gospel’ to view grace as pardon only. A half gospel will make you far more vulnerable to sin—for the flesh uses the half gospel concept as a strategy to convince us that the present danger of sin has been carried away by Christ. One of the symptoms of holding to the half gospel is imagining that the grace of God has neutralized or removed the dire danger of sin. The immense danger of the ‘half gospel’, also called the ‘gospel gap’ is addressed 2 Peter 1:4-11.

Discussion: We ought to be sobered by the severity of the warnings in Scripture about turning the grace of God into a license for sinning (Jude 3-4; Heb 12:10, 14-17).

The temptations of the flesh also seek to incorporate the imagination. We are drawn into how

delightful things might be. We allow our minds to drift into scenarios in which we picture certain possibilities. These possibilities are then used to justify our actions—though they are contrary to God’s clear commands.

Steps of sin through imagination are often as follows:

• A degree of discontent followed by coveting (low thoughts of God’s goodness)
• Fixing the mind on something or someone you think will bring happiness
• Feeding the desire until it becomes a ruling desire
• Plotting on how to bring the fantasy into reality
• Sell the soul for it—willing to die for it (sin’s ‘madness’)

In order to obey God in anything, there must be an ongoing mortification of the flesh. God produced the new birth in us in order that our wills might have the power to choose only what is good for the soul. Nevertheless we are in a battle between flesh and Spirit (Gal 5:17).

1. To obey God in anything we must mortify the flesh. The refusal to mortify is sin.
2. Our battle is life versus death. It is resist sin or die (Rom 8:12-13).
3. We must listen to the Spirit’s resistance of the flesh. Walk in step with the Spirit and you will not carry out the sinful desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16, 18).
4. The obedient believer yields to the Spirit and cooperates with the Spirit (Phil 2:12-13).

Discussion: Is there a consciousness of the Spirit’s power, presence, and help as the believer seeks to say no to the flesh? Do you by faith in the Word experience the Spirit’s work of warning, reminding, assisting, and enabling? Consider how closely the Spirit works with the believer’s conscience.

V. What are the steps of ‘rebounding’ after sinning?

1. ‘Debriefing’ is an important part of meditation. Meditate on your failures in the presence of Christ and His Word. Confess your sin to the Lord in a specific manner (1 Jn 1:9). Identify, and confront your part in being willing to be deceived (Hos 14:1-3; Jer 3:12-14, 22; 4:1). Acknowledge that you were willing to put something in the creation in place of God (which amounts to idolatry— Colossians 3:5).
2. Practice ‘search and destroy’—how did the evil intruder get past your defenses? How can you strengthen the protective perimeter around your heart? Why did you let him in willingly? How will you hunt him down and eliminate him? Why did you call him a friend when he was a cruel enemy? How will you determine to avoid being seduced by this same deceiver in the future? How will you exercise faith in God’s Word in the future—the next time you are tempted. Every moral failure involves unbelief.

3. Fortify your “wall” where it is weak—how did temptation have such an easy entrance? Learn to build a case for obedience, and a case against disobedience. As you meditate on the Word, “collect” the benefits of obedience and stockpile consequences of disobedience. Learn to ‘preach’ these to yourself. Read the Word and “mix” faith with it (Heb 4:1-2). Compose mental ‘sermons’ which you preach to yourself which exalt God and His truth and which abominate sin as high-handed treason against His holy character and majesty.

4. Resolve to care more deeply for your relationship with the Lord. Sanctification is the ‘byproduct’ of maintaining our relationship with the Lord—guarding our communion and intimacy with Him by opposing anything which jeopardizes that fellowship. Our loyalty to the Lord is to be characterized by purity and simplicity (2 Cor 11:3). Faithless Israel was condemned for having a loyalty to the Lord which was easily distracted and temporary only (Hos 6:4).

VI. Tips for gaining Mastery of Mortification

Remember that we become like what we worship (2 Cor 3:18). The human heart is always worshipping—the heart is the place where worship takes place. Therefore, we must watch over our hearts with all diligence (Prov 4:23; Matt 6:19-21; Col 3:1-3). We are becoming today what we will be tomorrow. I frequently tell the men whom I disciple that they have a spiritual biography that is under construction; it is being written each day and it will be read publicly at the judgment seat of Christ.

Consider that another weapon against sin which helps to drive mortification is joy. There is joy in consolidating our affections on the Person of Christ. “Lord give me a united heart to revere Thy Name!” (Ps 86:11). We are most happy when we are most holy. Simple and pure devotion to Christ is a powerful weapon against the temptations of sin (2 Cor 11:3). As we exercise ongoing faith in Christ as He is offered in the gospel, the Spirit produces peace, hope and joy in our lives (Rom 15:13; 14:17).

Avoid reducing mortification to a task. See mortification as an expression of your love and submission to Christ—as a part of maintaining intimacy and loyalty to Him. True mortification is affection-driven says Paul as he contrasts it to the self-focused efforts of asceticism (severe treatment of the body) (Col 3:1-4ff.). Mortification must touch the depths of our hearts. We must see the relational in mortification. It is not an abstraction—it is looking unto Jesus Himself (Heb 12:1-3ff.). The flesh wants tasks not relationship with the glorified Christ. The flesh resists grace and divine love —because both grace and love conquer us and reclaim wayward hearts for God (2 Cor 5:14-15ff.).

Remember that the flesh obscures God’s nature by seeking a conditional love based on law and performance. All false religion is driven by a ‘do-able’ morality. The flesh always brings our focus back to self—the flesh pulls toward the pendulum swing of self-love and then self-hate. Many are vulnerable to self-destructive self-recrimination and depression. More sin bolsters self-loathing. Hearts heavy with crushing self-hate are invisible to preachers. Pastors should stick to the gospel in all their preaching. They should preach repentance with the sinner hearing with full confidence that God receives prodigals.

Mortification is grace-driven!

Consciously go to God for love in your quiet time. When the believer labors to have a deeply sensed love of God in his heart; it will make a barrier to the insinuations of temptation, so lay a rich storehouse of provisions by means of the gospel (John Owen, Triumph over Temptation, James M. Houston, Ed., Victor Books, 2005, p. 173).

VII. The Curative Role of Confession

Sin and shame seek cover. When we yield to strong temptation to sin, we move to secrecy, hiding, and concealment (Ps 32:2; Prov 28:13). The flesh loves darkness and secrecy. The flesh is a ‘conman’ to break the strength of close fellowship with other believers. Solitude and darkness gives home field advantage to the flesh (Jn 3:19-21).

“He who separates himself seeks his own desire, he quarrels against all sound wisdom” (Prov 18:1). “Conscience-wasting sin” is exacerbated by solitude. Cutting oneself off from fellow believers makes the situation more disastrous (John Owen).

The corporate aspect of confession is vital to spiritual health (James 5:16). A gospel-centered body of believers will welcome the role of confessing sin to one another. Churches which drift from being gospel-centered tend to indirectly promote respectability rather than authenticity. Mutual confession breaks sin’s grasp by breaking pride, shame, and fear. There is promise and glory in the abasement.

The work of sin is deceit. Part of the deceit is the veil of concealment. When the veil is removed the power of sin is weakened. When a brother pronounces forgiveness of sins to another—he speaks as an ambassador of God in Christ—speaking the gospel.

Pray that God will make you the kind of person who can hear the confession of a brother. When you bring sin out of darkness into light it just shrivels and dies. God holds out real forgiveness for even the most wicked of sins. God specializes in cleansing spiritual lepers.

If you remain ignorant of your enemy (sin), you will justify yourself and behave impatiently toward those who reprove you and admonish you (2 Chron 16:7-10; Prov 9:8) (Owen, Triumph over Temptation, p. 198). When the psalmist confessed his sins, the heavy hand of God upon him was lifted and changed to liberty and joy (Ps 32:3-7).

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 14

TEMPTATION AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Adapted in part from the sermon, The Blood of the Lamb the Conquering Weapon, by Charles H. Spurgeon

I. Know the wiles of your foe; he is the accuser of the brethren

When Satan sought permission to torment Job, the evil one implied that those who worship God do so only for the benefits and blessings God provides. Satan’s inference was that God is not worthy of worship for who He is. Thus, Satan accuses Job of obeying God for mercenary reasons alone—for what Job can get from God (Job 1:8-12). Then the devil does something astounding; he makes a bet with God. The devil’s ‘wager’ is that if Job’s prosperity is removed he will curse God.

Well, we know how the book of Job ends—the devil loses his bet, Job retains his integrity and has his blessings restored by God. Nevertheless, the evil one has not ceased making his wager; he continues to accuse the saints in every age of human history. Satan’s accusations before the throne of God suggest that true worshippers (those who worship God for who He is in His infinite worth) are not to be found. By his accusations, the devil implies that God cannot hold the loyalty of even one person without bribing them with forms of health, wealth, and prosperity.

This certainly gives us insights into the evil one’s motives. For, the devil’s own deception (which fueled his rebellion) was based upon his arrogant premise that the creature can gain autonomy by choosing not to worship his creator. This lie which Satan first told himself is also the lie he told our first parents in the Garden of Eden.

The accusations of Satan aimed at the saints are designed to discount the efficaciousness of Christ’s work in their lives. There is a time to take sides against ourselves; it is when we identify sin in our lives that must be confessed and repented of. When the Spirit of God works upon our conscience, He does so to renew our obedience and restore our communion with the Lord through repentance. But when the devil accuses us, he does in a different way for a different purpose. The evil one’s accusations and insinuations have the intent of discrediting our right to the promises of God, and thus creating distance from the Lord. When the enemy accuses; he is hoping that believer will take sides against himself in such a way that personal sin is viewed as larger than the work of Christ.

It is incredibly common for believers to be living with accusations piled up inside of them like a logjam. When we live with accusations in our soul, and do not deal with them the gospel way; it weakens our confidence before God and our boldness for God. Here are just some examples of the kind of accusations that the evil one casts against us: “God has forsaken His tender care of you because of your misdeeds.” “Your failures as a Christian have worn out God’s patience; He is disgusted with you.” “Because of your disobedience, all you can expect from God is His disfavor.” “All your attempts to serve God are those of a double-minded person.” “The ugliness of your past deeds cling to you like corruption.” “If you are this disillusioned with your obedience as a Christian; think how a holy God must feel about you.”

Late Puritan Thomas Hooker gives the following insights about the targets of Satan’s accusations:

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

The best Christians are the most suspicious of themselves, and none fuller of doubts and fears, than those who have the least cause of fear or doubt that their estates are broken and bad. Therefore Satan makes it his chief work to grieve and terrify such. Besides, their own distrustful hearts are always ready to join issue with his false reports against them, raising false surmises against themselves, and putting mercy away from them; as if they were hired by the devil to take his part in pleading against their sure salvation (Thomas Hooker, The Poor Doubting Christian drawn to Christ, Maranatha Publications, p. 75).

Holiness in the life of the believer is a vexation to the devil. But we need to know why that is so. The holy lives of believers constantly put to the lie the satanic premise that no true worshippers exist. Each time Satan beholds the holiness of God’s true worshippers, he is galled and blistered by the fact that they have rejected his rebellion against God. Our holy lives speak volumes. By our actions of loyalty to God, we are stating by our lives that Satan is terribly wrong—God is worthy of our worship —God has a countless throng of true worshippers.

The holy lives of the saints are a vexation to the devil because he is reminded that he is living a lie, and that he will soon be condemned forever and resigned to the pit. By his refusal to obey, honor, love and worship God, the evil one has forever alienated himself from God. Having chosen estrangement, Satan is on the outside—careening toward oblivion, darkness, and torment. His rebellion ruined him forever; it did not create a new reality, nor did it make him a god.

This gives us understanding as to why Satan entertains such jealousy and spite toward God’s eternal covenant of love with elect sinners. Sinful humans, former subjects in Satan’s kingdom, have been redeemed and now belong to God. Now they possess the sure promise that they will forever enjoy the light, love, life, glory, presence, and blessedness of God almighty. They will be raised above angels in the eternal state—they will be co-heirs and co-regents with Christ.

In acting out his hatred of God’s glory and redemptive purposes, Lucifer works as a tireless accuser of the brethren. Satan cannot touch God; but he seeks to slander what God loves, His redeemed children. The evil one is not done with his wager. When he sees sin in a saint, he argues that the iniquity he sees in the believer is a character trait of Satan not of God. Every sin the devil sees in God’s people cries to him, “My father, my father.” The enemy is saying by his accusations before the throne of God, “this person looks more like my child than Your child!”

In his jealousy and hatred he tries to break the love bond between God and His children—he slanders the saints in the ears of God and slanders God in the ears of the saints. How grateful we are for the promise of God: the accuser’s cruel voice is silenced by the blood of the Lamb!

How ironic that mighty Beelzebub is also a coward. Since Satan’s entire kingdom is built upon lies and upon human and demonic crime; it is a fragile kingdom, like a house of cards. Therefore, strong as the devil is, he is a coward when faced with God’s truth. In speaking about Satan’s ways, Jesus told His hearers, “Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44b ).

When Christians believe God’s truth, stand upon God’s truth, and live out God’s truth, it sends shudders through the evil one. Truth is eternal; lies are temporary. Satan will flee when he is resisted by the truth (James 4:7). Because Satan is of the lie, he is a coward. The devil flees when even a 12 year old girl stands upon the Word of God by faith and rejects the evil one’s lies.

Our battle is not with flesh and blood. It is with principalities and powers in the heavenly places (‘heavenly places’ refers to the entire realm of spirit beings—Eph 6:12). Satan’s power, energy, swiftness, and wisdom all combine to make him a most formidable foe. He deludes, deceives, blinds, buffets, accuses, and beguiles—he has thousands of years to perfect his craft. He is the father of lies (Jn 8:44). He is always in a posture of one in waiting to ambush the unwary. Satan has a well-tried method of operation—he preys upon those who have let their guard down. He is an incurable opportunist—always looking for someone to devour. He hides in the shadows; he waits for those who are not on watch. He actively looks for those who are not on the alert—who have left off the means of grace (the Word, fellowship, and prayer) (1 Pet 5:8).

The saint cannot be passive in this battle (1 Pet 5:8-9). The saint is to conduct himself with a sober spirit (guarding against both neglect and moods of passion in which our flesh can carry us away). The believer is commanded by God to resist the devil (1 Pet 5:9). To not fight, or cease to fight, is to be overcome. We must be on watch—girding up the loins of the mind always being ready for action (1 Pet 1:13). We are to be strong in someone else’s strength—be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might (Eph 6:10), not in our own strength. As we will see in a moment, we must understand the nature of Christ’s victory over Satan—what Christ has done to the devil—if we are to be strong in the Lord instead of attempting to be strong in ourselves.

The evil one is like a chess master—he thinks many moves ahead. He plans his temptations to coincide with our successes and failures, our moods, and the company we keep. He sails with the wind and the tide. If you are experiencing a time of success; he will tempt you to pride and to presumption. He saves his solicitations to discouragement and despondency for other occasions. He has particular temptations that accompany times of prosperity; and a host of other temptations to launch in times of suffering. Paul told the Thessalonian believers that he feared for their spiritual welfare knowing that Satan would tempt them to despondency amidst the persecutions they were enduring (1 Thess 3:1-9).

The blood of Christ our conquering weapon—the most powerful weapon in our arsenal is the blood of Christ. Our strategy for victory is taken from Revelation 12:10-11. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. The saints are allied in this fight of the ages; they utilize the same mighty weapon—the blood of the Lamb. We preach Christ crucified. The death of the Son of God is our conquering weapon. If Jesus had not died; we would have no conquering weapon by which to overcome the devil.

They overcame by the blood of the Lamb—that is, Christ’s blood was shed in a substitutionary manner—the blood of God’s Lamb sacrificed for us. The chastening of our peace was upon Him— this is substitution; the just for the unjust (Is 53:5). His vicarious death was the satisfaction of God’s justice. Under God’s moral government sin must be punished. It was punished in the death of Christ. Every speck of Christ’s suffering was vicarious. Therefore the propitiation Christ accomplished is the hope of men. His death is effective to take away sin; to take away the tremendous load of transgression off of the elect; to cancel out the dreadful debt of the law; and to secure forgiveness. By His resurrection—all He did in His death was accepted by the Father—Christ’s resurrection secured our justification (Rom 4:25; 1 Tim 3:16).

We cannot hear these truths too often; we have an amazing capacity to forget the gospel. The tribulation saints of Revelation 12:10-11 overcame the devil and the beast by the blood of the Lamb. In the heat of battle, when their own lives were on the line, they overcame by the blood of the Lamb. Do you see how clear this is—the blood of the Lamb is not just for our admiration—it is for holy warfare. It was given with the divine intent of being our weapon (Charles Spurgeon, The Blood of the Lamb the Conquering Weapon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Vol. 34, No. 2043). Nothing can bring lasting pervasive peace to your conscience but the blood of Christ (Heb 12:24; 10:22; 9:14). But, it is not the kind of peace that takes its ease in a posture of spiritual slumber. No, this peace is designed to produce backbone; holy boldness; militancy for the gospel.

This blood was shed to arm the saints for warfare. It is our conquering weapon to overcome sin and Satan. It is a mighty weapon able to subdue sin; to withstand temptation; to produce holiness;

to strengthen purity. Since your battle is in the heavenlies and your weapon is the blood of Christ and your foe is Satan; there are applications and strategies for battle that every saint and minister of the gospel must practice in order to overcome.

II. Know the strategies for overcoming in warfare; we overcome by the blood of the lamb

A. You must regard Satan as truly overcome and vanquished by Christ.

By faith you are to grasp your Lord’s victory as your own. Christ expects you to participate in His victory—regarding His victory as your own victory—because it was in your human nature that He triumphed over the enemies of your soul (the world; the flesh; the devil; sin; death; and hell).

By Christ’s finished work on Calvary, He has rendered a death blow to the head of Satan. He has made His people overcomers by His own overcoming (Gen 3:15). The imagery in Genesis 3:15 depicts the serpent wounding the heel of the Savior in the crucifixion (the spike which held the victim’s feet to the cross was driven through the heel bone). But, the Savior will crush his head—a death blow. The serpent’s fangs and venom are in his head which will be crushed by the Savior during His atoning work—which will secure the serpent’s defeat. Christ in our nature overcame the evil one. We are saved because the Father has radically identified us with Christ—placing us in union with Him so that the infinite value of Christ’s work becomes ours. We are crucified by His cross. We are buried with Him and risen with Him in His resurrection. He is our Head—as members of His body, we did in Him what He did. By union with Him, we participate in His life (Jn 1:16). By union with Him we are on the receiving end of all of the benefits He earned for His people. In his divinity and perfect humanity He is our perfect complement. For all we need to be—He is (Heb 7:25-27). We are complete in Him (Col 2:10). He has poured out pardoning grace upon believing sinners. That He might gain His loving dominion over us (the whole man) and our willing obedience to Him.

The perfect triumph of Christ is described in Colossians 2:14-15.

V. 14 – Paul proclaims to us that believers are cleared of all debt to God. That mountain of indebtedness we owed God—we were helpless to discharge. That signed acknowledgement of our moral debt to God was a perpetual witness against us—but Christ cancelled that debt by His death.

By Christ’s death for us He effectively rubs out—blots out—effaces the remembrance of our debt and obligation. We all know that our consciences were aware of that debt to God. But Christ has cancelled that debt so that our consciences might have peace and tranquility before God.

