Dear Friends,
You may have had conversations lately like
the one we had the other day with a woman: She’d been
taught by her denomination that you receive salvation the
moment you believe that Jesus has justified you before our
Father, and that sanctification is optional for a Christian.
However, according to God’s
changeless Word that calls us to “endure to the
end” and to “overcome”, the sanctifying work
of the Holy Spirit presses
followers of Jesus onward in their
journey unto salvation — unless they forsake Jesus as Lord of their lives.
Let’s explore this for a bit.
If you’ve read our Hebraic Article, The Gospel of the Covenant is the Pilgrimage to
Salvation, then you know that the
earliest Church understood that salvation occurred at the end of our life
pilgrimage on earth. Those who endure
to the end will receive the
heavenly welcome our Lord promises:
He who
overcomes shall be clothed in white
garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of
Life; but I will confess his name
before My Father and before His angels (Revelation 3:5). This is the moment of salvation!
Our regeneration — the new birth as the Holy Spirit takes
up His residence within — wonderfully occurs when we repent (turn away
from our sin and turn to our Father) and receive forgiveness
and reconciliation through Jesus. The salvation in which
we’re eternally delivered into His Presence, however,
comes when we see Him face to face:
So Christ was sacrificed once to take away
the sins of many people; and He
will appear a second time, not to
bear sin, but to bring salvation to
those who are waiting for Him” (Hebrews 9:28).
His part is
sure! Our part is to press on in obedient trust as His Spirit
purifies us and transforms us. The glorious goal of our lifelong trust
in our Lord is the salvation of our souls (see 1 Peter 1:9).
That goal will come about at the
end of a journey that
continues in trust:
Meanwhile, through
trusting, you are being protected
by God’s power for a deliverance
ready to be revealed at the Last Time (1 Peter 1:5).
Joyously hearing your name proclaimed from
the Lamb’s Book of Life calls for two essential elements
that emanate from His grace:
Justification — placing your trust in, and continuing to
trust in, the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your
sins.
Sanctification — the lifelong purifying process of the Holy Spirit that enables you to be conformed to the
image of Jesus Christ so that you can endure to the end.
The pilgrimage of a Jesus follower:
• Begins with
Justification, your Spiritual Rebirth;
• Continues a lifelong process of Sanctification;
• Culminates ultimately in your Salvation before the Throne.
Perhaps you’re among those who are
so overly focused on the day you were justified that
you’ve stopped any further growth in Christ’s
likeness. Do any of these scenarios describe you?
• You’re complacent in your
spiritual life and self-satisfied because you believe that you’re
“already saved”. You walk in the unrighteous ways of the world yet call yourself “Christian”. Repentance
— turning away from sin — and walking in obedient
trust don’t even occur to your deceived heart.
• It doesn’t bother you that
your compromise with sin in your daily life brings down the name of Jesus. Others observe your choices and identify our Lord
with your law-lessness.
• You deny or ignore His Lordship requirements
for His followers — the life-long sanctification process
of cooperating with the Spirit to reach your salvation goal.
[For more on justification and
sanctification, see our Hebraic article: The Gospel Of The Covenant Is The Pilgrimage To
Salvation; also, Jesus In Your Home
Video: Section 2; Segment 10—The
Indwelling Holy Spirit (Part
2).]
We shared with the woman mentioned on page
1 that in God’s sight, loving and obedient pursuit of sanctification is critical for anyone who would follow Jesus.
We asked her a question: “What if you were told that if
you married your husband, you’d receive $3 million after
he died. Would that be reason enough for you to marry
him?”
She replied emphatically, “No!!! I
married my husband because I wanted to be with him as his
wife.” We replied, “That’s the love relationship our Father wants! The aim of the Gospel isn’t to guarantee
you fire insurance from hell at the end of your life.
It’s an offer for you to live in loving and obedient covenant-union with
our Father through Jesus. And, as you live in daily union with
Him, the Holy Spirit transforms you into ever-increasing
Christ-likeness. The indwel-ling Holy Spirit is the POWER
behind your transformation.”
This woman could then recognize the heresy
of the false gospel her denomination teaches — that the
Spirit stopped working when Jesus ascended. She quoted back to us her
denomination’s lip service of the Spirit, “having a form of godliness but
denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).
Justification costs
us nothing.
Jesus sacrificed everything to pay the penalty for our sins.
Sanctification costs you everything.
You must rid yourself of the influence of your sin nature-controlled soul
and become filled and led by the Holy Spirit.
The process of sanctification is extremely discomforting a you leave behind your old sin-based
identity
and take on the character and love-based motivation of
Jesus.
The Road Map For Sanctification
Our Going To
the High Places Study Guide
accompanies Hannah Hurnard’s timeless classic, Hinds’ Feet On High Places. Each chapter of Much Afraid’s journey to
the High Places is a classroom of personal transformation for
her. Look at some of the issues she faced in the different
chapters — issues you’ve doubtless encountered:
5. Encounter With Pride
6. Detour Through the Desert
7. On the Shores of Loneliness
9. Great Precipice Injury
10. Ascent of the Precipice Injury
11. In the Forests of Danger and
Tribulation
12. In the Mist
13. In the Valley of Loss
14. The Place of Anointing
15. The Floods
16. Grave On the Mountain
17. Healing Streams
18. Hinds’ Feet
19. High Places
20. Return to the Valley
It isn’t until chapter 18 that
Much-Afraid was finally transformed and her name changed to
Grace and Glory. Her heart was now filled with the love of the Shepherd — the
culmination of the character lessons she learned on the
journey. And filled with the love of Jesus, she deeply desired
to go back to the very people who once hurt her. To love the ones who have hurt and betrayed you
is a true sign of a transformed person.
Intentionally pursue your own sanctification — expediting the time in
which you can be the love of Jesus to others. This is the pattern specifically
delineated in 2 Peter 1:3-11:
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through
our full knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory
and goodness.
Through these He has given us His very
great and precious promises, so that through them you might become divine
sharers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by lust.
For this very reason, give all diligence to add to your faith virtue; and to
goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to
self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and
to godliness, brotherly friendship; and to brotherly
friendship, love.
For if these qualities be in you and abound, they will
keep you from being barren and
unfruitful in your full knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he in whom these things are not present is
shortsighted and blind, being forgetful of the cleansing from his sins of the past.
Therefore, my brothers, be diligent to make your
being called and chosen sure. For doing these things, you will never by any means fall,
for so will be supplied to
you richly the entrance into the
eternal kingdom of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
In your own pilgrimage to salvation, have
you really taken seriously what Peter is saying here? He’s writing
to you and
to all who follow Jesus. The Apostle opens his second letter by
revealing his recipients: “To
those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus
Christ have obtained a faith as precious as ours.” He then assures us of the divine power (through the
Spirit) that we’ve been given for life and godliness so
that we might share in the divine nature and stay free from the
world’s enticing corruption. What glorious incentive as
well as armament to battle our sin nature and temptation!
Peter then lists a series of steps by
which we can deepen and mature our own spiritual development. What is he
directing us followers of Jesus to
do? He is presenting to us the
steps to our own sanctification as we lovingly yield to the
Spirit at work in us. An alternate translation highlights the
goal of ongoing obedient trust:
For if you do
these things, you will never fall, and you
will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
Let’s take a closer look at each of
these qualities that we are called to exert every effort diligently so that they might be added to our lives. In a sense,
the progression of these qualities parallels the chapters of Hinds’ Feet On High Places in which Grace and Glory was empowered to love (agape) as the
Shepherd does.
