&
Every
Such Thing
whatever happened to the doctrine of
sanctification & god’s answer to the real lord’s prayer?
In our last meeting, we looked at the neglect of our sanctification,
whether through legalism or libertarianism & the effects of those actions.
Whenever we have the cart before the horse, we will soon find ourselves in
trouble. Not only this though; we may
also lead others into error & hinder them in their walk with The
Lord. This will not please Him. I honestly believe that the greatest object
lesson given to us where sanctification is concerned, comes from the prayer
Jesus prayed for His disciples before he went to the cross. This is recorded
for us in John 17. I call this the real
Lord’s prayer. Others call it His High
Priestly prayer. Either way, don’t forget that whenever we hear The Lord
Jesus saying something, or see Him
doing something; it is a masterclass. We need to pay close
attention. Isaiah says, ‘Wash
you, make you clean; put
away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.’. (Isaiah 1:16). Leviticus
says, ‘And that ye may put
difference between holy and
unholy, and between unclean and clean.’. (Leviticus 10:10). Job says, ‘For
thou hast said, My doctrine is pure,
and I am clean in thine eyes.’.
(Job 11:4). When we actively
embrace what God wants to accomplish in His process of sanctifying us,
legality & liberty become secondary
issues. Primarily, we should
desire to be pleasing to The Lord,
because we cannot handle holy things with
dirty hands.
I don’t say this in an accusatory sense. I’m not intimating that anyone
reading what I write here, has some secret, wilful sin stashed away under their
beds or on top of their closets. I am writing this to encourage us all to allow
our Saviour access to our hearts, which need to be cleansed because we are flawed;
we are fallen;
we are fallible.
God is not going to change for us. We are going to have
to change
for Him. The legalist believes that if they keep
the world at bay, over there, down the road & around the corner, they can
achieve sanctification by those means. The liberal believes that they can break
dance, tap dance & ballet dance as close to the line as possible, without
actually crossing it & claim their sanctification while living in that way.
Brethren, God is looking at our hearts. We are not clean in our abstinence. We
are not unclean in our indulgence. We are clean when our Great High Priest says we
are.
4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. 5 After
that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel
wherewith he was girded. 6 Then cometh he to
Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost
thou wash my feet? 7 Jesus answered and
said unto him, What I do thou knowest not
now; but thou shalt know hereafter. 8 Peter
saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. 9 Simon
Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet
only, but also my hands and
my head. 10 Jesus
saith to him, He that is washed needeth
not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. 11 For
he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. 12 So
after he had washed their feet,
and had taken his garments, and
was set down again, he said unto
them, Know ye what I have done to you? (John
13:4-12).
What would have been our answer if we had been there, on that night?
The Lord demonstrates the setting aside of His eternal glory, in His
incarnation. The servant nature of His ministry. His unique power to sanctify. The
taking up of the life He laid down, in His resurrection. His ascension to &
seating at The Right Hand of God. It’s all there. No extreme legalism. No rabid
libertarianism. There was the act of our Lord & Master,
cleansing those He had called, as only He can. If The Lord doesn’t
sanctify us, we have no part with Him. Jesus goes further
later on, telling the disciples, ‘Now ye are clean
through the word which I have
spoken unto you.’. (John 15:3). Remember, our sanctification
is active,
not passive.
On the one hand, there is what The Lord Jesus has wrought for us. On the
other hand, there is our response & responsibility.
27 But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the
things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the
world, and things which are
despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not,
to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption: 31 That, according as it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord (1st Corinthians 1:27-31).
Some will lift verse 30 out of this passage & say that we are automatically
sanctified or made holy, therefore, it is simply a question living out what God
has placed within us. They will casually state that their sanctification is a
person; The Lord Jesus Christ. Apparently, we don’t become sanctified,
because we already are. He is our sanctification. Sounds good,
doesn’t it? The liberals love this; mainly because the legalists hate it & it
enables them to continue to hop, skip & jump their way through their
christian lives. But it is a half-truth. Legalists hate this; mainly
because the liberals love it & they are too holy to hop, skip or jump
anywhere. Read the text again. The object is God & His glory; not
us. The subject is The Lord Jesus Christ & His undisputable status;
not
us. How in the world can anyone claim to be innately &
automatically sanctified & holy, without recognising what Paul has said
here? We are foolish. We are weak. We are base. We are despised.
