Sanctification: the Process of Perfection - The Holy Spirit: What He Does (pt 1)

In the previous installment of our study on the doctrine of sanctification we began examining the Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit. There is an unfortunate disconnect for the average believer when it comes to understanding the true ministry of the Holy Spirit. These misunderstandings often result in the believer accepting extremes where the Spirit is concerned. Some denominations/congregations/believers have very little involvement with the movement of the Holy Spirit, believing that the Holy Spirit’s “hay day” ended with the Apostles. In contrast, others are so overboard in what they believe that they hyper drive the Holy Ghost into some kind of circus side show act, expecting Him to perform outlandish tricks. In truth, the ministry of the Spirit resides somewhere in the scriptural middle.  I contend that one cannot successfully live for the Lord, or experience the fullness of the sanctification process if one does not have a firm grasp on who the Holy Spirit is, what He does, and how He does it.

The previous blog post dealt with the question: Who is the Holy Spirit? We concluded by saying that the Holy Spirit is the dynastic successor of Jesus Christ. Where Jesus guided, trained, and commissioned the disciples , the Holy Spirit now guides, trains, and empowers the Church. We learned from John 14:16 that the Holy Spirit is the parakletos that Jesus was referring to. He is the “one who is called to another's side to aid him, as an advocate in a court of justice, a helper, a councilor”. Also, we pointed out the word “another” referred to “one of the same kind”.  In summary, the Holy Ghost is the 3^rd person of the Holy Trinity who leads the Church, just as Jesus led the disciples.

Now that we have reviewed WHO HE IS, let’s move forward. Let’s take a look at WHAT HE DOES.

In essence, this question involves uncovering the basics of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I agree that the ministry of the Spirit is multifaceted. However, to build a house, we must start with the foundation. If we were to boil the work of the Spirit down to a simple definition, what would it be? In order to arrive at the lowest common denominator where the ministry of the Spirit is concerned, we can’t include every single thing the Word says concerning the Spirit. We can’t include the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit and the conviction of the Spirit and things of such nature. The truth be told, these are not the basic ministries of the Spirit, they are the EFFECTS or the RESULTS of the Spirit’s ministry in the life of a Christian. The Church tends to maximize the effects of the Spirit, and miss the fundamental purpose behind WHAT HE IS DOING. When we live in the effects, and miss the point, we end up existing in extremes, as was stated earlier. So then, our purpose now is to arrive at a simple and straight forward definition of the basic ministry of the Holy Spirit.

With this in mind, turn in your Bible to the book of Galatians. Paul’s letter to the Galatian church is a detailed examination of the spiritual direction that the church had taken. Paul teaches that Christians must order their lives in such a way that the Holy Spirit’s ministry remains fully active and completely effective. When Paul left the churches of Galatia to continue his ministry elsewhere, they were a thriving, functioning, ministering body of Christ. However, sometime later, Paul received word that these churches had strayed from the true Gospel of Grace, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and began following the gospel of a group of false teachers that Paul called Judaizers. The gospel of the Judaizers, which was no gospel at all, was based in the Jewish faith. They taught that a gentile could come to Christ, but they must become a Jew first. In other words, they could come to the cross, but they had to come through the gateway of Judaism.  The Judaizers were attempting to convince the Galatian believers that they needed to obey the Old Testament laws, keep the Old Testament festival days, keep the Old Testament Sabbath, and if they were male, they must be circumcised. After a Gentile became a Jew, then they could continue into Christianity. This line of thinking was in direct opposition to the Gospel of Grace through Faith that Paul had preached to the Galatians.

When Paul realized what was happening he became distraught over the spiritual condition that the Galatian believers had fallen into, and at the same time, he became incensed over the crafty misdirection and false guidance of the Judaizers. In the book of Galatians, Paul is pleading with the Galatians to recall where they came from, and what set them free to begin with. He spends time teaching them about grace and law and re-teaching them about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which had been halted in a drastic way due to the path the Galatian church had chosen to follow. With this in mind, let us turn our attention to one particular verse that will help us formulate the beginnings of a definition of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 4:19 says:

My little children, for whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

The phrase “my little children” is not one of condescension. Paul is not calling them childish or immature. Instead, this is a term of endearment. It is better translated “my born ones”. Here, Paul is revealing his heart where the believers in Galatia are concerned. When Paul looks at them, it’s as if he is looking at his own children. This parent/child theme is carried over into the next phrase of verse 19… ”for whom I travail in birth again”. Paul is painting the picture that these groups of believers are in effect his own spiritual children that he both birthed and raised in the faith. Most of us have some level of understanding when it comes to the pain and labor of child birth. There is a very obvious reason why this process isn’t called “leisure”…no, it’s called “labor”…and that is an understatement, if you ask me. These are passionate words the great apostle is using. He is in effect saying that he had already gone through the travail of birthing them into the kingdom before, and now he was in agony over the prospect of having to go through this arduous task again. It is important that the emotional and spiritual connection between Paul and his “born ones” be understood, for in the proceeding 6 words of verse 19 Paul will elaborate on why he is so distraught.

I realize that when you read this simple verse, you see no references to the Holy Spirit, or His ministry. On the surface, this is true. However, if you will take the time to digest the following paragraphs, I believe you will find there is more to this verse than meets the eye. So put your thinking cap on….we are about to speak in Greek!!

The words “be formed” are very important and deserve some fleshing out. First of all, the Greek language is much more descriptive than our English. In verse 19, “be formed” is better translated…to give an outward expression of one’s inward character. In other words, to let the thing on the inside be seen on the outside. For our study, I will replace “be formed” with “be expressed outwardly”. So our verse would read…”until Christ be expressed outwardly in you”.

Now, allow me to illustrate this so that it becomes clear. Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest golfer of this generation. Whether you are a golf fan or not, it would be interesting to watch Tiger Woods give an exhibition of his golfing skills. Personally, I would enjoy observing anyone who is considered the best performer in their craft. So, if you and I were allowed a private moment to watch Tiger Woods hit golf balls, the following conversation might take place…

                            ME:      Whoa! Did you see how far that ball flew?

YOU:    Amazing, and he makes it look so easy.

ME:     He can practically make the ball land exactly where he wants too, I’m  jealous!

YOU:   Okay, be quiet, here comes another swing.

ME:     Wow, he has amazing form.

