"End of Construction. Thank You For Your Patience": Ruth Bell Graham & the Hope of Sanctification

Sunday we will be discussing the doctrine of sanctification - or as I prefer to call it "holification." There are three aspects of salvation: justification, sanctification, and glorification. Think of it as salvation is past (justification), present and ongoing (sanctification), and future and final (glorification). Consider what Paul says in Philippians 3:12-:4:1 (our text for Sunday).

¹² Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; ¹⁶ however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
¹⁷ Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. ¹⁸ For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. ²⁰ For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; ²¹ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

4 Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

As I was thinking about this text and thinking about what is meant by these three terms, I am reminded of the epitaph of Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of Billy Graham, who died in 2007. It reads, End of Construction. Thank you for your patience.

Perfect.


September 2, 2012 | Philippians 1:1-11 - The Joy of Thanksgiving & Prayer 
September 16, 2012 | Philippians 1:19-30 - The Joy of the Future
September 23, 2012 | Philippians 2:1-4: The Joy of Humility
September 30, 2012 | Philippians 2:5-11: The Joy of Holy Condescension
October 7, 2012 | Philippians 2:12-30: The Joy of Sanctification 
October 21, 2012 | Philippians 3:1-11: The Joy of a Pure Gospel
October 28, 2012 | Jude 1-25 - Is Grace a License to Sin?: Jude & the Antinomians 


For more:
There is no Gospel Without Blood
MacArthur: Salvation is Divine Transaction & Transformation
This is Who We Are: What a Baptist Is and Believes - Salvation
Bonhoeffer on Matthew 5:7-9

There is No Gospel Without Blood

Last Sunday I mentioned a number of things we would not have without the precious blood of Jesus Christ.  Here is that list.

1. No Church - “. . . shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28)

2. No Justification - “. . . we have now been justified by his blood . . .” (Romans 5:9)

3. No Forgiveness - "In we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses . . .” (Ephesians 1:7)

4. No Reconciliation - "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:17)

5. No Peace - “and through him to reconcile to himself all things . . . making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:20)

6. No Freedom - “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” (Revelation 1:5)

7. No Sanctification - "So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” (Hebrews 13:12)

8. No Worship - “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9)

9. No Heaven - “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.” (Revelation 19:13)

In short, there is no gospel without blood. There is no Christianity.

Repost | The Gospel and the Story of Everything

I love videos like this and there are tons of them on YouTube.   I may not like every little thing in this video, but its overall message needs to be embraced and articulated by Christians everywhere.  I have found that telling the whole story of Scripture is a powerful tool.  Whether one is talking about salvation, the church, God's providence, or whatever, telling the whole story is helpful.

Also, avoiding the many problems of short changing the gospel can be prevented if we approach evangelism and Christian mission in this way.  The gospel is individual, communal, and cosmic and this approach reveals all three.  It also places us in the story of God. Thus we matter on account of our creation by the Creator, and by participating in the grand story that God is writing.  The church matters.  Sanctification matters.  Prayer matters.  Spiritual growth matters.

Finally, this approach presents a more balanced approach to the various aspects of the gospel such as redemption, deliverance, justification, ransom, etc.  Redemption, for example, is tied clearly to God's work in delivering the Jews from slavery in Egypt.  God as redeemer/deliverer is a powerful message that the New Testament writers pick up on.  We, like they, are in bondage to sin.  Only God can deliver us.

Anyways, here is the video.