We are nothing.
‘But of him are [we]
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us..’. It is only because
of God’s choosing & our position before Him, in Christ Jesus, that wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification
& redemption
are all freely
available to us. Even though we may be clean, we still need our feet washed
(John 13:10).
If the legalists & the libertarians both continued to read through 1st
Corinthians, they would see exactly what both skewed views of
sanctification produce. Carnality. Abuse of the gifts. Party spirit. Licentiousness.
Drunkenness. Litigation. Neglect of one another. Desecrating communion. Premature
death. The list goes on. Proverbs says, ‘There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not
washed from their filthiness.’. (Proverbs 30:12). The
Church at large is uncomfortably close to this. Why? Because the sanctifying
power of God has largely been neglected. Lip service is paid to The Holy
Spirit. There
is a clue in His name. Keep teaching light. Keep sermons short. Keep
folk more wishy, than washy. This will accomplish very little, unless
congregations consist of toddlers, the partially deaf & completely blind.
It will not sanctify or cleanse (Ephesians 5:26).
It is here that I think we ought to look at what Jesus prayed, just
before He went to the cross. If God were to answer anyone’s prayer, it would be
His, wouldn’t it. This process is the means by which The Lord makes us
presentable. I don’t mean Victorian table manners or using the correct grammar.
I mean what Paul says to The Church at Colosse, ‘And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death,
to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his
sight: If ye continue in
the faith grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard,
and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul
am made a minister (Colossians 1:21-23). This is what The
Lord wants for His Church. Isn’t it about time that we gave it to Him?
I can already hear my hecklers quoting Paul; ‘And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.’. (1st Corinthians
6:11). Please, just give me a moment to scratch my head, rub my chin & compose
myself. Read the text again. As a matter of fact, read the entire chapter.
Paul doesn’t make his statement in isolation, neither is he saying what some
have asserted. The claim is that we are already sanctified. We need nothing
more. We were
drunken, immoral idolaters. But now, we are honourable, sanctified
saints. End
of. Any talk of doing or not doing is
considered to be works. This is not true.
Paul is laying out the quality of Christ’s completed work. He is not
saying, as some claim, that the believer is no longer a sinner.
This sails dangerously close to the arrogant, unfortunate & erroneous
teaching of sinless perfection. It is precisely because we are sinners that The Lord works to continually
sanctify
us. Still some object; ‘By the
which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’. (Hebrews 10:10) & ‘For
by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.’. (Hebrews
10:14). Forgive me for attempting to be the voice of a reasonable exegesis,
but even a plain reading of the text answers this objection soundly. Once again,
the subject
& object
are Christ
& His supreme accomplishment, in juxtaposition to The Law; not
us. The Lord has saved us from our sins & now works to save us
from our
sinfulness. He has saved us out of the world & now
works to save us from our worldliness. Let’s look at Hebrews
10.
1 For the law having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they
offered year by year continually make the
comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would
they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But
in those sacrifices there is a remembrance
again made of sins every year. 4 For
it is not possible that the blood
of bulls and of goats should take away
sins. 5 Wherefore when he cometh into the
world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In
burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7 Then
said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to
do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he said,
Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest
not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9 Then
said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He
taketh away the first, that he may establish the second (Hebrews
10:1-9).
11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool (Hebrews
10:11-13).
By lifting two verses out of this section & making them about
us, we miss the truth of what The Lord has done & is
doing for us. Yes, we are beneficiaries of His finished
work, but the spotlight is well and truly focussed on our glorious
benefactor. We will come back to Hebrews 10 in our
next meeting, when we will enjoy a masterclass from The Lord Jesus Christ
himself.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light (Ephesians
5:8).
copyright © by David Samuel Parkins mmxxv all rights reserved.
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