Sinclair Ferguson: How Do I Grow in Holiness?
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One of the most serious mistakes I can make as a serious Christian seeking to deal with my sin is to think that mortification is sanctification. Paul is teaching us here that mortification is a necessary but not a sufficient path to sanctification. Because mortification is dealing with the sin that keeps us from Jesus, but sanctification is actually becoming like Jesus. [00:41:33]
So, he’s saying there is this great truth of the gospel, that if you are a Christian, you are united to Jesus Christ in everything He has for you. So, as we fix our minds on that, that truth itself seems to work in a kind of reverse direction towards us, and warms our affections towards the Lord Jesus. And that, in turn, oils the wheel of our wills to do the will of God, and to discover in that will our perfect liberty. [00:25:00]
And the tragedy, brothers and sisters, in my own view and observation, is that probably most evangelical Christians have never once thought about themselves fundamentally as people who are in Christ and therefore have been given a wholly new identity out of which they live their lives. But when you see it, it becomes the foundation that transforms everything. [00:19:49]
And if I can summarize what he says is this: if you trust in Jesus Christ, if you’re united to Jesus Christ, you have died with Him. You have been buried with Him. You have been raised with Him. You have been exalted with Him. You are seated with Him in heavenly places. And when He comes again, you will be with Him. [00:12:37]
And he speaks, too, about the way in which we need—frankly, privately, we confess our private sin exclusively to the Lord—we need to learn to deal with our fellowship sin. And it’s very interesting in that context, you’ll notice in verse 9 following, that one of the things he says here is, “Don’t lie to one another.” And I think actually the language he uses is broader than lying through our mouths. It’s broad enough to encompass lying through our lives. [00:35:36]
Yes, sin continues to dwell in us, but we battle against it, not from more-or-less hope that I may conquer it, but from the knowledge that we are no longer under its reign. It no longer has authority over us, and by the power of the Spirit we can wrestle with it and overcome it. [00:17:41]
And we are all familiar, I think, most of us anyway, familiar with what I sometimes call the grammar of the gospel: that the way the gospel works in our lives, the way the Word of God works in our lives, is not simply by telling us more things we need to do because we are Christians, but by laying out before us the transformation that Christ, by the Spirit, through His Word, has produced in our lives, and then drawing out the implications of that. [00:21:33]
And what the gospel will enable us to do is to live in the old country as members of that new country, because we are united to the king of the country into which we have entered, and all of his riches become instantaneously and immediately ours. Everything that He has done for us becomes part of our identity. [00:11:58]
And so, he understands—the Apostle John says something similar. He says, “We are already the children of God. But it doesn’t yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we will see him as he is.” Drawdown implication then: he says, “Everyone who has this hope in himself purifies himself.” [00:28:44]
The first of them, and the foundational one, if I can put it this way, is that every Christian believer needs to understand the nature of his new or her new identity in Christ. What happens to us when we become Christians? Many of us tend to focus on what we receive in terms of the forgiveness of sins. [00:10:23]
And brothers and sisters, the important thing for us to understand is that, just as Paul says we first of all received Christ for justification by faith before the power of justification was ever released into our consciousness, in the same way we are to receive these truths about ourselves by faith. And as we do so, their power will begin to be released into our lives: [00:14:29]
But when Paul expounds this, he teaches us that most fundamentally, what happens to us when we come to Christ by faith is that we are united to Him in order that we may receive from Him by the Spirit everything there is in Him for us. [00:10:45]
And I think that’s protective for us, because that kind of message is constantly with us. It plagued the Reformers. It plagued the seventeenth-century Christians in our countries. It plagued Christians in the eighteenth century, nineteenth century, and in some ways, in the late twentieth century. [00:05:40]
And I think if we can use that analogy, what Paul is saying to us here is, “Colossian Christians, Christians everywhere, make sure you are frequently having a refresher course in how to live the Christian life, and be frequently checking your grip.” [00:08:22]