Thus, it is for our comfort; our protection; our joy; our thanksgiving; our peace that we study how Christ interceded for us and removed our indebtedness. The Scripture says that the bond against us was taken out of the way and cancelled by being nailed to the cross! Oh what news that is. The charges against me have been torn up; cast aside; destroyed by Christ’s death. That document with its ordinances that were hostile to us was destroyed.

It was cancelled out because my Substitute took my just penalty and punishment. He was willing to have the charges against me fastened to Himself. That debt was tied to Him so that it might not have any more power over us.

V. 15 – But we must come to an understanding of how the work of Christ has liberated us from Satan’s dominion. Our text reveals that at Calvary God is doing something in the spirit realm (in the cosmic realm) by removing this debt against us. He is stripping principalities and powers. The whole kingdom of darkness is losing their primary tool. For men and women are kept in bondage, slavery, fear, and servitude by this damning indictment being held over their heads. The fear for those who are not believers has a concrete basis; for all men by their perpetual law-breaking are guilty of capital crimes against God which are worthy of death.

Think about it—Satan makes men slaves by the fear of death—fear of that the dark alarming portent of judgment to come (Heb 2:14-15). The devil is the invisible coroner at every lost man’s death bed. He keeps unsaved men in his grip through fear, guilt, and superstition. Hebrews chapter two tells us that this is the very reason Christ became incarnate—that He might set us free from the dominion of Satan.

The evil one thought the keys of death and hell were on his key ring; but no more (Rev 1:17-18). Christ’s victory on Calvary’s tree proved to be a triumphant defiance of demonic power over mankind. The weapons of those blackmailing powers have been snatched away. When Jesus broke the power of cancelled sin and blotted out our indebtedness—He was subjugating demonic powers who had the power of indictment. The very instrument of their demonic hostility was turned against them—Christ defeated, defanged, and disabled them.

God through Christ exposes to the watching universe of angels the utter helplessness of evil powers. He makes a public display that exposes these spirit beings to ridicule. He makes an example out of them—He shows their true character. The language in this verse would be immediately recognizable to a first century reader. It pictures a conquered army with its officers —trudging along impotently in chains being led through the streets in a victory parade (Col 2:15). Oh the magnitude of Christ’s conquest—His victory is yours. The Savior who loves you has subjected hostile demonic powers to Himself—they are now impotent to harm you. (He who originally created them upright has defeated these fallen beings.) The devils who deal in accusations against us can no longer come up with a charge that sticks because the document that attested to our guilt has been destroyed (Rom 8:32).

Let the eyes of your heart look upon your conquering Savior and be encouraged by the sight of the victory wrought in your nature. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Rom 8:37). You must see Satan as vanquished by Christ if you are to overcome your foe.

B. We overcome Satan in the heavenly realm by overcoming him as the accuser.

How often he plants accusations in the sensitive hearts of the saints. Haven’t you heard their accusing memories that shock and startle the conscience? Haven’t you heard charges and accusations which bid you to visit the memory of former sins and retry the case all over again? The evil one knows that by his blaming and shaming and pointing, he can conjure up black memories of the sins of our youth. “How can you be a child of God?” he reasons. “Your life as a professed Christian is nothing but a sham, a heap of hypocrisy.”

As the accuser, he plants thoughts which can be crippling reminders of past sins and failures; remorse about our barrenness; coldness; defeat; and compromise. He lets us come to pessimistic conclusions about ourselves. “My failures define me.”

As Thomas Hooker said, “Satan begins the accusations, then lets us take over beating ourselves up—we take it from there; doing his work for free.” We’ll look at the mountain of evidence and be tempted to take sides against our own soul and the gracious work God has done there.

These assaults can be overwhelming like a flood when the evil piles up evidence and accusations against us. The saint can be staggered by these accusations. “How can I face God with the foul remembrance of these iniquities filling my mind and conscience?”

Countless believers have their spiritual arms hanging slack at their sides when the accusations strike. The onslaught of accusations can be like waves breaking over us in succession. These recriminations tend to immobilize us spiritually. Like a magnet drawing up iron filings, the conscience brings the accusations to itself as the believer listens (almost dutifully) to the inner voice of condemnation. Wouldn’t it be convenient if the accusations posed by the powers of darkness had an identifiable alien accent—perhaps like Count Dracula? Unfortunately the devil’s suggestions come into our minds disguised as our own independent thoughts. Success at spiritual warfare involves identifying lying thought and rejecting them. We are commanded to resist the accuser’s prevarications (James 4:7). In fact, when accusations hit us, it is the signal to engage in spiritual warfare by employing our chief weapon—the blood of the Lamb.

Now is your opportunity to overcome by the blood of the Lamb. An onslaught of accusations is your signal to engage in spiritual warfare—to overcome. The Scottish divine, Robert Murray M’Cheyne gets to the point quickly, “If anyone shall insinuate that it is not for my present and eternal happiness, and for God’s glory and my usefulness, to maintain a blood-washed conscience, . . . that is the voice of the devil, God’s enemy, the enemy of my soul and of all good. . .” (Andrew A. Bonar, Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Banner of Truth, 1966). You were born for battle—remember you have an Advocate as well as an accuser. Your advocate is also in the heavenlies (1 Jn 2:2). He pleads the merits of His own blood on your behalf. He lives to make intercession for you—for He shed His blood in order to discharge you of your debt. By His cross—He assumed our liabilities.

In order to get the victory—you must know that the accuser’s cruel voice is silenced by the blood of the Lamb. The blood tells of the infinite God who accepts the sacrifice that He Himself has provided. The Spirit never tires of showing us the blood, and you must never tire of showing your conscience the blood.

The conscience is like a courtroom; it was created to come up with verdicts; verdicts of guilty or not guilty. But unlike an earthly courtroom with fallible judges; your courtroom of conscience is connected to the courtroom of God. In other words, the justice achieved in your conscience is not justice at all unless it agrees with the justice of God. This puts the work of our Savior into bold relief. Because in the final analysis, nothing can satisfy your conscience except that which ultimately satisfied the absolute holy justice of God. As one theologian said, “If we could get the blood of Christ into their consciences, we could empty out our nation’s mental institutions.”

Dear people—nothing can bring tranquility, peace, and silence to the conscience but the death of the God-man in your place. You must preach this truth to yourself, because in our carnal reasoning and instincts—we will seek cures for conscience outside of Calvary.

Learn to say it, “Nothing will satisfy my conscience; but that which satisfies my God—the death of His Son in my place.” Make certain you do not run anywhere but to the atonement. There is no conquering weapon but the blood of the Lamb.

Draw all comfort from the atonement, not from inward feelings and inward disputations. Hide only in the wounds of Christ. Augustine remarked that the conscience of the redeemed is intended by God to be the palace of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Keep the gospel on the throne of conscience counsels Martin Luther.

Take confidence that your Advocate and Defender will repel the charges brought against you. We are assured from Romans 8:31-34 that no charges brought against us will stick. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son , but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

It requires fresh acts of faith and fresh views of the Savior and the Gospel in order to bring the court of conscience in line with the court of heaven (our already justified state). Our sense of judgment is like a pursuing pack of hounds; but God is greater than our hearts and knows all things (1 Jn 3:18-22).

Consider how many “verdicts” are in competition in our hearts: the verdict of others who are disappointed in us; the verdict of our own legal-prone hearts; the verdict of the evil one who accuses us.

The charges of all enemies are only worthy of contempt (whether personal adversaries, demons or Satan). God is for us in our justification, God is for us in Christ dying, Christ is for us in Christ interceding. Our heavenly Advocate continually pleads the merits of His blood on our behalf. Let us never forget: the accuser’s cruel voice is silenced by the blood of the Lamb!

C. We must overcome the enemy in regard to access to God.

The accuser of the brethren seeks to hinder us from bold and free access to God. The evil one harasses; he assaults with thoughts of care, guilt, heaviness—all to make us hesitant to readily draw near to God.

The accuser insinuates that your soul’s dwelling place has been in the world and the flesh more than in God—therefore, there is nothing left for you to do but mourn your miserable distance from God. All accusations are insinuations which suggest that we are not eligible for God’s love, blessing, and favor. The accusations of the evil one are intended to make you disqualify yourself for communion with God.

It is at this moment that you must reckon the fact that you are brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13). Take hold of the promise that you have boldness to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus (Heb 10:19; Eph 3:12). When your eligibility to for God’s love, presence, and favor is under attack—that is your ‘signal’ to reckon the infinite value of Christ’s blood spilled on your behalf. Practice preaching to yourself crystal clear gospel logic—that is where the victory lies. Let your heart take courage—allow your heart to consent to God’s love because of Christ who is your ‘eligibility’ for endless divine favor. See God’s desire to display His Son as the propitiation for your sins (Rom 3:23-26).

The cross of your Savior has removed your sin which was the obstacle to favor with God—but that obstacle has been taken away. The cross has forever set aside the issue of eligibility for God’s love and favor. The cross has cleared away every barrier to a love relationship with God in Christ (1 Jn 4:9-10, 19). Your Father in heaven does not want you in a state of spiritual paralysis and estrangement from Him. Look to Christ again to see that your full favor was procured when your transgressions were removed at Calvary (1 Jn 4:18).

D. We overcome by laying hold of the sufficiency of God from the throne of grace.

When we overcome in heavenly places before the throne of God it is our preparation to go forth to serve the Lord. You are surrounded by people who desperately need your ministry. The Word of the cross in your mouth is mighty to defeat evil among your fellow men. In your ministry you must pass on the practice of making the blood of Christ your conquering weapon. You must know experimentally the benefits of Christ’s blood in your own conscience. You must become accustomed to having the Great Physician apply His healing blood to your conscience. Your spiritual power is tied to this—if you preach His blood—you must know the benefits of His blood if your message and testimony are to have power. This is why the battle must be fought above first. You must overcome in order to serve. Get the verdict of the gospel in your own conscience first (1 Jn 2:13). You must prevail at the Mercy Seat in secret—then in your ministry to others. Christ must be appropriated as the Physician of your soul before you can commend Him to others as their Physician.

Our main business is to bear witness with the blood of Christ in the power of the Spirit. We have life—we owe our life to the crucified One—who in His sovereign mercy has enabled us to look to Him that we might live (Jn 3:14-16; 5:21, 24; 12:50).

The cross is the wisdom of God and the power of God for our salvation and our sanctification. The blood of the cross drives out error; it softens hearts; it overcomes despair; it reveals the bitterness and noxiousness of sin; it overcomes every form of sin and vice; it cleanses from all filth; it stirs to love and obedience (this is the use of the blood of the Lamb in the lower sphere— in our preaching of the gospel).

We must exhibit greater courage in order to win victories. Some who profess Christianity are too timid to speak of Christ’s blood even in godly company! They love themselves too much to get into trouble by speaking boldly about their Savior and their faith. How, therefore, can they be of the noble band spoken of in Revelation who loved not their lives unto the death. God will not do anything by us unless we are true friends of the cross of Christ.

If we are untrue to the cross out of fear of man; our ministry will be neutralized. It is folly to live for the respect of men. We need backbone, fixedness, and self-denial. We must be willing to be made nothing for Christ’s sake. Be a faithful witness of His blood—your hope is there. The gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s irreversible verdict concerning the sins of the elect. No wonder Thomas Brooks urges sincere believers to repent of being downcast and discouraged about their sins:

[Such discouragement] springs from their ignorance of the richness, freeness, fullness, and everlastingness of God’s love; and from their ignorance of the power, glory, sufficiency, and efficacy of the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ; and from their ignorance of the worth, glory, fullness, largeness, and completeness of the righteousness of Jesus Christ; and from the ignorance of that real, close, spiritual, glorious, and inseparable union that is between Christ and their precious souls. Ah! did the precious souls know and believe the truth of these things as they should, they would not sit down dejected and overwhelmed under the sense and operation of sin (Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices, Banner of Truth, 1968, p. 147).

The issue of gaining victory over Satan’s accusations by the blood of the Lamb is not a peripheral issue; for the way a man deals with his conscience reveals how he deals with God. “A good conscience is the palace of Christ; the temple of the Holy Ghost; the paradise of delight, the standing Sabbath of the saints.” St. Augustine. “Conscience is well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it.” Samuel Butler. “No flattery can heal a bad conscience, so no slander can hurt a good one.” Thomas Watson. The accuser’s cruel voice is

silenced by the blood of the Lamb!

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 15

WHY AS A CHRISTIAN SHOULD I PREACH THE GOSPEL

TO MYSELF?

The Role of Scripture Meditation in our Sanctification, Part One

INTRODUCTION:

We will never tire of who God is toward us in Christ—it will be our theme throughout eternity. The slain Lamb will be the center of heaven (Rev 5:6-14; 21:22-23). Christ’s perfections are revealed in the gospel, therefore, the gospel is the very ‘food’ or manna of the church, for in the gospel we keep discovering Christ in all His offices, all His beauty, and in all His suitability to be our Savior.

Now, the gospel is not just the means of entering the Christian life. The gospel, the Word of grace, is God’s means of constantly renewing us (Acts 20:24, 32). The gospel ‘order’ is also retained throughout our progress in sanctification: we are stunned by our personal sin; and we are amazed at God’s grace and sufficiency toward us in Christ. Therefore, to forget this ‘gospel order’ in our Christian walk is to risk entering patterns of defeat.

We also preach the gospel to ourselves in order to learn to live upon Christ as our ‘Source Person.’ For in Christ, we keep presenting to the eye of faith that Christ is our source and supply for: sonship, status, acceptance, adoption, heir-ship, power, truth, fruitfulness, fellowship, love, wisdom from God, King, righteousness, and sanctification.

We need a constant intake of the gospel because the gospel is utterly counter-intuitive. Everything in our natures and in our natural reason loathes being an object of pity—we want our lovability, our worth, value, importance, and acceptance to flow from virtues in us and to rest upon our performance. In essence, our flesh wants to ‘be in charge of’ our own lovability and security. We were born with a satanic religion of self-help and self-sufficiency which says, “The more perfect I am the more love I will receive.” The world’s value system allies itself with this ‘natural religion’—and in terms of a person’s thought life, years of pride of life thinking cuts deeper and deeper grooves for this ‘natural religion’ to embed itself. Only the word of God’s grace can displace this mindset.

Now, in regards to just how counter-intuitive the gospel is, think of God’s redemptive plan—that Almighty God should take pleasure in bruising His Son in our place (Is 53:10). Consider that the Father treated Christ as the worst criminal who ever lived so that I could be adopted as a child of God (Gal 3:13). All of this was necessary so that I could be brought to heaven without God striking a single blow to me in wrath. It is amazing beyond words that the Son should be sent to earth to reap the eternal consequences of what I had sown—all that I might be given the infinite benefits of His obedience on my behalf (2 Thess 2:14).

This is radically counter-intuitive. Thinking this way does not come natural to us. We must train our minds to think this way by preaching the glorious gospel to ourselves. Only the Word of grace, the gospel, can change the pattern in our thought life. Only by feeding on the gospel can we begin to reckon, as a habit, that our acceptance and fellowship with God are grounded upon who Christ is and what He has done—and not on our performance.

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

As we feed on the gospel, the arguments from the ‘logic’ of divine grace become part of our reasoning processes. It is a blessed exercise to cut these new grooves because gospel reasoning over time becomes a way of re-educating the mind, conscience, will, and affections.

Through disciplined thinking and meditating on the Word, we cut new channels for our thought life. In doing so we gain the sweet optimism that God desires to meet with us for fellowship and intimacy, and that God is glorified in giving His people endless installments of mercy, grace and love. Christ, our sympathetic High Priest who is touched by our infirmities bids us come to the throne of grace with confidence that we might find grace and mercy to help in time of need (Heb 4:15-16). Grace then becomes the subject of our meditations—and not for our comfort alone. For the grace of God in the gospel lifts me out of self-concern to be burdened in behalf of others.

I’m reminded in the gospel that the difference between me and my unsaved neighbor is ultimately the sovereign compassion and mercy of God (1 Cor 4:7). Therefore, like Paul, I am a debtor to all men. The gospel deepens my compassion for the lost by teaching me to receive God’s supernatural love as a function of His undeserved kindness. Thus, the gospel equips me to love others supernaturally (Jn 17:21-23, 26).

The gospel is vital to the ‘treasure principle.’ As a man thinks in his heart so is he (Prov 23:7). The mind of a man always returns to what he esteems as his treasure. No wonder Jonathan Edwards described true religion as existing primarily in the affections. In Matthew six Jesus drove home the treasure principle—explaining in just a few words how life-directing and life-dominating a man’s treasure really is. A man: reviews his treasure; displays his treasure; adds to his treasure; speaks of his treasure; follows his treasure; and is ruled by his treasure (Matt 6:19-21).

A man’s treasure determines his life direction, his ‘happiness formula,’ his ‘score card’ in life, his goals—all of these flow from what he perceives as true treasure. Only the gospel gives the new ‘organ’ of sight that allows a man to see above the horizon of this world so as to gaze upon his true treasure in heaven. Only the gospel installs a spiritual faculty of sight that gives a savor for eternal things (Eph 1:15-21; 1 Cor 2:12).

The centrality of the gospel in ministry and preaching is not a new idea; Paul made it his goal to preach the gospel to believing congregations. One of Paul’s key desires was to come to Rome to preach the gospel to believers there (Rom 1:7, 15). In addition, Paul was determined to preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified among the Corinthians (1 Cor 1:17; 2:2).

Preaching the gospel to ourselves is a spiritual discipline that is learned. This discipline is not simply general thoughts of Christ and grace, the discipline of preaching the gospel to one’s self involves specific ways that Christ’s redemptive work answers our need and ruin as sinners. To preach the gospel to oneself is to always be about the business of ‘matching’ Christ’s Person, work, and resources with our spiritual poverty, ruin, and need.

These points of contact between our need and Christ’s sufficiency, may be designated “access points” for preaching gospel specifics. By that I mean that we find “access” to subjects for gospel meditation by thinking through and contemplating God’s saving activity toward us in these specifics. In this lesson we will look at the first three of the following six gospel “access points.”

1.)The Gospel is the VOICE of Christ’s love to His sheep
2.)The Gospel is the VERDICT of God’s justice at the cross
3.)The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace
4.)The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ
5.)The Gospel is the VANTAGE point whereby we see the kingdom
6.)The Gospel is the VICTORY won by Christ at Calvary

I. The Gospel is the VOICE of Christ’s love to His sheep

Christ as redeeming shepherd restores our ability to be taught of God: “You were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls” (1 Pet 2:25). Christ is the believer’s ultimate shepherd, or pastor; when He saves us, He renews our teach-ability and guide-ability (Ps 23). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (Jn 10:27). The sheep cherish their Savior as He is revealed in the gospel.

Under the Spirit’s conviction, they were crushed over their sin—and by an act of divine grace they were enabled to ‘hear’ the voice of Christ in the Word of Grace, the gospel (Jn 10:2-5, 16). The gospel is addressed to faith alone (not to the righteous, or the worthy; but to the guilty, the weary, the defiled, the helpless, the condemned, the broken, and the foolish). By an act of sovereign mercy, God grants the new birth to His people. The new birth, or regeneration, creates ‘spiritual lungs’ by which we ‘breathe’ the gospel promises of God.