Amazing form…we all know what that means. When we observe an athlete or dancer or performer at the top of their craft, we say they have good form. This is pointing to the idea that all the skill and training and understanding and talent and drive that is bottled up inside them, is expressed outwardly in a precise, articulated motion. What is on the inside is expressed on the outside…good form. Okay, you got it? This is the point Paul is making to the Galatians. Due to their leaving the Gospel of Christ to follow the gospel of the Judaizers, Jesus was no longer being expressed outwardly from them. They were saved; Paul had seen to that when he was leading them in person. They had Jesus on the inside, but he was no longer being expressed on the outside. This fact was grieving the heart of the great apostle, and no doubt the heart of God also.

Now, let’s go deeper into this verse, it’s about to get a bit technical, but I’ll explain so don’t tune this part out…here’s where the Holy Spirit comes into play.

In the Greek language, the word “formed” is written in a grammatical type called the PASSIVE VOICE. When a word is written in the PASSIVE VOICE, we must identify the subject of the verb. Let’s look at our verse again and identify the subject of the verb “formed”

”until Christ be formed in you.”

The verb is formed…so what is the subject of our verb? If you said Christ, you are absolutely right. Christ is the subject of the verb formed.

Okay, when a verb is written in the PASSIVE VOICE, the subject of the verb is identified as PASSIVE or INACTIVE. In other words, THE SUBJECT DOES NOT PERFORM THE ACTION. This means that Christ is the one being expressed outwardly; however, Christ is not the one performing the expressing. Christ is passive, He is not expressing Himself. So, the obvious question that a good Bible student would ask at this point might be…“if Christ is not expressing Himself…then who is expressing Him?”

And the correct answer is?????                 THE HOLY SPIRIT!!!!!

Great! So we have built an expanded translation of Galatians 4:19. Let’s put it all together…

My born ones, concerning whom I am again striving with intense effort like unto child birth, until the Holy Spirit outwardly express Christ in you again.

This is a great revelation that points to a foundational aspect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Let’s put it bluntly, what is the Holy Spirit’s job? To outwardly express Christ through you!!! When the Holy Spirit is free to perform His work in your life, Jesus Christ will be expressed out of you like a great spot light shooting out of your heart, into a darkened world. However, the inverse is also true. If the Holy Spirit is not given this freedom, Christ cannot be expressed out of you. Evidently, this is what happened to the Galatian church. They had “quenched the Spirit”, they had “frustrated the Spirit”, and to the outside world, Jesus was no longer being seen through them.

I spoke earlier of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul also teaches about in the book of Galatians (5:22-23). Now we can draw a direct line between the true ministry of the Spirit and the results that abound when that ministry is being carried out. If the Spirit is free to work, then the fruit of the Spirit is evident. What is the fruit of the Spirit? It can easily be said that the fruit of the Spirit is the characteristics of Jesus Christ that is being expressed outwardly from the believer. If this is not taking place in a believer’s life, the only alternative is that the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) are manifested through the life of the Christian. This was the case with the Galatian church, and this is the case with all believers that do not allow the Holy Spirit to perform His work. Christ is no longer expressed and the flesh is. When this is taking place, to the on looking world, we no longer look like a child of God…instead we look like a child of the World.

Ok, take a deep breath. That’s a lot of teaching. But through it, we have begun to develop a definition of the true ministry of the Holy Spirit. WHAT DOES HE DO?: the Holy Spirit expresses Christ through you. In the next installment, we are going to continue building this definition. We are going to expand a step further on the question...WHAT DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT DO?

Sanctification: the Process of Perfection - The Holy Spirit; Who He Is

We have come to a crucial segment of our teaching on the process of perfection in the life of a believer, the process of sanctification. At this point we have just begun to get into the mechanics of this important topic, in other words, how it works. If we consider sanctification as an automobile, one might ask about the engine. After all, the engine is the power within the machine. Without it, we may have a structure that looks like a car, but it cannot act like a car. So it is with many modern day Christians. The very word Christian means “little Christ”. This gives the connotation that we should be a replica of the original.

Not only should we look Christ-like on the outside, but we should operate Christ-like on the inside. Many church goers have the appearance of Christian automobiles, they have a religious exterior, but if we were to lift the hood, what would we find? What is powering most Christians today? The more important question would be: Is the engine that powered Christ under the hood of your life...or are you running on a self made knock off?

The last installment of our survey of the doctrine of sanctification ended with a bold statement. The statement was as follows:

In the time between the ascension of Jesus and His return to rapture the church, the activity of God on earth and in the lives of man will only be carried out by the Holy Spirit. He and He alone is the hand of God on earth. Therefore, we must learn WHO He is, WHAT He does, and HOW He does it. Otherwise, we will miss God all together.

If this statement is true, and I believe it is, then we have a divine mandate to seek after a functional understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is the hand of God on earth, then we MUST have His operation in our lives. We cannot ignore the importance of His ministry and we MUST continue to learn how to position our lives in such a way that He can do His all important work.  Moreover, a mere understanding is not enough; we also must be able to live out what we know. Or, more appropriately, allow the Holy Spirit to live out His ministry through us.

Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest made a significant point that alludes to the need for a Christian to seek understanding where the Holy Spirit is concerned.

“…just as Jesus never saves a person until that person recognizes Him a Savior and by an act of his own free will puts his trust in Him, so the Holy Spirit is waiting for the Christian to recognize His ministry, and by an act of his free will trust Him to perform it.”

As I stated in the previous blog post, most Christians have a misplaced understanding of the true ministry of the Holy Spirit. These misunderstandings range from believing the Holy Spirit’s job is to provoke emotional outburst to ignoring Him all together. Both of which are wrong and neither of which result in allowing the Holy Spirit to actually affect the lives of said believer. Meanwhile, the Sanctifier is patiently waiting for the believer to recognize His true ministry and allow Him to perform it.

In the next blog posts, I want to deal with three questions. The answers to these questions will help build a basic understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The questions are as follows: WHO is He? WHAT does He do? And HOW does He do it? In the following few paragraphs, we will approach the first question.

WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT

The short and obvious answer….HE IS GOD!

The Holy Spirit is not a lesser part of the God head. He is not the most important part of the God head. He is as equally God as the Father and the Son. He is all powerful, all knowing, and all present. He is limitless and He cannot be diminished. He is bound by only one factor…the laws He has set for Himself. He is truth, He is love, and He is sovereign. As a part of the God head, the Holy Trinity, He has a specific/particular role or personage that He fulfills. This gives the Holy Spirit individuality, but it does not place Him in a pecking order…for HE IS GOD!

