The Work of Sanctification

 

The Lord said to me…”I will test my people with a Plumbline, Amos 7:8 (TLB)

The Plumbline is a blog to encourage the Body of Christ.

The Work of Sanctification

The Promise Book

Therefore, dear friends, since we have such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1 (HCSB)

These promises refer to God’s assurances of His presence see (6:16) (6:17b-18) to those who obey Him. This obedience requires purification (let us purify ourselves), which here implies separation (cf. Matt. 8:3; Deut. 19:13) from everything that contaminates body and spirit and from every person who pollutes the truth (cf. 2 Cor. 2:17; 4:2). “Body and spirit” refers to the whole person in his external and internal aspects (cf. 7:5). In an attitude of reverence for God (cf. 5:11) which produces obedience, sanctification (holiness) can be perfected, that is, completed or matured. This is a maturing, growing holiness, an increased Christlikeness (3:18), a progressive sanctification (not sinless perfection).

This work of the Holy Spirit that separates believers in Jesus from the world; at time of saving faith in Jesus, the believer is made a saint therefore, all saints are saints.  The believer participates with the Spirirt in a process of transformation that continuers until glorification. The goal of sanctifiction is progressive conformity to thew image of Jesus Christ.

• Psalms 147:11 (HCSB) The LORD values those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His faithful love.
• Proverbs 1:7 (HCSB) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.
• Revelation 14:7 (HCSB) He spoke with a loud voice: “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
  

If Regeneration has to do with our nature, Justification with our standing, and Adoption with our position, then Sanctification has to do with our character and conduct. In Justification we are declared righteous in order that, in Sanctification, we may become righteous. Justification is what God does for us, while Sanctification is what God does in us. Justification puts us into a right relationship with God, while Sanctification exhibits the fruit of that relationship—a life separated from a sinful world and dedicated unto God.

• 2 Thessalonians 2:13 (NRSV) But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

Discovering Rest

The Lord said to me…”I will test my people with a Plumbline, Amos 7:8 (TLB)

The Plumbline is a blog to encourage the Body of Christ.

Discovering Rest

Matthew 11:29 (TLB)

Wear my yoke—for it fits perfectly—and let me teach you; for I am gentle and humble, and you shall find rest for your souls;

Clayt Sheridan, II

When a man carried a yoke he would carry it on his shoulders (cf., e.g., Jeremiah 27:2); Judaism applied this image of subjection to obedience. Jewish people spoke of carrying the yoke of God’s law and the yoke of his kingdom, which one accepted by acknowledging that God was one and by keeping his commandments. Matthew intends Jesus’ words about rest as a contrast with Pharisaic Sabbath rules in the following passage (Matthew 12:1-14): the promise of “rest for your souls” comes from Jeremiah 6:16, where God promises to stay his wrath if the people turn to him instead of to the words of the false religious leaders (Matthew 6:13-14, 20).

Greek literature praised meekness in the sense of gentleness and leniency but not in the sense of self-abasement; aristocrats disdained humility as a virtue, except for the lowly. Jesus, however, identifies with those of low social status, a value more prominent in Jewish piety.

Here He declared that true discipleship can be enjoyed only by those who come to Him in childlike faith. God in His good pleasure (cf. Eph. 1:5) had hidden the great mysteries of His wise dealings from the wise and learned (the leaders of that day) but had revealed them to little children. This was possible because God the Son and God the Father know each other perfectly in the intimacy of the Trinity (Matt. 11:27). (“Father” occurs five times in vv. 25-27.) Hence the only ones who can know the Father and the things He has revealed are those whom the Son chooses (cf. John 6:37).

Hebrews 4:3 (NKJV)

For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,' " although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

The Grace of God

The Lord said to me…”I will test my people with a Plumbline, Amos 7:8 (TLB)

The Plumbline is a blog to encourage the Body of Christ.

The Grace of God

Clayt Sheridan II

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. John 1:16 (NLT)

Grace to you and peace from God - 1 Corinthians 1:3 (NKJV)

The Apostle Paul explores the subject of “grace” to the Corinthians. The church belongs to God, not man. Had the Corinthians recognized this, their problem of division might not have existed. Those who compose the church have been sanctified, set apart by God as His possession. The burden of Paul’s letter was that the Corinthians’ practice might more nearly approximate their position. Christ Jesus as Lord was to be obeyed. Grace was what brought them together and what they needed to display mutually so that relational peace would be maintained. God produced these qualities, especially needed in the Corinthian church, in those dependent on Him.