The gospel is truly the ‘voice’ of Christ’s love. Christ’s love controls the child of God (2 Cor 5:14-15). The crowning evidence of the Father’s love is that He sent Christ to be the slain lamb—the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn 4:9-10). Christ’s love for us was there even while we were helpless enemies (Rom 5:8). Christ’s love for His people is without dimension (Eph 3:16-19).

We refer to Christ’s love as His ‘voice’ because Christ’s love is not a bare proposition; it is personal and transforming. The ‘voice’ is Christ’s Word in the Scripture speaking to the newly created faith that has been planted in the bosom of His child by the new birth. This love is not theoretical for the believer—it is a reality that the believer experiences (Rom 5:5).

But, it is not merely a generalized sentiment or apprehension that God loves us—it is joined to the comprehension that God has moved heaven and earth to clear away every obstacle that stood in the way of a love relationship with Him.

Thus, the believer experiences Christ’s love by faith in the revelation of Christ in the Word. Christ manifests His love when the believer is dwelling upon and contemplating God’s saving acts toward us in Christ (Rom 15:13). This includes meditating upon all of the ramifications of union with Christ (Gal 2:20).

Central to God’s plan to communicate His love to us is the doctrine of adoption (1 Jn 3:1). The believer is held in the Father’s heart of love (Eph 2:4). The Spirit of God manifests this love to the child of God. The Spirit of Christ is the ‘Spirit of sonship’—that means that the indwelling Spirit produces in the believer the disposition and the consciousness that we are sons of God loved by the Father (Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:6-7).

To know His love is to be controlled by His love. To be the object of this ‘other worldly’ exotic love (1 Jn 3:1) is to be transformed by that love. To be animated by this love is to be driven with a holy unction to pass on that love to God and to others—to receive His love engenders the desire to reciprocate that love. “We love because He first loved us” (1 Jn 4:10, 19). Feeding on the gospel is the means by which we perceive and deepen our understanding of God’s love for us in Christ.

To receive the good news of the gospel is NOT merely the acceptance of the historical facts of Jesus’ life. No, to become saved is to have ‘seen’ the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6). It is to behold by faith the divine identity of the Good Shepherd. A saved person has Christ revealed to him as the Lord of Glory; the Jehovah of the Old Testament—for no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit’ (1 Cor 12:3). Even the Apostle Peter could not say “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” apart from the revelation of the Father (Matt 16:16-17). Paul’s own testimony extolled God as the One who ‘revealed Christ in me’ (Gal 1:16).

The upshot of this gospel ‘access point’ is that the believer has every warrant to go to God for love daily. We often go to God in prayer for our needs; for strength; to fulfill our Christian duty; but do we go to God for love? We can and should. The gospel gives us permission to keep going to God for love and grace—the gospel does so because it tells me that Christ has borne all my liabilities; therefore I can never be disqualified for new installments of divine love and grace.

II. The Gospel is the VERDICT of God’s justice at the cross

“It is finished” were Christ’s last words from the cross. We must remember that the cross was a kind of courtroom in which the justice due the trampled law of God was addressed decisively. Absolute justice had to be accomplished in the case of the sinner’s guilt. Before the sinner could be freely accepted by God, that sinner’s transgressions had to be judged in the body and soul of Another. Christ’s work of propitiation was a ‘verdict’—He took the wrath of God due our sins and absorbed it into His own person (Rom 3:24-26).

Nothing can bring a person’s conscience to a full stop—to a place of absolute peace and rest except the justice which satisfies God Almighty. And, nothing satisfies God on behalf of the sinner except the finished work of Christ. Therefore, under God’s moral government, a person will never have a clear conscience UNTIL they hear by faith the verdict of God’s justice accomplished at the cross (Heb 9:14).

The conscience of man is ‘wired’ for strict justice—it is suspicious of mercy and compassion. How true this is—the conscience of man is tied to law—to crime and punishment. It is like a private eye who is hired to collect dirt on you. In our fleshly reasoning it is remarkable how much emotional energy we dissipate trying to quiet our conscience with arguments: “I’m generous, considerate, a hard worker, a provider, well-liked, kind, a servant, etc.” The most common way man seeks to ‘bribe’ and balance the conscience into silence is by comparing self to others (something which Scripture declares to be folly—2 Corinthians 10:12). To seek to balance the books of conscience by any other means than the blood of Christ tends to put us in a cycle of pride and despair. Like a swinging pendulum, we move between the two extremes.

The blood of Christ alone has the power to cleanse the conscience down to the smallest crevice (Heb 9:14). We need to preach the Gospel to ourselves each day because we sin each day. There is no effective ‘book keeping’ for the conscience other than the blood of Christ. The comfort we need in order to serve, love, and worship will only be there if our consciences are clear. One divine from Scotland noted that if even one sin is bouncing around in the conscience it can kill your joy, numb your confidence before God, weaken your resolve to holiness, and shake your assurance of salvation. No wonder Paul claimed that he always kept a clear conscience (Acts 24:16)! Without a clear conscience we won’t be optimistic about usefulness; about blessing and answered prayer.

To preach the gospel to your self is to labor to have the verdict of the cross as the loudest verdict in the conscience. When the verdict of conscience is brought in line with the verdict of heaven—there is overflowing joy, peace, hope, and comfort. But how many believers really enjoy this on a daily basis? How many Christians have as their goal to bring their conscience in line with the verdict of heaven at Calvary? We rob ourselves of comfort by our apathy on this point.

Now as we trod this vale of tears, what remains of indwelling sin acts up and defiles us. We fall to temptation and the guilt of sin throws mud in the eye of faith. We become temporarily blinded to God’s verdict at the cross. God’s decisive work through Christ at Calvary becomes remote. That’s exactly when experience at preaching the gospel is so valuable. We must enthrone the gospel in our conscience again so that the gospel is allowed to ‘make the call’ and allow Christ’s peace to reign (Col 3:15). That habit of gospel preaching allows us to run to the atonement for cleansing without delay. The Spirit of God is not interested in our efforts at self-atonement. He delights in restitution and repentance, but He points to Christ alone for atonement and cleansing.

The Spirit is solution oriented—He never tires of pointing to the blood. I like what one of the Puritan divines said. Guilt harasses us—robs our peace—accuses us—calls for a verdict. But how are we to tell the convicting work of the Spirit from the accusing machinations of the devil?

The answer is simple, the Spirit will always point to the blood so that we may repent, be pardoned and restored to fellowship with the Lord. By contrast, the devil is like an irritating horsefly. He accuses without a solution—he wants the child of God to descend into fear, uncertainty, doubt, alienation, and despondency. Therefore, learn to preach the gospel to yourself and you will instinctively run to the atonement when you fail. When we attempt to turn remorse and regret into ‘atonement,’ we are not submitting to the verdict of God at Calvary.

A clear conscience is the godly man’s tool. He keeps it clean and honed for service. He is always ‘educating’ his conscience by the Word and the gospel. He feeds on what God has done in Christ and what God requires of the believer. He obeys through Christ’s power and enablement. Sadly I know many men who profess Christ, yet take better care of their vehicles and their yards than they do their own souls. But I think I know why. Caring for one’s relationship with the Lord is not a casual endeavor; it takes the lion’s share of our attention; it reminds us of our constant dependence upon Christ and His grace. Also, drawing near to Christ is closely related to being subdued by Him.

To draw near to Christ is to have the Lord expose what He wants changed in our lives. It is to give Him such full access to the soul that He can rearrange the priorities of life and heart to His specifications. Many believers aren’t sure they want to get that close to the Lord! To draw near to Christ through the Gospel is not merely to seek our own soul comfort—it is to be ruled by Christ; examined by Him; and surrendered to Him. It is to understand that Christ is our King who rules over us—who sovereignly chooses the trials by which He perfects, sanctifies, and lovingly rules His people.

This is of course why conscience is very much a barometer of our intimacy with Christ. The Spirit is constantly at work in the believer. It is our task to cooperate with His sanctifying purposes (Phil 2:12-13; James 4:5).

To live with a troubled conscience is to live with a grieved Spirit. A sullied conscience will drag you into the ‘gray castle of self.’ By ‘gray castle’ I mean that we go inward, scribbling on the walls of our mind all of our disputes about our eligibility, goodness, worth, badness, acceptance, and rejection. The gray castle is a counterproductive place to be.

There is no exit out of the castle of self but the gospel preached to self. As long as I listen to self instead of preaching the gospel to myself, I stay confined in the gray castle of self. What is the answer? Look to the cross again and embrace God’s verdict there. Enthrone the gospel in your conscience as ‘umpire’ to make the call—until you are able say to your conscience—God’s verdict brings the light and cleansing I need today (1 Jn 1:7-9). The gospel preached is God’s invitation to come out of our dank hiding places and back into the sunlight of His fellowship (1 Jn 1:6-9).

The gospel, not the law, must stay enthroned in the conscience of the believer. In Martin Luther’s wonderful commentary on the book of Galatians, the Reformer’s states in his opening declaration how important it is to have the gospel reign in the conscience unopposed by the law:

We have said before that the law in a Christian ought not pass its bounds, but ought to have dominion only over the flesh, which is in subjection to it, and remaineth under it. But if it shall presume to creep into the conscience, and there seek to reign, see thou play the cunning logician, and make the true division [between the passive righteousness we receive from Christ and the active righteousness we owe God’s law]. Say thou: ‘O law, thou wouldest climb up into the kingdom of my conscience, and there reprove it of sin, and take from me the joy of my heart, which I have by faith in Christ, and drive me to desperation that I may be without hope, and utterly perish. Keep within thy bounds, and exercise thy power upon the flesh: for I am baptized, and by the gospel am called to the partaking of righteousness and everlasting life (Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, Kregel, 1978, p. xvii).

Martin Luther’s quote above is particularly relevant because in order for us to enjoy the grace of Christ reigning, we must keep the gospel enthroned in the conscience as uncontested king.

III. The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace

In His incarnation and passion, Christ identified with our dilemma and ruin. He became radically identified with us (yet without sin) that we might become radically identified with Him. Christ entered the great cog works of God’s justice in order to be crushed for us. He lived the life of a perfect disciple—all to affect the most magnificent exchange in time or eternity. “. . . So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).

The justification of believers does NOT rest on this, that they have in themselves a quality of new righteousness, which they would venture to subject to a legal examination of the strict judgment of God, but that, by and through the merits of the Redeemer, in whom they believe, they are not to undergo such judgments, but are dealt with as if they had in themselves exact legal righteousness” (Bishop John Davenant).

The wonder of justification is that Christ traded places with us so that under God’s government Christ might become ‘officially’ guilty of the sins of His people. My sin was imputed to Christ so that He might bear it up to the cross and judge it in His own Person. To be ‘justified in Christ’ is to have my sin removed and to have Christ’s perfect righteousness given to me in its place (Rom 3:23-26).

Justification gives us a new identity. Having been given this new identity of sonship in Christ; I therefore reject the world’s offers to establish my identity through my performance in the world. Yes, I have an earthly place of employment, a vocation and calling, but my identity in Christ is who I really am. The more in tune I am to the gospel, the more consistently I will live out my identity in Christ. God is the ‘Architect’ of this great exchange which took place in our justification. Its purpose is to bring us to God and to give God’s joy and glory to us. My sin imputed to Christ and Christ’s righteousness imputed to me means that I am fitted for communion with God and ultimately for life in His presence (Rom 5:1-11).

Paul is the only N.T. writer who uses the word ‘reconciliation.’ He uses the word reconciliation to describe the relational benefits of having been justified by God (declared righteous for Christ’s sake). Reconciliation brought us from a place of alienation and estrangement to a place of nearness to God (Eph 2:13-18ff.). Reconciliation speaks of relationship restored.

Like the gospel message itself, the message of justification and reconciliation in Christ is not just to get us into Christianity. The doctrine of justification describes how we are joined to Christ. We have brought our sin to Him and we go to Him for righteousness. As Puritan author John Owen says in His book, Communion with God, when we bring our sin to Christ and go to Him for righteousness, we are having communion with God.

What a blessed thought that the exchange of sin for righteousness continues throughout our earthly life—Christ taking our sin away and giving us His righteousness. This is the continual use of Christ for the reasons God gave Him. In giving us Christ, God has provided every incentive for maintaining our relationship with Him.

Christ is the very sphere in which the believer lives, moves, and has his being. To be ‘in Christ’ as our sphere of life is to have every benefit found in His Person. We are accepted in the Beloved. It is by union with Christ that the infinite benefits of His life, death, resurrection, and High Priesthood become ours. Now all of these benefits flow from our being “in Christ”—right standing, favor, and acceptance. The believer lives in the sphere of Christ. That means that God’s grace is the overarching canopy that governs all of God’s dealings with His child (it is grace reigning; Rom 5:21, it is grace abounding; 5:15, it is grace in which we stand; 5:2).

When Paul says in Romans 13:14, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh,” he is saying that we must reckon Christ as our sphere, our life, our dwelling place, and our righteousness. But notice the order in these verses: first we are to reckon that we have life in Him and are organically joined to Him; THEN, then trample the world’s offers of sinful pleasure.

How we need to preach the gospel to ourselves—that God has transported across time and eternity His own joy and given it to us in Christ. We cannot exhaust the subject of who God is toward us in Christ. As John Flavel said, Christ is the fountain of life. Unlike earthly sources of supply; when we draw upon His infinite wealth it does not draw down on the principle. God is glorified when we make withdrawals from His infinite treasuries of grace to us in Christ.

God’s plan to glorify His grace is almost more than our intellects can bear (Eph 1:5-12). Wonder of wonders, through the pouring out of grace in Christ, God has revealed Himself as just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom 3:24-26). It means that in the Person of Christ, God has joined together His eternal plan to glorify Himself with our eternal well being and blessedness. This matchless grace has not been dispensed by God out of an eyedropper; He has poured out His grace in an unending Niagara Falls of grace supply. John Piper labors to tell us in his book, Future Grace, that God’s grace will be there for every circumstance and exigency that the child of God will face.

CONCLUSION:

We have seen that feeding upon Christ as He is displayed and offered in the gospel is the spiritual discipline of the godly. These six ‘access points’ are intended to help ‘kick start’ us in our venture of learning to preach the gospel to ourselves. It’s vital we learn to do so, for the gospel is the very ‘food’ of the church—in the gospel are found all of the reasons God gave Christ. In the good news those reasons of God giving us Christ are opened up to us.

Our part in preaching the gospel to self is to view these treasures by faith and then meditate on them until we are able to explain them to our own souls. We should always be matching His all-sufficient Savior-hood with our sinner-ship—always dwelling upon how His redeeming work is a perfect fit for our ruin (Heb 7:25-27).

Preaching the gospel to our selves has a sanctifying effect—contemplating God’s saving activity towards us in Christ means that our identity in Him will exert a greater sway upon our choices. Thus, to define ourselves as Christ does as a son, a conqueror, an heir, and an overcomer, means that we are becoming what we really are. This is infinitely more than simply personal spiritual improvement because the God-ordained way of knowing God is to contemplate His saving actions toward us in Christ. It is to investigate all that God is toward us in Christ and who we are in Him (Phil 3:7-16).

Preaching the gospel to ourselves is the answer to one of the biggest problems in the Christian life— that problem being, we tend to listen to ourselves rather than speaking God’s truth to ourselves.

Our problem: we have not taken this spiritual discipline of preaching the gospel to ourselves seriously. As a consequence, we are in the habit of listening to ourselves rather than speaking to ourselves. When we listen to ourselves instead of speaking to ourselves, we normally get the carnal ‘noise’ of yearnings, cravings, fantasies, discontentment, anxieties, guilt, comparisons with others, self-recriminations, and regrets.

Can you identify with that? At this juncture is precisely when we need to resume the habit of renewing our minds by meditating on the gospel. The Word of God says much about the life of the mind. Meditating on the Scripture releases the power of the Word to rearrange my inner world in accordance with the will of God. The psalmists continually sought to have their hearts controlled by God’s truth— they desired to have their faculties of soul aligned and in orbit around God’s revelation. “Teach me Thy way, O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth; Unite my heart to fear Thy name” (Ps 86:11).

So much in our Christian walk depends upon our daily feeding upon God’s grace. When we preach the gospel to ourselves we are feeding upon grace. “It is only the gospel that will keep us living by grace. And it is only grace that will give us the courage and motivation to mortify sin and to keep seeking to make right choices even when we fail so often” (Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace, Navpress, 1994, p. 200).

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 16

WHY AS A CHRISTIAN SHOULD I PREACH THE GOSPEL

TO MYSELF?

The Role of Scripture Meditation in our Sanctification, Part Two

INTRODUCTION:

When we think of habits of godliness, perhaps the first thing to come to mind is: “I have got to pray more, memorize more of the Word, have more regular devotions.” All those spiritual disciplines are commended in God’s Word, but I would like to steer our thinking in the direction of the motivations for these godly habits.

May I suggest what is foundational to the habit of godliness is to be satisfied in God; satisfaction in God is a byproduct of meditating on the Word, particularly the “Word of Grace.” The ‘Word of His grace’ is Paul’s term for the full-orbed gospel message as applied to all of life (Acts 20:24, 32). By “fullorbed” I mean that Paul normally begins his epistles with the glorious gospel blessings the believer has in Christ: sonship, union with Christ, justification, throne rights, etc.

Preaching these gospel blessings to ourselves revolutionizes our Christian walk. In fact, feeding upon the gospel as a life habit fills us with God and as a result, motivates us to care for our relationship with the Lord out of delight rather than merely out of duty.

Thinking this way does not come natural to us: to consent to let Another, Christ, work for me and to reckon that He has earned every blessing I enjoy can only become my mindset if I regularly feed my faith on the gospel. Our natural bent is to reason that we are the sum total of our achievements and that we carry our own worth by means of our performance. That is why the gospel is so radically counter-intuitive—the gospel tells me that God has taken the issue of my salvation into His own hands—my acceptance and righteousness before God are carried by Christ.

I must train my mind to think this way. By speaking to myself about the gospel, my confidence that acceptance and fellowship with God are grounded upon who Christ is and what He has done is strengthened. Then, I will begin to view Christ as my ‘eligibility’ for God’s endless love and favor. This is the central habit for godliness because everything in your Christian life comes back to your affections, what you love supremely and what you trust most.

In this lesson we will look at the final three ‘access points’ involved in meditating upon the gospel. These points of contact between our need and Christ’s sufficiency we have designated “access points.” By access points we mean that we find access to the specifics of the gospel by meditating upon, and contemplating God’s saving activity toward us in these specifics. In this lesson we will look at the final three of the following six gospel “access points.”

1. The Gospel is the VOICE of Christ’s love to His sheep
2. The Gospel is the VERDICT of God’s justice at the cross
3. The Gospel is the VALUE of justification by faith through grace
4. The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ
5. The Gospel is the VANTAGE point whereby we see the kingdom
6. The Gospel is the VICTORY won by Christ at Calvary

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

IV. The Gospel is the VIEW of God’s glory in the face of Christ

We are familiar with the verse, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). But what often goes unnoticed in this verse is the fact that by our sin we have forfeited not only our ability to reflect God’s glory, but also our desire and capacity to see or behold God’s glory. The glorious gospel restores our ability to see the glory of God and thereby experience satisfaction in God.

