The Pursuit of Holiness |Part 1
Notes
Transcript
What is sanctification?
The word “Sanctification, sanctify, etc.” comes from the root word “holy” which means “set apart, separate, distinct”
The concept of holiness is simply that God has called us out to be different, set apart, distinct from the world, and useful for his good purposes. We belong to the Lord. He consecrated us so that we would holy
When something is consecrated, we consider it sacred and can only be used for certain purposes. Sanctification is that for us. We are made holy.
The Bible talks about sanctification, the holyfication of his people in two ways:
Positional Sanctification
Progressive Sanctification.
What is positional Sanctification?
“Positional sanctification refers to the believer’s once-for-all status of being set apart as holy before God, based on union with Christ, at the moment of salvation.”
To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
What is the relationship between justification and positional sanctification?
Both are instantaneous, at conversion, permanent,
Justification: legal declaration of righteousness, judicial, answers the question “am I right before God” deals with standing, forgiveness, etc.
Positional Sanctification: set apart by God, purpose, is more relational, an relates to our Union with Christ, consecration, etc.
“Saint” = holy one. one set apart.
What is progressive Santification?
Progressive Sanctification is the life-long process through which God increasingly makes us experientially holy (set apart, distinct from the world). It is the believer’s advance towards spiritual maturity.
It is a gradual growth in lived-out holiness.
Texts that speak of this as a process
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
“Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord,
Some translation have this verse as “pursue holiness”
This is where the title of the book by Jerry Bridges, and also this SS series, comes from.
Who does the sanctifying work?
Positional Sanctification - God! unilaterally.
What about progressive? - all of God! all of me?
1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And yet we are commanded to pursue it!
Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord,”
2 Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
both at work in these verses:
Philippians 2:12–13 “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 it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Colossians 1:29 “For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His working, which He works in me in power.”
2 Pet 1:3-8.
So it is not, “God does some work, we do the rest” but rather we strive according to His power. It’s all of God, and all of us. Without God, it doesn’t happen. Without effort, it doesn’t happen.
Will this process be complete in this life?
No.
1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
James 3:2 “For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the entire body as well.”
Scripture presents the Christian life as on of ongoing warfare and learning
Philippians 3:12–14 “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: 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.”
How does sanctification occur?
John 15:4 ““Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
1 John 1:7 “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
In community:
Hebrews 10:24–25 “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
Ephesians 4:11–16 “And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, 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 full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, from whom the whole body, being joined and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
“Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