HT:  Evangel  

MacArthur: Salvation is Divine Transaction & Transformation

This Sunday -- Resurrection Sunday -- we will be studying Romans 6:1-14 as it relates to how the gospel -- namely the cross and the resurrection -- transforms our everyday lives.  In other words, the gospel isn't just a transaction, but transformation.  This is the point John MacArthur makes in a sermon titled Dying to Live, Part 1 taken from Romans 6:1-14.  It is well worth the read and I encourage you to listen to the sermon (audio, manuscript)

Now listen to what I say. Holiness is as much a gift of God to the believer as salvation is in the redemptive act. I’ll say it again. Holiness is as much a gift of God to the believer as redemption is in the saving act. When a person is redeemed it is not only a divine transaction, it is a divine miracle of transformation. It is not only legal, it is real. It is not God just saying - Now you're saved. It is God transforming you. It is not only God saying something to be true, it is God making it true. It is not only God declaring you righteous, it is God recreating you in righteousness. You see, as I've been trying to point out earlier in the book of Romans, God doesn't say things that aren't so. And He's not about to call people righteous who aren't. And so, sanctification and justification are linked.  -MacArthur, Dying to Live sermon

This is Who We Are: What a Baptist Is and Believes - God's Purpose of Grace

At this point, the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 has discussed God, man, salvation, & so much more.  Now we turn to God’s work in salvation & our security.  Many today continue to debate & despair over the question of assurance.  What assurance do we have that right now that we are still  reconciled with God, called into His kingdom, & adopted as His child?  Am I still saved?  Have I squandered my salvation?  What assurance do I have?

The despair over the uncertainty of one’s salvation can be devastating.  And it is at this point that one of the Baptist distinctives come to our aid: the perseverance of the saints.  The BF&M 2000 reads:

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.

All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. [1]

So what assurance do true believers have that we are still in the loving arms of the Father?  One word: God.  That is the argument put forward above.  Salvation is not the work of man, but of God.  God is the One who put on flesh.  God, in the Person of the Son, bore our sins as our atoning substitute.  God satisfied His own wrath, redeemed a people, & saves souls for His own glory.  Man plays no role in any of it.  All our “righteousness” is like filthy rags.  Even the most noble of works is tainted with sin.

This means that our security is determined by God.  And being that God makes no mistakes (He is perfect & cannot lie), never changes (He is Immutable), & His wrath is fully & completely satisfied for the repentant due to the saving work of Christ on the cross, believers – true believers – cannot & will not lose their salvation.  This is the point in the first paragraph.  It is God – & God alone – who regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.  Sinners cannot accomplish such glory.  Only God can.

However, this does not mean that salvation is a get-out-of-hell-free-card.  It is more than fire insurance.  It involves more than saying a prayer, walking an aisle, and getting baptized.  No.  Salvation is much bigger than that.

Salvation regenerates us changing us from the inside out.  Though none of us are what we ought to be yet, praise God, we are not what we once were.  The reason is because God is working in our lives.  That which God begins, God will accomplish.  Making us more like Him is one of God’s greatest works.

This is what is meant in the second paragraph:  All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.  This is the wonderful doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints.”  Words like “eternal security” or “once saved always saved,” though true, are misleading.  It implies that persons can “accept Jesus” superficially and then live however they want to.  Perseverance of the Saints implies that true believers – saints – will live godly lives that reflects their Savior and will persevere to the end in obedience to their saving Father.  Everyday, for such believers, is another opportunity to be more like Christ.

Certainly Christians sin, but not with glee.  Our goal is to be more like Christ, not less like Him.  Believers will persevere to the end with this ultimate goal.  Though we have not attained such glorification yet, we look forward to the day that we do.

This all comes down to where we began.  Do we have assurance of our salvation?  Every religion in the world offers an emphatic no.  The reason is because they are built on what man does, instead of what God has done.  If God is the author and finisher of our faith, then rest knowing that you are safe in the arms of God trusting in the saving work of the cross.  But assurance works both ways.  Trust in yourself and your self-righteousness and I can assure you that you are lost and will remain so.  Salvation is of God, not of man and so long as you strive for grace you will never achieve it. Instead, come to the cross in full humility, and embrace the gospel.  Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!