While we were spiritually dead we could not see or perceive the Lord’s glory and His beauty. We did not love His glory or live for His glory—we had zero passion for His glory. Therefore, we worshipped and served the creature and the creation. Our hearts were not the temple of God—they were idol factories—our affections settled onto created things (Rom 1:25). This disaster was the result of the fall in the Garden of Eden—because of man’s defection from God, the heart of man became a veritable ‘zoo’ of lusts. The heart was originally created to find its highest joy and purpose in God instead became filled with coveting of every kind as the Apostle Paul states in Romans 7:8.

Since by sin the perception of God’s glory was forfeited, salvation must center upon the restoration of the glory of God to the sight of the creature. God has chosen a means of salvation which puts His infinite wisdom and glory on display in the redemption of sinful men (1 Cor 1:30; Col 2:1-2). Thus man’s salvation is not solely the bestowal of the gifts of life, righteousness, pardon, and adoption—salvation is the restored ‘sight’ of the glory of God (2 Cor 4:4-6). “The Gospel gives us God!” (John Piper, God is the Gospel). The gospel is the power of God—divine power is exerted in connection with the spiritual ‘resurrection’ of dead sinners, the imputation of righteousness to them, and the restoration of spiritual sight to them. Though the restoration of the sight of the glory of God is an instantaneous, sovereign, ‘fiat’ act, it is not a direct immediate flooding of the soul with light. The sight of divine glory is ‘mediated’ or reflected in the face of Christ. God’s glory is made sensible to us in the face of Christ —He is the ‘glory-bearer.’

The new birth is a miracle of both revelation and restoration. By the Spirit’s regenerating work we are given a revelation of Christ—we see who Christ really is and we see the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6). In addition, there is a restoration: we receive a new faculty known as the “eyes of the heart” (Eph 1:18). This faculty of spiritual sight allows us to understand and perceive spiritual realities which belong to us as heirs of God’s grace (1 Cor 2:10-13, 15-16).

Christ’s infinite capacity to reflect the glory of God is due first of all to the virtuousness and grace of His Person in His incarnation, and secondly to the work He accomplished in His propitiation. It is these two elements which reflect the glory of God: His humanity and His mission —His Person and His work—His character and His cross. Paul preached “Christ” (His incarnation); “and Him crucified,” (His work) (1 Cor 2:2). These two constitute the duality of God’s infinite wisdom. God’s reflected glory in Christ has the power to melt the sinner’s heart—evaporating dread, fear, guilt, hiding, and enmity (Col 1:21-23).

Thus we are to understand that God has chosen a way of salvation which showcases His glory. We could take an example from sports. The greatest excellence only becomes manifest under the greatest opposition. It can be a challenge to sell tickets to a game between a winning team and a losing team. Who wants to watch the top team play a team that is perpetually in the cellar? But it is easy to sell tickets to watch the two best teams in the world compete. But why is this true? Answer: we were created to be enthusiastic spectators of excellence—opposition reveals excellence. God created us to be enthusiastic spectators of His excellence. Christ defeated enemies which opposed us —enemies which we had no power against in ourselves: sin, death, hell, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Now that we are redeemed, the Word of God describes us as the ‘unveiled ones’ able to behold the glory of the Lord, our new vocation is to gaze upon His glory (2 Cor 3:16-18). God’s glory of course is the outshining of His perfections made manifest in Christ, and revealed in the wonderful plan of redemption. God’s majesty and excellence are put on display in our redemption. Beholding the glory of the Lord is the vocation or calling of the church (2 Cor 3:18). Proclaiming the excellencies of the Lord is the mission of the church (1 Pet 2:9-10). The second activity, proclaiming, depends upon faithfulness to the first activity, beholding. The cycle is behold, be changed, proclaim as a witness. We are created by God to be enthusiastic spectators of His excellence—to cheer, to adore, to admire, and to praise. It is the new birth that has made us new creations able to behold and proclaim God’s glory.

To behold the glory of the Lord is to be ravished by the sight of Him. The reason why is stunning—to begin to understand the vastness and supremacy and dignity of the Person who gave His life for us is to be rocked and staggered at His majesty. He lavished grace on you for His name sake. He is fulfilling God’s plan to reveal the divine perfections in an awesome manner—by the redemption of sinners. Let this sink in and it will blast you out of the spiritual ‘blahs.’ It will fill you with passion for the glory of the Lord. For in Christ, God’s glory and your eternal good are eternally joined (Eph 2:6-7). Paul regarded himself to be a steward of this divine mystery that God’s glory is revealed in Christ’s work of redeeming sinners to the glory of God (Eph 3:8-12).

Beholding the glory of the Lord is our blessed work, but it is often blocked by the ‘tyranny of the urgent.’ We get so busy ‘tweaking’ the many projects on our plate that we begin to lose a ‘Godentranced vision of all things’ (Jonathan Edwards). We forget that the universe and history itself exist as a stage for God to manifest His glory. The universe right now is cursed because of what happened at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The universe is about to experience cosmic reconciliation because of what happened at Calvary’s Tree (Col 1:20). And then the redeemed will eat from a third tree—The Tree of Life.

God’s glory has provided a ‘lens’ for us to look through. And, as Pastor Ian Paisley says, we see Jesus as Lowly because of His condescension in taking on flesh and blood. We see Jesus as Lonely because He was abandoned at Calvary to reconcile me. We see Jesus as Lovely because His reproach is my glory. And, we see Jesus as Lofty because His Name has been placed above every other name. We have work to do—we need to keep looking at His glory. Bring your heart hunger to Him— He is able to ravish the soul and make you like Him in holiness. Remember why He laid hold of you in the first place, “And it was for this He called you through our Gospel, that you might gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 2:14). Now closely associated with beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ is seeing the infinite value of the kingdom of God—which is our next “access point.”

V. The Gospel is the VANTAGE point whereby we see the kingdom

The gospel brings Christ’s kingdom into our hearts. God is setting up His throne in the hearts of the redeemed before He comes to earth again to set up His throne in Jerusalem. Only through the gospel can we reach a vantage point high enough to see the grandeur, wealth, and scope of the Kingdom of God. When the Lord saved you, He invited you into His story, His ‘kingdom plot.’ The glory of this kingdom will fill the universe someday. There is more here in this kingdom plan than we can imagine. The Lord is calling out a portion of the human race—forming them into the moral likeness of Christ. With Christ as their ‘Head’ this new humanity is being fashioned for eternal life in the Father’s house (Jn 14:2-3; Rev 21:1-7). “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard all that God has planned for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9).

The gospel Christ preached has a King and a kingdom—a divine Ruler and His subjects. It is important to keep this in view in our postmodern relativistic age. When talking with unsaved university students about the Word of God, there is a common attitude which suggests that believing something ‘religious’ makes that religious proposition true for you. How opposite biblical faith is from this prevailing idea. The biblical gospel makes submission to the person of Christ inseparable from saving faith. Thus, to remain in unbelief is to refuse to be ruled by Christ and His Word. Faith and repentance brings the sinner under Christ’s loving and all-wise governance and authority. It is interesting that fallen man wants peace and justice and fulfillment; but not God’s way—by coming under the rule of Christ. Hollywood keeps cranking out a new crop of fantasy movies in an attempt to satisfy the cravings for ‘other world’ plots. And what do these fantasy flicks all have in common? They have a redemptive plot with antagonists, protagonists, oppression, the way things ought to be, cries for justice, utopian existence, deliverance, and super heroes. Hollywood continually steals and borrows from the divine drama of redemption. The last stanza of Joni Mitchell’s song, “Woodstock,” which she sang at Woodstock, contains some very insightful lyrics describing mankind’s craving for order, beauty, peace, community, and justice:

We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden

Man’s longing to get back to the Garden (Joni Mitchell) is seen in countless cultural expressions (including the Hollywood movies described above), but only the Gospel of Kingdom explains how God will accomplish this restoration to paradise. The book of Revelation is fraught with descriptions of the glory to come when Christ returns and it is remarkable how many of those descriptions of heaven employ terminology from the Garden of Eden in Genesis.

Earlier in this lesson we saw under view of glory that we are transformed into Christ’s likeness by beholding the glory of the Lord. In a very similar manner meditating on the Gospel of the Kingdom instills in us a ‘kingdom consciousness’ which deepens our hope of glory. The gospel feeds our kingdom consciousness causing us to be controlled by an eagerness to see the Lord face to face (1 Cor 13:12-13; Rom 8:23-25; Titus 2:13; 1 Jn 2:28).

Kingdom consciousness is a kind of ‘lens’ through which the believer sees all of life. Those who love the world are warned that they will pass away with it (1 Jn 2:15-17). Those who love the world have never seen the infinite value of the Kingdom of God. By contrast, the saints are controlled by their hope of glory (Heb 11:14-16; 12:25-29). Those who love the world will lose their treasure, their glory, and their souls (1Cor 2:6-8). Paul warns that those who set their affections on earthly things are enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18-19).

Satan is the god of this world. He offers the concept of a ‘master-less freedom’—a freedom without service and without subjection to authority—which is precisely the soul-damning lie that drove his own rebellion. The cruelty of his lie is that since we were created to serve—those who refuse to serve their Creator will serve Satan by default (Jn 8:38-47). Satan is the default god of this world’s inhabitants (2 Cor 4:4; 1 Jn 5:18-19; Eph 2:1-3).

In William Ernest Henley’s famous poem “Invictus” (published in 1888), the last stanza captures the self-reliant defiance which characterizes the human condition:

It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul

What a vast contrast this is from the child of God who gladly and boldly confesses that Christ is the captain of his soul. The apostle Paul reminds us that salvation is a ‘kingdom transfer’—a radical deliverance from one kingdom in order to be placed in another kingdom.

The child of God has undergone a ‘kingdom transfer’—he has been moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Col 1:13-14). This change in kingdoms is a change in masters. As a child of the King, the Christian is willing to suffer with Christ his King (Rom 8:18-23). The believer has seen by faith the preciousness of Christ the King and His Kingdom; therefore the true believer is willing to suffer for the sake of inheriting the Kingdom of God (Acts 5:39-42; 14:22; 9:16; 2 Thess 1:5; 2 Tim 3:12).

As a result of being ‘transferred’ into Christ’s kingdom, the redeemed individual is able to perceive the infinite value of the kingdom (Matt 13:44). Jesus described this perception of the preciousness of the kingdom in a most unusual manner: “. . . violent men seize it by force” (Matt 11:12). In other words, once a person has seen the infinite preciousness of the kingdom he is never the same—that man or woman has to have it! As Jesus said, they are forcing their way into it. They are making whatever sacrifices necessary to have it.

How opposite this is from the world; the natural man is apathetic and complacent about eternal issues. The unsaved man is a spiritual procrastinator; he won’t pray; he leaves the subject of eternity on hold. Scottish pastor R. M. M’Cheyne captures the urgency of the matter in a portion of one of his sermons,

Be entreated, O wavering souls, to settle the question of your salvation now. Why halt ye between two opinions? It is most unreasonable to be undecided about the things of an endless eternity, in such a world as this, with such frail bodies, with such a Savior stretching out His hand, and such a Spirit of love striving with you. Remember you are flesh—you will soon hear your last sermon. “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have put before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deut 30:19) (Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of R. M. M’Cheyne, Banner of Truth, 1973, pp. 219-220).

The believer’s hope is set upon a lasting city, his true home; for here he has no lasting city— therefore he is not ‘addicted’ to the world’s praise, comforts and honors. He is willing to suffer reproach for the sake of Christ (Heb 13:10-15).

Kingdom consciousness is kingdom hope. Kingdom hope is more than just comfort and eternal values. Kingdom hope sanctifies us in the present—“Whoever has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure” (1 Jn 3:2). Kingdom hope is part of our spiritual armor (1 Thess 5:8). Hope lets us see the world for what it is—a mirage of stimuli that cannot offer a crumb of nutrition to our hungry souls (Rom 13:12).

Kingdom consciousness helps drive our victory because it reminds us that we are locked in a combat to the death in a battle between temporal and eternal values. Trials tempt us; but also make us choose. Trials reveal our value system—they illuminate the contents of our hearts. Our response in trial evinces either a temporal or eternal value system (2 Cor 4:16-18). Trials expose our treasure, our hope, our life direction. Those radically identified with Christ know that God is working from eternity and for eternity in all His dealings with them.

When Christ came to earth He did not find one square foot of real estate completely devoted to the knowledge and glory of God. The coming Kingdom of God will change all of that. “[Someday] the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Is 11:9). “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps 46:10).

Consider therefore what is at stake in this battle of the ages. The kingdom of God is coming; but in order for God’s kingdom to come down to earth, all competing systems of authority and power must be shaken to oblivion (Heb 12:26-29). When we pray the Lord’s Prayer; we seldom reflect upon the fact that it is a very militant petition. To pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10); is to ask God to remove every obstacle standing in the way of His perfect will on earth. This is a violent prayer—for it is asking God to remove every single enemy who opposes His will and His glory—and it is going to require the tribulation period in order for this prayer to be answered!

Dwelling upon the coming kingdom of God is essential for a true believer for that activity of Scripture meditation sharpens our focus upon reality. The hope of the gospel preached to ourselves deepens our kingdom consciousness—the result is that we are increasingly animated by eternal values.

VI. The Gospel is the VICTORY won by Christ at Calvary

Because of Christ’s substitutionary death for us, sin’s dominion is broken for God’s people. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). Christ as Creator and Ruler of all did not need personal victory over sin and the world. He came to earth to be an overcomer for the sake of His bride. He gained the victory to give it to His church.

The victory Christ won is the rightful property of His church. But it is not a victory that is enjoyed passively. The saint is commanded to enter into Christ’s victory by feeding the mind upon gospel realities. We are commanded to reckon, to count, to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11f.). All that Christ has accomplished at the cross is ours by virtue of being in union with Him. When the Spirit placed us in Christ, all of the benefits of Christ’s ‘crosswork’ became our possession. But this is a ‘positional truth’ that is not immediately experiential. You may not wake up tomorrow morning and ‘feel’ dead to sin. In fact if you allow yourself to be gripped by fear, anger, resentment, or lust, you may ‘feel’ very alive to sin!

Paul’s point in Romans chapter six is that we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin regardless of how we feel. This reckoning is not an attempt to make something fictional into something real. It is an appropriation of Christ’s victory by faith. The Lord accomplished a mighty conquest of our enemies. Our part is to believe it—that is how we participate in His victory—it is how we appropriate His work of overcoming so that we are conquerors with Him (Rom 8:37).

We must be convinced (by reckoning) that we are dead to sin before we can fight sin successfully. The gospel order is, reckon yourselves dead to sin; then say ‘no’ to sin’s overtures. That is the gospel order—this is the means whereby we enter into Christ’s conquest (Col 3:5). God commands us to believe something BEFORE we seek victory over indwelling sin. We must be convinced that Christ died to give us real objective victory over sin.

Everything Christ endured from His birth to His ascension was for His people. His vicarious life had one great aim for His people—to give them life, righteousness, sonship, pardon, holiness, adoption, and victory. He gave His life to redeem you from sin’s penalty and power—He gave His life to make you an overcomer. His conquest over the enemies of our souls was not merely an example to follow—His conquest and victory is ours. We enter into His conquest by faith—it is a conquering of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil is not an option; it is the condition necessary to finish the race. The citizens of heaven are said to be overcomers (Rev 21:7). Those who live by faith in Christ are said to be overcomers (1 Jn 5:4-5). Overcoming is set up in stark contrast to those who are overcome by the world instead. Scripture refers to them as ‘cowardly and unbelieving’ and not heirs of eternal life. What a cause for sober reflection. Those who do not overcome, but instead are overcome by sin and the world, will not enter heaven (Rev 21:8; 2 Pet 2:18-22).

We must constantly keep in mind that Christ is our ‘sphere’ of life. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Rom 13:14). There is the gospel order again—‘put on’ then ‘make no provision for the lusts of the flesh.’ Preaching the gospel to myself is the way in which I am to live out the victory Christ won for me. Co-crucifixion with Christ is the ‘staging area’ from which the practical work of mortifying sin takes place. I reckon who I am and what I am in Christ—a child of God who is dead to sin—THEN from that perspective of co-crucifixion I make my forays against sin.

Defining myself as crucified with Christ (a positional truth) is an act of obedient faith. At the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit sanctified me in Christ—that is He set me apart in Christ as belonging to God. Definitive sanctification (positional sanctification) is an accomplished fact that allows me to live the rest of my earthly life as God’s own possession (Heb 10:10). The more I trust in this fact of definitive sanctification (that I am set apart from sin unto God), the more I will understand why Christ does not want to share my heart with idols.

Though the Christian is to pursue moral excellence (2 Pet 1:5), moral striving has its limitations in making us good. Bare morality cannot sanctify us. Only radical identification with Christ can change us from the inside out. The reason why is tied to the question, “How much of a disaster do you think human sin is?” God’s Word reveals that it is such a disaster that the only hope of mankind is to be ‘killed’ vicariously with Christ (co-crucified with Him). The only possible way we can live our lives for God is to ‘die with Christ’—this is exactly what happened—our sin natures were judged in the body and soul of our Savior 2000 years ago so that we would no longer live for self; but for Him who died and rose on our behalf (2 Cor 5:14-15).

God’s work in Christ of justifying us and definitively sanctifying us is ‘preemptive’—in other words, God declares us pardoned and righteous ‘up front’ BEFORE we have a chance to try to win His favor by our works. This is so significant. Because of our ‘lust for law’ God knew that we would approach progressive sanctification with legal motives. The gospel order involves God declaring us righteous up front (Rom 4:5-8). The gracious gospel order is designed to make the entire Christian life ‘all of grace.’

This means that the Christian can pursue sanctification from the position of full acceptance because he is already pardoned and accepted by God in Christ. This shapes all of our motives for personal holiness—it always brings us back to an attitude of gratitude, rather than working for acceptance through our performance.

Closely related to this is the provision for constant cleansing from sin. The new covenant has a boundless provision for cleansing (Heb 8:12; 9:14). We must avail ourselves of this cleansing provision as often as needed. William Romaine reminds us that only pardon, and consciousness of that pardon, can ultimately cancel sin’s hold on us. Says William Romaine, “No sin can be crucified in heart or in life unless it is first pardoned in the conscience.” His words are a fitting reminder that guilt is a lousy motivator to holiness. Guilt cannot sanctify us—in fact, our resolve to pursue personal holiness is best activated by the awareness that we have no guilt or condemnation in God’s sight.

In order to experience victory over the enemies of our souls, we must understand the present value of the cross. We must always remember that Christ’s work in His atonement was a purchase— not only a purchase of eternal life and victory, but also a purchase of ourselves as well. To have received God’s free gift of redemption is also to have become God’s own possession. It is to be owned by the Lord as His possession (1 Cor 6:19-20). It is to be Christ’s ‘slave’ who is ruled by His

Word. The Lord has an absolute right to control all aspects of the life of His child. What follows the rest of our lives (in time and eternity) is giving our selves back to God in overflowing gratitude (Rom 6:12-23). Sharing in Christ’s victory over sin as a daily course involves presenting the members of our body to the Lord as instruments of righteousness (Rom 6:12-13).

Biblically this defines the dynamic of grace in our lives; but it also means that grace is often NOT defined accurately by evangelicals. Grace is commonly defined by professing Christians as boundless kindness but not as absolute obligation. Grace is commonly seen as the remedy for sin; but not as having the goal of sharing in Christ’s victory over sin. Paul, in Titus 2:11-14, corrects this misnomer by declaring that grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.

