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As we prepare to look in the word, there is that indispensable principle that remains which is total reliance on God’s Holy Spirit. The Lord, the Holy Spirit, inspired the Bible, and now we need revelation on the inspiration. I found a verse telling me what God never said, and I’d like to share that verse. Isaiah 45:10, “I have not spoken in secret in some dark land; I did not say, ‘Seek Me in vain.’” If you go all through the Bible, you’ll never find a place where God said, “Seek Me in vain,” but He calls attention to what He never said, and what He never said is as inspired as what He had said. He never said, “It’s vain to seek Me.” So, that encourages us, then, to seek the Lord. We have no power to take more than He offers, but we have an option to take less. So, let’s take everything He offers.
Our Father, thank You so much for Your precious word, and for the Holy Spirit, the Life of God that lives inside of us, always turning our eyes to the Lord Jesus. Lord, we ask You again this morning to do exactly that, and deliver us from cold academics, and deliver us from just the words, and take us into Your heart. We pray that we have a special, fresh and living revelation of our Lord Jesus. We commit our meditations unto You in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.
Welcome to our little gathering, our study. It’s impossible to give a review. A little review is alright but since we started John, this is now lesson #54. So, you know how long a review would take. We’re not going to give that, but I want to remind you of a couple of things, and then a short review. I want to remind you that we gather here to behold the Lord. We do use the Bible for studying the Bible. I hope we know more about the gospel of John when we’re finished than when we knew when we began, but we’re not here to see the gospel of John; we’re here to behold the Lord. The gospel of John is another means of revealing our Lord Jesus.
In that connection let me review where we were when we left off and where we’re going this morning. We’re in the process in the gospel of John of meditating on five chapters, chapters 13-17. Those five chapters were spoken by the Lord only hours before His death. The next day He would be hanging on a cross. Jesus’ ministry as far as John is concerned to the world is finished, and now He turns to His own; He calls them “His own”. He sort of pours out His heart. He’s been with them for three and a half years, and it’s as if He’s saying, “Before I part and go to my Father God, My Holy Father God, there are certain things I really want you to know; these are My parting words. Especially, I want you to know one main thing,” and that’s what we’re focused on. The heart and core in these five chapters, Jesus is explaining the life that God intends us to live. He’s going to leave, and He’s already lived and demonstrated that life, and now He’s explaining that life to them. John 10:10, “I came that they may life, and have it abundantly.” It’s that abundant life that He’s explaining. He does not want them to miss that.
The Christian life from God’s standpoint is a miracle from start to finish. If your life is not a miracle, you haven’t entered into the Christian life because it’s a miracle from start to finish. The way Jesus explains it, it was radical. In other words, it goes against human reasoning. If you just use carnal logic, you would never conclude the Christian life as He explains it. So, since it’s a spiritual life, it must be spiritually discerned, and He begins to explain it. Since Adam fell into sin, not one single person, except our Lord, has been able to live life as God intended man to live it; until the word became flesh, until the birth of our Lord Jesus, no one has lived this life. We’re calling it the exchanged life; it’s just a human explanation. I think it comes closer to explaining the life than any other expression, but don’t be locked in on that.
For thirty-three and a half years, Jesus lived life as God intended man to live it. That is, He initiated nothing; He lived depending on the One who lived inside of Him. Listen to John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative; the Father abiding in Me, He does the works.” And then in John 14:20, “In that day you’ll know I am in the Father, you in Me and I in you.” In other words, the life Jesus lived, He never initiated anything. There were two lives; there was His life, and the life of His indwelling Father. He said, “I refuse to live My life; I’m going to live in total dependence on the One who lives inside of Me.” The reason He said that and did that is because that’s how God intends me to live, you to live, Christians to live. Listen to John 20:20&21, “Jesus said to them, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me,” that is, to live that life, “’I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” There is no other way to live as God intended us to live apart from the Life of God, the Holy Spirit; that’s the exchange—my life in exchange for His. He lives for me. I cannot have an independent life; I can only have the dependent life, and that’s total dependence on the Lord.