I love what Bob Gass wrote in todays devotional (2/5/13) regarding the “Grace” of God. 

“Several of Paul’s epistles open with the words, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God.” That’s because you cannot experience God’s peace unless you first know how to receive His grace and walk in it. There are three things about grace you need to understand: (a) it cannot be earned; (b) it is God doing for you what you cannot do for yourself; (c) it doesn’t kick in until you stop struggling and trying to do it in your own strength. The Bible says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Jas 4:6 NIV). The “humble” are those who admit their total inability to succeed without God’s help, but the “proud” are always trying to take credit. They like to think it’s their ability that gets the job done, so they’ve difficulty asking God for grace, and even more difficulty receiving it. Peter writes, “Grow in grace” (2Pe 3:18). You only learn to trust God by doing it! You grow in grace by taking God at His Word, counting on His gracious provision for each day, and His intervention in situations that are difficult or impossible for you. There will never be a day when you don’t need God’s grace. And if you are willing to acknowledge you need it and receive it by faith, there will be no shortage of it. “For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift” (Jn 1:16 AMP).”” 

 

•  We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift. John 1:16 (MSG)

• We have all benefited from the rich blessings he brought to us—blessing upon blessing heaped upon us! John 1:16 (TLB)

•   The LORD is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. Psalms 145:8 (NLT)

Thank God for all His great provisions that assist us on a joyous path to victory and triumph.

The Successor Joshua - # 9

The Lord said to me…”I will test my people with a Plumbline, Amos 7:8 (TLB)

The Plumbline is a blog to encourage the Body of Christ.

The Successor Joshua - # 9

Trustworthy

Joshua 6:8-9 (MSG) 8 And it happened. Joshua spoke, the people moved: Seven priests with their seven ram's horn trumpets set out before GOD. They blew the trumpets, leading GOD's Chest of the Covenant. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the trumpet-blowing priests; the rear guard was marching after the Chest, marching and blowing their trumpets.

The sequence of the conquest of Jericho (6:8-21) It was perhaps a little after dawn when a long procession began to unwind out of the camp of Israel. First came the armed guard marching under tribal banners, then seven priests with trumpets; next the ark of God, and last the rear guard. The army thus had prominent places in the procession but Jericho would fall not through their prowess but because of the power of God.

Preserving absolute silence (except for the seven priests blowing their trumpets) this strange parade made its way toward Jericho and then around the city like a serpent. Jericho then covered about eight or nine acres and required less than 30 minutes to march around. When the circuit was completed, to the amazement of the Canaanites who probably anticipated an immediate attack, the Israelites returned quietly to camp. See 6:10-11.

The same procedure was followed for six days. No fortress had ever been conquered in this fashion. This strange strategy was probably given to test the faith of Joshua. He did not question; he trusted and obeyed. This procedure was also designed to test Israel’s obedience to God’s will. And that was not easy in this case. Every day they were exposing themselves to ridicule and danger. A Jericho soldier may have looked down from the wall on the army of Israel and asked, “Do they think they can frighten us into surrender by the sound of their rams’ horns?” And the rest may have joined in a loud chorus of raucous laughter. See 6:12-14. Probably the Israelites received their orders on a daily basis so that their obedience was not a once-for-all matter but a new challenge every morning. That is the way God often deals with His children. They are required to do their “daily march” with little or no knowledge of tomorrow (Prov. 27:1; James 4:14; cf. Matt. 6:34).

The faith of the Israelites triumphed over their fear that the enemy would attack. They also triumphed over any expectation of ridicule and scorn. Never before and seldom after this historic event did the thermometer of faith rise this high in Israel.

On that fateful seventh day the procession made the circuit of the walls seven times. This parade—consisting of the armed guard, the seven trumpet-blowing priests, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, and the rear guard—may have taken about three hours. (On the word devoted in vv. 17-18 see comments on v. 21.) (As Joshua recorded, Israel experienced disastrous consequences because of an immediate violation of God’s instruction in vv. 18-19.) At the end of the seventh circuit the clear voice of Joshua rang out, Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! Also he told them to spare Rahab and her family (cf. 2:8-13). So when the priests blasted on the trumpets... the people gave a loud shout. That shout reverberated through the hills around, startling wild animals and terrorizing the dwellers of Jericho in their homes. At that moment the wall of Jericho, obeying the summons of God, collapsed (lit., “fell in its place”). Read 6:15-20a.

Adapted from the Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty.