Category: Theology

Categories
Bible Study Cross-Centered Life Theology

Romans 8:1-4 Justified AND Sanctified

I’m convinced that most American Christians have only a very rudimentary understanding of the relationship between salvation and the cross of Christ. The result of this lack of understanding is a weak and anemic faith and in some cases perhaps even a false assurance of salvation. But it doesn’t have to be so. If only we will look into the Word of God, there is a wealth of truth that reveals what Jesus has accomplished for us through his death and resurrection.

With this in mind, let’s look at Romans 8:1-4 (ESV).

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This passage helps us to understand the relationship between justification and sanctification. Justification is the term the Bible uses to describe God’s work in saving us from the penalty of sin, while sanctification refers to our salvation from the power of sin. In other words, justification speaks to our legal standing of complete righteousness in the sight of God, whereas sanctification has reference to God’s giving us a life that looks more and more like that legal standing.

Verse 1 is a beautiful statement of the justification we have received in Christ. There is “no condemnation”. To be condemned is to be declared guilty. But for those who are in Christ, there is no guilty verdict, only the glorious “not guilty” that God pronounces over us. This is freedom from sin’s penalty. Have you felt the relief of having the penalty of eternal death removed from you?

Moving into verse 2 we begin to see the sanctification that we have received in Christ. What is it that we are “set free” from? It is the “law of sin and death.” Paul is not talking here about the Law of Moses, but rather about the power of sin that keeps us so bound that it can be described as a “law”. Just like laws must be obeyed, sin is a master that we are not free to disobey. Paul refers to the same thing in Romans 7:23 when he says, “I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”

The law of sin and death (all sin eventually leads to death) is that which holds us captive. But, “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” The Holy Spirit who applies in our hearts the life of Christ Jesus is an authority and power greater than that of sin. He is able to set us free.

Now here is where we start to see the relationship between justification and sanctification. Notice that verse 1 (justification) is linked to verse 2 (sanctification) by the word, “for” or “because” (NIV). Paul is not trying to say that verse 2 is the ground or basis upon which we are justified. Rather, he is saying that we are indeed free from condemnation and the evidence of that is the freedom from sin’s power that we have received in Christ. It’s as if he is saying, “There is no condemnation…and here’s the evidence that there isn’t”

Now, why would Paul offer the fact that the Spirit empowers us to live free and holy lives as an evidence of our justification? The answer is in verses 3-4.

Romans 8:3–4 (ESV)
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Here again we have another “for” but this time, it is used not to introduce evidence that verse 2 is true but rather to explain how the justification in verse 1 and the sanctifying power in verse 2 have come about. God, through sending his Son to die as a sin offering, has condemned sin. Jesus’ death on the cross as our substitute is the ground or basis upon which we are justified (v.1), but it is equally true that Jesus death on the cross is also the basis upon which we are sanctified (v.2)

You can see this so clearly as you continue reading into verse 4. Why did God send his Son to condemn sin in the flesh? “In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.” In other words, Jesus’ death on the cross is not just to free us from sin’s penalty, but also to free us from sin’s power–to enable us to live the righteous life that the Law of God requires of us. Both justification and sanctification are rooted in what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

So what then is the relationship between the two? Namely this, there is no justification without sanctification. You cannot get justification from Christ without also getting sanctification. If someone claims that their sins are forgiven because they have trusted in Christ for salvation but then lives in sin, evidencing no power over sin, then that person has a false assurance of salvation.

So when Paul says, “…us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit,” he is not contrasting Christians who walk according to the spirit with Christians who walk according to the flesh. It is not that Christians are able to live in some kind of neutral ground with respect to sin and choose whether or not to walk according to the Spirit. There are not certain higher-level Christians who walk according to the Spirit while others haven’t quite figured that out yet. To walk according to the Spirit is the definition of being a Christian.

Lest you think that I am setting the bar too high here, listen to what the respected Presbyterian pastor James M. Boice says.

“…if we are not living a new life in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, it is not simply that we are unfulfilled or defeated Christians. We are not Christians at all! … it is only “those who are led by the Spirit of God” who are the “sons of God” (v. 14). Many who are not living by the Spirit need to awaken to the fact that they are not truly Christians (Boice, J. M. (1991-). Romans (784). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.)

While seeing this relationship between justification and sanctification should be a wake-up call to the lukewarm Christian, it should also be an encouragement to the struggling Christian. The point here is not to heap guilt on a person that is trying very hard to live a sanctified life. Rather, the point is to help that person see that just as they look to Christ in faith for deliverance from sin’s penalty, they can also have every confidence that Jesus will also grant freedom from sin’s power. Indeed he already has granted that freedom! “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” It is past tense. Completed!

This is the gospel for Christians. Look to the cross of Christ. That is your victory over the sin you are struggling with. Put your faith in Jesus today and tomorrow and every day until he comes, just as you did on the day you first trusted him.