Now, we’ve been discussing five, and there’s probably more, principles that Jesus laid down as He explained that life. They’re all radical; they all go against human reasoning. In our meditation we’re on number three of those five radical principles. Let me mention the first two. The first radical principle, illustrated by the foot washing, was that Jesus, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Creator God, Jesus wants to wear the slave’s apron; He wants to serve you. Some people think we’re saved to serve the Lord. That’s not 100% true. You are saved to be served by the Lord; He needs to minister to us. He did not come to be ministered unto; He came to minister. That will even be true in heaven. He will put on the slave’s apron again in heaven and will minister and serve us. That’s the first radical truth. If the Lord is not serving you, you haven’t entered into the exchanged life. That’s the first very basic principle. Later on, you learn how to wash somebody else’s feet, but not until He washes yours. He must be the first servant. He serves us in order that we can serve Him. You remember Peter’s reasonable and logical objection to that principle, when Jesus said, “I’ve got to wash your feet.” Peter said, “Never, even to the age of eternity will You wash my feet; I’ll serve you, but You can’t serve me.” And then Jesus said in verse 8, “If I do not wash, you have no part in Me.” In other words, “If you don’t allow Me to serve you, then there is no possibility of an intimate relationship and communion.” He’s not threatening to send Peter to hell when He says, “no part.” He’s just saying there will be broken fellowship.
The second principle is just as radical and contrary to human reasoning, and it’s illustrated by the vine and the branches. He said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches, and without Me you can do nothing.” That’s radical because we can do a lot of stuff without the Lord. He said, “No matter what you do, and how good it appears to you, how many little old ladies you help across the street, and if you love your family and if you love your neighbor and if you serve and if you give, and it hasn’t been prompted by My Holy Spirit, it is nothing, and I will not accept it; it’s under a curse.” So, that’s radical.
The third radical principle, and it’s more enlarged, is this whole doctrine of sanctification, living a holy life, living in obedience to the Lord, and submission to the Lord. We’ve been on it for a couple of weeks, and I expect we’ll be on it through June 11, on that same principle. Matthew 5:48, “Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” That’s not a hyperbole; that’s literal. You are to be perfect; that’s radical. I should be able to just do my very best or trust God to help me, but God is saying in this principle, “I did not come into your heart to change you, so that you would improve. That’s not a possibility.” See, that’s the logic, that He came in so that I would be changed. No, He did not come in so that He would change me; He came in so that you would experience an exchange; His life in place of yours. 1 Peter 1:15&16, “Like the Holy One who has called you, be holy yourself because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” The holiness of God is the inflexible standard, and anyone who claims to live by the Law must meet that standard. If they fall short of that standard in any way, then God has to reject the entire life. It puts those who attempt to live, “Somehow I’m going to obey God,” if that is your idea, you don’t understand the exchanged life, and you’ve put yourself in a lot of danger. So, we need to straighten that out.
I want to make this other review. Last week we looked at the laws in a general overview as it’s in the Old Testament. There were the moral Laws, the Ten Commandments, and there were the civil laws, and there were the ceremonial laws with all of the feasts, and so on. The moral Law was based on His character, who He is, “I can’t lie because He’s Truth. I can’t be unfaithful because He’s faithful.” That’s who He is, and we are obligated to obey laws based on His character. But the civil laws and the ceremonial laws were not based on His character; they’re based on His pleasure. We were to obey those because He said so, and not because He is so. We’ve got to obey God if He said so or He is so, but in His pleasure, He can change that, and He did; He changed by fulfilling the civil law, and He changed by fulfilling all the ceremonial laws; those were shadows, and He fulfilled them. Matthew 5:17, “Do not think I came to abolish the Law or prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” He is the end in the sense of the goal for all of those civil and ceremonial laws. He’s the end of the law of sacrifice because He’s the Lamb of God. He’s the end of the priesthood because He is now the Priest. He’s the end of all of the feasts, for He has fulfilled the feasts. Those are shadows, and the shadow is to disappear; those are based on His pleasure.