1. Add to your
faith, virtue
The intensity in the Greek of what is
translated as “diligently add to” carries with it a
much stronger meaning: “Try your hardest and then try
even harder!” Your trusting
faith is that which justifies you
in Jesus — but not if that so-called faith is mere head
knowledge and passive religious ritual. Someone who agrees
cognitively with biblical truth but has no Spirit of Christ
within deceives himself into thinking he’s
“saved” when he is not.
Do not mistake “virtue” for
the pleasant personality or easygoing compliance you may have
been born with. Christian virtue is courage and moral excellence that must be developed and nurtured by the Spirit as
you choose to conform your life and conduct to the character of
Jesus and to God’s commands.
If yieldedness to the Spirit of Christ isn’t characteristic of your faith, then you’re camped out in
your sin nature. Continuing to grieve and resist the Spirit may
bring about a hardened heart that turns away from the King (see
Hebrews 3:13).
2. Add to your
virtue, knowledge
Many people errantly understand the word
“knowledge” to mean “being informed
about” rather than to know
experientially as a reality.
Knowledge about compels them to study more, becoming data-filled about the Bible
without any corresponding transformation into the character of
Jesus. But without Spirit-wrought change, there is no
sanctification.
To know God
means your pursuit of God Himself. Knowing Him is not the same as knowing about Him: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). What connection between knowledge of (the
wisdom of obedience) and understanding do you think is being spoken of here?
It’s a heart determination to live to please God.
As you get to know someone experientially through interaction in
the relationship, you begin to understand their heart, their motives, what pleases
them.
A great deal of our understanding of God
is revealed through His Names: God the Provider, Merciful,
Just, Forgiving, Long-suffering, etc. We also learn much about
His relationship to His people by observing His interaction
with them in the Bible.
Jesus warns that the mind can hold tightly
to that which is absolutely false if it gives way to
preconceived ideas. The lazy and wicked servant of the Talents
Parable buried the money entrusted to him. When asked to render
account, the servant was judged by his own words and found
guilty: “You wicked, lazy
servant! So you knew [perceived or considered] that I harvest where
I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered
seed?” (Matthew 25:26).
We will all be called to render ac-count to God. In fact,
Jesus goes on in this chapter to warn us about the criteria at
the Judgment Throne for acceptance or rejection: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one
of the least of these, you did not
do for Me” (Matthew 25:45).
Make sure you know our Lord (and are known
by Him) before you see Him
face-to-face. Please, scrutinize your life now to discern if you are
being judged and chastened by our Lord so that the condemnation
promised to the world will not befall you (see 1 Corinthians 11:
31,32).
3. Add to your
knowledge, self-control
“Like a city whose walls are broken
down is a man who lacks self-control” (Proverbs 25:28). Walls are useless if they’re
broken down. They offer neither strength nor protection.
Neither does a person who refuses to rule his own soul. Those
with no self-control are unreliable and unpredictable, full of
excuses or blame.
A relational knowledge of God stirs you to
rule over your fleshly self so that you resist your sin nature
and yield to the Holy Spirit. And, self-control means that you
take full responsibility for yourself so that your
“walls” can be relied on.
4. Add to your
self-control, perseverance
What precedes the maturation of
perseverance? “We also
rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character,
hope” (Romans 5:3,4).
The character and hope that emanate from persevering through
trials were traits that held our persecuted Roman breth-ren
firm in their trust.
The Apostle weaves together the testing of
faith with perseverance because it’s through testing that
faith is proved genuine, and control over self’s
inclination to quit is revealed:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you
face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so
that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:4).
Why is perseverance so important to your
faith pilgrimage? Because learning
to persevere through the trials and sufferings God permits in
your life is His way to break down the rebellion fanned by your
sin nature. If you don’t persevere
in the path of Jesus, you’ll yield to the easiest and
least sacrificial way in your life choices.
Christendom today overflows with those who
have given up on enduring for the glory of God. They’re
all talk and no walk — a
shallow form of religious practice that evidences no life in
the Spirit.
