"Obedience To the Faith"

Sanctify: 1. “Set apart as or declare holy, consecrated”. 2. “Make legitimate or binding by religious sanction”. 3. “Free from sin”.

Look at Leviticus 20:7-8 “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you.”

Sanctification - a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.

JUSTIFICATION

Legal Standing

Once for all time

Entirely God’s work Perfect in this life

The same in all Christians

SANCTIFICATION

Four Stages of Sanctification:

1. Sanctification Has a Definite Beginning at Regeneration.

a. 1 John 3:9, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”

b. 1 Corinthians 6:11, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

2. Sanctification Increases Throughout Life.

a. The NT shows sanctification as beginning at regeneration, but also as a process through our lives.

b. “Be holy yourselves in all your conduct.” (1 Peter 1:15) “But because the God who called you is holy you must be holy in every aspect of your life.”

3. Sanctification is Completed at Death (for Our Souls) and When the Lord Returns (for Our Bodies)

a. Our sanctification will never be completed in this life because there is still sin that remains in our hearts even though we are followers of Christ.

b. So when we die, then our sanctification is completed in one sense, because now our souls are finally free from the indwelling sin and are made perfect, but also when the Lord returns and gives us our resurrection bodies, that is also a part of our sanctification.

4. Sanctification is Never Completed in This Life.

a. Caution against False Teachers: there are false teachers out there that say that once you come to Christ, that you are perfect, that you should no longer sin at any time from the point in which you came to Christ. This is called perfectionism. They look at passages such as Matthew 5:48 or 2 Corinthians 7:1.

b. Matthew 5:48, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

c. 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleans ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

d. The OT and NT both teach that we CANNOT be morally perfect in this life.

i. 1 Kings 8:46, “If they sin against you --- For there is no man who does not sin”

ii. Ecclesiastes 7:20, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”

iii. 1 John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

God’s and Man’s Role in Sanctification

God’s Role:

1. It’s important to understand that sanctification is PRIMARILY a work of

God.

a. 1 Thess. 5:23 “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly”

b. Philippians 2:13, “God is at work in you, both to will and to work for

his good pleasure.”

c. The role of God the Son, Jesus Christ, in sanctification is first that Jesus himself earned our sanctification for us. Jesus is our wisdom, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Also Jesus is our example to follow.

2. The role of God the Holy Spirit works within us to change us and sanctify us, giving us greater holiness of life. Paul tells us to “walk by the Spirit,” “led by the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit and we are more responsive to the desires and promptings of the Holy Spirit in our life and character.

Man’s Role:

Our role is both a passive and active role in sanctification. The passive role is we depend on God to sanctify us and the active role is that we strive to obey God and take steps that will increase our sanctification.

Passive Role:

1. Romans 6:13, “Yield yourselves to God as men who have been

brought from death to life”

2. Romans 12:1, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and

acceptable to God.”

Active Role:

1. Romans 8:13, “If by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.”

2. Philippians 2:12-13, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

3. So, what are the ways in which we grow in holiness, maturity and obedience. Read and meditate on the Word of God, prayer, corporate worship, witnessing, Christian fellowship and self- discipline or self-control.

What Sanctification Affects:

1. Our Intellect

a. Colossians 3:10, “which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator”

b. Philippians 1:9, “abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment.”

c. Romans 12:2, “transformed by the renewal of your mind”

d. More than just head knowledge, but growth in wisdom and

knowledge.

2. Our Emotions

a. Galatians 5:22, “love, joy, peace, patience”

b. We will find it increasingly true that we do not love the things of

the world, but delight to do God’s will.

3. Our Will

a. Our decision-making grows in sanctification as our will will be

more and more conformed to the will of our Heavenly Father

4. Our Spirit

a. 2 Corinthians 7:1

b. 1 Corinthians 7:34, “how to be holy in body and spirit.”

5. Our Physical Bodies

a. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

b. We do not let sin reign in our bodies, nor allow our bodies to participate in any way in immorality, but we treat our bodies with care and will recognize that they are means by which the Holy Spirit works through us in this life.

Obedience Of the Faith: Slaves of Righteousness

Romans 6:16 “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”

Romans 6:18 “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

Romans 6:22 “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”

Now, I want to focus on one phrase and how it functions in our Christian life. The phrase “obedience of the faith” in Romans 16:25-27 “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.”

1.Faith in Jesus Christ produces obedience to Jesus Christ, those obedient lives make God look glorious. That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

The gospel strengthens our faith and the gospel produces the obedience that comes from faith, not the Law! So, the gospel strengthens us in faith so that we will live obedient lives. This is called “ Obedience of Faith”. Let me put It plainly, The gospel (good news) is the means to obedience because it is the means to faith and obedience comes from faith. And with this, Paul closes his letter with the same aim that he began it with In Romans 1:5 “Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name,” The ultimate goal of the gospel Paul is telling us here is: the gospel awakens and strengthens faith that leads to conformity to Christ, which displays the glory of God.

So in the beginning and the ending of this letter Paul says that the gospel and his apostleship (and, by implication, our ministry and your life!) has this great aim: that Jesus Christ would be seen as glorious — magnificent — among all the peoples of the world by means of the obedience of Christians which flows from their faith in him.

And if you wonder what kind of obedience he has in mind, he left us in no doubt. Just recall some of Romans 12:

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. . . . Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:9–14, 21).

That is what the obedience of faith looks like. That is the beauty that the nations of the world need to see — for the sake of the name.

“If your faith in Christ leaves you unchanged, you don’t have saving faith.”

Our obedience is the fruit of that faith. The faith that justifies is the kind of faith that, by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:13), changes us. If your faith in Christ leaves you unchanged, you don’t have saving faith. Obedience — not perfection, but a new direction of thought and affections and behavior — is the fruit that shows that the faith is alive. James put it this way, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). Faith alone justifies, but the faith that justifies is never alone. It is always accompanied by “newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

When Paul begins and ends his letter with the goal of “the obedience of faith,” he means for us to live in the joy and the assurance of the first five chapters of Romans, where he shows that we are “justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28). And then out of that faith and peace and assurance and boldness, a new mind and a new man emerge and the fruit of obedience grows. And the reality of justifying faith is made manifest.

I pray that you will trust in Christ alone as the ground and basis of your justification before God, present and future, and that this faith prove its life and truth by producing a passion for obedience to God — the obedience of faith.