[1]  See Gen 12:1-3; Ex 19:5-8; 1 Sam 8:4-7,19-22; Isa 5:1-7; Jer 31:31ff.; Matt 16:18-19; 21:28-45; 24:22,31; 25:34; Luke 1:68-79; 2:29-32; 19:41-44; 24:44-48; John 1:12-14; 3:16; 5:24; 6:44-45,65; 10:27-29; 15:16; 17:6,12,17-18; Acts 20:32; Rom 5:9-10; 8:28-39; 10:12-15; 11:5-7,26-36; 1 Cor 1:1-2; 15:24-28; Eph 1:4-23; 2:1-10; 3:1-11; Col 1:12-14; 2 Th 2:13-14; 2 Tim 1:12; 2:10,19; Heb 11:39–12:2; Jam 1:12; 1 Pet 1:2-5,13; 2:4-10; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:19; 3:2.


This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Introduction
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Scripture
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God
This is Who We Are  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Father
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Son
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Spirit
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Man  
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Salvation 

This is Who We Are: What a Baptist Is and Believes - Salvation

What is the gospel? That is one of the most important questions we can ever ask.  Unless we answer this question, nothing else we think about, ask about, focus on, believe in, or do will matter.  The gospel identifies the Church, redeems the Church, and is the rock by which the Church is built on.  What is the gospel?

That’s essentially what the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 discusses next.  How is a person “saved?”  How does one get right with God?  What is the gospel?  The BF&M 2000 offer a rather theologically robust and technical answer to that question that at first glance appears rather difficult to understand.  Words like regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification aren’t exactly words we use in everyday conversation, but they are important nonetheless.  The BF&M 2000 says:
               
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.

Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.

B. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.

C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.

D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. [1]

This confession of faith is well written and defines the issue pretty well, the problem is that to the average Christian, much of what is laid out here is difficult to understand even though each issue raised here is imperative and very much part of the gospel.  So what is the gospel? It begins with God’s holiness and our depravity.  We cannot save ourselves because our God is infinitely holy and we finite beings are depraved to our core.  Even the “good” things we do are tainted with sin, thus if we were to rely on our works alone, we would present God a filthy rag of righteousness (Isaiah 64:6).  God is so holy that He cannot ignore our rebellion.  What we need, then, is a substitute.  What we need is grace.

The gospel offers such grace through the substituting work of Christ on the cross by which our sins are imputed (there’s a big word) onto Him and at the resurrection of Christ His righteousness is imputed (there it is again) onto us.  In other words, “[God] made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Christ took upon Himself our sin so that when God sees us, He sees the righteousness of Christ.

The cross and resurrection does not just give us a clean slate for us to dirty up again, but a new self, a new life.  This is what we mean by regeneration.  God, through Christ, makes us “new creatures” (vs. 17) whereby we become more like Christ.  Therefore, the gospel says that we are both “saved” now (justification) and are in the process of being “saved” (sanctification) meaning that we are growing in Christ becoming more like our Savior.  Unfortunately man approach the gospel as fire insurance whereby after saying a prayer or getting baptized we’re promised heaven after we die.  That is only part of it.  The gospel is a reformation of who we are at our core.  We are no longer the old man, but a new man that seeks to be more like our Savior.  This means that to be a Christian we both are redeemed at the cross and live by the cross.  Look to the cross and resurrection in everyday life trusting that God will use us for His glory.  We need to seek to reflect Him who bought us at the cross making us children of God, siblings of Christ.  Look to the cross.  Repent.  Believe.  And you will be saved. 

That is the gospel.  Do you believe in this gospel?


[1]  See the following references:  Gen 3:15; Ex 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matt 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Rom 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Cor 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Cor 5:17-20; Gal 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Eph 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Phil 2:12-13; Col 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thess 5:23-24; 2 Tim 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Heb 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Pet 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Rev 3:20; 21:1-22:5.


For more:
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Introduction
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Scripture
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God
This is Who We Are  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Father
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Son
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Spirit  
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Man  

Mark 15: I Am Barabus

I did this twice in the same week and so decided to post both. Here you go:

What Is The Gospel?

I recently taught at our church and we are discussing the basics of Christianity. So what is the very basic thing in Christianity? The gospel. And that is what we discussed. What is good news about the good news?

To download click here.