There’s a whole system of theology that deals with God changing His pleasure. It really came to popularity in the mid-19th century. The brethren, Darby is known to be the father of this, and it’s called the dispensational system. I don’t lean toward that particular system, but they call attention to that God changed His pleasure. In the Garden of Eden, for example, He dealt with them in innocence, and then He dealt with them in conscience, and then He dealt with them in a promise later on with the fathers, and so on. Then He dealt by covenant, and then there’s the age of the Law, and then there’s the age of grace, and when the millennium comes there will be another way He deals with us, and in eternity He’s going to deal another way—that God changes His dealing. The problem with dispensational or hyper-dispensational is that it’s not just a change in His dealing; they made a change in God; they actually teach that there are two plans of salvation; one for the Jews in the Old Testament, and a different one for us now as gentiles. Some of the dispensationalists, I won’t name their names, but they actually teach that in heaven the Jews will be on the earth, and the church will be up in the New Jerusalem in heaven, and they’ll never be together. We are the bride of Christ, and they say that the Jews are the wife of Christ, and even in eternity we’ll be separated forever. That kind of change is not in the scriptures. So, I just warn you about that.
When we closed last time, I gave you the simplicity of sanctification. There’re all kinds of views on sanctification. Here’s the simplicity. 1 Corinthians 1:30, “By His doing, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Jesus is called sanctification. Sanctification is a Person, and His name is Jesus, and you’ll know nothing of a life of holiness and obedience if you don’t recognize that your only hope is Jesus who is sanctification. The sanctified life is the life that manifests Jesus. 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all with unveiled faces beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” We ask, “What is the image? God created man in His image. What does that mean?” There’s a lot of different views on that. God makes it clear. He spells it out. 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Christ, who is the image of God…” The image of God is Christ. Man was created in God’s image. God expected to look down from heaven and see His Son in Adam and in Eve, and they were to live a life as God intended man to live—an exchanged life. Colossians 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.” 2 Corinthians 4:10&11, “Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the Life of Jesus may be manifest in our body.” We who live are constantly delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the Life of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal flesh. As we go on, we’ll see, “How is Christ our sanctification? How is seeing Him in the word conforming us to Christ, and how is that manifested, which is the life of holiness, obedience and sanctification.
I want to give one illustration before we look at our new material. Actually, the illustration is new material. Acts 7 records the martyrdom of Stephen. You remember how he died. Stephen was stoned to death. I’ve never been stoned, and clearly not to death, but I don’t expect that’s a pleasant thing to go through. Acts 7:58, “When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.” Verse 59, “They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,’ and then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ Having said this, he fell asleep.” You say, “Wow, he was a strong Christian. If somebody is throwing stones in my face, hitting me in the head with stones, I don’t think I would be a good Christian like that. I don’t think I would respond that way.”
Do you think Stephen thought, “Oh, they’re stoning me; I’m a Christian, and I’m supposed to love them, and I’m supposed to forgive them, and I’m supposed to pray for my enemies.”? Maybe, but I doubt that’s what was going through his mind. Did you notice how his words, “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit,” and, “Forgive them,” how that was like the Lord Jesus when He was on the cross? Did Stephen say, “I’m a Christian; what would Jesus do? I guess I have to do it. I’m going to try and copy Jesus, imitate Jesus.”? The reason those words sound like the last words of the Lord Jesus is because they are the words of Jesus; He’s in Stephen. It’s an exchanged life; Stephen knows that exchanged life, and that’s not Stephen speaking; that’s Jesus speaking, speaking through. That’s what it means to manifest Christ, when the Lord Himself speaks through us and uses us. Stephen’s revelation of Christ was a mighty factor for good. We say that everything is redemptive. Acts 22:20, “When the blood of your witness, Stephen, was being shed, I also was standing by approving, watching for the coats of those who were slaying him.” That’s many years later when in Hebrew Paul was testifying to his people. I say that everything is redemptive. We don’t know what an impact Stephen’s death had on the Apostle Paul, but twenty-two years later he brings it up. I’m thinking that God uses it in a mighty way. Look how God used Paul; that’s redemptive living.
We’ll pick up from there. I gave you a brief outline; we want to look at sanctification as it relates to Law, sanctification as it relates to grace, sanctification as it relates to God’s word, sanctification as it relates to faith. So, there’s a lot we need to look at. Let me quote several passages that show that God’s Law is another expression for the will of God; if God wills it, it’s perfect; if God commands it, it’s perfect. God’s Law is the will of God. Romans 7:12, “So then, the Law is holy; the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” Romans 7:14, “We know the Law is spiritual.” Psalm 19:7, “The Law of Lord is perfect.” That’s God’s description of His Law; it’s holy, it’s righteous, it’s good, it’s just; it’s spiritual; it’s perfect. Romans 12:2, “…that you may prove what is the will of God, that which is good, acceptable and perfect.” God’s Law is perfect.
