Can We Dig It . . . Again?
Part 3 of the “Chapter 2” Message Series
The BIG Idea
Sanctification is the progressive process of God making us more like the Son of God, a process that we can open ourselves up to or hinder through sin. We can offer ourselves up to God, allowing God to graciously sanctify us as we strive to live like Jesus.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God.14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace. – Romans 6:8-14 (NASB)
ILLUSTRATION: Giving Marshall his boundaries when playing around the yard of our home.
Humanity often rejects the authority of God the Father.
There is a central tension for the follower of Jesus as he or she lives on this earth – we have died to sin, but we still sin.
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin.” - John 8:34 (NASB)
Many of our challenges arise when we conflate (blend together) sanctification and justification.
Justification happens outside of us when God declares us righteous because of Jesus.
Sanctification happens inside of us (transformation), as we are made righteous.
Sanctification is the gradual process of transformation to the likeness of Christ.
“Spiritual disciplines are meant to not be chores but invitations – opportunities to progressively and systematically rearrange the habits of my life in order to delight in God – and to increasingly learn how much God delights in me.” – Carolyn Arends, ‘Transforming Habits,’ CT Women (03/16)
“All farmers know that there is always more work to be done than there is time to do it; nevertheless, these same farmers also understand that much of what happens to the crops is beyond their control. There is much for the farmer to do, but the farmer cannot make the seed sprout, the sun shine or the rain fall. In fact, it is only because the farmer trusts that these good gifts will continue to be given that the challenging and risk-filled enterprise of farming is undertaken at all.” - Philip Kenneson, Life on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit; 1999)
As we are transformed in Christ, we are to present ourselves to God to fulfill the will of God.
As a response to the unfathomable grace of God, we do everything in our power to open ourselves up to God’s work, to give ourselves to God as instruments for God’s purpose for us.
How God transforms us more and more to be conformed in the image of Christ is God’s work in and through us.
Humanity has committed two primary sins – we’ve forsaken the Spring of Living Water (Jesus) and we’ve dug broken cisterns for ourselves (cisterns that will not hold water).
Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he (Isaac) gave them the same names which his father had given them. – Genesis 26:18 (NASB)
Perhaps it may be gradually wrought in some… But it is infinitely desirable… that it should be done instantaneously; that the Lord should destroy sin ‘by the breath of his mouth’ in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And so he generally does, a plain fact of which there is evidence enough to satisfy any unprejudiced person. Thou therefore look for it every moment…. And by this token may you surely know whether you seek it by faith or by works. If by works, you want something to be done first, before you are sanctified. You think, ‘I must first be or do thus or thus.’ Then you are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek it by faith, you may expect it as you are: and if as you are, then expect it now. It is of importance to observe that there is an inseparable connection between these three points – expect it by faith, expect it as you are, and expect it now!... Christ is ready. And he is all you want. He is waiting for you. He is at the door! (John Wesley; “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” III. 18).
The bottom line is we’re either a slave to sin and “free” from God, or we are a servant of God and free from sin. There is no other option for a victorious life.
Finally then, brothers and sisters, we request and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel even more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no one violate the rights and take advantage of his brother or sister in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you previously and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification. 8 Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. – I Thessalonians 4:1-8 (NASB)
The doctrine of full sanctification is the treasure God has entrusted to Methodism. The Holy Spirit breathed life into the people called Methodists in order that we would preach, teach, and experience full sanctification (transformation). (The general theme of John Wesley’s letter to Robert Carr Brackenbury, September 15, 1790; The Letters of John Wesley, edited by John Telford, 1931, 8:238)
Questions for Reflection
Why is understanding the different between sanctification and justification so important?
What do you think of when you hear the phrase “spiritual disciplines?” Is there a positive or negative connotation?
Why do you believe the Scripture so consistently uses images of growth when it comes to sanctification?
What would it look like to “offer” part of yourself to sin as an instrument? What does it look like to resist this?
