The message of salvation
becomes distorted and confused when we are told to
“clean up your act and then God will save you.”
Justification is not
sanctification. However, justification always leads
to sanctification. We are not saved because we are
good. We are saved because we are lost sinners who
are not good. Jesus declares “no condemnation,” and
then He sends us out to live a holy life. No one can
clean up their life and then come to Jesus. It is
always the other way around. He saves us, and then
the Holy Spirit does a progressive work of
sanctification in us for the rest of our lives.
The law was not able to produce
righteousness in people in order for them to be
saved. Jesus went to the cross and accomplished that
for those whom He came to save. God saved us apart
from good works so that we might be able to produce
good works.
The death of Jesus dealt with
our penalty for sin, the power of sin was broken,
and then when He comes we will be removed from the
presence of sin.
The goal of justification is
our sanctification. We have been set apart to God in
a once for all act of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, He
is also progressively, moment by moment, separating
us to God. Jesus Christ has saved us so that we
might live holy lives. God condemned sin in Christ,
so that His righteousness might appear in us (2 Cor.
5:21). Our salvation is the work of Christ apart
from any human merit. We have been saved to live for
Christ. The goal of justification is that we might
live this new life in Christ before a watching
world. We are saved to be different.
When we focus our spiritual
eyes on Christ we follow Him along His pathway, and
walk according to His purposes. If we are following
Him we will stay within His boundaries, and He will
not lead us astray from God’s law. If we do stray we
are not walking with Him. The apostle Paul wrote,
“For what the Law could not do, 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, so that the
requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who
do not walk according to the flesh but according to
the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).
Our focus is primarily on
Christ, not the law. It is by walking in the Spirit
that God fulfills in us the law. It takes God in us
to do it.
Sanctification is always the
work of the Holy Spirit. It is sad but true that
even Christians cannot keep the law by themselves.
What we try to do we cannot do in our own strength
(Romans 7). It is not “where there is a will there
is a way.” It is Christ, and only as I make myself
available to Him that I fulfill God’s holy purpose
for my life. It is only by the power and the
presence of the Holy Spirit abiding in us that we
can live a holy life. This calls for abiding in Him
moment by moment. As I make myself available to Him
He lives His life in and through me to bring Him
glory. I am a trophy of God’s free grace.
It is only by the power of the
Holy Spirit that we can “reckon” or “count”
ourselves dead and alive in Christ. It is only as we
yield to the Holy Spirit that we do not let sin
reign in our body and obey its evil desires. We can
only offer ourselves to God and become instruments
of His righteousness as we make ourselves available
to the Holy Spirit.
There is no secret, and no
shortcuts, to holiness or sanctified life. God has
told us plainly to put our faith in what Christ has
done for us on the cross and His resurrection, and
to conform our behavior to what we know to be true
in His Word. The indwelling Holy Spirit applies
God’s Word and the truth God has done for us in
Christ to enable us to live His kind of life (Romans
6:11-13). You cannot separate Romans 6:11-13 from
8:1-4.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent.
Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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