But there’s another description of the Law. Romans 8:3, “What the Law could not do, weak as it was..” Weak? I thought it was perfect; I thought it was holy; I thought it was perfect. “What the Law could not do, weak as it was,” let me finish the verse, “through the flesh.” That’s what made it weak. The Law wasn’t weak; the Law was holy, righteous, good, just, perfect, acceptable. It was made weak because we weaklings were trying to keep it, and we couldn’t. That’s what made the Law weak. Our flesh would not allow the Law to do it’s job, and that is, that we would obey God perfectly. Hebrews 7:18, “On the one hand there’s a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness.” It’s not only called weak, but the Law is called useless, even though it’s perfect, as perfect as God is perfect. But here’s the truth, Hebrews 7:19, “The Law made nothing perfect.” It couldn’t make us perfect, no matter how hard it tried, and no matter how clear the command, we couldn’t keep it. Since the standard, God’s moral Law, God’s will, God’s perfect will, was so holy and so out of reach, no human being could ever begin to keep the Law because the Law demanded perfection. “Be holy as I am holy,” and no less than that. There was only one conclusion. Galatians 3:10, “As many as are under the works of the Law are under a curse. It’s written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Law to perform them.’” We’re called to be holy because God is holy.
I like Psalm 119:96, “I’ve seen a limit to all perfection; Your commandment is exceedingly broad.” This is bigger than all the commandments because it’s not just external; it’s not just going through the motions, not just doing things on the outside. God looks at the heart, and He looks at the spirit, and He looks at the motive, and He looks at the whole spirit of the Law. So, we’re not only to obey the letter of the Law, “I did it,” like that guy in the New Testament said, “I’ve kept the Law from my youth up.” No, you haven’t. You can’t; it’s not possible, especially when you get down to motive. Paul said, “I don’t judge other people’s motives because I don’t know my own motives.” Paul didn’t even know his own motives; how is he going to judge somebody else? So, the Law is perfect.
Some people think, “Well, it’s true that since I’ve been a Christian that I mess up, but I’ve rededicated my life, I’ve reconsecrated my life. I went to a revival service, and I got revived, and I gave the Lord my heart all over again, and I surrendered, and from now on I’m going to obey the Lord.” It’s too late; you already blew it. It’s not possible. All the consecration, all the rededication, all the new surrender, that’s not going to help at all, zero, because you can’t obey the Law. You’ve already not obeyed it, and to think that I’m going to be revived and try again and try harder, that’s not going to help. God says that I’ve got one standard, “It’s My Law. It’s easy; be perfect like your Heavenly Father is perfect. If you can’t do that, you’re undone. That’s it.” Praise God we know the gospel. That applies to Christians as well as unbelievers. If you lower the Law, the standard, you automatically lower God and His character. This is as perfect as God. You destroy all of His attributes if you say, “Just try your best and try your hardest,” and all that kind of thing. Everything depends on God’s holy Law. His justice demands perfection, and if you don’t reach it, there’s everlasting damnation, and if you lessen the Law, you lose that. If you lessen the Law, you weaken His love. He demonstrated His love in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. We wouldn’t think of saying, “God’s love is less.” We’ve got to have that Law, or we won’t understand His compassion, His mercy, His justice, His grace, and if you don’t have His Law, you’re not going to see your own depravity.
It’s impossible to be humble, if you don’t realize this situation that we’re in, and how far we’ve fallen beneath God’s Law. Every precept of God condemns us and separates us from God. So, our hearts cry out, “Isn’t there some way, some solution? Is there some way that I can meet the standard and be as holy as God?” There is a way, and it’s called the exchanged life, and we’re going to get into that, especially next time in our next study, but I’m going to build up to it now, a life where He serves us and He’s the vine and we’re the branches and He’s our sanctification. We’re never going to understand sanctification without the Bible’s revelation of the demands (this is not a suggestion), these are requirements and obligations, that the Law puts on every person who has ever been born. If you don’t see your danger and your need in the extreme, you’ll never be humble, and you’ll never end up in the exchanged life.
