Standing Before Christ

Chapter 8: Our Standing and State Before Christ: Positional and Progressive Sanctification (Part B)

IV. The Consequence of Not being Proactive in Progressive Sanctification

In the above Ephesians passage, Paul uses the word “stand” (stēnai) four times:

“Stand against the devil’s schemes,” “Stand your ground,” “after you have done everything, to stand,” and “Stand firm then.”

What does Paul think that the devil is up to?

A. What the enemy always tries to do

1. First, Paul is concerned that the devil tries to knocking down the believers from their standing, that is, their secure position in Christ.

   What does this mean?

   • The enemy has always tried to put doubts in what God says.

     He asked Eve, “Did God really say?” (Gn. 3:1); the devil began the second temptation of Jesus with this line: “If you are the Son of God…” (Matt. 4:6).

   • He continues to put doubts in the minds of believers, particularly those who are new to the Christian faith and those who carry a lot of hurts from the past:

     “You are not saved”; “God won’t forgive you”; “Neither God nor anyone loves you”; No one believes in you; “You are accepted as long as you do a good job.”

2. Another way to understand Paul’s concern is this:

   Recall that sanctification is the process by which the believers are increasingly liberated from the power of sin so that, “hav[ing] been set free from sin[…, they] can become slaves to righteousness” (Rom. 6;18).

   What the enemy wants to accomplish is to hinder the believers from of this process so that they will never reach that optimal state. What does this entail?

   • First: While the relationship with God is always secure, the affected believers may fall out of fellowship with God (1 Jn. 1:6 ), resulting in the loss of joy and peace.

   • Second: Instead of enjoying the freedom available in Christ, they constantly feel guilty and condemned, and are subjected to God’s constant discipline, for “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Heb. 12:10).

   • Third: Ultimately, their lives are unfruitful and ineffective to serve God’s purpose since “without holiness (separation from the pattern of this world—italic mine) no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14b).

III. The Means of Sanctification

How can the believers reach a state where they are adequately sanctified (i.e., separated) from the pattern of this world, the devil’s schemes, and a debilitating past?

A. The first step

It must begin with understanding and then accepting God’s truth. Jesus says:

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. (Jn. 17:17)

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (Jn. 8:32)

1. Paul says that in order to avoid conforming to the pattern of the world, the believers need to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. But renew the mind with what?

   • The Greek word for “renewal” in this context derives from the root word kainos, which means “new as to different nature” as opposed to old.

   • This is none other than God’s unchanging truth found in the Scripture about who He is, what He has done and continues to do for us in Christ, etc.

   • Then, we “will be able to test and approve what God’s will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2).

2. Progressively, as a result of obedience to the will of God, believers can possess the sanctified character

B. The second step

The believers are sanctified through prayer.

Prayer offers many benefits to the believers, two of which are experiencing the peace of God and leading an emboldened life.

1. The peace of God.

   While the peace with God is attained through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, who took the wrath of God in our place (Rom. 5:1, 9), the peace of God materializes as a result of engaging in genuine prayers.

   Paul writes:

   Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:6-7)

   • For instance, when we have fallen momentarily, a prayer of confession can restore our fellowship with Him (1 Jn. 1:9), thereby, restoring the peace of God in our hearts.

   • In this way, the lies of the devil that try to knock down the believers from their secure position (e.g., “You are not truly saved”) and a deceitful voice from the hurtful past (e.g., “God can no longer love me”) are thwarted.

2. Boldness to separate.

   Paul, at one point, asks the Ephesians to pray for him in order that he “may declare [the gospel] fearlessly, as I should” (Eph. 6:20).

   Luke reports that after the early Christians in Jerusalem prayed, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31).

   • Certainly, boldness itself is not sufficient to separate oneself from the glamorous pattern of this world, the alluring schemes of the devil and the effects of painful past experiences; however, it is necessary to make a decisive break from them, especially at the outset of sanctification.

   • Christ told the parable of the persistent widow (Lk. 18:1-8) and the man who asks his friend for bread at midnight (Lk. 11:5-8) to underscore the importance of “boldness” in the Christian life in general and prayer in particular.

C. The third step

Jesus sanctifies his believers through trials and difficult circumstances.

This is something that Peter, Paul, and James all agree on.

1. The apostle Peter writes:

   Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed …for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet. 1:6-9)

   • “You are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul” refers to salvation present, that is, sanctification (i.e., working out your salvation in the present).

   • Trials and difficult circumstances purify the motives and lives of believers so that they will follow Jesus for the right reason.

2. The apostle Paul considered his trial in Philippi, where he was falsely imprisoned and beaten, as God’s way of testing his heart. He writes:

   “We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you.

   4 On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:2-4).

   • The right motive is to please God, not men.

   • When the motive is impure, people will stop working out their salvation at the first sign of inconvenience or difficulty.

3. James also writes:

   Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)

   Without having the right motive, there is no incentive to persevere in faith when trials of many kinds come our way; and without persevering no one can be mature and complete in faith.

4. The promise of God is that “he will not let (the believers) be tempted beyond what they can bear. But when they are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that they can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

D. Other means of sanctification

1. To properly deal with issues stemming from a hurtful past that keeps individual believers from living in freedom, inner-healing ministry by caring and balanced healers can be quite helpful.

2. A genuine and regular participation in Spirit-filled worship can greatly aid one’s resolve to persevere in faith, especially in the midst of trials and difficult situations, because authentic encounters with God’s presence can be experienced in such settings.

   But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, 25 as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!. (1 Cor. 14:24-5)

3. Belonging to a closed-knit spiritual family where participants can prayerfully share their lives while holding each other accountable to a responsible living can be an important factor in separating themselves from major obstacles to sanctification.

   And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Heb. 11:24-5)

Discussion:

Jesus says, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (Jn. 15:2). The expressions, “cuts off”/”prunes,” refer to (among other things) God sanctifying us through the Spirit.

What has been one memorable (read, painful) moment in the past in which God cut you off/pruned you so that you may truly be sanctified, thereby bearing lasting fruits?