Now, most of you have learned nothing by what I’ve just stated…because most any Christian would hear these words, and agree with them. However, most Christians don’t really grasp the concept of the role of the Spirit. So let’s discuss WHO He is from a different angle…let’s talk about Moses and Joshua…let’s talk dynastic succession.

MOSES and JOSHUA

In Deuteronomy chapter 31, a landmark event took place in Israel’s history. Moses, the great leader of the people, the mediator of the old covenant, the law giver, addressed the people. To the utter shock of the Israelites, I’m sure; Moses made an announcement that would change things entirely…He would not be entering the Promise Land.

1 And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel. 2 And he said unto them, I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the Lord hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

This announcement must have been earth shattering to the masses. I imagine it brought both fear and confusion. Moses represented so much to the nation…leadership, provision, council, protection, wisdom. He was the one that sought the very face of God on behalf of the people. He had been used by God to open the doors of Egypt, to part the sea, to provide food and water, to bring the law, to defend against the enemy, and heal them from the poison of the snakes. Now, he was telling them that he would not lead them into the very purpose for which they had stuck out over 40 years before. They would be crossing the Jordon into the Promise Land without him.

Verses 1 and 2 of Deuteronomy 31 were Israel’s worst nightmare come true. Verses 3 and 6 proved once again that in the midst of confusion God always has a plan.

3 The Lord thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath said.

6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

God’s plan for the nation was Joshua. And with Joshua at the helm, the children of Israel would begin a campaign of victory that claimed the land they were predestined to indwell. Moses had a specific purpose and role that he was called to by God. He accomplished and represented more in the Old Testament than perhaps any other person therein. However, it was Joshua’s divine calling to lead the conquest of Canaan. In the 31^st chapter of Deuteronomy, we see the passing of the torch, so to speak, as Moses announced to Israel that He was stepping away, and that God had appointed a new leader. Now the people would look to Joshua as he fulfilled the same responsibilities that Moses had once performed. He would become leader, protector, guide, councilor, general, and judge. This changing of the guard is known as dynastic succession: the replacement of a dynasty’s supreme leader with his/her successor.

 JESUS and the HOLY SPIRIT

Now turn in your Bible to the 13^th chapter of the book of John, and flash forward several hundred years to an upper room as a landmark event is taking place in the lives of 12 men. Jesus, the great leader of the disciples, the mediator of the new covenant, the grace giver, addressed his followers. To the utter shock of the disciples, I’m sure; Jesus made an announcement that would change things entirely…He was going away.

33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you.

36 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?”Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.”

This announcement must have been earth shattering to the disciples. I imagine it brought both fear and confusion. Jesus represented so much to these men…leadership, provision, council, protection, wisdom. He was the one that sought the very face of God on their behalf. He had been used by God to open their hearts to ministry, to calm the sea, to provide spiritual food and water, to fulfill the law, to defend against the enemy, and heal them from the poison of the sin nature. Now, he was telling them that he would not lead them into the very purpose for which they had stuck out over 3 years before. They would be crossing over into the world wide evangelism of the Gospel without Him.

Verses 33 and 36 of John 13 were the disciple’s worst nightmare come true. Verses 16 and 17 of chapter 14 proved once again that in the midst of confusion God always has a plan.

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

God’s plan for the disciples was the Holy Spirit. And with the Holy Spirit at the helm, they would begin a campaign of victory that claimed the spiritual land they were predestined to indwell. Jesus had a specific purpose and role that he was called to by God. He accomplished and represented more than any other person in history. However, it was the Holy Spirit’s divine ministry to lead the Church. In the 13^th-16^th chapter of John, we see the passing of the torch, so to speak, as Jesus announced to the disciples that He was stepping away, and that God had appointed a new leader. Now the people would look to the Holy Spirit as He fulfilled the same responsibilities that Jesus had once performed. He would become leader, protector, guide, councilor, general, and judge. This changing of the guard is another example of dynastic succession.

PARAKLETOS

I want to tie this all together by making one more point. I want to give attention to a particular word in John 14:16. Jesus said, “and he (God) shall give you another Comforter.” The word “Comforter” is the Greek word parakletos. It means one who is called to another's side to aid him, as an advocate in a court of justice, a helper, a councilor. Notice the word Comforter is capitalized, giving it the notation of deity. As I said before, the Holy Spirit is God. Jesus is saying that God would send another one to take his place, and the replacement would stand beside them in the same fashion that Jesus had. Also, notice the word “another”. In the Greek this word states that the one coming would be the same kind as the one being replaced. In short, Jesus was leaving, and the Holy Spirit was coming to pick up where He left off, to assume the same position Christ held for the disciples, with one obvious difference. Jesus said in verse 17, “for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” Jesus led the disciples while dwelling “with” them, the Holy Spirit leads us while dwelling “in” us.

Now back to the original question: WHO is the Holy Spirit?

Answer: He is the dynastic successor of Jesus Christ. He is our paraclete. As Joshua was the successor of Moses, and the Old Testament paraclete appointed by God to lead the people as they conquered the Promised Land of Canaan. So the Holy Spirit is to you and me. He is the one that will lead us as we conquer the Promised Land of Christian sanctification.  

Sanctification: the Process of Perfection - walking in the Spirit vs walking in the flesh

Thus far in our survey of sanctification we have dealt with some of the major themes within the doctrine. You might call these ideals the framework of the study. These topics have been very theological/philosophical thus far. With this installment, I want to get more into the mechanics of the process. In other words: how does it work? On the advice of a good friend, I’m going to attempt to scale down the amount of info in these posts…make them more succinct and more frequent. After all, this is a huge topic. Literally, volumes could be written about the doctrine sanctification. The old question goes: How do you eat an elephant? The answer: One bite at a time!

With this in mind, let’s begin looking at how sanctification works.

If you were to spend an afternoon being educated by an experienced mechanic, he would undoubtedly spend a good amount of time explaining the vehicle’s motor. After all, without a functioning motor, you may have something that “looks” like a car, but it will never “act” like a car. Up to this point, I have given you a good description of the car; doors, wheels and tires, windshields, etc.  Now, I want to lift the hood of sanctification and teach about the engine, the power that moves the process.