CONCLUSION:

We have seen the immense practicality of preaching the gospel to one’s self. We will never outgrow our need for the gospel—the word of grace provides the foundation, the formation, and the motivation for loving obedience to Christ—which is the reason He called us to Himself.

Preaching the gospel to self is to grow in our knowledge of the Lord. Here is the reason why: to deal with the wealth of the gospel is to deal directly with Christ’s Person. For the benefits He has won for us are not ‘commodities’ that have an existence apart from Him. The infinite benefits of salvation cannot be separated from His Person. Our wealth is in Him—we are sons in Him; overcomers through Him; heirs in Him. As we meditate upon our union with Christ, all that is ours through Him tends to put our Savior into more clear focus. Our hearts are drawn out in love, devotion, and adoration to Him.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 17

THE ROLE OF SCRIPTURE MEDITATION IN OUR

SANCTIFICATION, PART THREE

INTRODUCTION: Meditation is opposed to flesh and blood—how hard it is to fix our minds and thought upon God. Our flesh quarrels with this duty. Hearing alone begets knowledge; but meditation begets delight. Meditation gives ballast to the heart and makes it serious. Meditation on eternal life makes us labor for a spiritual life. It has the effect of comforting and reinforcing in us the shortness of natural life. Where do we find the meditating Christian? Most people live in a hurry, enveloped in distractions. This is unlike the saints in former ages (Thomas Watson, Heaven taken by Storm, pp. 23-27).

Regarding the close relation between meditation and self-examination, Watson notes: The good and wise Christian begins as if it were the Day of Judgment in his own soul. You would give yourself no rest if you issued an invalid check to a merchant, yet so opposed is our flesh to examination, that denial and self-deception reign. Self-love kills our spiritual objectivity. Your salvation depends upon you taking pains in self-examination. The false believer is seldom home, but always out spying on the faults of others. It is the true believer who ‘does violence’ by self-examination. If we will not try ourselves, God will try us by scourging! ‘Lord, show me my heart, lest I perish through mistake, or go to hell with the hope of heaven.’ The warning is ‘do not come short’ (Heb 4:1) (Ibid, pp. 30-33).

I. The meaning of meditating upon God’s Word

A. Scriptural meditation defined:

1. Scripture meditation is “The activity of calling to mind or thinking over and dwelling upon and applying to oneself the various things one knows about the works, ways, purposes, and promises of God” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God).
2. Meditation is renewal of the mind by means of God’s Word. Meditating on Scripture is for every believer because each believer is called to a life of transformation. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2).

B. Meditating upon Scripture is a spiritual discipline (Ps 1:2; 119:24, 27, 48, 78, 97; 145:5).

1. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, and as a means of communion with God. Meditation clears one’s mind and heart of distractions in order to gain a clear vision of God and to let His truth make its full impact. Scripture meditation is necessary in order for God’s truth to change our mind, affections, and will (John Owen, Communion with God).
2. Meditation on the Word is an energetic spiritual discipline; it involves focus and concentration. Meditation often involves talking to oneself about God and what He requires. It often entails ‘arguing’ and reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief and back into clear apprehensions of God’s holiness, love, power, and grace (Maurice Roberts, Thought of God).

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

II. What are the steps for meditating upon God’s Word?

A. Meditation is an extension of the application step of personal Bible study.

1. Meditation takes the application step of Bible study even further by asking additional questions of the biblical text:

• How does this passage ‘feed my faith’?
• How may I move into greater love of the truth as it is taught here?
• What changes are necessary for me to bring my life into conformity with God’s truth?
• How does this passage give me God’s way of seeing life?
• How does this passage help me ‘build a case’ for obedience?
• How does this passage help me ‘build a case’ against disobedience?
• What errors, lies, and temptations are refuted by this text?
• What are the benefits of obedience and the consequences of disobedience?

• What does this passage enjoin regarding God and my relationship with Him?

2. Meditation on Scripture involves a determination to believe what God says and to do it. “Therefore, let us fear lest, while the promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard” (Heb 4:1-2). Meditation on the Word mixes faith with the Word so that we truly profit from the Word.
3. Many individuals who hear God’s Word and even read God’s Word do not profit from it because they do not respond to God’s Word with faith (Heb 4:2). All genuine obedience springs from faith in God’s Word. Meditation allows the Word to feed our faith and fasten God’s truth upon our understanding and upon our affections.

B. Meditation on Scripture is the cultivation of the love of the truth.

1. “Under the law it was an unclean beast that did not chew the cud; it is a corrupt heart that does not ‘chew [God’s] truth’ by meditation” (Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God). Only the person who has saving grace has joy in God’s truth. The heart of a true believer functions as a servant of divine revelation—his heart and conscience are ‘captive’ to the Word of God.

By contrast, the unbeliever does not receive the love of the truth (2 Thess 2:10). The natural man cannot delight in the commandments of God (Rom 8:5-8). Therefore in the heart of a natural man no meditation on Scripture takes place. The unregenerate man keeps God’s truth ‘confined to a vault’ lest it be released to fill his life and have total sway, influence and dominion. In the Parable of the Soils, the seed (the Word) sown by the sower only dominated exceptionally in ONE of the soils; the good soil—in which case it brought forth fruit to maturity (Matt 13:23).

2. The believer’s heart is a sanctuary of God’s truth. “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates both day and night. And he will like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers” (Ps 1:1-2).

What a sobering thought is unfolded in this Psalm—those who do not meditate in the Word of God are consequently unfruitful—and, if they do not repent, they will ultimately be blown away as chaff. Chaff is the worthless cellulose husk removed from the nutritious grain of wheat.

C. Meditation on Scripture involves treasuring God’s Word in the heart (Ps 119:11).

1. Meditation involves the study and reflection upon the Word in such a way that we find our true riches in the Lord. By turning over the truth of God in our minds, it makes an indelible impression upon us—it becomes ours—in this way it is written on our hearts by the Spirit of God.

Because we live in an age of superficial religion, most who profess Christianity have ‘borrowed convictions’. They have never made it a habit to treasure up God’s Word in their hearts so that longing for the pure milk of the Word is their habit and practice (1 Pet 2:2; 1 Tim 4:6; 2 Tim 2:15). Only ‘first hand convictions’ won through Scripture meditation will cause our hearts to be satisfied in God, and occupied with eternal treasure.

2. The Psalmist said, “I will meditate upon Thy precepts; and regard Thy ways. I shall delight in Thy statutes; I shall not forget Thy Word” (Ps 119:15-16). Only when God’s Word is treasured in our hearts will it put us to work both in serving God and putting sin to death. One must meditate upon Scripture if he is to be a doer of the Word—meditation takes God’s truth from propositional to proactive (James 1:22-25). Our desire to please God will only be realized if we continually familiarize ourselves with God’s truth (Josh 1:8).

III. The necessity of meditating upon the Word

A. The contemplation of the truth is our primary weapon in the battle for the mind.

1. Meditation has a goal: to induce trust, loyalty, devotion, surrender, obedience, delight, and love to God—all the while deepening our knowledge of God, our love of His truth, and our conformity to it. When believers meditate, they are always about the business of weighing the temporal against the eternal—therefore they are willing to suffer loss and deny themselves for the sake of Christ. Frequent meditation is required to do this weighing of heaven against the world; of weighing the value of knowing Christ versus earthly gain (Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, pp. 374-375).

2. When the saint meditates he is anything but passive; he is busy building a case for obedience and tearing down the beginnings of any argument for distrust of God. Meditation moves the Word of God from the mind to the heart (the center of will and volition); from the academic to application. It is a revitalizing spiritual discipline that we need to exercise daily. Because our lower natures are hostile to God’s gracious will, our minds need constant reorientation by the Holy Spirit (Peter Toon, The Art of Meditating on Scripture, p. 31).

B. Meditation is necessary in order to enjoy the kind of intimacy and closeness to God to which we are called (Jn 15:4; 1 Jn 2:28).

1. There are but two ways to draw near to God: by prayer and by meditation (William G. T. Shedd). Meditation is a necessary labor and a pleasurable discipline to be able to take delight in God. The reward of regular meditation is that we find God to be our chief treasure, to be trustworthy, and to be our highest good. Heart-warming communion with God is not possible apart from the Scripture practices of prayer, worship, and meditation.
2. The three disciplines of prayer, worship, and meditation are closely related. Scripture meditation feeds and stimulates both prayer and worship. Meditation is our contact point for communion with God, and it is the very essence of growth in our knowledge of God. As we meditate upon the Word of God we are communing with the Lord. Those who meditate upon

Scripture are blessed with ‘divine disclosures’. God is pleased to manifest His presence where the true knowledge of Him is known, loved, proclaimed, adored, and exalted. Puritan divine, John Owen reminds us that meditation is anything but a dry or rigid spiritual discipline:

Why are we afraid to have good thoughts of God? Is it too hard to think of God as good, gracious, tender, loving, and kind toward us in particular? We must assure ourselves that there is nothing more acceptable to God than to keep our hearts filled with Him as the eternal source of all of that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus. Our resistance to walking close with God stems from the fact that we do not behold and receive His love. The more we see God’s love by faith, so much more will we delight in Him. (John Owen, Communion with God, abridged version, p. 32).

3. By the mind-renewing power of meditation we submit our minds to the mind of God. We are lifted above subjectivism (moods and feelings) to concrete thoughts of God. The effect is always to humble us as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory against our sinfulness and smallness. Meditation teaches us to think (as the psalmists did) in the presence of God (Ps 19:14).

C. Whatever occupies the mind and heart will engage the will. Thoughts and deeds follow the affections of the heart. Meditation equips the believer to navigate by means of Scripture.

1. There is no way to pass victoriously through this world of seductive idols without Scripture meditation (Ps 119:9-16). We may tell ourselves that we please God because our lives conform outwardly to His moral commands; but the real evidence in the soul of the saint is meditation upon God’s Word (Ps 1:1-3).

Our love to God is evidenced there first. “Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear” (Matt 13:16). The maturing saint uses these faculties planted in the soul at regeneration for the purpose of meditation (1 Cor 2:10-16). The obedient believer is not content to lock away his spiritual riches in Christ in a safe deposit box—no, the growing Christian desires to probe and to study with fascination, awe, and wonder the things freely given to us by God (1 Cor 2:12).

2. The godly man meditates so that he might praise God and tell of all His works (Ps 145:1-7). He considers the exploration of God’s wonderful works to be his blessed vocation in life. There is a direct correspondence between the heart and the tongue. No matter one’s vocation in life, if the heart is full of God, the tongue cannot refrain from talking of God. It is a poverty of grace that we don’t talk more of God. We must as stewards of divine grace, have the same determination as the psalmist: I will think of Thee always; I will speak of Thee often; I will make opportunity (C. H. Spurgeon).

3. When the saint communes with God through meditation; he is trusting God’s Word. As a result, God’s love controls more and more of his decision making. We must come to know God experientially—by venturing out upon Him if we are to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

D. When the believer meditates on the Word, he literally preaches to himself the will of God, the wonders of God, the ways of God, the works of God, and the gospel of God.

1. Maturing Christians meditate upon Scripture—this involves building a case for obedience and building a case against disobedience. Here is the great difference between merely reading Scripture and actually meditating upon God’s Word. Scripture constantly joins divine commands to the benefits of obedience, and we must do the same in our thought life.

2. “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked “(Ps 1:1). Scripture at length spells out the consequences of disobedience. “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Prov 13:20). Through Scripture meditation we learn to love the God of truth and we learn to love the truth in order to be conformed to the truth. The Christian worldview is incredibly demanding. We must know the reasons for self-denial and for daily taking up our cross. We must know why Jesus promises that there infinitely more joy in self-denial for His sake than in self-indulgence (Jn 12:24-26; 14:21, 23; 15:9-11; 16:33).

3. To meditate upon Scripture is to familiarize oneself with the benefits of obedience and the consequences of disobedience. The growing believer learns to mentally wrestle and argue through the commands of Scripture. The divine ‘logic’ for obedience must become the believer’s logic (Ps 101:1-5). The believer reasons that God’s commands are wise, good, and loving. “The [precepts of the Lord] are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb” (Ps 19:10).

E. The secret to overcoming the controlling power of sin is in ‘deconstructing’ the lies that drive lust and temptation.

1. Hebrews 6:11-12 tells us that we must show the same diligence as the saints who have gone before us—“so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” We can only run the race set before us with stamina if we “fix our eyes on Jesus and lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us” (Heb 12:2). We ‘fix our eyes’ upon Jesus by meditating upon His excellence and perfections. The lies behind sin obscure the goal before us of eternal glory.

2. The lusts that seek to hold us are animated by lies. Scripture refers to these lie-driven lusts as the lusts of deceit (Eph 4:22). We use Scripture to unravel the lies that energize temptation. But this is precisely where we are lazy thinkers. We hesitate to actually exert the mental energy necessary to ‘out-truth’ the lies behind the lusts—but we must do this in order to succeed against sin. Since the entrance of sin, the world has always offered itself as genuine source to satisfy our soul’s thirst. Scripture compares the world to a leaky cistern (reservoir) which can hold no water (Jer 2:13). God tells us that if one is a friend of the world, he is an enemy of God (James 4:4).

To be a friend of the world is to believe the lie that the world can be one’s true source. So antithetical are God and the world in terms of source, that to regard the world as source is to be an avowed enemy of God.

3. In our meditation we preach the truth to ourselves with enough conviction to drown out and expose the lies which are just beneath the surface of our temptations. The Christian must be on the offensive in this matter. He has no choice. “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret” (Eph 5:8-12).

4. This pattern of lust operating by deceit is only broken when work is done in the recesses of the soul. The lie must be excavated, exposed, and refuted through Scripture meditation. The Christian will have to preach to himself the boundaries which God has erected to safeguard personal holiness. Tear down the temple of lust with truth in order to build the edifice of purity —the latter replaces the former—put off, put on (Eph 4:22-32).

Solid biblical thinking is formed during meditation. Happy is the man who knows the ways of the Lord, and wise is the man who knows how sin operates. Iniquity has a kind of life of its own—it permits no competitors, and accepts no treaties. It wants complete dominion. Sin can’t wait to initiate a coup, a hostile takeover. It will slander God in order to sustain its existence. It will publish the most horrific lies about God in order to sustain its provision for lust—it seduces sinners away from God by its promised charms.

5. Sin is parasitic, like the cuckoo which lays its eggs in other birds’ nests. The cuckoo chick, upon hatching, pushes all the eggs of the natural mother out of the nest so that the parents’ food and energies go completely into raising the alien parasite chick. Sin behaves in a similar manner. It seeks to eliminate any competition for its host’s time, talent, and affection. Wise is the man who knows that sin never abides in a static position; it is either being conquered, or is conquering. We either overcome it or are overcome by it—we are killing it, or it is killing us.

6. Sin gets its foothold by our doubting God. This is why it is so important to watch over one’s heart with all diligence (Prov 4:23). Our spiritual loyalty or treason begins with our thought life. It’s hard to surpass this bit of prose for illustrating the importance of thoughts: Sow a thought; reap an action; sow an action; reap a habit; sow a habit; reap a character; sow a character; reap a destiny. R. C. Sproul reminds us, right now counts forever. Or as one pastor quipped, today you are becoming what you will be five years from now. This is why meditation is indispensable to our arsenal. Meditation enables us to ‘get the victory’ in the battle for the mind.

F. The maturing Christian has learned through meditation to be a ‘physician’ to his own soul.

1. He knows the particular kind of distemper that he is prone to fall into. He knows how to preach to his own heart. He sees temptation at a distance; he is aware of his vulnerability (Heb 5:13-14). He knows the appropriate biblical remedies for each disorder; whether laxity, guilt, presumption, self-righteousness, discontentment, or discouragement.
2. The growing believer has learned to feed his soul on the precious things of God through meditation. He goes to God each day for delight. He feeds on grace so that he will never lack courage to run to God for new installments of love, acceptance, mercy, and grace (Heb 4:16). He keeps ‘building a case’ for obedience by focusing on the benefits of obedience. Those benefits include the 100’s of promises found in Scripture that are addressed to those who trust and obey the Lord (by way of example see James 4:5-10).

3. He nourishes his soul on the excellence of heavenly things, the things above (Col 3:1-2). He knows that to behold God’s glory by faith puts resolve in the will; it enables a man to trample upon all the world’s offers. Therefore, the saint who meditates is intentional; he reviews his riches in Christ; he keeps going to Scripture to dwell upon God’s glory.

QUESTIONS:

(I.A.1-2) 1.) Explain why is meditation on Scripture for every believer?

(I.B.1-2) 2.) Do you study the Bible and meditate upon the Word for the purpose of meeting with God, drawing near to Him, and fellowshipping with Him? In light of communing with God, explain why meditation is both a spiritual discipline, and a joy.

(I.B.1-2) 3.) Read Jude 1:20-21. What role does meditation play in building yourselves up in your most holy faith?

(II.A.1) 4.) Read Philippians 3:7-11. Meditate on the passage. Select one of the bulleted questions in II.A.1 of your outline. Answer the question using the passage above.

(II.A.2-3) 5.) Read Hebrews 3:14 through 4:1-2. Comment on the connection you see between faith, obedience, and profiting from the Word of God.

(II.B-C) 6.) Read 2 Thessalonians 2:10. How does the love of the truth protect a believer from error? Explain how meditation deepens our love of the truth so that the Lord becomes our treasure?

(III.A.1-2) 7.) Perhaps in the past you thought of mediation as a more passive act. Actually meditation is a very ‘vigorous’ spiritual discipline. What are some of the actions that take place in Scripture meditation?

(III.B.1-3) 8.) Read John 15:4 and 1 John 2:28. In these passages the believer is commanded to abide in Christ. What role do you think Scripture meditation plays in our abiding in Christ?

(III.C.1-3) 9.) How does Scripture meditation assist us in the process of ‘smashing’ any idols of the heart?

(III.D.1-3) 10.) Read Psalm 101:1-5. Locate at least three of the phrases which express the Psalmist’s determination to obey God completely. What evidences in this Psalm prove that the writer meditates regularly?

(III.E.1-6) 11.) Explain what it means to deconstruct a lie.

(III.E.1-6) 12.) Read 2 Peter 2 in its entirety. Write down at least two truths from 2 Peter 2 which expose the world’s lies (false promises) about sensuality.

(III.E.1-6). 13.) Read Proverbs 4:23. What connection do you see between Scripture meditation and watching over the heart with all diligence?

(III.F.1-3) 14.) What is your understanding of the term, ‘physician of the soul’? After studying this portion of the outline, what activities do you plan to add to you Scripture meditation?

THE ROLE OF SCRIPTURE MEDITATION IN OUR

SANCTIFICATION, PART FOUR

INTRODUCTION: The Puritans were strong where we are weak. This becomes apparent when assessing modern Christianity from a doctrinal perspective, for we find that evangelicals do not practice “theology applied”—instead they practice pragmatism. In contrast to this, the Puritans embraced a thorough-going anthropology—that is human nature known by the Bible. As a result they understood that the disease of sin can only be cured (by sanctification) when we deal with root drives—the deepest motives of the heart. These motives must be brought in line with God’s will otherwise we are left with merely an external Christianity (Kenneth L. Roth, The Cure of Souls in the Thought of Richard Baxter, ThM Thesis, RTS, Jackson, MS, 1995, pp. 1-7).

