Walking with Jesus
At the start of the year, we studied the new birth, which is the start of the Christian life. Next week on Wednesday nights, we will follow up that study with a class on sanctification, how we continue to walk with Christ. I'm looking forward to studying this great doctrine together and trust that each of us will be encouraged and enlightened.
You may not know that sanctification includes more than our typical understanding of progressively becoming more like Christ. Sanctification is certainly that but it is more! For example, every Christian has already been made a saint by God's grace in Christ. Saint-ness (if I can make up a word) is not just reserved for the most notable Christian. Stained glass windows are not only for a select few believers in the mind of God! Paul addressed every believer in the Corinthian church as "sanctified...called to be saints (1 Cor 1:2)."
If you know much about the letter of 1 Corinthians, you know there were massive problems in that church! The Corinthians needed to understand who they were in Christ in order to live like Christ. In fact, this element of sanctification—that it is first a God-given standing—is critical to understand in order to increasingly walk with Christ. What God has already done for us in the gospel, the work that is finished and complete in Jesus Christ, stands as the foundation and the motivation of our entire Christian life. The message that we first believed when we were born again regarding Jesus' substitutionary death and triumphant resurrection must also fuel the rest of our Christian lives as well. In other words, the gospel is central to living as a Christian from beginning to end.
Additionally, you may know that sanctification is related to holiness, to holy living, but not know how. You might be someone who hears the word holiness and recoils a bit, ducking for cover because of chaotic and ungodly experiences in your past. You may not think that so-and-so is very holy because she does not do the same things to express worship like you do. Maybe you don't feel holy at all yourself. There are churches that identify as holiness churches but what is holiness anyway? You need to understand what the Bible teaches regarding our status as saints and how to live like one. You need this class.
Perhaps you have been taught to pursue sanctification through mystical experiences, dreams, or visions. Paul warns those at Colossae who had been led astray from Christ this way: "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God (Col 2:18-19). The Colossian Christians were "not holding fast to the Head" of the church; they had somehow gotten hoodwinked to pursue sanctification apart from Christ.
Maybe you have tried many regimens, even radical things, in order to grow but keep feeling empty. Maybe you're finding that these things are actually powerless to deal with sins you keep struggling with but want so desperately to conquer. They promised much but fell flat. Are those things pointing you to Christ and who you are in him? Beloved, there are many gimmicks that "have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh" (Col 2:23). You need to be reminded that you have already been raised to new life with Christ as you seek Christ and walk with him (Col 3:1).
Maybe you were taught to seek an additional outpouring of the Spirit after becoming a Christian, something others had but you lacked. How does one get this extra dose of holiness? How does one get this special blessing? You need to understand the doctrine of sanctification! You need to understand that all Christians have the same standing in Christ from the very inception of their Christian lives and share the same Spirit whom God gives equally to all. "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit" (1 Cor 12:13).
To many of you, these things may sound obvious, but we have many examples in the first century church to warn us of the great danger of getting our eyes off Christ's finished work for a reason: The church is susceptible to this kind of stuff! Christ cannot be assumed; he must be pursued! Each one of us has been influenced, to one degree or another, by a tainted view of sanctification. Each one of us has impeded our own growth at times with some form of worldly wisdom or fleshly pursuit, all in the name of growing as a Christian.
"Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Gal 3:3).
As we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, we become more like Christ, and we become more of the person God has already made new in Christ. In other words, our true identity as Christians increasingly emerges in every aspect of our lives, goals, desires, and delights. The real you shines through. Our growth in the Christian life must always be rooted, nourished, and strengthened by Christ who gave us life in the first place. When we keep our eyes on Christ, when he is preached and studied, the Spirit of God transforms the people of God from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18, see Rom 8:29). There is no ministry of the Holy Spirit that does not point to Jesus Christ!
By contrast, any self-made religion, ascetic lifestyle, severity to the body, or worldly wisdom may produce some form of fanatic commitment and zeal (the appearance of life and growth) but entirely lack the power to change (Col 2:20-23). Why is it powerless? Because there is no Christ in it. Beware! Satan is very clever in packaging things in Christian-like packages or people who have a form of godliness but deny its power (2 Tim 3:5). Not everything that is spiritual is from the Holy Spirit (1 John 4:1)!
My prayer for our church is that we will walk with Christ by faith in a way that pleases God, empowered by his Spirit. May we leave behind anything that has hindered our walk with Christ. Day by day, year by year, let us remember what Jesus has already done for us as we continue to grow in him! "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (Col 2:6-7)."
We hope you will join us for this new class, The Christian Life, on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 beginning on June 7th.