In the first part of this series, I briefly discussed justification. This legal act that initiates salvation is performed, in large part, by one aspect of the Godhead. God the Father is the Justifier. He alone is the judge that has the ability to proclaim a person as justified or condemned. On the other hand, in the process of sanctification, another person of the Trinity takes the lead. The Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier. He is the engine that powers the car’s movement. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, we would never progress in our Christian walk, we would never break free from the drawing of the sin nature, and we would never become more Christ-like.

Sanctification is the foundational ministry of the Spirit. Unfortunately, most Christians today have, at best, a very sketchy understanding of the Holy Spirit’s work. If you will allow me, I’d like to address the misunderstanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and why this is so costly to the process of sanctification.

 In most churches today, the Holy Spirit has been relegated to one of two extremes. On one end of the spectrum, He is locked away in the basement of the church and looked at like the step child of the trinity. These congregations are almost afraid of the movement of the Holy Spirit, so they ignore Him. As result, they exist in a sort of spiritual coma. They are usually extremely dry and feel like God cannot operate outside of a church bulletin. Churches like these have regular meetings with each other, but the sanctifier is seldom present.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum where He is turned into a side show act. The people show up and want the Holy Spirit to do tricks. These services can look more like an over turned ant mound than a spiritual encounter with God. These congregations are usually extremely tied to emotional experience; mistaking outlandish emotion for the anointing of the Spirit. To them, the Spirit is like a shot of drugs in the vein…he brings the desired “high”.

In most cases, God seldom operates in our extremes…but that is usually where religion takes us.  

Now that I’ve upset a portion of those reading, let me qualify my point. I am not suggesting that it is wrong to show quiet reverence in a service, nor am I saying a church bulletin is a sign of being hypo-spiritual. Neither am I suggesting that the Holy Spirit does not perform supernatural acts in the lives of Christians, or that becoming overcome with emotion in a service is a sign of being hyper-spiritual. If this is what you got out of the last paragraphs, you missed the point entirely. My point is that it is not scriptural to believe that the Holy Spirit only operates in our preferred extremes. Moreover, if your church only operates in one of these extremes, there’s a better than average chance that you are trading the true, effective ministry of the Holy Spirit for human/religious traditions.

The reason these extremes exist in most churches is because they do not possess a basic understanding of what the true ministry of the Holy Spirit is. In the place of the true ministry of the Holy Spirit, they have inserted religious schemes that prop up their agendas or make them feel comfortable. These are harsh words, I realize, but this route is the way of mankind. Since the beginning, we have twisted the spiritual to fit our desires and offer control to man…rather than God.

·         You see this in Cain when he brought the sacrifice that he desired.

·         You see this with Abram short cutting God’s plan and having a child with Hagar.

·         You see it with the children of Israel crying out to God for a king to rule over them. So they could be like everybody else.

·         Then with Saul, the king they ended up with, asking a witch to evoke the spirit of Samuel when he wanted advice.

·         Its evident over and over in the Old Testament when the Israelites returned to idol worship.

·         You see it with the prideful misinterpretation of spirituality in the Pharisees of the New Testament.

·         Then, it becomes obvious with the church of Galatia following the gospel of the Judaizers.

·         In the modern church, it is seen with the emergence of the seeker sensitive movement that has thrown the Gospel of Jesus out the window.

All these examples have one thing in common; they are religious actions, enacted by people that claim the name of God. The people that participated in these departures from the truth were very sincere in what they were doing, but they were sincerely wrong. When it comes to the Holy Spirit, we cannot afford to be off base. We must have a true knowledge of what His ministry involves, what He desires to accomplish, and what means He uses to see His work done.  

In closing this introduction to “the ministry of the Holy Spirit as it relates to sanctification”, I want to make one final statement. Then in the proceeding blog posts, I want show you the scriptural basis to support my statement.

STATEMENT

In the time between the ascension of Jesus and His return to rapture the church, the activity of God on earth and in the lives of mankind will only be carried out by the Holy Spirit. He, and He alone, is the hand of God on earth. Therefore, we must learn WHO He is, WHAT He does, and HOW He does it. Otherwise, we will miss God all together.

Sanctification: the Process of Perfection - Positional vs Progressive

The first two installments of this study on the doctrine of Sanctification have been a great blessing to me. There have been moments that I have literally been in tears as God revealed His heart to me. I only hope that I have been able to relate these teachings in a concise and understandable way. There is no way I can overstate how necessary these concepts are to the day-to-day victory of the child of God. Until you and I begin learning and applying the basic mechanics of Christianity, we have no choice but to live under the yoke of the sin nature. So without further hesitation, let’s get to it.

 The first post in this series dealt briefly with the beginning point of relationship with God…Justification. We learned that Justification is a legal decree proclaimed in the eternal courtroom of Heaven. God, the Judge, will eventually pass verdict on every person that has ever lived. The Judge will only rule in one of two ways…condemned or justified. At the moment a sinful human cries out to Jesus and makes Him Lord of their life, God slams down His gavel and declares that person to be Justified for all eternity. This means that God forever more sees the new Christian as NOT GUILTY, not only that…He sees him as INNOCENT OF ALL CHARGES, but that’s not all, because in God’s mind it’s as if HE NEVER SINNED AT ALL. Isn’t that amazing!!! But that’s not even the full scope of the sweeping power of God’s Justification, because when God declares you Justified…

He forever more sees you as PERFECT!! That’s right God has declared you PERFECT!!

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “There’s no way God can look at my life and call me perfect!” Let me put it a different way. On what grounds can God say you are just, when you know in fact that you are not just? This is a very reasonable question…and one that deserves explanation. To understand how this is possible, we must discuss the concept of “imputation”. This is a funny sounding word, but if you grasp what “imputation” means, you will begin to understand how you can stand in the presence of God, and hear Him call you perfect.

The understanding of imputation will lead us to the idea of Positional Sanctification…so, if you are ready? Let’s get into the Word!

