May 24, 2012
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. -- 1Corinthians 6: 11 (NIV)
There is too much confusion in the body of Christ these days over fundamental issues of doctrine. These are matters long since decided and agreed upon forming the basis of who we are as Christians. Paul warned Timothy to guard only two things closely -- his life and his doctrine. The truth is that if we are lax in protecting our doctrine then the devil will be more easily able to infiltrate our life. One of the chief areas the devil works feverishly at is to get us to take our sin lightly. To not take our flesh issues seriously. Listen, sin is what separates us from God. It is what drives the power of God out of our lives. It is what Satan uses to bind us and yoke us back to the very things of this world Jesus died on the cross to deliver us from! Don't tell me that sin is not important. The enemy has done a masterful job of turning the modern American church into a marketing machine designed to make money as opposed to disciples. The cold reality is that preaching sin doesn't sell. It does not lead itself to higher offerings and higher attendance numbers. So most large church leaders shy away from it. Maybe not even consciously. People would much rather hear about the love of God and how they don't have to worry about sin anymore. Just pay your tithe and everything will be ok"until Wednesday and you are neck deep in your sin again and cannot seem to gain any victory.
A lot of the anti-sin preaching is rooted in this false sense of victory. They all want you to believe that concentrating on sin is what is preventing your victorious Christian life when the opposite is true. We approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy the Scripture says. We need mercy because our sin condition is ongoing. It is the presence of sin that prevents the victorious Christian life. Nonetheless, the feel-good crowd just points back to the cross constantly and says nothing matters now because of salvation. Jesus paid the price! Hallelujah! Remember that most really bad theology has some elements of truth in it. Just enough leaven to confuse the listener into thinking it is sound. But The Bible actually teaches:
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling - Philippians 2: 12 (NIV)
We are not supposed to work out our salvation with puppy dogs and rainbows beloved. God expects us to take this very seriously. Is the cross important? Unbelievably so. Salvation is the singular most important event in your life because that was when God translated you from the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous light. It was when you received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and had your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. This is when you were justified.
That is where a great deal of the doctrinal errors occurs. There seems to be a growing misunderstanding of the difference between justification and sanctification. Justification is the easier remembered. You take the root of the word and realize that once you are saved it is just-as-if-I- had never sinned. You are justified before God.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. -- Romans 3: 23-26 (NLT)
This is justification. The NIV actually uses the word justified. We were sinners before a holy God and deserved the wages of those sins, which is death. God loved us so much though that while we were still sinners He sent His only Son to die in our place -- thus justifying us in His presence again. Here is the problem with the feel-good teaching -- justification does not change who we inherently are. Yes, we are a new creation in Christ but we are still sinners in the presence of a holy God. If we were changed then we wouldn't sin anymore after being saved and we all know that isn't true.
Because the truth is that while justification is a onetime event in our lives -- sanctification is an ongoing process in the life of a believer. The dictionary defines sanctification as being set apart and made holy. This is where so many well-intended would be theologians get confused. When the church preaches about keeping the commandments, about the importance of repentance, or the weight of sin -- they are not speaking about salvation. They are not speaking about justification. It has nothing to do with heaven and hell (unless the person is unsaved). It has everything to do with the doctrine of sanctification. We are supposed to be set apart for God's use once we give our lives to Him.
But if you peel back the layers on the feel-good theology you will find that it is often a front to excuse sinful behavior. It is an excuse to avoid sanctification. It is like someone comes to the foot of the cross accepts the free gift of salvation and is justified before God only to then go right back to the world and avoid sanctification? One problem -- it simply does not work like that. The Holy Spirit is indwelt upon salvation and will convict the new believer as to what is the world's way and what is God's way. If that is not occurring then there remains the possibility that the entire salvation could be false and work of the flesh. Because the reality for us today is that you cannot have true salvation without a new desire on the inside of you to do the things of God now. Not that we are always successful but that we are always trying. We are striving for the things of God. We should be in the process of being transformed:
But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2Corinthians 3: 16-18 (NLT)
Freedom from what? Freedom from sin. We can gain victory over the very sin issues that used to dominate our lives through the work Jesus did on the cross. Through His blood. That victory certainly will not be gained by ignoring our sin nature or just "focusing on the cross." This salvation we have along with justification is not truly free. It cost God everything. We ought to treat it with a bit more respect than we currently do. You cannot skip the process of sanctification beloved. Beware clever speech designed to make you feel better about yourself at the price of emptying the cross of its power. Salvation-justification-sanctification- to God be all the glory.
Rev. Anthony