Perseverance, like a fire of purification,
tests how pure your motives toward God are, and how determined you are in
your faith. An old maxim befits those who have learned to
persevere in Christ:
“When the going gets tough;
the tough keep going.”
Note from the sequence in Romans 5:3,4,
that surrendering to adverse circumstances inhibits Christ-like
character and hope. Those who shrink back attract no one to
Jesus! And, as James indicates, neither will they mature in
their faith.
5. Add to your
perseverance, godliness
The easiest way to describe a godly person
is that they readily and willingly abide by the laws of God out
of a loving and obedient fear of Him. The godly are the physical representation of what it means to live in spiritual Covenant
union with our Father through Jesus.
Picture the path that leads to godliness:
faith, knowledge of God, self-control, and perseverance.
To walk in obedient trust this far
displays intense determination to become more like the Jesus
you love as your Lord! The motives of your heart are to do by
His grace whatever is required of you to be like Him, and to
represent our Lord in the flesh to others who might then
respond to His Spirit’s wooing.
6. Add to your
godliness, brotherly friendship
Jesus uses the parable of the “Good
Samaritan” (Luke 10:30-37) to depict what love in action looks
like. The Samaritan went the extra mile to help a person he
didn’t even know. He treated him like you’d treat a
brother! Ask yourself: Are you more like the priest, the Levite or the
Samaritan in your response toward those who can’t pay you
back (or even toward those in your relational sphere!)? How
would those who know you describe you?
If you truly want to pour forth brotherly
kindness, you must willingly let yourself be intruded on by others, inconvenienced by others, and even hurt and
betrayed by others. This is Jesus in the flesh as
mirrored in your own life.
As those whose lives are interwoven as brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, how do you respond to the command
given us to “Remember the
prisoners as if chained with them — those who are mistreated — since
you yourselves are in the body also” (Hebrews 13:3). How can you show brotherly friendship to those who are
currently suffering for their trust in Christ?
7. Add to your
brotherly friendship, (agape) love
Jesus defined the greatest commandment as
a continuum of our relationship with God to that of our human
counterparts:
‘Love
the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and
with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself’” (Luke 10:
27).
Paul tells us, “If we are united
with Jesus... the only thing that
matters is our trusting faithfulness expressing itself through
(agape) love” (Galatians 5:
6). Love, the agape love that pours out of us in response to
the Holy Spirit within us, is all that avails. How is this kind
of love lived out on a daily basis in the power and the
stirring of the Spirit? Listen:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not
envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is
not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record
of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices
with the truth. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
• Put a check mark over the qualities
that exemplify your life. Circle the ones that reveal character
flaws you need to lay on the altar of self and offer to the
Holy Spirit for His transformational work in you.
Can you now see from Peter’s
sequence the progressive pattern through which agape love is
developed? Can you see why he would warn you that these
qualities are to abound for the glory of God and for your own spiritual
growth?
If you aren’t being transformed into Christ’s likeness,
if you aren’t growing in the love of God toward others,
then seriously examine your relationship with God. Will your
self-chosen stagnation derail you on your pilgrimage to
salvation so that disobedience keeps you from enduring to the
end?
You may be thinking, “They’re
writing about works here.” Actually, we are — but in
the sense of responding in obedient trust through the Spirit of
Christ to fulfill His Kingdom purposes! Justification is free, an
accomplished victory by Jesus. Sanctification which leads to your salvation is going to cost
you everything you once were in your slavery to sin.
That’s why Paul could so emphatically urge:
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good
pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing (Philippians 2:
12-14).
Your reverent fear of God is the beginning which compels you to flee the
influence of your sin nature. Your
love for Him motivates you to
become like His Son Jesus by His grace as you yield to the
Spirit in you. May the encouragement and admonition in these
words spur you on in your desire to be like Jesus!
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such
a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw
off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us keep
running with endurance the race
that is set before us (Hebrews
12:1).