Imputation and Positional Sanctification

Explaining “imputation” begins with analyzing what took place on the Cross of Christ as it relates to our salvation. Dr R.C. Sproul teaches this supernatural act by illustrating a DOUBLE TRANSFER. Allow me to elaborate… 

The first part of the DOUBLE TRANSFER deals with God transferring our sins to Jesus, while he suffered on the cross. I Peter 2:24…He himself (Jesus) bore our sins in his body on the tree. In John 1:29, John the Baptist, speaking of Jesus, declares the Agnus Dei…behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Here we have just two of the many verses that describe a “quantitative” transfer. In other words, the total amount of sin was taken off of the world (you and me) and was transferred to Jesus. Imagine your sin being represented by a heavy jacket that you are wearing. At the cross, God took your jacket and the full weight of its burden, and placed it on Jesus. This transfer can also be called an “imputation”. God “imputed” your sins to Jesus. Now, try to imagine the jacket of sin from every person that has ever lived transferred or imputed to Jesus…all of them…all at the same time. You see, there is no way to imagine the immense, crushing weight of such an “imputation”. But thank God…Jesus can.

So, at this point of the DOUBLE TRANSFER, God looks down from Heaven, and what does He see? He sees Jesus covered with an indescribable mass of sin, and at the same time He sees us, free of sin. Are you with me? Your sin has been transferred (imputed) to Jesus.

Now, I must make a very important point before moving forward. If this transfer of sin from us to Jesus stood alone, as great as this act was, YOU COULD NOT BE CALLED PERFECT. This single transfer is not enough for God to declare us Justified. Even though Jesus endured the punishment for all my sin…this is not, in itself, sufficient. Consider this, it is not simply innocence that grants me access to God, it is righteousness that is required. This is why the second part of the DOUBLE TRANSFER is essential…there must be a second “imputation”.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:20…For I say unto you, unless your righteousness surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Being innocent of sin might keep us out of Hell, or keep us from being punished, however righteousness is required to enter the presence of the Most Holy. Moreover, according to Jesus, the righteousness must be of a certain kind…human righteousness is of no use. Isaiah 64:6 makes this clear…our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. So the obvious remains: How do we obtain this “required” righteousness, in order that we might enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Enter the second part of the double transfer…

The righteousness of the spotless Lamb of God, the only Begotten of God, is transferred to us and we can be sure that the righteousness of Jesus is of the right and acceptable kind. So here we have the DOUBLE TRANSFER that makes the eternal difference. Let me describe it in another way. Imagine that every time we commit a sin we swipe a debit card that deducts money from our account in heaven…and by the way, we are born with our account balance at ZERO. Sin after sin, the card is swiped and the debt climbs. Transaction upon transaction…we sink further and further into our sin debt. And to whom do we owe this debt? God holds the lien. After a short time, it becomes obvious that we could never repay this mounting debt, yet we continue to swipe the card. Now we come to the point in which we decide to call upon the mercy of God to save us from this debt we cannot repay. Here comes the DOUBLE TRANSFER. First, God erases the debt...He completely wipes our account clean. Then, secondly, He transfers an unspendable amount of money from Jesus’ account into our own. Now our account will never be in the negative again.

You got it? DOUBLE TRANSFER! Imputation! Okay, now for positional Sanctification…

After the DOUBLE TRANSFER takes place, what does God see?  He sees a human that has been declared perfect because he is no longer stained with sin…the sin was transferred to Jesus. Not only that, He sees a human that is completely righteous….because Christ’s righteousness was transferred to the human. Due to this new standing, God is able remain just even while proclaiming that person both Justified and Righteous. This declaration of righteousness is the divine act that grants us the “position” of being altogether sanctified in the eyes of the Almighty.

Hebrews 10:10…By this will WE HAVE BEEN SANCTIFIED through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.  The phrase WE HAVE BEEN signifies that it is a completed act. You see, the phrase is past tense…that means it’s done. The last phrase of the verse ONCE FOR ALL underlines this idea again. The sanctification is complete.

I Corinthians 1:2….To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who HAVE BEEN SANCTIFIED in Christ Jesus, saints by calling.  Here again, HAVE BEEN SANCTIFIED declares the finality of the process. With this in mind, we can conclude that if a person has been justified by God, they has also been sanctified. These are completed acts in the mind of God that took place at the same time, as a result of the DOUBLE TRANSFER of Calvary. You are innocent of sin and righteous in His sight. You have been granted positional sanctification!!!

 Praise God! Halleluiah to the Lamb! All of this, just because you believed! He only requires faith. When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, all of this is freely given. How great is our God?

Now, if you are like me, a new thought arises in your heart…and a very valid thought it is. “He may say I’m perfect, but I know I’m not. I deal with my imperfection everyday. What about the fact that I still sin?”

With this question in mind, let's now deal with the idea of “progressive” sanctification.

 

Progressive Sanctification - Cottages & Palaces

One of my very favorite Christian thinkers/writers of all time is C.S. Lewis. His ability to tear apart and put back together the basics tenants of our faith was remarkable, a true gift to Christianity. In his book Mere Christianity, Lewis begins to describe the process of progressive Sanctification. Read the following passage a few times…

“On the one hand we must never imagine that our own unaided efforts can be relied on to carry us even through the next twenty-four hours as ‘decent’ people. If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded on the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life: but He means to get us as far as possible before death.”

Ultimately, sanctification is a destination. The word sanctification means “to make holy.” Therefore, the destination of sanctification is when a Christian has become eternally holy. However, in the above passage, C.S. Lewis points out that sanctification is not just a destination, it is a journey. At the point of salvation, the DOUBLE TRANSFER allows God to declare us as righteous. This is our “position” or standing with God. At the same time, while we are here on earth, covered in flesh, and dealing with a sin nature, we are in the constant process of becoming more and more like Jesus. The Christian is becoming “progressively” holy.

Phillipians 1:6…Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So, what is the “good work” that is posed here? The answer is found in Romans 8:29…for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed into the image of His son. We are in a progression to become more and more holy…to become more like Christ. John the Baptist said it best, “I must decrease, so that He may increase.” In other words, our sun must progressively continue to set, so that the Son might progressively continue to rise within us. The “good work” of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to breakdown every stronghold of the sin nature that we are naturally inclined to follow…one at a time. In short summary, we are on the pathway to holiness, the Holy Spirit is our guide, and ultimate sanctification is the end result of the journey.

