Understanding the Journey of Sanctification in Faith

The good news of the Christian faith is not only that we are justified by the righteousness of someone else and we don't have to wait until we're fully sanctified before God will accept us into fellowship with Him and into His family as we have seen, but He declares us just and righteous by virtue of the imputation or the transfer of Christ's righteousness to our account. [00:01:44]

And what we're talking about in this process of sanctification is the actual making righteous or making holy of the people of God. We've seen that our status before God is based on somebody else's righteousness, not on our own righteousness, however, the second we are justified a real and true change is enacted upon us by God the Holy Spirit so that this process of sanctification by which we are being made holy and brought into conformity with Christ (again, we are His craftsmanship) that the change of our nature toward holiness and toward righteousness begins. [00:02:47]

The fruit of sanctification is not only necessary as a consequence of justification, but it's not only inevitable as a consequence of your justification but it is immediate. That is, it begins instantly. Now, I say this to give warning to those who hold this view that it is possible for people to actually be converted to Christ and: A) either never bring forth any good fruits because they remain carnal to the day they die; or B) may go for a season without manifesting any change in their behavior, though inevitably they will begin to at some point or another so that they may be for a season in a state of pure carnality. [00:04:28]

It's impossible for a regenerated person, for a converted person, to remain unchanged. The very presence of the new nature, the very presence and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit indicates to the contrary -- that we are indeed changed and changing people. Now, that doesn't mean that the progress of sanctification moves in a steady line from the starting point of conversion until we get home in glory. [00:07:11]

There are few if any Christians who have ever lived who have ever shown a graph of personal growth that would match that line. Normally it goes something like this. But sooner or later it gets there. Now, I show the graph like this that there is a steady growth for the most part in the normal Christian life with peaks and valleys. However, there can be an occasion where a Christian who is truly a Christian can have a serious and radical fall into protracted sin. [00:07:51]

Sanctification is a life-long process that involves an enormous amount of labor and it is labor intensive. If we go to the New Testament again where for example in Philippians Paul says in chapter 2, verse 12: "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure." [00:13:34]

Paul tells us to work out our salvation, which is really a call to diligence in the pursuit of righteousness and in the pursuit of our sanctification. It's work. It's work. That means that a Christian in seeking sanctification and spiritual maturity must be active. And how active? Work out your salvation how? In fear and trembling. [00:14:38]

Here we see something where we have a genuine synergism or a cooperation, that sanctification is a cooperative process where God is working and I am working. I am called to work, work, work -- fear and trembling -- why? Because I'm not working alone. Because God is working at the same time. God is working in me. [00:16:28]

Activism is the heresy of self-righteousness, of works righteousness, where a person sees the quest of sanctification something that they achieve in themselves, by themselves. That they are the 'pull themselves up from the bootstrap' spiritual mentality. "I don't need the grace of God. I don't need the assistance of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to make righteousness an achievement that I can do on my own through my own energy and through my own activity." [00:18:55]

The legalist is the one who sees the law as so important to his sanctification that he adds to the law of God. He's not satisfied with the laws that God gives, but in order to assist in his sanctification will begin to legislate where God has left men free. And they say, "Well, we have to do this to keep people from being spotted from the world. We have to create rules and regulations. A Christian cannot go to movies. A Christian cannot dance. A Christian cannot do this, this, this and this. [00:21:51]

The other extreme is antinomianism that says, as a Christian the law of God has no bearing on my life. I'm free from the law altogether. I'm not under the law, I'm under grace and so I have every right to ignore the law of God in Scripture. Well, that is rampant in our day. In fact, we are living in a pervasive period of antinomianism in the church, where the godly person, though he understands he is no longer under bondage to the law, he is not under the weight of the law, he is not under the penalty of the law, he still loves the law of God and meditates in it day and night, because in the law he discovers what is pleasing to God and what is that which reflects His character. [00:22:44]