Chapter 3 of Romans gives us another revealed purpose of the Law; it was to show us how holy God is. We know that whatever the Law says, it’s speaks to those under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be accountable to God because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. The Law not only shows me how holy, and beyond reach, how perfect God is, but it also shows me how imperfect I am. It really, really reveals us. Romans 5:20, “The Law came in, so that transgression would increase.” Because of His perfect standard, we see how far short we come. In fact, that’s what sin is. Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” who God is. That’s what sin is, falling short of who God is. Everybody sins. And then in 1 John 3:4, “Everyone who practices sins, practices lawlessness.” Sin is lawlessness; that’s what sin is. Keeping the Law is obedience. If you sin, you are lawless, and who can escape that?
Paul’s testimony in Romans 7:9, “I was alive apart from the Law. When the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died. This commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me. Sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” The Law was given so we could live. If we obey perfectly, we will live. But we didn’t. So, when the commandment came, Paul saw it and said, “The commandment came, sin revived, and I died. I saw what sin was. I’m undone.” When we really have God’s revelation of who we are…. I’m not trying to make you feel bad, I’m just trying to make you understand. If you really believe that there is a curse over everyone who has not lived a perfect life, and honestly believe that, I’ll tell you, if you saw your hopeless condition, you would wring your hands and beat your chest and you would fall on your face and cry out, “Lord, have mercy, have mercy; I’m undone and I’m lost and I’m just as bad as bad gets.”
There’s another purpose of the Law. It not only shows me how holy God is and not only shows me how far I missed it, listen to Galatians 22:24, “The scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those that believe.” Here’s the part I want you to hear, “Therefore, the Law has become our tutor, to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” Another translation, “The Law has become a schoolmaster, a teacher.” What is the Law teaching? The Law has become a tutor to lead us to Christ. Our burdened hearts cry out for help and solutions. The Law, I can’t handle it; I can’t be perfect like God is perfect. My heart cries out, “Please, show me a solution, and the Law becomes our teacher.” I showed you how holy God is, I showed you how wicked you are. Now, let me give you some advice. You better turn to Christ, a tutor to teach us to look to Christ. When we see ourselves as so lost, we can thank the Lord that the Law was teaching us to look to Christ.
Paul gives some interesting advice in Galatians 4:21, “Tell me, you who want to be under the Law, do you not listen to the Law? Listen to what the Law says, not only that it says to be perfect, and not only that it says that you are a no good for nothing, inconsiderable lousy scumbag, not only because it says that, but listen to what the Law says.” Then he goes on to give an allegory from the Old Testament, easy to understand and easy to apply. The allegory is of Abraham and his two wives and two sons—his wife, Sarah, and the miracle son they had, Isaac, and his handmaid, Haggar, the woman he had a child of the flesh. Sara was barren, so the Lord had to do a miracle. That’s a miracle birth. Haggar gave birth to a son named Ishmael. Listen to Galatians 4:24&25, “This is allegorically speaking, these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mt. Sinai,” that’s the Law, “bearing children who were to be slaves,” she’s Haggar. This is Haggar at Mt. Sinai in Arabia corresponds to the present Jerusalem. She’s in slavery with her children. Haggar and her son represent the Law. Galatians 4:21, “Tell me, you who want to be under the Law, do you not listen to the Law?” What does the Law say? Galatians 4:30, “What does the scripture say? ‘Cast out the bondwoman and her son.’” That’s not grace telling you that. That’s the Law telling you that. Can you hear what the Law is saying? “You who want to be under the Law, listen to the Law. The Law says, ‘Cast me out.” The Law says, ‘Don’t look to me; the Law says to look to Jesus.’ The Law says, ‘I can’t help you.’” If you want to be under the Law, listen to it. The Law says, “Get rid of me, and turn to the Lord Jesus. Cast out the bondwoman and her son.”
There’s an interesting passage in Genesis 16, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son.” Sarah, in chapter 16, goes to Abraham and says, “Can’t live with this woman; cast her out,” and they cast her out, and the Lord sent her back. Then again in chapter 21, they got cast out again. It’s interesting, and Paul explains it in Galatians 3:23, “There’s a time to keep the Law because it keeps you in protective custody until faith comes,” until you see Jesus. You need the Law until you finally see Jesus; He keeps you in protective custody. Galatians 3:25, “Now that faith has come, you are no longer under a tutor.” Isaac, picturing Christ, came on the scene, and once they saw Isaac, and Ishmael persecuting Isaac, once they had focused on Isaac, it’s time to cast out the bondwoman.