Romans chapter six deals in depth with the process of removing the affects of the sin nature from our lives. This process, in fact, IS progressive sanctification. Romans 6 points out the fact that…we are dead to sin, but alive in Jesus Christ (Rom 6:11). The power of the cross forever changed our relationship with the sin nature; we no longer have to live under its yoke. Now, look at what this fact offers us…but now having been freed from the sin nature and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and eternal life (Rom 6:22). This scripture outlines that, freedom from the sin nature results in sanctification! We now have the possibility, being set free from the sin nature, to experience progressive sanctification, by the means of the Holy Spirit. Okay one more verse...therefore, do not let the sin nature reign in your mortal body that you obey the lust thereof (Rom 6:12). Look at the phrase “do not let”; this is a Greek prohibitive imperative. This is better translated….”I command you; do not let the sin nature reign.” God has commanded us to live apart from the effects of the sin nature. I can tell you with confidence that our heavenly father would not command us to do anything that was impossible to accomplish. So, how does God know that we can accomplish such a great feat? He has predestined that we will become like Jesus, and He will finish the good work that He has begun.

He commands us to live free from the sin nature based on His ability to keep His Word…not on our ability to follow His Word. His Word will never return unto Him void. Let me tell you, the completion of our sanctification going to happen. You can take that to the bank...God said so.

Our progressive sanctification is written in stone. It will not fail. One day our progression of holiness will meet up with our position of righteousness…in that moment, when our progression meets our position, we shall be GLORIFIED. I John 3:2…Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be, we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Let me give you a great illustration in closing…it’s not my own…it’s C.S. Lewis, at his finest…

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Enough said…

Check back next time as we tear in to…The Flesh vs. The Spirit

Sanctification: the Process of Perfection - Created vs Begotten

In the previous blog post, I began this survey of the doctrine of Sanctification by explaining the doctrine of Justification. The reason for this approach is relatively simple; Justification is the first step in the process.  It’s the entrance, or the gateway to the journey of becoming wholly sanctified. In short review, Justification is the moment when God, the great judge of the universe, looks at the body of sin that we have compiled, recognizes our undeniable guilt, and then passes judgment. He has two options that He can declare over our eternity, and the choice He makes comes as a direct result of a personal decision on our part. The personal decision is just this; what have you done with Jesus? If you choose to accept the sacrifice of Calvary and make Jesus the Lord of your life, God will blot out every wrong doing you have ever committed and declare you “justified”. This means you are not guilty; you are innocent, as if you have never sinned, and beyond that you are declared perfect in the eyes of God. If you choose to deny Jesus and the sacrifice He made on your behalf, God will deny you and declare that you are “condemned”. The Word tells us that “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Pet 3:9). God, out of His great love, made a way where there was no way; He formulated the perfect plan before the foundation of the earth that would allow you and me the opportunity to choose. He has done all He can, and at this point, the choice is ours to make….condemned…or justified.

Okay, with that clarified, let’s move to the main course….Sanctification. Assuming that you’ve chosen wisely and found yourself in the position of being declared Justified by God, you are now automatically thrust into the process of Sanctification…well, what does that mean?

First, a quick definition…then an explanation.

 What is Sanctification? It is the process of turning a “created” child of God into a “begotten” child of God. Got it? No? Okay, then allow me to break down created vs. begotten.

A created object or being is one that may have similarities and likenesses of the original source, but is not of the same kind. On the other hand, a begotten being is one of the same kind, which comes from the original source. Let me illustrate this with a more real-to-life example. Imagine that I took a block of stone and began sculpting a likeness of myself. Over several days, I worked and worked to give the sculpture every possible detail to fit my physical representation. When I was finally finished, there was no mistaking that the sculpture was David…apart from it being a stony grey color, the similarities were uncanny. You might say, as you looked at the finished product, “this work of art was a great “creation”. On the other hand, you would be completely batty if you looked at the piece of crafted stone and believed it was actually me. Obviously the artwork was stone….even if it held many striking similarities to the artist.

Now, imagine if I were to introduce you to my youngest child, Taylor. He is seven years old, and if you know me, especially when I was a youngster, you would see many similarities between the two of us. We don’t look exactly the same…though there are some likenesses. We don’t act exactly the same, however, he does naturally take after me. Here’s the bottom line, if you were to say, “David you did a fine job creating Taylor”, I would thank you for the compliment, but you would in fact be speaking in error. You see, Taylor is not my created son, he is my begotten son.

A man creates a sculpture of himself…even if the sculpture bears an uncanny likeness to the artist, it is still only stone. It is “like” the sculptor, but it is not of the same kind…it is not a human. It is a creation.

A man fathers a son…even if the child has his own personality and unique appearance, he would never be considered his father’s creation. The son came from the father; they are of the same kind. The son is begotten.

John 3:16 may be the most well known verse in the entirety of the Word of God. We all know that it declares that Jesus is God’s “only begotten son.” From the previous paragraphs, you now understand that Jesus is the only human ever born that came from God…and is of the same kind as God. Jesus is the only human ever born of woman that did not come into the world with a nature of sin. Even better, He was the only human ever born of woman that came into the world with the nature of God. Imagine a man with God’s nature, God’s thoughts, God’s emotions, God’s reactions, God’s love, etc, etc, etc. He wasn’t just similar to God, no, he was from God, and the same kind of being…God’s only begotten.

Okay, now, what about you and me? Genesis 1:27 reveals much, it says: So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. See that? He repeated it 3 times just to underline the point. CREATED, CREATED, AND CREATED!!! We were formed by the hands of God to mirror His image. Like a sculptor crafting his own self image. You and I were “created” to resemble our creator. But make no mistake about it…we are created beings…not begotten son’s. We were created like Him, but we are not of the same kind.

Where Jesus was born in perfection, we were born in sin. Where Jesus was born with the mind of the Most High, we were born with the mind of our earthly father. Where Jesus was born to be about his Heavenly Father’s business, we were born to be about OUR OWN selfish business. Where Jesus was born with a divine nature, we were born with a sin nature. Jesus was born in perfect communion with Jehovah; we are born separated from Jehovah. We have obvious similarities to God, our creator, but the differences between the created and the begotten is vast.

However, there is one more point to be made. In as much as we are repeatedly called God’s creation…the Word also repeatedly refers to us as…”sons of God”…let me show you what this means…this is great!!!

John 1:12 and 13: But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he (the receiver) power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God

Allow me to make a couple quick points here. Number one, this verse applies to them that have “received Jesus”. In other words, those that have been justified by God, because they accepted Christ and the redemptive work of the cross. Once we have received Jesus and been declared Justified by God, we receive “power to become the sons of God”. Let me point out the obvious here, before the “power to become sons” was granted to us….we were not sons. Also, notice that this process of receiving the power and becoming sons of God has nothing to do with us…not of blood, nor flesh, nor man…but of God. Keep these points in mind as you read this passage from Galatians…

Galatians 4: 4-7: But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.  