Why is it important to have Jesus as the bedrock and the source of “Living Water” for our daily lives?
Sanctification is the progressive process of God making us more like the Son of God, a process that we can open ourselves up to or hinder through sin. We can offer ourselves up to God, allowing God to graciously sanctify us as we strive to live like Jesus.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God.14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace. – Romans 6:8-14 (NASB)
ILLUSTRATION: Giving Marshall his boundaries when playing around the yard of our home.
Humanity often rejects the authority of God the Father.
There is a central tension for the follower of Jesus as he or she lives on this earth – we have died to sin, but we still sin.
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin.” - John 8:34 (NASB)
Many of our challenges arise when we conflate (blend together) sanctification and justification.
Justification happens outside of us when God declares us righteous because of Jesus.
Sanctification happens inside of us (transformation), as we are made righteous.
Sanctification is the gradual process of transformation to the likeness of Christ.
“Spiritual disciplines are meant to not be chores but invitations – opportunities to progressively and systematically rearrange the habits of my life in order to delight in God – and to increasingly learn how much God delights in me.” – Carolyn Arends, ‘Transforming Habits,’ CT Women (03/16)
“All farmers know that there is always more work to be done than there is time to do it; nevertheless, these same farmers also understand that much of what happens to the crops is beyond their control. There is much for the farmer to do, but the farmer cannot make the seed sprout, the sun shine or the rain fall. In fact, it is only because the farmer trusts that these good gifts will continue to be given that the challenging and risk-filled enterprise of farming is undertaken at all.” - Philip Kenneson, Life on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit; 1999)
As we are transformed in Christ, we are to present ourselves to God to fulfill the will of God.
As a response to the unfathomable grace of God, we do everything in our power to open ourselves up to God’s work, to give ourselves to God as instruments for God’s purpose for us.
How God transforms us more and more to be conformed in the image of Christ is God’s work in and through us.
Humanity has committed two primary sins – we’ve forsaken the Spring of Living Water (Jesus) and we’ve dug broken cisterns for ourselves (cisterns that will not hold water).
Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he (Isaac) gave them the same names which his father had given them. – Genesis 26:18 (NASB)
Perhaps it may be gradually wrought in some… But it is infinitely desirable… that it should be done instantaneously; that the Lord should destroy sin ‘by the breath of his mouth’ in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And so he generally does, a plain fact of which there is evidence enough to satisfy any unprejudiced person. Thou therefore look for it every moment…. And by this token may you surely know whether you seek it by faith or by works. If by works, you want something to be done first, before you are sanctified. You think, ‘I must first be or do thus or thus.’ Then you are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek it by faith, you may expect it as you are: and if as you are, then expect it now. It is of importance to observe that there is an inseparable connection between these three points – expect it by faith, expect it as you are, and expect it now!... Christ is ready. And he is all you want. He is waiting for you. He is at the door! (John Wesley; “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” III. 18).
The bottom line is we’re either a slave to sin and “free” from God, or we are a servant of God and free from sin. There is no other option for a victorious life.
Finally then, brothers and sisters, we request and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel even more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no one violate the rights and take advantage of his brother or sister in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you previously and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification. 8 Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. – I Thessalonians 4:1-8 (NASB)
The doctrine of full sanctification is the treasure God has entrusted to Methodism. The Holy Spirit breathed life into the people called Methodists in order that we would preach, teach, and experience full sanctification (transformation). (The general theme of John Wesley’s letter to Robert Carr Brackenbury, September 15, 1790; The Letters of John Wesley, edited by John Telford, 1931, 8:238)
Questions for Reflection
Why is understanding the different between sanctification and justification so important?
What do you think of when you hear the phrase “spiritual disciplines?” Is there a positive or negative connotation?
Why do you believe the Scripture so consistently uses images of growth when it comes to sanctification?
What would it look like to “offer” part of yourself to sin as an instrument? What does it look like to resist this?
Why is it important to have Jesus as the bedrock and the source of “Living Water” for our daily lives?