And I think what may be especially helpful to some of us is the fact that it was written by the Apostle Paul to a company of relatively new believers who had apparently never met him. And so, what he’s doing for them is giving them a basic picture of what it means to be a Christian, and it is a most glorious picture. [00:02:41]
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So, he’s saying there is this great truth of the gospel, that if you are a Christian, you are united to Jesus Christ in everything He has for you. So, as we fix our minds on that, that truth itself seems to work in a kind of reverse direction towards us, and warms our affections towards the Lord Jesus. And that, in turn, oils the wheel of our wills to do the will of God, and to discover in that will our perfect liberty. [00:25:00]
And the tragedy, brothers and sisters, in my own view and observation, is that probably most evangelical Christians have never once thought about themselves fundamentally as people who are in Christ and therefore have been given a wholly new identity out of which they live their lives. But when you see it, it becomes the foundation that transforms everything. [00:19:49]
And if I can summarize what he says is this: if you trust in Jesus Christ, if you’re united to Jesus Christ, you have died with Him. You have been buried with Him. You have been raised with Him. You have been exalted with Him. You are seated with Him in heavenly places. And when He comes again, you will be with Him. [00:12:37]
And he speaks, too, about the way in which we need—frankly, privately, we confess our private sin exclusively to the Lord—we need to learn to deal with our fellowship sin. And it’s very interesting in that context, you’ll notice in verse 9 following, that one of the things he says here is, “Don’t lie to one another.” And I think actually the language he uses is broader than lying through our mouths. It’s broad enough to encompass lying through our lives. [00:35:36]
Yes, sin continues to dwell in us, but we battle against it, not from more-or-less hope that I may conquer it, but from the knowledge that we are no longer under its reign. It no longer has authority over us, and by the power of the Spirit we can wrestle with it and overcome it. [00:17:41]
And we are all familiar, I think, most of us anyway, familiar with what I sometimes call the grammar of the gospel: that the way the gospel works in our lives, the way the Word of God works in our lives, is not simply by telling us more things we need to do because we are Christians, but by laying out before us the transformation that Christ, by the Spirit, through His Word, has produced in our lives, and then drawing out the implications of that. [00:21:33]
And what the gospel will enable us to do is to live in the old country as members of that new country, because we are united to the king of the country into which we have entered, and all of his riches become instantaneously and immediately ours. Everything that He has done for us becomes part of our identity. [00:11:58]
And so, he understands—the Apostle John says something similar. He says, “We are already the children of God. But it doesn’t yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we will see him as he is.” Drawdown implication then: he says, “Everyone who has this hope in himself purifies himself.” [00:28:44]
The first of them, and the foundational one, if I can put it this way, is that every Christian believer needs to understand the nature of his new or her new identity in Christ. What happens to us when we become Christians? Many of us tend to focus on what we receive in terms of the forgiveness of sins. [00:10:23]
And brothers and sisters, the important thing for us to understand is that, just as Paul says we first of all received Christ for justification by faith before the power of justification was ever released into our consciousness, in the same way we are to receive these truths about ourselves by faith. And as we do so, their power will begin to be released into our lives: [00:14:29]
But when Paul expounds this, he teaches us that most fundamentally, what happens to us when we come to Christ by faith is that we are united to Him in order that we may receive from Him by the Spirit everything there is in Him for us. [00:10:45]
And I think that’s protective for us, because that kind of message is constantly with us. It plagued the Reformers. It plagued the seventeenth-century Christians in our countries. It plagued Christians in the eighteenth century, nineteenth century, and in some ways, in the late twentieth century. [00:05:40]
And I think if we can use that analogy, what Paul is saying to us here is, “Colossian Christians, Christians everywhere, make sure you are frequently having a refresher course in how to live the Christian life, and be frequently checking your grip.” [00:08:22]
And I think what may be especially helpful to some of us is the fact that it was written by the Apostle Paul to a company of relatively new believers who had apparently never met him. And so, what he’s doing for them is giving them a basic picture of what it means to be a Christian, and it is a most glorious picture. [00:02:41]
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