This is simply amazing…fantastic…undeserved and unbelievable. Follow me here; I don’t want you to miss a thing.

Number one

The Word tells us that we were once a servant to the law. The law was our master and our slave driver. However, God’s love could not abide this slavery for His creation, those created in His image. So, He sent his only begotten Son (notice the capital “S”) into the same situation that we (the slaves of the law) were drowning in.  The only begotten Son “redeemed them that were under the law”. Redeemed is a Greek word that means: to purchase back; to ransom: to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage; to repurchase that which has been sold. Jesus volunteered to pay the extravagant cost to free us from slavery; to redeem us from the curse of the law. The law of God says that the wages (the fixed payment) of sin is death. When Jesus paid the price of sin with His own life, we were redeemed from the curse of our sin…and in essence we were set free from being a slave to the law.

Number two

The passage states that the redeemed “might receive the adoption of sons (notice the lower case “s”). Where we were once slaves, now the Word calls us sons. What’s more, we are called “adopted sons”. This point should not be overlooked, nor looked down upon. Let me show you why. Paul was writing this as both a Jew and a Roman. He was fluent in Jewish law by the religious training he had received, and he was fluent in Roman law by the residential familiarity with his citizenship. Paul is drawing a parallel with both Jewish and Roman law that is absolutely priceless. In those days, an adopted son had more legal protection than a naturally born son. Where as a naturally born son could be legally renounced by a father, an adopted son could never be. A father in those days, whether Roman or Jewish, knew this full well before the binding legal act of adoption took place. If he went through with the adoption, the legal work was not reversible…the adopted son could never be disowned. This point is especially precious to me and my oldest son, Kollin. When he was 9, I went through the legal process to make him my adopted son. As such, he has the same legal right to everything I am, to everything I have, as the other kids in my house. In fact, if you visit our home, you will never suspect any separation between the adopted and the naturally born. They are all my kids. I live, work, love, and die for them all the same…with no favoritism. In fact, over the years, several people who knew nothing about the adoption have commented on how much Kollin and I look alike. My wife and I just smile and agree, after all, sons have family resemblance don’t they? You see the beauty here? Paul is saying that this act of granting sonship by our adopted Father is not reversible. Once He accepts you…you will never again be disowned…or a slave again. He sees you forever as His son. PRAISE GOD!! HIS LOVE IS AMAZING!!!

Number three

Okay, recall in the earlier passage in John, we are told that those that receive Jesus have been given “power to become sons of God”. Let’s discuss this power as we conclude. The power mentioned is further explained in our Galatians passage when Paul wrote…

And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

God sends the Spirit in your heart. The Holy Spirit is “the power to become sons of God”. Jesus said  “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…Acts 1:8”. So the Spirit is the power, now look at what happens. God sends the Spirit of his Son (capital “S”) into your heart, crying, Abba, Father.

Let me tie all this together…

“Abba” is an Aramaic word for a term of endearment that a son would use for his father. We might say “daddy” in English. However, this would still be an understatement. The beautiful point to be made is this. Only the begotten son can appropriately cry out “Abba” to his father. Jesus is God’s only begotten son. When Jesus was dying on the Cross we hear him cry out…”Abba, Abba, why has thou forsaken me” No other, but Jesus, the begotten, has the right to address Holy God as Abba. But when we come to God and claim the name of Jesus, an amazing thing takes place. The Holy Spirit (the Spirit of his Son) takes up residence within our hearts. In essence, the capital “S” comes to dwell within the lower case “s”, and when he moves in, he brings everything he is with him; including his right to call out to God as Abba. Now, when my life is crumbling, when my heart is breaking, when I don’t have the strength to formulate words that express my hurt….my Jesus cries from within me, the words I can’t speak myself, he calls out to his “ABBA”…and God hears from heaven and acts on the behalf of his adopted son.

What is Sanctification? It is the process of turning a “created” child of God into a “begotten” child of God.  C.S. Lewis said it like this, “there’s a rumor going around the workshop...the statues are coming alive.”

Check out the next installment of “Sanctification: the Process of Perfection” as we unpack Positional verses Progressive Sanctification.

Santification: the Process of Perfection - Justified vs Condemned

The process of sanctification is absolutely amazing. It is the act of the Grand Artist creating His greatest masterpiece, as he revolutionizes your life into the image of His son. Sanctification is the process of a natural man being progressively changed into a spiritual man. C.S. Lewis referred to it as sinful man being transformed into a son of God. The administrator of this pain staking process is the Holy Spirit. He is the Sanctifier. Over the next few posts, I want to break down this process. What is Sanctification? How does it work? How do I affect it? It’s imperative for the believer to understand the doctrine of Sanctification. Unfortunately, if the average Christian were asked to give a brief explanation of Sanctification, they would be clueless. We don’t disciple enough! Understanding these spiritual concepts is absolutely necessary for the day to day victory of a child of God. I pray that God will use me to make these doctrinal lessons easy to understand…and that you may begin to live them out in your day to day walk.

First – lets set the scene

We are born into this world in a state of spiritual separation from God (thanks Adam!). Even before we ever commit a sin, we are overwhelmed and controlled by a sinful nature. David said in Psalms 51:5, “Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” You might say, well that’s not fair, how can we be sinful before we ever do anything wrong. Think of it this way, we are not born sinners, but we are born with a nature of rebellion that is bent toward living a sinful life. In other words, we were born with a “sin factory” within us. And it doesn’t take very long for the affect of the sin factory to be realized within us and around us. The obvious result of being born with a sin nature is that we are doomed to commit sin, to fall short of the glory of God, and to be immediately separated from God’s presence.  Romans 3: 10-11 proclaims, “There is none righteous, no not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God”. Jehovah God is completely holy, awesomely righteous, and eternally perfect. Any person less than perfect (even one sin makes this become true) cannot dwell in His presence. Unrighteousness is repelled from God's presence like the like poles of two magnets. Thus, our sinful nature disqualifies us from having relationship with God.