Let me apply it. When there’s somebody who just comes to the Lord and they’re a new Christian, I don’t say, “You need to live the exchanged life.” I give them the Law because it holds them in protective custody, and I say, “You know, it would be good if you get up early and study your Bible and memorize scripture and you ought to go to church and you ought to make friends with God’s people and you ought to get involved in some program.” I give them those laws. I encourage them. Those are rules; you should do that. It’s healthy to do that, until faith comes, until they see Jesus, until Isaac comes. Once he comes, they’re no longer under a duty; I don’t have to say to someone who is looking to Christ, “Read your Bible.” They’re not going to stop reading their Bible. I won’t have to say, “Gather with the saints.” They’re going to do it automatically. It’s a biproduct of a relationship and union with Christ. Sometimes, Christians who think, as I once did, and I was listening to this message on freedom, “Don’t be legalists,” so I threw out the Law because victory was absence of legalism, and God sent it back into my life because I didn’t see Jesus, and I needed to know that victory is not absence of legalism; it’s the presence of the Lord. You’ve got the same thing in the Old Testament in Exodus 23:30, God said, “I’m going to drive out the enemy little by little,” not all at once. “I’m going to drive them out little by little until you learn to possess the land.” They had the idea that victory is absence of Canaanites. It’s not the absence of Canaanites; it’s possessing the land which was a picture of Christ. Until you possess the land, I’m going to leave the enemies in there. Until you see Christ and faith comes, you need the Law. But once faith comes and once you see Christ, now you are a candidate for this wonderful life, the abundant life, life as God intended it, the exchanged life.
Some people say, “Well, when it comes to justification, I don’t have a problem.” Galatians 3:24, “The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” They say, “I wouldn’t dream of thinking I could earn my way to heaven. I don’t believe that for a moment. The Bible teaches that you can’t earn your way to heaven. It’s not by law-keeping.” So, the average Christian believes justification, and that we’re free from the Law; we’re not under the Law; we can’t earn that. Romans 5:1, “Having been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” So, they say, “I understand no works, and I can’t earn it, and I can’t marry it, but that’s justification. We’re talking about sanctification. Now I’m a Christian. I didn’t work for my salvation, but now that I’m a Christian, I’ve got to obey God. John 13:34, “A new commandment I give you; may you love one another.” John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandment.” John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.” John 15:10, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.” John 15:14, “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” He gives commands to Christians. I couldn’t earn it before, but now I am required to live and to obey God; He gives commands. Justification, they suggest, was finished on the cross. Hebrews 10:4, “By one offering,” that’s the cross, “He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Justification took place at the cross, but so did sanctification take place at the cross. John 17:19, “For their sakes, I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” Salvation is a Person; it’s Jesus.
Remember Simeon when he held that little baby, “My eyes have seen my salvation.”? Salvation is a Person, and it’s true whether that person expresses itself in justification, sanctification or glorification. There’s no difference. Salvation is one; you can’t divide it and say, “I won’t work for justification, but now I’ll work for sanctification.” It’s all the same. Romans 8:30, I love this, it says, “Those He predestined He called; those He called He justified; those He justified He also glorified.” That’s past tense. When you go to heaven, you’re going to be glorified; you’re glorified now, in the mind and in the heart and the purposes of God you are already glorified. That was done at the cross. It’s done. Historically, you’ll work yourself into that when you get your new body, but it’s already done. I’m already justified, sanctified and glorified, but now it needs to be worked out historically.