Categories
Bible Study Cross-Centered Life Theology

1 John 2.24 Abiding in the gospel

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you….
1 John 2.24

I have heard Christians pray many, many times, “Lord, teach us to abide in you.” Jesus commanded us in John 15 to abide in him as the branches abide in the vine. But how do we do that? What does it mean to “abide” or as other versions put it, to “remain” in him? This seems to me to be a longing that all believers have—they want to know how they can abide in Christ.

John’s first letter really fleshes out what is involved in abiding in Christ, but I want to specifically point out what he says in 1 John 2.24 “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.” The context of this statement is John’s warning that antichrists will come denying that Jesus is the Christ. In contrast to this, John says, the believers should continue in the truth about Jesus that had first been preached to them by the apostles: that Jesus is the Christ, who died, was buried, and then rose from the dead.

John is challenging the believers to abide, or “remain,” or “live in” the simple gospel that they had received in the beginning.

I don’t want to be reductionist and view the concept of abiding in Christ as only this one thing, but surely this is the foundation upon which the whole structure of “abiding in Christ” is built. It is by Jesus’ death and resurrection that we are “in Christ.” Therefore, everything else we do in the Christian life as we continue on in our relationship with Jesus is built on and connected to this gospel foundation.

So let us abide in Christ first by reminding ourselves constantly of this gospel foundation:

Jesus Christ died nailed to a Roman cross, was buried, and then three days later rose to life, never to die again, but ascended into heaven promising to return for his own. Even the calendar marks these events as the center of human history.

This is the gospel, and it is far more important than you probably realize. The gospel is not just the ticket that “got you in” to Christ, it is what sustains your life. You need the gospel like you need air to breathe. The gospel is your daily bread; you cannot live without it.

Because of a growing conviction that Christians need to understand better the centrality of the gospel to their relationship with Jesus, I have rethought the purpose of my blog. I am committing myself to a blog (with at least one post a week) that focuses on applying the gospel message to all of life. I hope to remind myself and anyone else interested in reading that to abide in Christ, I must start with the simple gospel

The gospel is found not just in a few chapters of the New Testament. It is the theme of the entire Bible. It is the duty and the delight of every Christian to seek for it every day as gold, and then to plumb its depths, to trust in it, live by it and to die clinging to it as his only hope.

Categories
Bible Study Theology

1 Peter 3:7 Understanding the “weaker vessel”

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
(1 Peter 3:7 ESV)

What does Peter mean by referring to the woman as the “weaker vessel”? As I thought about this, the first question I asked myself was, “In what way are women weaker than men?” In order to make sense of Peter’s comment, we have to answer that question. It is undeniable that Peter is saying that the woman is in some way weaker. Rather than be offended by this or to reject the word of God outright, we have to come to grips that the Holy Spirit is really saying that the woman is weaker.

Sometimes when we react against something we read in the Bible, it is due to our own hardness of heart and unwillingness to submit our thoughts to the infinite wisdom of God. (see Francis Chan’s excellent thoughts on this here) Other times, what we are reacting against is a misinterpretation of what the Word is actually saying and we end up mad at God over something he never said in the first place.

I think Peter’s words here can easily fall into this second category. When we hear Peter say that the woman is weaker, we hear, “not as valuable” or “not as capable”. But is this really what God is saying to us in this verse? It’s interesting that the verse also includes a very strong statement of equality, “they are heirs with you of the grace of life.”

As I thought through what this verse could possibly mean, the first and most obvious possibility that came to mind is that Peter is referring to physical weakness. It is pretty much undeniable that in general men are stronger than women.

This does not mean that men are more valuable than women or that men are somehow superior to women. It simply means that the male/female relationship is impacted by the fact that men are stronger physically. Because of the fallenness of the human race, this strength differential, combined with a sinful distortion of the male/female role differences that God himself ordained, has led men to dominate women in sinful ways to the extent that we cannot even talk today about male headship or male authority without all kinds of misunderstandings of what the exercise of that headship looks like.

While many men would never dream of using their physical strength differential (or even the threat of it) to dominate the women in their lives, we still tend to operate from a sinful sense of superiority over women, and while we may not dominate them physically, we do hold on to sinful understandings of the male/female relationship that cause us to assert our own wills over the will of the women in our lives.

So what Peter is challenging us as husbands to do in honoring our wives as the weaker vessel is to refuse this sinful exercise of the strength prerogative in our relationships with our wives. Because my wife is weaker than me physically, I could force her to do my will, but rather than do that, Scripture commands me to honor her as a joint-heir of the grace of life.

You might think by this point in the post that I am arguing what theologians call the “egalitarian position” in male/female relationships. Actually I would consider myself to be firmly in the camp of the “complementarians” because I believe that Scripture clearly presents that there are different roles that God has designed for men and women. I also affirm that the Scripture clearly teaches that men are designed by God to be in authority over women. But I believe that much of the controversy that swirls around this question stems from an unbiblical, fallen understanding of authority.

The previous verse, 1 Peter 3:6, states with approval that “Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.” This is obviously a clear reference to male authority.

What I am arguing for from verse 7 is that we as men in authority honor our wives, treating them as the helpers that God designed them to be, understanding that we are incomplete without them, and that God has the same eternal inheritance reserved for them that he has for us.