The true Christian makes holy living his main business in life. He is zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). He runs to win the prize (1 Cor 9:24). He wears the armor of God (Eph 6:13-17). He is diligent (Heb 6:11-12). He keeps believing despite the various problems he meets, knowing that God allows the problems in order to refine the believer and to test the reality of his faith. Blessed is the man who endures amidst temptation and trial (James 1:12). The faithful will receive the crown of life (Rev 2:10) (Jonathan Edwards, The Experience that Counts, Grace Publications, 1991, pp. 111-112).

I. Meditation gives us an intimate knowledge of God’s ways.

A. We cannot please God or order our way aright unless we know God’s ways. “Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight” (Ex 33:13; Ps 25:4).

B. We must know God’s ways or we are certain to misinterpret His providence. The nation of Israel misinterpreted God’s providence and it cost them dearly (1 Cor 10:1-13; Heb 3:7-4:7). Israel went astray in their heart—they did not know God’s ways. As a consequence they provoked God by their rebellion and unbelief (Heb 3:10; Ps 95:8-11).

In order to prevent this kind of rebellion against the Lord, the true believer studies God’s ways that he might please God by responding properly to His providence. “The Christian heart is thoroughly persuaded that all things happen by God’s plan—all things for good and for the salvation of His elect who love Him” (John Calvin).

God’s ways are not our ways; His ways are not measurable by us (Is 55:8-9). If we lean on our own understanding, we will surely misinterpret His providence in our lives (Prov 3:5-6). Let us consider just how different God’s ways are from our ways:

He blesses through loss, sends power in our acute weakness, brings joy out of sorrow and radical faith out of confusion. He brings hope out of disappointment, fruitfulness out of close pruning, righteousness out of chastisement, trust out of delays and deprivation, exaltation out of humbling, submission out of scourging, and sweet surrender out of affliction. We distance ourselves from those who consistently disappoint us; but God is longsuffering—He is the God of 10,000 times 10,000 restorations and endless installments of grace to His people (Ps 23:3).

C. Meditation prepares us to respond rightly to the twists and turns and ruts and roadblocks of life. This is true because when our heart embraces the knowledge of God’s providence in our lives, it produces deep gratitude and thanksgiving. Joy is the outcome of knowing that God is our Protector and Defender and that His work will benefit our welfare (Ps 118:6; 56:4). In God’s works of providence, His boundless wisdom and His infinite power are united. This makes God utterly trustworthy. This is the great reason we may have “all joy” amidst our trials (James 1:2).

BUT, we will only recognize God’s wisdom toward us if we know the end toward which God is working in our lives: “Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:11-12). This is His purpose and goal: God intends that His children be eternal trophies of His grace. We are to rejoice that He set His love upon us from all eternity. What God is putting us through is inseparable from the perfect goal that is in His hands. We are to know that God is working toward a perfect end that will bring endless joy to God and to us. The more we feed our faith on these truths; the deeper our confidence will be that He knows what He is doing (2 Thess 2:14-15).

The promise in Romans 8:28-30 that ‘God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him’ is a comprehensive statement about divine providence. Christians get in trouble when they assume that God’s love will guarantee them a trouble-free life. This is not what Christ told His disciples. When Jesus spoke of the gift of divine love and joy in John chapters fifteen and sixteen, He states that in the world we will have tribulation (Jn 16:33).

We are to expect affliction, hardships, and tribulation—expect to be misunderstood and persecuted—count on it. Jesus even indicates that if we do not anticipate these tribulations; then we are likely to stumble (Jn 16:1). One theologian startled his seminary students by declaring,

Men, the litmus test to find out your actual theology is the doctrine of God’s providence by which you operate. Your true theology is revealed in your approach to divine providence, for in your response to God’s providence your actual convictions about omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience are made manifestly clear.

II. Meditation helps us order our lives so that they are pleasing to God.

A. Why do we meditate upon Scripture? We do so in order to learn what pleases God. There are a number of N.T. texts which open up this intent: “Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him” (2 Cor 5:9). “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph 5:8-10). “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously” (Col 1:9-11).

For our good and for His glory, God demands obedient people. Keeping, observing, and practicing His commandments is to be our life direction as His children. “You are not your own; for you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19a-20). Psalm 119 records the lifestyle of the believer who meditates upon God’s precepts (Ps 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 97, 99, 148). “And I shall lift up my hands to Thy commandments, which I love; and I will meditate on Thy statutes’ (v. 48).

B. Guidelines for meditating upon a precept or commandment of God. As an example, consider the verse, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Pet 5:6). First, before meditating on the verse it is important to study the verses immediately surrounding the text—the verses situated just before and after verse six provide the context necessary for accurate interpretation. By studying the context surrounding verse six, we discover that this verse is dealing with the believer’s response to God’s providence. Next we may ask questions such as these in order to meditate on the text:

• What does this precept say about God’s character?
• Is there a specific promise or benefit associated with the command?
• Can you detect God’s kind intentions toward you in this precept?
• Why is it in my best interest to obey this command?
• What resistance do I have to obeying this precept?
• How might I enlist God’s help in obeying this command?

III. Meditation promotes spiritual passion.

A. Religion with no heart (without spiritual affections) is a detestable thing to God. The Lord says to apostate Judah, “This people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service and they remove their hearts far from Me, and the reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote” (Is 29:13). Scripture meditation is a marvelous preventative to the spiritual ailment described above. Without meditation it is easy to settle into ritual, formula, and formalism in worship (Matt 15:7-9).

A great benefit then of meditation is that it slows us down enough to feel God’s truth upon the heart—equipping us and prompting us to think more deeply about God. This helps us feel more deeply and biblically about God. Meditation moves religion out of a corner of our intellect and into our passions and will, causing the whole man to be encompassed by the thought of God.

Church history is filled with examples of how the Christian religion devolved into dead formalism. Fallen man by nature is not a worshipper of Yahweh, but of idols. But, by the wonder of regenerating grace God creates a sanctuary of true worship in the heart of the redeemed. God’s true abode is His people. He is enthroned upon their praises.

However, we know from church history that as false religion made inroads into Christendom, the sanctuary of God was moved from the heart of man to the church building itself. Spectators filled the edifice to witness a performance in the ‘sanctuary’. Professional clergy performed the ‘worship’ carrying out their religious forms and rituals—the sensual replaced the biblical principle of worship in spirit and in truth.

Martin Luther described the Roman Catholic mass as ‘the poor man’s opera’. Therefore, let us ever be mindful that God is seeking true worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:23-24). Meditation upon the Word of God is invaluable at this juncture, for meditation keeps the sanctuary of God situated in the heart of the believer!

B. Meditation is our door to true worship. Study Psalm 145 and you will be convinced that there is no true worship unless some meditation is taking place. Meditation prepares us for worship by causing us to ‘see’ and understand God as He is—as awesome, almighty, and sovereign and all-seeing. Our great need in preparation for worship is to wait upon the Lord, fixing our minds upon His majesty UNTIL we find our passion for His glory renewed.

We do not perform this spiritual exercise alone—the Spirit of God is there assisting us in our meditation upon the Word (1 Cor 2:10-16). He is eager to write upon our hearts the beauty, desirability and excellence of God. THEN, our worship becomes personal and passionate; for we are expressing back to God the impressions upon our hearts made by the Word of God through meditation. Throughout this process, the Holy Spirit animates our spiritual affections through meditation until our response to God is one of wonder, awe, love and praise.

C. Meditation trains and tunes our spiritual affections. Scripture commands us to build ourselves up in our most holy faith (Jude 20-21). We must do this habitually or we will inevitably slide in the direction of spiritual entropy. The discipline of Scripture intake and meditation is our necessary food (Job 23:12). Meditation is needful to shake us out of spiritual stupor and into fervency.

When we meditate we are making regular ‘treasure checks’—by that we mean that we are practicing biblical self-confrontation, asking the serious question, “Where does my treasure reside?” The heart and true treasure are inseparable (Matt 6:21). Through meditation we display to our affections clear views of the desirability of our object of faith. We do this so that our heart will more strongly attach itself to our true treasure in Christ (Col 3:1-4).

Our lower nature pulls us toward decline, sloth, neglect, and stagnancy. Some of the O.T. metaphors for spiritual stagnation are quite graphic and memorable: a pancake not turned (Hos 7:8), an undrinkable sediment-filled wine bottle (Jer 48:11), unplowed and unplanted farmland (Hos 10:12), a leaky polluted reservoir (Jer 2:13), a paralysis of indecision between two opinions (1 Ki 18:21), and a weed-filled vineyard producing only sour grapes (Is 5:1-6).

God’s Word in the heart is essential to holiness (Ps 119:11). Meditation keeps us moving in the direction of spiritual vitality. Meditation protects us from the imperceptible spiritual drift which threatens and endangers our souls (Heb 2:1-4). Doubt in our lives tends to grow slowly like algae in an aquarium. Meditation is the answer—it re-tunes our spiritual passions to seek God with all of our heart (Ps 119:148; 145:1-7). Our meditations remind us that our whole lives are to be a living monument to God’s love and faithfulness (Ps 63:6-8).

There is a kind of joyful labor in meditation. Man’s spirit was made for God—for the eternal, for the heavenly, but our flesh resists the spiritual discipline of meditation. Just as energy is required to overcome the pull of gravity; so also meditation is the ‘energy’ required to get past the gravitational pull of our nature. I used to own a Volkswagen bus. We had a standing joke about my vehicle—namely that my van could accelerate nicely downhill; but complained like a worn out draft animal when it had to climb a hill. This can be an analogy for meditation. When we meditate, we are doing the work necessary to ‘fly into’ the presence of God in order to commune with Him (Ps 77:11-15).

The following is an example of a meditation upon Christ by R. M. M’Cheyne. Here are instructions for lying down under Christ’s righteousness: let Jesus bear your whole weight. He loves to be the whole support of the soul. He is a jealous Savior who must be entirely trusted. . . Christ is not [merely] the way to God; He is our Fountain of Living Water. Be strong in His grace —there is enough in His supply for all the needs of His people—[He has] unsearchable riches. Live out of yourself and upon Him. Tell Him, since he requires of thee, He must give grace in accordance with your need—according to the riches of His grace. Let His hand hold you up in a billowing sea. Look to Him as much for sanctification as for justification (Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of R. M. M’Cheyne, Banner of Truth, 1966, pp. 307, 427).

IV. Meditation develops our ability to pray.

A. As meditation enables us to think more deeply and biblically about God; it will translate into more effective communication with Him (prayer). When we read of saints and Biblical heroes who prayed with power, transparency, and intimacy, we are sometimes tempted to imagine that such ability was solely a spiritual gift. Such was not the case. Their prayers were the fruit of unseen spiritual discipline—the discipline of meditation.

A wonderful example is the prayer of Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10). And what is amazing is that in the N.T., Mary’s “Magnificat” (her great worship hymn) (Luke 1:46-55) is believed to be based upon her meditations upon Hannah’s prayer! The point is that these prayers were not first impressions; but were composed out of Scripture meditations. The content of these prayers were distilled from the thoughts and spiritual affections which filled their daily meditations.

B. When the Psalmists prayed; they often met God in some very unusual places (despair, anxiety, betrayal, disillusionment, injustice, depression, guilt, fear, sickness, oppression). Meditation helps us express our thoughts and feelings to the Lord. Read the Psalms and you will be convinced that God cares deeply about our emotions. The Psalms are ‘real to life;’ they speak to every joy and trial. Says Steve Lawson, in the Psalms we find the godly man dealing with the heart-rending crunch of life. He is chased by enemies, he faces death, and he struggles with depression. Psalms speaks to every season of life—they are utterly realistic about suffering (Steven Lawson, “Expository Preaching of the Psalms” 2004 Winterim, The Master’s Seminary, Lesson one, pp. 22).

Calvin notes in his commentary on the Psalms, “[The Psalter is] an anatomy of all parts of the soul.” Psalms takes the attributes of God out of the realm of abstraction and into a glorious interface with the believer (Ps 146). The believer in covenant with God discovers that God has “harnessed” His own attributes for the welfare of His redeemed child. God’s dealings with His people are seen in concrete ways such as forgiveness, protection, guidance, provision, refuge, and hope (Ps 78; 103; 147).

C. Our problem as believers is that often our prayers never go beyond telling God what we think He wants to hear. God wants contact with our whole being—our entire personality. Therefore, it is impossible to commune with God from behind a mask. The Lord desires an interface with our whole personality—He does not want rituals, pretending, and religious forms. Scripture enjoins us to “pour out our hearts” to the Lord (Ps 62:8)—to “cast all of our anxiety upon Him” (1 Pet 5:7). Believers sometimes go weeks or even months without heart contact with God. Meditating on the Psalms can do much to cure this spiritual malady. Many of us could freely admit that it took a measure of affliction to move us to really talk to God from the heart. In some cases it is not until some painful trial ‘squeezes’ a cry from us that we are utterly honest with God in prayer and then appeal to Him for immediate grace and mercy to help in our time of acute need (Heb 4:16; Jer 12:2-3).

It is common for Christians to stuff negative emotion down inside—‘splitting off’ from negativity. In that approach, negative emotion tends to be seen as a nuisance rather than as an opportunity for an appointment with the Lord. The psalmists saw negative emotion as divinely appointed occasions to meet with the Lord in order to pour out their hearts to God. Author Paul Zahl sets forth the gospel of Jesus Christ as the basis for being real with God in our prayers: For the Apostle Paul, sanctification is this continuing process of receiving the word of Christ’s righteousness imputed to us. “The process is as long as life itself, reaching to the darker continents within ourselves and our culture that we never knew existed. Sanctification is justification by extension” (Paul Zahl, Who will deliver Us? Seabury Press, 1983, p. 76).

Zahl indicates that our natural tendency due to our fallen-ness is to ‘defend’ our fears and pains by denying and repressing them. We shrink away from negative emotion because it is such a stinging reminder of our defectiveness by reason of sin. Zahl’s exhortation is astounding—he urges believers to move past crippling unassimilated negativities. He comments on the power of Christ’s imputed righteousness continually received:

The scars of the past can be healed. [The word of imputation can] be a messenger of affirmation and nurture to the hidden fear thus entering our world as a mediator of the atonement. . . [This makes for substantial healing, this is indeed] good news to the solitary places of fear, the un-evangelized territories of our hearts. . . The death of Christ is the radical answer to the problem of human resistance to love. . . [The death of Christ] announces a resounding, eternal affirmation of the human spirit, yet in all its need [and] pain. . .

[Christ’s death] holds together concepts and experiences, such as justice with mercy and man’s justification with his sinfulness. . . [His death] is a unitive concept, grounded in an historical event that stands as the marvelous basis for the taking into ourselves. . . the most damaging truths of the human situation, and thus by assimilating them in the cross, transfiguring them and redeeming them. We preach Christ crucified, ‘the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men’ (Ibid, p. 84-85).

D. Meditation promotes biblical self-confrontation in our prayer life. Meditation lets us regularly examine ourselves by the Word of God. Our progress in following Christ involves ongoing repentance and mortification of sin. When we fail to meditate regularly; it is too easy to settle for a standard of behavior that is acceptable to the flesh. Meditation shines a spotlight upon our lives— it renews our commitment and our resolve to walk obediently by the Scriptures in the power of the Spirit (Ps 119:9-16, 106, 112-113). The Word of God makes us wise so that we hate every false way (Ps 119:23, 27, 97-105).

When we meditate frequently we will be more responsive to divine correction. Regularly reasoning through passages of Scripture equips us to profit from the affliction, trials, and chastisement that God sends (Ps 119:75-78; 77:6-12). Our part is to cooperate with God’s purposes in His discipline of us His children (Heb 12:4-13). Meditation on the Word gives us a chance to enter the divine perspective so that we respond properly to the discipline.

Hebrews chapter twelve is a powerful resource offering protection from the wrong reactions to divine discipline. This chapter cautions against: regarding the Father’s discipline lightly, forgetting the exhortation to submit to it, growing weary under it, losing heart; fainting (unbelief), and turning to sensuality for comfort amidst trials. The biblical goal for every Christian is to grow in faith to the point that he or she can say amidst divine correction: “Father, you know best.”

E. One of the best ways for a believer to begin the discipline of meditating on the Word is to start a spiritual journal. On the topic of journaling for the sake of godliness, Maurice Roberts writes:

A spiritual diary will tend to deepen and sanctify the emotional life of a child of God. There is great value to of becoming more deeply emotional over the great issues of faith. Our age is not deep enough in feelings. Biblical men are depicted as weeping copious tears, as sighing and groaning, as on occasion rejoicing with ecstasy. They were ravished with the very idea of God. They had a passion for Jesus Christ—His person, offices, names, titles, words and works. It is our shame to be so cold, unfeeling and unemotional in spite of all that God has done to us and for us in Christ. . . The keeping of a diary might help to put us right in this respect also.

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 18

CHRIST’S PATTERN FOR HIS CHURCH (PART ONE)

The life of the body: Is the church an institution or a living organism?

I. God has a specific plan or pattern for the Body of Christ.

A. The church is a living organism composed of interdependent parts; the church is not an institution. Those in union with Christ are also in union with one another. The living ‘body analogy’ for the church helps us understand the true organic nature of the church (1 Cor 12:12-13, 18). (Gary Inrig, Life in His Body, Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1975, p. 30).

The church is an organism of interdependent parts (12:22-25). What difference does that make in the way we ‘do church?’ It makes a world of difference! We know from history (and perhaps also from our own experiences) that the church tends to revert to an institution. In this lesson we will be examining how the gospel puts a check on that kind of declension.

The scriptural premise in this lesson is that our commitment to the gospel keeps the true organic nature of the church in view (and it keeps the true nature of the church central in our practice). By “organic” we mean that the church is a living body by virtue of its union with Christ. Believers are spiritually joined to Christ and to one another. By constantly emphasizing the reality of our union with Christ and one another in the Body, the gospel helps check the drift toward institutionalism. Only when we are saturated with the gospel will we be kept from the tendency to ‘redefine’ the church as an institutional structure made up merely of programs, activities, gifted individuals, and teachings.

B. The body of Christ is the corporate expression of the grace of Christ. The gifts in the body at work are each a facet of Christ’s character reproduced and made visible (John MacArthur, The Body Dynamic, Victor, 1996, p. 101). The church must be saturated with the gospel in order to ‘be the gospel’. In Christ we have all we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3). God intends that the local church be a corporate display of His glory and wisdom—that is His plan for the church. How often do we think about the nature of the church in this way? Our institutional thinking lets us settle for a concept of the church as ‘Christian culture’ instead (Eph 3:10-11; Jn 13:34-35; Jn 17:21-23) (Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, The Deliberate Church, Crossway Books, 2005, p. 26).

God’s character is known by both the truth of the gospel and by the church’s organic union with Christ as her members function in harmony—showing collectively the character of Christ. God bids His people to enter His plot, His story—to be part of the big picture to manifest His glory through a supernatural community animated by Christ (Lane/Tripp, How People Change, New Growth Press, 2006, pp. 93-94).

The church is a medium of revelation—revealing the character of God. It does so ONLY when it incarnates the disposition of Jesus in our relationships. Only then will nations and angels behold in it the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10ff.). Wooing, winsome, conquering grace is a function of the church manifesting the qualities of Christ her Head (Charles Jefferson, The Building of the Church, New York: Macmillan, 1913, p. 154).