The Apostle Paul addresses with surprise and wonder those who knew there was no law-keeping for justification, but then they turned around and thought, “But now that I’m saved, it’s different.” Galatians 3:1-5, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” He’s not addressing the lost; he’s talking to Christians. “This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Because you are born again, that doesn’t lower the standard; the standard is still perfection. If, as a Christian, you want to obey God by the Law, then be perfect, and it’s too late because you’ve already messed up, but be perfect from now on. You can’t do it. That’s why this awesome subject on sanctification I broke into segments: sanctification related to Law and then related to grace and then related to the word of God in faith. So many honest, earnest Christians struggle with the Christian life. Again, they didn’t have any problem, “I didn’t earn my way to heaven; that was grace and God did it all; He died for me. But now, having received the revelation, I’m on my own, sort of; I’ve got to obey God.” They know God was the substitute on the cross. Here’s what they missed, Romans 5:10, “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Much more, having been reconciled,” now that I’m saved, “we shall be saved by His life.” On the cross He was my substitute, and now He wants to be the substitute in my life. He wants to live in my place; He doesn’t want to help me live; He doesn’t want to help me get it right; He doesn’t want to give me power to obey. It’s a whole different dimension; He wants to live in place of me as His Father once lived in place of Him, that exchange where we initiate nothing, but it’s dependence upon Him. We’re going to get into that next time and show you exactly how that works.
For now, as we get ready to close, let me give you a transition; we’re going to move sanctification as it’s related to grace. We read verses like Romans 6:14, “Sin shall not be master over you; you are not under Law but under grace.” Christians throw that around. I heard one guy, and this is a true story, when I was at Columbia Bible College, one of the students was pulled over for speeding, and he told the policeman that he’s not under the law, but under grace. That didn’t work then, either.
Galatians 5:18, “If you are led by the Spirit, you’re not under the Law.” What does that mean, not under the Law? Galatians 2:19, “Through the Law I died to the Law.” What does it mean? 1 Corinthians 9:20, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I could win Jews to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those under the Law.” What does that mean? Romans 10:4, “Christ is the end of the Law to everyone who believes.” In the light of the commands, John 15:14, “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” That’s an obligation. 1 Peter 1:16, “Be holy because I’m holy.” Just because you are born again, the Law didn’t change; it’s still requires perfection.
I told you in one of the lessons that in the New Testament the word “Law” was used twelve different ways. So, when you say, “I’m not under the Law,” you’ve got to say, “What is the context?” You need to know what way it is. But one of the ways it’s used, especially in Galatians, you can say, “Law is what man does, and grace is what God does.” I went through one of my Bibles in the book of Galatians, and every time I saw the word “Law” I just wrote, “What man does,” and every time I saw the word “grace” I wrote, “What God does.” In that case the word “Law” is a rule of life; am I living by what man does, law, or am I living by what God does, grace. Twenty-nine times in my Galatians book I had to write “what man does, what man does, what man does”, and then grace “what man does, what man does”. I am not under the Law, what man does; I’m not under the Law to keep the Law; I’m under grace to keep Law. I’m not under what I do to keep the Law, but I am certainly under grace, and I’ve got to obey God; I’ve got to live a life of obedience; I’ve got to be, I don’t know another word…. These are obligations; the duty is mine, the obligation is mine, the responsibility is mine, but the power is not mine, but I am required to keep the Law, but how do I keep the Law? I don’t keep the Law by Law; I must keep the Law by grace. Next time we’ll develop that and show what it means.
Two more verses and then we’re done. Well, actually there’s four more. Ephesians 2:8&9, “By grace you have been saved,” justified/saved, sanctified/saved, glorified/saved—all of salvation, “By grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it’s the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one would boast.” Romans 5:1&2, now that you’re justified, I think it’s true that we’re all saved (we’ve come to Christ and we’ve trusted Him), “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus,” but you can’t leave out verse 2, being justified we have access to God, “through whom we have obtained our introduction by faith into the grace by which we stand.” When you get saved, you are introduced to a life of grace. You’re saved, you’re justified, and that becomes the introduction to the way you have to live, by grace in which we stand. Lord willing, next time we will get to the nitty gritty; how can I, Ed Miller, in my daily life, in my marriage, in my walk, what does it mean and how can I obey the Lord? We’ll show you and show you from scripture.
Father, we thank You for Your revelation of Your holy Law. Lord, it’s just so impossible, even to begin to think about trying to keep Your Law. As a sinner and as a Christian it’s just out of reach; we can’t do it. So, Lord, we pray that You would instruct our hearts, and show us the good news, the gospel, and show us the possibility, and show us how You’ve made provision that we can live up to the high standard. Prepare our hearts and then teach us, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.