Until the wonderful day that we recognized that we were a creature in desperate need to be saved from ourselves, from our sin nature. What happened at this pivotal moment? We finally took our eyes off ourselves, and looked for the solution that satisfies. Paul said it this way…”Who will save me from this body of death.” At the moment he said the word, “Who”, he had, in effect, admitted that he could not overcome sin by his own abilities, and that he needed the help of another. Paul was crying out for a savior. In the same way, you recognized that you were your worst enemy, and without a savior, you would indeed be left to the self destruction you had known since conception.

You cried out to Jesus. He heard your cry, and He ran to your rescue…he SAVED you. The old song says it well…

Saved by His power divine

Saved to new life sublime

Life now is sweet, and my joy is complete

Cause I’m saved, saved, saved

Paul explains this moment of your life in powerful detail in the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th chapters of the book of Romans. We say “I got saved”…Paul said “you were Justified”. Justification is the first step in the process of Sanctification. At the moment you were saved, or Justified, you were also “wholly sanctified”. This will be better explained later. First, it is imperative to understand your Justification so that you will be able to grasp the process of Sanctification. So let’s talk Justification…

JUSTIFICATION – Legally set free

Justification is both an Old and New Testament concept. The Hebrew word (Old Testament) for Justification is “sadag", and it means “righteous or righteousness”. The Greek word (New Testament) for Justification is “dikaioo”, and it’s meaning is much more picturesque than the Hebrew. “Dikaioo” is better translated, “to acquit”, “to vindicate”, or “to pronounce righteous”. To put it pure and simple, Justification is a legal term. I’m talking judge, jury, lawyers, and verdict…..legal terminology. It is based on and framed in law and order…Gods law. At the moment you said “yes” to Jesus and He said “yes” to you, a legal act took place in the court room of Heaven. Let me explain “dikaioo” another way; please try to imagine this scene in the theater of your mind…

Picture yourself standing in a courtroom. The sterile, sharp, intimidating surroundings are overwhelming. The floors, the walls, the furniture in the courtroom are hard, cold, and completely solid, as if the whole room and everything in it are carved out of a single solid block of granite. There is no visible ceiling, for the walls rise endlessly until they vanish into some glorious, dark cloud, hundreds of feet over your head. Directly ahead of you is the bench of the Great Judge. Solid, glowing white marble, gigantic, it is the Judgment Throne of the Almighty. It is so tall and powerful that you can’t see over the crest of the bench; however the omnipotent presence sitting behind the bench is filling, saturating the very air you are breathing. You can smell Him, but you couldn’t describe the scent if you tried. You can hear the pulsing electricity of His perfection. The sound is piercing, yet silently beautiful. You can somehow feel Him, but the feeling is very foreign to you, because you are a sinner. You instinctively recognize that you don’t belong this close to Holiness and you have the horrible feeling that you should turn and run before you melt away. But you can’t run, you can’t speak, you can’t even move…for today, your life was on trial.

A quick glance to your side…you have no high powered legal team to fight for you, to speak for you, to encourage you.  You stand there alone and lonely. Perfectly still, afraid and vulnerable, as the all-seeing eye of Jehovah searches your heart and He sees it all. There will be no crafty defense today, no getting off on a technicality…only the truth, and nothing but the truth. A palpable since of doom clouds your mind and your feelings, you know your awaiting His ruling…there is no escape.

 Finally, the silence is broken as the well spoken, ominous, sleek, and strikingly beautiful lawyer to your left begins laying out the case against you. Satan, the accuser, the master manipulator…he is the prosecuting attorney…and he has come to court today dressed and ready for battle. Beside him are boxes of evidence, stacks of eye witness depositions, file folder after file folder bulging with every dirty, rotten, disgusting sin you’ve ever committed. The things you did publically, the things you did privately, the things you forced yourself to forget about. The parade of crimes committed is seemingly endless. Every time he opens his mouth, he salivates more; he grows louder and more arrogant. Suddenly you begin to feel a radiant, righteous heat growing from behind the Judge’s bench. The larger the pile of vile evidence grows, the smaller you feel, and the more you dread ever hearing the Judge speak. Satan continues on, calling and recalling every moment of shame and guilt. The horrible acts you committed…the gracious acts you omitted. Sorrowfully, every instance is substantiated by undeniable evidence.

For days he goes on recounting your failures, marching in witnesses, and submitting more evidence. You speak no words, you dare not open you mouth. Your guts twisting under the strain of the truth, will this go on forever?

By this time, the courtroom is wilting under the colossal swell of the heated anger pouring from the throne. There is nothing you can say, nothing you can do, you are hopeless to ever escape what you have long since realized…you are guilty, guilty, guilty. Then, as you tremble through pouring sweat, and in unexpected horror, you hear the pompous prosecutor say with a smirk…”and that’s all I’ve got Your Honor, as if I needed anything else.” With that, the full focus of the Almighty shifts to the trembling wretch of a defendant. Holy light blinds your eyes, and a rumble of perfect power chills your soul as the Great Judge finally speaks, “Do you wish to speak before I pass judgment?”

Then…quiet…thump, thump, thump. You breathe a shallow breath. Tears stream down your face…thump, thump, thump. You see Satan laughing, but you can’t hear him as your mind races for what it cannot find…thump, thump, thump. You’re lightheaded under the strain. Your blood pressure is ringing in your ears…thump, thump, thump. Exhausted and broken, you collapse to the floor like a filthy rag and with a final ounce of ebbing strength you utter one, barely audible word…………….Jesus

Suddenly, in a flash of lightening, the gavel of the Judge slams down, quaking the bench, all emotion drains from Satan’s face, as God the Father proclaims, in a voice that shakes the foundations of the world…

“YOUR NOT GUILTY ANYMORE

YOUR NOT FILTHY ANYMORE

I LOVE YOU, MERCY IS YOURS

YOUR NOT BROKEN ANYMORE

YOUR NOT CAPTIVE ANYMORE

I LOVE YOU, MERCY IS YOURS

NO LONGER CONDEMNED

YOU ARE JUSTIFIED”

Praise God. Halleluiah. Amen. If you have said yes to Jesus Christ, you have been Justified in the eyes and heart of God. He has allowed the righteousness of Jesus to cover your sinfulness. He no longer sees your sin and shame. When He looks at you, He sees His Son…the perfect One…the spotless Lamb of God…your substitution…Jesus Christ.

Paul said in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been JUSTIFIED by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God

With the foundation of Justification laid, we will begin a look at Sanctification in the next installment.