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

C. The fellowship of the members of the body is proof of the divine power of Jesus—“that they may be one” (Jn 17:21-23). According to Christ’s prayer to the Father in John chapter seventeen, the unity of the brethren is evidence to the world that Christ came from heaven. The Lord declares His ministry to be that of binding men together by indissoluble bonds (Jefferson, p. 48-52).

The miracle of regeneration has made us “new creatures” made for true community (salvation in Christ has restored our ability to reflect the Creator—the sphere in which that takes place is relationships). We have something for which the world hungers—TRUE COMMUNITY. A group of individuals committed to one another where it is safe to know and be known—a place where you belong, are missed when absent, and where you make a significant contribution. (The world wants community, but not on Christ’s terms.)

Because of the grace of God there is no one on earth better equipped for true community than a believer. Consider our equipping: true believers have died with Christ and are now controlled by Christ’s love so as to no longer live for self but for Him who died and rose on their behalf (2 Cor 5:14-15). They are alive in Christ and joined to Him in an immutable covenant of love. They have the very righteousness of Christ imputed to their account (a new identity). They are indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit who is eager to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Their relationships with the brethren are held together supernaturally by Christ. They have the living Word of God which spells out God’s will for their relationships. They can be endlessly generous with forgiveness and acceptance because they have received both in infinite measure from Christ.

D. In order to understand the true nature of the church, we must grasp the fact that God the Father through the Son has formed a new humanity (‘Christ in you’—see John 14:16-21 and Colossians 1:25-27). By union with Christ we are complete in Him (all the benefits of His Person belong to the believer). Our supernatural union with Christ also means that believers are supernaturally joined together into a social structure called the ‘Body of Christ.’ This is how Christ sees us—as His body on earth. This makes a world of difference in how His church is to function.

Because by nature, the Church is a living organic body by virtue of union with Christ, our relationships among the brethren no longer exist for social reasons alone. a.) God intends that the relationships in the body exist for mutual edification. b.) God intends that collectively we are to manifest the character and disposition of Christ. c.) God intends that our body life (fellowship) as ‘true community’ reflect the very communal life of the Godhead (see John 17).

In this context the scriptural commands to bear one another’s burdens, defer to one another, consider others as more important than yourself, accept one another, maintain unity, say the same thing (doctrinally)—make perfect sense.

In order for the church to reveal Christ, her glorious Head, she must live upon Him and live out her vital connection to Him AND live out her connection to the brethren. This is central to the mission of the church. Now, we live upon Christ by living upon His gospel. We live upon Christ by becoming saturated with the gospel and by allowing the gospel to be the mould into which our lives are ‘poured’—the gospel provides the shape of genuine Christianity. In applying the truths from this portion of the lesson, we ought to ask ourselves the following kinds of questions: How strong is my desire to get to know the brethren? Why is it often weak? Have I considered that my desire to know God parallels the desire to know my brethren?

II. The members of the body are vitally connected to Christ and to one another.

A. Justification by faith (righteousness from outside of us—the righteousness of Christ imputed to us) is the basis for true community. Without justification, we could not know our brother— intimacy and transparency would be blocked by ego and by self-protection. But Christ opens the way to our brother. Christ opens up peace, love, acceptance, and service (Rom 15:1-7). Christ alone is the source of all unity (Eph 4:1-3); He is the ground and strength of our fellowship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1954, pp. 23-24, 30, 39). Because Christ before God carries the status, worth, acceptance, favor, sonship, and standing of each believer; we can afford to ‘take the risks’ required to form close relationships with other believers. For in Christ, God treats us as if we had fulfilled perfect righteousness—He identifies His Name with ours—calling us His own children (1 Jn 3:1). If we truly believed this spiritual reality, just how much more would we pursue close relationships with the brethren?

B. The purpose of the church—“that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph 3:10) demands two non-negotiable essentials: a.) that the individual members are connected to Christ, and, b.) that God’s blueprint be followed (Inrig, p. 11). Thus, in order to carry out God’s purpose for His church, we will have to take His blueprint seriously. The following kinds of questions can help us examine our philosophy of ministry so that it might be brought into alignment with Scripture: How does God’s purpose for the church absolutely rule out a ‘spectator’ role for believers? How can we prevent sending the message that church attendees are merely ‘consumers’ of spiritual commodities?

C. Our philosophy of ministry must be entirely shaped by Christ’s pattern for His church. The life of the church is defined by the true nature of the church: a group of individuals who have life in Christ in common. The members are united together in the reality of the indwelling Spirit. The presence of the indwelling Spirit gives the church a supernatural dynamic which is unique among all human organizations (Robert Saucy, The Church in God’s Program, Chicago: Moody Press, 1972, pp. 21-22, 27).

The term “members of one another” (Rom 12:5) implies interdependent cooperation among believers (Rom 12:5; Eph 4:25; 1 Cor 12:21-25). Christ, by His finished work for us, took the separation; the ‘dis-relatedness’ of our sin, and He gave us the right relatedness of true community in its place. In redemption He gave us, as a gift of grace, His own right-relatedness to the Holy Trinity (Lane/Tripp, pp. 79-80).

D. The church is a true community of people who are committed to doing spiritual good to others (Dever and Alexander, p. 41). From the nature of the church revealed in Scripture flows the function of the church. It is time we ask the following kinds of questions: How can I be more deliberate in getting together with another person for the purpose of his or her spiritual good? Why does the individual believer experience an impoverished spirit when he or she discontinues mutual edification in his relationships in the body of Christ? We know the answer: we are created anew in Christ for supernatural relationships. If we neglect the pursuit of these relationships we rob ourselves and others of the appointed channel of transforming love and grace.

Growing believers ought to labor in love to more fully connect other believers to Christ. Mutual edification in the gospel is paramount for spiritual health (Rom 15:14). David Powlison comments that countless counseling crises occur because people don’t know how to get in touch with the living Lord Jesus (C. John Miller, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, Zondervan, 1986, p. 169).

III. The corporate function of the body is gospel-driven and Christ-dependent.

A. True fellowship involves translating vertical fellowship with the Lord into horizontal fellowship with the brethren (1 Cor 1:9-10) (MacArthur, p. 115). The body is only healthy when its members are in subjection to Christ its Head and are responding to His commands under the loving rule of His Word—only then is the church functioning properly (Saucy, p. 29).

B. The body is lavishly supplied with all its needs for life, health, growth, and unity as it holds fast to Christ, its Head (Col 2:19). The individual members of the body then function as channels of spiritual nutrition in relation to one another that the body might grow “with a growth that is from God” (Col 2:19) (Saucy, pp. 30-31).

We need a better understanding of the gospel in order to get closer to Christ. The church is weak on the present benefits of Christ’s work because the church is weak on the gospel. Only when the church is immersed in the gospel will she truly begin to see Christ as her ‘Source Person’ for all she needs (Lane/Tripp, pp. 4, 6, 13, 238-240).

C. We need an incisive awareness of the gospel’s implications for corporate life together—the gospel must enjoy a central position in the church so as to govern the way the church functions. Then the church will gain traction. God concentrates His power in the gospel, so rather than thinking up new methodologies and programs; let us turn to the gospel for our oneness, walk, warfare, worship, worldview, witness, and wholeness (Dever and Alexander, pp. 21-22).

IV. Christ is building His church; He commands every member to build with Him.

A. To edify is to build up. We are commanded to please our fellow believer so as to “build him up” (Rom 15:2). The fact that we are members one of another in a living organism is not grasped by most church members. Let all be done with a view to building up the body—we must be intentional and we must be always conscious of what Christ is building (Jefferson, p. 29).

B. Only a true disciple of the Lord can build the church. A true disciple is characterized by a life spent in following Christ. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt 16:24). Christ is our example of obedience. His life was totally conformed to the will of His Father. Christ’s life was lived in the power of the Spirit. It was a life of unselfish service—of zeal, expenditure, self-control, meekness, kindness, faithfulness, and devotion (Gal 5:22-23). A disciple of Christ follows His example of obedience to the Father (Jn 15:8; 1 Pet 2:21-25).

Those who follow Christ gather with Him (Luke 11:23)—they are fishers of men (Matt 4:19). They take their “marching orders” from Christ—they have made Christ’s cause (the Father’s glory) their cause. They are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). Their boldness for kingdom values is a result of following Christ. “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

C. True fellowship with the brethren is a vital means of grace; the Bible alone cannot make you strong and bring you to maturity. God’s grace flows through social bonds—the brotherhood is the atmosphere in which the gospel truths blaze (Jefferson, pp. 70-72). Sanctification is a ‘group effort’—it requires the corporate dimension. Close fellowship with other believers saved by grace causes the gospel truths to “blaze” (by means of fervent love for one another; our close communion with one another; and our communal sacrifices for the advance of Christ’s kingdom).

D. In order to build up our brethren, we must be deliberate (Dever and Alexander, p. 37). Are you deliberate about pursuing discipleship relationships? Are you deliberate in seeking to be mentored as well as to spiritually mentor? What decisions would you have to make in order to put yourself under the teaching of the mature; and seek to help those who are less mature than you are? Is building possible without making these decisions? The consumer-spectator-passive mindset cuts the nerve of being “others oriented.” God is calling His people to be outward oriented in order to bring each member to maturity and to draw the lost to Himself (2 Tim 2:2; Rom 15:14; Col 2:19; Eph 4:16ff.; Heb 10:22-25).

E. Believers are to bear one another’s burdens, to build up one another (pointing out evidences of grace), and to encourage one another. We are to spur on our brethren to greater faithfulness (Dever and Alexander, 197-199). It is common to come to our church services without this edification mandate on our minds. In order for us to change, we will have to be more deliberate in our fellowship. Consider ways that you can you be more deliberate about spiritual conversations intended for the good of your brethren. What are some specific ways you can fulfill the command in Hebrews 10:24-25? “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (10:24).

It is rare for church members to embrace the mentality set forth in Ephesians 4:12: the saints are to be equipped “for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” Paul tells us in that passage that the members of Christ’s body are to do the work of service of building up the body. That means that church members are responsible for the major part of the transmission of the transforming Word of God to one another. This activity (the Word passing from member to member) is to be the normal function of the church! What would have to happen in order for our thinking to shift from the pulpit as the major source of the Word to our conversations with other believers as the major source of the Word?

V. The believer’s sanctification takes place within the context of the body of Christ.

A. The Christian community (the local church) is the context for change. Individual redemption is played out in our relationships (Lane/Tripp, pp. 76-79). Are we in the habit of thinking about our relationships as the context for sanctifying change? Why or why not?

One of the biggest reasons why is that relationships make us vulnerable—they reveal character. Relationships involve risk—we risk being offended and offending. The community is a mirror—our self-absorption shows up. Community is the very thing we need to move us out of self-centeredness. The corporate body is needed to make me like Christ (Lane/Tripp, pp. 83-86).

B. We need the body of Christ in order to make us like Christ. Sanctification is a ‘group effort’. There is substantial change in individuals within the community of faith as the gospel is applied to friends and family. When the gospel is applied to our relationships and to our affections, it pulls us above our preoccupation with personal happiness to enjoy God’s blessings in Christ and to share those blessings with others (Lane/Tripp, p. 251).

Spiritual maturity is a mutual process achieved by interdependent ministry in the body. We are gifted by God for the common good (1 Cor 12:7). This is not a matter of terminology—the issue at hand turns upon the very nature of the church (Inrig, p. 45). Our fellow believers are agents of our change. God’s plan for our maturity operates through human instruments (MacArthur, p. 73).

Several years ago I was introduced to a Christian man who had plumbed the depths during a period of severe backsliding. He has used drugs and experienced homelessness. As I spoke with him after the morning church service, he shared something profound with me. “One of the many things God has taught me through my time of rebellion is this: you cannot love pleasure and God at the same time, the love of pleasure will kill your love for God.” Here this disheveled man in front of me was declaring a scriptural principle which stuck with me. He was not afraid to prayerfully speak the Word into my life even though I was a pastor and he was a struggling, returning believer.

This is where we sometimes get ‘crossed up’—we imagine that permission to speak the Word into the lives of others depends upon talent, giftedness, or earned degrees. Biblically that is not the case. Mutual edification between all believers is to be the norm. What kind of attitude is needed if we are to be willing to learn from each other that we might grow together into full maturity in Christ?

VI. Each believer is a steward of God’s grace for the purpose of building with Christ.

A. Believers are stewards of God’s grace. Each Christian has been given a spiritual gift which is to be employed in serving the body (1 Peter 4:7-11). The unity of the body depends upon a deep and practical appreciation of the diversity of gifts in the body (1 Cor 12:14-31). This depth of appreciation also means that we are willing to be on the receiving end as others exercise their gifts.

B. New Testament metaphors help us understand the nature and function of the church. The church is a “Temple made up of living stones” (Eph 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:4-10). “Living stones being built together” clearly communicates the communal nature of the church. Each stone is fitted for close contact and a perfect fit in relation to the other stones in the building—each niche is filled and each stone is adequately fitted for it by “the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph 4:7) (Saucy, p. 35).

The living stones are “framed together in the Lord” into an abode or habitation of God (Eph 2:21)). The Greek word for ‘fitted’ or ‘framed’ together is meant to describe the whole elaborate process of preparing the surfaces of the stones by cutting, rubbing, testing, and setting (Reinecker/Rogers, Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, Zondervan, 1976, p. 527). As in any masonry building of cut stones, the quality of the building is judged by the closeness of the stones to one another. The fewer gaps, the greater is the quality. In this analogy the church is built of members in close communion with each other by reason of the Spirit’s work of placing them strategically in the body (1 Cor 12:18).

Each believer is a temple individually (1 Cor 6:19), and collectively. The living stones comprise a royal and holy priesthood (1 Pet 2:9). The believer’s primary sacrifice is himself (Rom 12:1-2; Heb 13:15-16; Phil 2:17). We cannot truthfully offer sacrifices to God without also serving our fellow brother, sharing our goods, and building up the community (Saucy, pp. 35-42, 95). The very essence of worship is giving ourselves back to God without reservation. Therefore, it is vital to worship that the believer find his or her place of service in the body of Christ.

The church is a body with Christ as its Head (Eph 4:7-16). The members of Christ’s body are to operate in an interdependent manner (vv. 11-15). Each individual member is to make a contribution to the growth of the body into maturity (vv. 15-16). We need to rethink our sanctification—it is tied to the contributions we make to the maturity of the body. This takes us back to intentionality: we are to relate to one another in a caring, encouraging, and edifying way for the intent of their spiritual good. Mutual edification has as its great goal the spiritual maturity of each member. But, it is a growth and maturity that is both individual and corporate (Eph 4:11-13). Teaching, serving, admonishing, and discipling are the appointed means of this spiritual growth (Rom 15:14; Col 1:28-29). Genuine ministry is slavery to Christ and to one another lived out in our corporate life (Saucy, p. 131).

CHRIST’S PATTERN FOR HIS CHURCH (PART TWO)

Intentional body life: fellowship focused upon fulfilling the Great Commission

INTRODUCTION: “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:11-13).

We observed in our previous lesson that God’s pattern for the body through Christ has a very specific purpose—to build up the redeemed unto the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God—out of which flows fruitfulness and spiritual maturity (Eph 4:12-13) (John MacArthur, N.T. Commentary on Ephesians, Chicago: Moody Press, p. 156). The unity of the faith is the content of the gospel in its most complete form—especially as it is lived out ‘incarnationally’ by believers who are properly taught to faithfully carry out the work of service (4:12) (Ibid.).

The redeemed are to be built up unto the true knowledge (epiginosko) of the Son of God (4:13). This is the knowledge of Christ Himself as the embodiment of God’s treasure, and as the Source Person/Supplier of all the church needs (Col 2:3; Eph 1:18; 3:8) (Ralph P. Martin, The New Bible Commentary, Leicester: Intervarsity Press, p. 1116). The deep knowledge of the Son of God is only attainable by prayer, study of the Word, fellowship with Him, mutual edification, and obedience (John MacArthur, p. 157).

Yes, the church grows by the action of Christ on its behalf, but we must understand that Christ is working to accomplish this end through the activity of each member. The fact that Christ causes the growth of the body in no way negates the efforts of the believers in building the body (MacArthur, p. 161).

We saw in our previous lesson that Christ exerts a unifying action of spiritual growth by means of His working through ‘every joint which He supplies’ (4:16). “But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Eph 4:15-16).

As each ‘joint’ (member of the body) exercises Christ’s gift for ministry there is a “chain reaction” produced by Christ among His servants. The whole body is built up, and love becomes the atmosphere (Martin, p. 1116-1117).

In the process of mutual encouragement and the responsibilities of edification exercised, each part is playing the role for which it was appointed. Love becomes the air that is breathed. Christ imparts His risen life within the congregation (Ibid.). It is in this manner that the body engages in the corporate experience of Christ. This means that our Christian fellowship does not exist for social needs alone. The communion of the saints has the aim of building up and equipping one another to fulfill the Great Commission. We are to be ever conscious of the fact that Christ is our life individually and corporately.

The phrase, ‘every joint supplies’ conveys a much needed truth about the function of the body. Christ holds the body together. He makes it function; but He does so ‘by that which every joint

supplies.’ The Spirit of Christ, working through the gifts, provides a flow of ministry that produces growth (MacArthur, p. 162). The scriptural description of the function of the local church is glorious and desirable, but it requires that the members of the body embrace Christ’s pattern for the church with whole-hearted enthusiasm and obedience. In order to realize Christ’s pattern, each individual part of the body must come in close enough contact with other members that their gifts result in growth. Christ facilitates the effectiveness of the gifts in mutual ministry; but the gifts cannot work EXCEPT by close relationships of genuine spiritual ministry (Ibid.).

In order to cultivate close relationships with the brethren we will have to overcome some of our fears. This is possible through the gospel. Instead of choosing distance from others in an effort to guard our own hurts, concerns and vulnerabilities; we have ‘permission’ through the gospel to draw close to other forgiven sinners. As we saw in our last lesson, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us in justification is the basis for intimate relationships within the body of Christ. The Lord has given us everything we need to have close fellowship with those who also have life in Christ.

This is a revolutionary truth: God cannot work to unify and mature the members of the body where relationships are not intimate. No genuine progress in the growth of the body takes place unless each member is in union with other members responds to the direction of Christ the Head who rules the body by His Word. An obedient response to Christ means that each part of the body is doing exactly what it was designed to do (Ibid.).

In summary, in order to experience growth unto a mature man, the body must hold fast to its Head and the body must be committed to the pattern of mutual ministry set forth by Christ (Col 2:19). Every individual member is to stay close to Christ and faithfully use his or her spiritual gift in close contact with every other believer. Through this commitment and ministry, the Lord’s power will flow for the building up of the body in love (4:16) (Ibid.).

Thus the process of the church growing and consolidating itself in love is dependent upon the interrelatedness of the parts of the body. When each part works properly, the body receives what it needs (A. Skevington Wood, NIV Commentary, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994, p. 771). This is the glorious truth of Christ’s sufficiency in His body—a truth that is all too rarely understood and practiced. In support of this truth, John MacArthur brings out an emphasis in the Greek. The use of ‘growth’ in the middle form (4:16) means that the body under Christ’s direction and empowerment produces its own growth. In other words, growth takes place through “resident dynamics” and not through outside forces. The vital power within causes growth as the church builds itself up in love (Ibid.).

If we really believed that Christ’s power is now at work through each individual believer to producing a resident dynamic—giving the body what it needs—we would do some things differently. One of those changes would be this: we would probably think twice before bringing in a well-known Christian professional every time we wanted to have an impactful seminar, workshop, or conference. Our knee-jerk tendency to bring in a celebrity outsider can have the net effect of obscuring the truth that through Christ, the body supplies what it needs—producing its own growth.

Application: As our lesson continues, we will discover how we may more fully adopt this mindset above—that the body produces what it needs through the sufficiency of Christ working through its individual members.

The following section is adapted from, The Trellis and the Vine, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.

I. The priority of the Great Commission.

A. Jesus commissions His disciples to make disciples of all nations. “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20).

In verses 19-20, the main verb is not ‘go’—instead the emphasis is upon command to ‘make disciples’. “Make disciples” is the main verb. Three subordinate participles are ‘hanging’ upon the command “make disciples.” The sense is: make disciples—going (or ‘as you go’), baptizing and teaching (Marshall and Payne, pp. 11-12). Baptizing and teaching is the means by which the disciples are to be made. “Baptizing” here refers to the initiation of disciples into repentance and submission to the authority of Jesus Christ, the reigning Lord of the world. (Christ’s lordship is unfolded in texts such as Psalm 2; Hebrews 1:1-3; Daniel 7:13-14). The ‘teaching’ that Christ’s disciples are to do reproduces what Jesus Himself has done in them (Matt 12:38). We are to make disciples by teaching. As our subsequent lessons unfold we will explore together that this ‘teaching’ is especially personal teaching as takes place in disciple-making relationships.

Traditionally the Great Commission has been interpreted as sending money and missionaries overseas. But the emphasis of the sentence is not on ‘going’, but on making disciples. The commission is not fundamentally about doing missions ‘out there somewhere’. The point being stressed in the verses is all of Christ’s disciples have been commissioned by their Lord to be engaged in disciple-making. Thus, disciple-making is the normal agenda and priority of every church and of every Christian disciple—the world itself is the scope of this commission (Ibid, p. 13). We would not want to stop sending out missionaries; but we must also see disciple-making as our central task in our homes and neighborhoods and churches. It is binding upon all of Jesus’ disciples to make others what they themselves are—disciples of Jesus Christ (D. A. Carson in The Trellis and the Vine, p. 13. D. A. Carson, ‘Matthew’ in Frank Gaebelein (ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 8, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1984, p. 596).

B. A true disciple is a disciple-maker; not just a member of an institution. The error which erodes our ability to carry out the Great Commission is as follows: we are captive to entrenched traditions long practiced—as a result our focus has shifted away from our main task and agenda of disciple-making (Marshall and Payne, p. 15).

In order to fully embrace the Great Commission, it will require a mind-shift about the nature of ministry: are we growing people who are disciple-making disciples of Christ? Our need for a mind shift concerning the nature of ministry is captured in the following phrases:

1. From running programs to building people
2. From running events to training people
3. From using people to growing people (a huge shift away from church `volunteers')
4. From filling gaps to training new workers
5. From solving problems to helping people make progress as disciples
6. From clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership
7. From focusing on church polity to forging ministry partnerships
8. From relying on training institutions to establishing local training
9. From focusing on immediate pressures to aiming for long-term expansion

10. From engaging in management to engaging in ministry
11. From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth in believers

This mind shift which moves the church corporately into the Great Commission cannot be achieved through superficial change, or implementing small groups. Small groups are not the issue. The small groups (or home fellowships) need to be TRAINING groups; trained on how to read the Bible, pray with each other, work on spiritual growth, and live as a disciple-making disciple of Christ. Without this drive and focus small groups have a very minimal role in fulfilling the Great Commission. It always comes back to the issue of ongoing, continuous training and discipling of ALL members of the church.

Traditionally church members tend to think about church involvement in terms of jobs: usher; Bible study leader; Sunday School teacher; treasurer; trustee; board member; elder; worship leader; nursery worker; money counter etc. The implication of this way of thinking is for members of the congregation to think that if all the jobs are taken then there is really nothing for me to do in church. If all roles are taken then the member is reduced to a passenger or spectator (Ibid, p. 26).

However, if the real work of God’s people is people work—the prayerful speaking of His Word by one person to another—then the jobs are never taken. How we need this ‘mind shift’ in our thinking, for the opportunities for Christians to minister personally to others are limitless (examples of hospitality, etc.).

II. The gospel is the focal point of what God is doing in the world

A. There is nothing more vital than what God is doing in the world by means of the gospel. His plan will determine the destiny of every individual. We therefore need to recapture the radicalism of Jesus: “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60). Radical identity with Christ makes us radically identified with Christ’s plan, purpose, and mission in the world. The growth God is looking for is growth in people—the growth and development of believers. The growing vine Jesus spoke of in John chapter fifteen is made up of individual born again believers, grafted into Christ by His Word and His Spirit, and drawn into mutually edifying fellowship with one another.

But, ‘people growth’ only happens through the power of God’s Spirit applied to people’s hearts. This can happen as we speak the Word to someone, in small groups, large groups, over a backyard fence, over dinner, over morning coffee, on the patio, in formal or informal Bible study —or even in speaking a Scripture-based truth without even referring to the Bible. The contexts are nearly limitless, but the what happens is always the same: a Christian brings a truth from God’s Word to someone else, praying that God would make that word bear fruit through the inward working of the Spirit—that’s ‘vine work’ (gospel growth in individual believers), all else is trellis (or church ‘infrastructure’ supporting the vine) (Ibid., pp. 38-39).

B. The Spirit is at work through the gospel at every stage of growth. The same gospel by which we were saved is the source of our being built up daily. “Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth” (Col 1:5-6).

The gospel keeps growing people after initial salvation (1:9-10). “For this reason also, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding and that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:9-10).

It’s interesting how little the Bible says about numerical church growth and how much the Word of God says about gospel growth (of individuals). Gospel growth produces growth in the knowledge of God which causes believers to bear fruit in their lives (1:9-10). Gospel growth (or gospel formation) focuses upon the progress of the Spirit-backed Word of God as it makes its progress in the world—believer by believer. The vine is Jesus and we are grafted into Him to bear fruit for God (Ibid, pp. 36-37).

C. Who really does the vine work of Colossians 1:28-29? Answer: We teach the priesthood of all believers (a biblical truth recovered since the Protestant Reformation); but if the truth be known; most church members are little more than spectators. As a result, we have centralized pastoral ministry and care and a passive laity. What is a true disciple of Christ? “And He summoned the multitude with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it’” (Mark 8:34-35).

To be a disciple is to be a slave of Christ and to confess His Name openly before others. “Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before man, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:32-33). Thus the call to discipleship is a call to confess our allegiance to Jesus in the face of a hostile world, to serve Him and His mission whatever the cost (Luke 9:60). The Great Commission makes this calling clear: to be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker. The world watches our goings and comings: we may attend church, read and pray during the week, attend a Bible study—BUT, would someone observing from the outside say: “Look: there is someone who has abandoned his life to Jesus Christ and His mission?” In the book of Acts we see this confession and allegiance being worked out in practice, in the face of opposition and persecution. All disciples regarded themselves as “servants” of Jesus (see Acts 4:29-31) (Ibid, pp. 42-43).

D. The basics of body life as an intentional fulfillment of the Great Commission are as follows: each working part makes the body grow with a growth from God. It builds itself up in love (Eph 4:15-15). That is our premise in this lesson: we must see body life in Christ as existing to corporately fulfill the Great Commission. That ‘vision’ of the purpose of body life must inform all we do. The picture in the body metaphor is that all the different parts of the body are fulfilling their proper role and function (but each one is speaking the truth in love). There are countless contexts for the ministry of mutual edification; but all of the members “speak the truth in love” to one another (Ibid, pp. 44-45).

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col 3:16). What ensues when Christ is dwelling in your hearts with thankfulness is: godly encouraging speech to one another. In this case teaching and admonishing—this is the heartbeat of discipleship. Teaching, admonishing, and instructing one another is to be the normative activity of the body (Rom 15:14; Heb 3:12-13; 10:24-25).

This means that God wants all Christians to be regularly speaking to each other—urging and encouraging each other to stick with Christ (Heb 10:24-25). The central purpose in getting together is mutual encouragement—it is to spur others on to love and good deeds as we wait for Christ. How can this happen without us opening our mouths and speaking to one another? It’s hard to understand that this can happen without us speaking to one another (Ibid, pp. 46-47). This means fellowship is not an end itself—that is the fulfillment of social needs. Our fellowship is unto the building up of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12).

We make our contribution for the good of others (1 Cor 12:7). Let all be done for the building up (1Cor 14:26). We are to pursue the same goal—edify the congregation in love which takes place through speech whether word of exhortation, encouragement, or admonition. We all are to edify—we are all builders—we are all urged to abound in the work of the Lord (1 Cor 15:58).

E. All believers are to live a lifestyle of evangelism—this is essential to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pet 3:15). The Thessalonian believers are an example of the Great Commission. They manifested deep conviction and they were imitators of Paul (1 Thess 1:5-10).

As a result, the Thessalonian converts became missionaries without joining a mission agency (Ibid, pp. 48-49). Paul calls ordinary believers to be imitators of him (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1). Every believer is to be a disciple, and every disciple is to have Paul’s orientation: the glory of God in the salvation of others. The Christian without a missionary heart is an anomaly. A lifestyle of evangelism involves alertness regarding opportunities with unbelievers (Col 4:4-6). Disciples of Christ have a missionary heart which will manifest itself in a readiness to pray for the lost; to be engaged in gospel outreach, and to use hospitality for the sake of evangelism (Ibid., p. 52).

F. Does the normal Christian life include disciple-making? To suffer with Christ for the sake of the gospel is the gift of grace given to every believer (see Phil 3:7-9; 1:6-11; 3:9-10). To live this way is the lifestyle “worthy of the gospel” itself (1:27-30). “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain or toil in vain” (Phil 2:14-16). To embrace a lifestyle worthy of the gospel is to possess the goal of being shining beacons (2:15). “Holding fast to the gospel” means as partners with Paul, speaking out for its defense and confirmation (Ibid, pp. 61-65).

“Gospel partnership” is the normal Christian life. Standing together united in the gospel in this ‘corrupt generation’—longing, striving, working, to see the gospel be defended and proclaimed –and bravely coping with the conflict, struggle and persecution which inevitably follow. There aren’t two classes of Christians: gospel partners and then spectators. No, we’re all in it together—all partners for the gospel. Even in secular organizations; membership demands something more than passivity and consumerism. In the local church every member is to be a partner in ‘vine work’ (the building up of the saints to maturity). Leaders, pastors, and elders are responsible to teach, warn and encourage. They are foremen, organizers, guardians,mobilizers, teachers and models. They provide the conditions under which the rest of the partners can get on with the vine work of prayerfully speaking God’s truth to others. But at a profound level— pastors and elders are also just partners in this divine commission to advance the gospel (Ibid, pp. 66-67).

Here are just a few of the ways you may begin to prayerfully speak the word of God to others: as an introduction to sharing the gospel, ask an unbeliever “What has gone wrong with the world?” Come along side a fellow believer and offer to pray for their teen son or daughter in school. Start studying a Christian book with another believer. Write a letter of encouragement. Call an elderly friend and pray on the phone with them. Meet with another believer and talk about the Sunday message. Look for ways to share with others how the Scriptures are changing your life (perhaps how Ephesians chapter five has turned your marriage around). Ask a “How can I pray for you?” Ask, “What is the Lord doing in your life?” Ask, “What spiritual battle fronts are you facing?” “What ministry burdens and opportunities are on your mind and heart?”

All of these are examples of prayerfully bringing the Word into lives of other believers. The contexts are so numerous: a group gathering, a dinner, over the backyard fence, or over the phone. Everyday ministry is how we decentralize pastoral ministry (Eph 4; Titus 1:9; 2:3-4; 1 Cor 15:58). Our N.T. ecclesiology demands that every believer be involved in vine work (Ibid, pp. 54-58).

In our next lesson we will explore more fully the question of how converts become true disciples of Christ. We will continue to find that true disciples grow into disciple-makers as the result of systematic encouragement, counseling, and teaching by maturing brethren. It says in Acts 14:21-22, “Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” Disciple-making is the aim or goal of The Great Commission. The Body of Christ is to commit itself to the task of making disciples.

We need to return to the Word and uncover again the secret behind Paul’s optimism and effectiveness as a disciple-maker. When we pour over Paul’s New Testament epistles we find the Apostle Paul’s heart throbbing and beating with a disciple-making passion. For Paul, pastor and missionary, disciple-making is his controlling mandate, his sacred trust and deputation—the central work that commands his full attention and energies. Colossians 1:28-29 encapsulates the lengthy process of disciple-making in just two verses: “And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”

CONCLUSION: For further reflection—in order to keep our ‘mind shift’ on track, let us consider that God’s “plan of the ages” (His eternal purpose) is to glorify Himself through the Church (Eph 3:10-11). This begs the question, “What has to happen in order for the church to reveal the glory of Christ?” The answer in brief is twofold. First we must ‘sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts” fully acknowledging that He bought the church; He owns the church; He is its ultimate Shepherd/Pastor; and He rules the church by His Word. Therefore the church is not ours to shape as we please. And second, if we are to grow a church pleasing to God (a church which reveals the glory of Christ), then we will have to pay closest attention to Christ’s pattern for His church revealed in His Word.

How we need to examine our religious forms and traditions—for many of them have replaced the New Testament mandate of our Lord to fulfill the Great Commission. Our fascination with methodologies and hyper-structuralism tends to conceal the living organic reality of oneness with Christ, the Head of the church. Only by obedience to Christ’s pattern for His church will men and angels behold the glory of God in the church (Eph 3:10-11).

TRANSFORMING GRACE

D A Y 19

CHRIST’S PATTERN FOR HIS CHURCH (PART THREE)

Intentional body life: training disciples to be disciple-makers

This section adapted from the book, The Trellis and the Vine, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.

I. Disciple-making is training in righteousness.

A. Scripture affirms that ‘training in righteousness’ is a function of spiritual disciplines and life habits anchored in the truth of God and the will of God in Scripture. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). The opposite of ‘trained in righteousness’ is ‘trained in greed’ (2 Pet 2:14).

In the secular workplace training is assisting others to reach a level of proficiency. But biblically this is not the essence of training. Scripturally speaking, training is much more about Christian living and thinking than about particular skills or competencies. “Trained in righteousness” places the emphasis where it ought to be, on personal godliness (2 Tim 3:16; Heb 5:13-14).

The baton we pass on is sound doctrine (2 Tim 2:2; 1 Tim 4:6). “If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing. . .” (1 Tim 6:3-4a). The heart of training is to impart sound doctrine. Not academically alone, but also developing the ability to reject false religion and false philosophy (Titus 1:9) and to conform the hearts and lives of those we disciple to sound doctrine. Sound biblical theology produces a godly life and good fruit. Good biblical teaching results in a godly life based on sound, health-giving teaching. This is continuous, generational, and lifelong (Marshall and Payne, pp. 70-71).

B. Sound doctrine is not an end in itself; sound doctrine is the means of equipping us to live wisely unto God; it equips us to know God and to conduct our lives with godliness. Accurate biblical teaching is the basis for bearing good fruit. Paul says of the power of Scripture: “When you received from us the Word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe” (1Thess 2:13). The word of truth causes the believer to constantly bear fruit (Col 1:6-10).

C. Close relationship is the vehicle of training. Pouring your life blood into others is the privileged cost of effectual training. “But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives because you had become very dear to us” (1Thess 2:7-8). Likewise, Paul’s relationship with Timothy also exhibits this model of close relationship (2 Tim 3:10-11). His training may be likened to spiritual parenthood: love them enough to want to see them flourish—be prepared for the long term, faithful, Spirit-enabled nurture by God’s mercy (Ibid., 74-75).

The trainer is calling upon the trainee to adopt his way of life. Thus, model and imitation are the foundation of training (1 Cor 4:14-17; 11:1). Paul is a godly model. His ambition to save others was to be the ambition of those he is training. However, even the best spiritual leaders are

Transforming Grace Thirty days of

not an example of perfectly achieved holiness, but are modeling the way of the cross. Consider Paul’s ‘boast’ “But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world was crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14 and Gal 2:20).

D. Our teaching of disciples is to be personal teaching in a relational space. In that arrangement, there is as much ‘caught’ as there is ‘taught’. Some of the training takes place by ‘osmosis’, and not just by formal instruction. In relational training the hearts of trainer and trainee are exposed (you get to know one another’s character: speech, moods, attitudes, heart, responses to situations; etc.). Progress is not just measured by performance, but by integrity of heart. Does the individual love God and neighbor, are they submitting to Christ’s word? Is their speech in line with the Word? Trainees need to see the heart of trainer: their sins, struggles, confessions, fears, realities, successes, failures—and their responses to these. In relational space training, there is significant time spent together, and honest open mutual sharing of their lives. This interface between trainer and trainee ought also to include the home and home life of both. We need to clearly see how commitment to the relational approach differs substantially from the programmatic formal approach. Yet, programs and formal training in a group setting can enhance all the more if the personal-relational is already there in place (Ibid., pp. 76-77).

II. What are the major areas of content in our training of disciples?

A. The gospel versus competency—it is always the gospel first. The nature and goal of training: through personal relationship, prayer, teaching, modeling, and practical instruction, we want to see those we are discipling grow in the following major areas:

Conviction: their knowledge of God and understanding of the Bible. First hand convictions make you deliberate in serving Christ. Conviction means that you make scriptural beliefs yours. This involves knowing what you believe and why you believe it. Conviction is inseparable from the willingness to make the sacrifices a disciple of Christ is called upon to make.

Character: the godly character of life that accords with sound doctrine. Ordering one’s life by God’s truth so that doctrine becomes our wisdom to live rightly unto God and our passion to know God and make Him known.

Competency: the ability to prayerfully speak God’s Word to others in a variety of ways. This area of development involves growth in the ability to communicate God’s Word to others with sincerity, love, and penetrating application. Competency is demonstrated through personal teaching and counseling of others so that disciple-making becomes one’s lifestyle. In so doing, this level of training ‘closes the loop’, disciple becomes disciple-maker.

The above training ‘grid’ is foundational for plugging in courses. Once the personal/relational, and the goal (the 3 ‘C’s’ listed above) are on track, a variety of curriculum can be drawn upon and ‘plugged in’. As the church at large has drifted from the Great Commission, programs have replaced discipleship. The efficient and the programmatic have replaced the personal. In order to recover our ability to fulfill the Great Commission, we cannot be content with church programs alone. We must become encouragers who engage in mentoring (the relational side of discipleship). Our efforts at training must go beyond bare academics to the development of conviction, character, and competency in our disciples (Ibid, pp. 78-79).

B. Gospel growth is growth in the knowledge of God’s will so that the disciple will ever walk more worthily of the gospel (Phil 1:27; Eph 4:1). Gospel growth is both the spread of the gospel geographically and the growth of the gospel in the individual (Col 1:3-6; 9-10). We must identify this as prime or we will be prone to measure growth solely by participation in church programs and functions. Numbers are not a reliable index of growth. How are we measuring growth—by the number attending a program? Genuine gospel growth will make us unmistakably missional.