08-02-2020 – Complete Sanctification in Christ
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"Complete Sanctification in Christ"
Read 1Thessalonians 5:23-24…
"23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass."
The focus in verse 23a is our sanctification, i.e., being set apart for God’s special purpose, that we be separated from sin and joined to holiness.
God’s Word is full of examples of God setting apart certain days, people and places for His own honor and glory:
Genesis 2:3,
“Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
Exodus 28:41,
“You shall put them on Aaron your brother and on his sons with him; and you shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve Me as priests.”
Exodus 40:9,
“Then you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and shall consecrate it and all its furnishings; and it shall be holy.”
Jeremiah 1:5,
“Before I formed you (Jeremiah) in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Luke 1:15,
“For he (John the Baptizer) will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.”
Matthew 1:20,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child [Jesus, God’s Son] who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 1:23,
“they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
Mark 3:14-15,
“And He [Jesus] appointed [the] twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons.”
Hebrews 10:7,
“Behold, I have come… …To do Your will, O God.”
Hebrews 10:10,
“By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Hebrews 10:14,
“For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
Hebrews 10:17,
“And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
God has sovereignly saved and secured us for sanctification in Christ, to serve Him on the earth as new creations
(cf 2Corinthians 5:17).
"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
God, through Christ, made us eternally set apart from all that has been created, and one day we will be transformed, and this temporal mortal body will be glorified, being made immortal. We will be given bodies like that of Jesus after His resurrection from the grave.
Philippians 3:20-21,
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
Romans 8:29-30,
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
1Corinthians 15:47-49,
“The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.”
1Corinthians 15:53,
“For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
At the moment of genuine salvation, God marks us as His own.
Ephesians 1:13-14),
“In Him [Christ], you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
At the moment of genuine salvation, God gives us His peace and sets us apart for service
(Philippians 2:13),
“for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” At the moment of genuine salvation, God fills us with His Spirit, marking us as His own possession
(cf Ephesians 1:13-14),
"13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
granting us His peace and setting us apart to serve Him
(Philippians 2:13),
“for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
God sanctifies us entirely, completely, finally, so that no part of our spirit, soul, and body remains unconsecrated to the Lord.
See 1Thessalonians 5:23b…
The words spirit and soul refer to the nonmaterial nature of humans, while body refers to the material nature of humans.
Genesis 2:7,
“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground (material nature), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (nonmaterial nature); and man became a living being.”
Genesis 3:22a,
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil.’”
2Peter 1:3-4,
“[God] has granted to us everything pertaining to life (temporal biological life) and godliness (eternal spiritual life), through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. …so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world.”
We have a body, and we have a soul and spirit; and God holds us accountable to use our bodies in a manner that is pleasing to Him.
1Corinthians 6:12,
“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.”
1Corinthians 6:19-20,
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
God has equipped us for sanctification, so that we can faithfully and victoriously serve Him
(Ephesians 2:10),
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
2Timothy 3:16-17,
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Therefore (Romans 12:2),
we are “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Our main purpose is to be witnesses of Christ, so that others might be saved.
1Peter 2:11-12,
“Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
We are eternally protected and preserved in Christ, and there will be no shame, and no blame, for God’s children; in fact, when the Lord comes to take us home, we will be made perfect.
1Corinthians 15:50-58,
“Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
See 1Thessalonians 5:24…
"24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass."
God is faithful to fulfill all He has promised to completion
(Philippians 1:6),
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:28-30,
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
We have been set apart from all the other people in this godless and corrupt generation through our sanctification in Christ. Our main purpose is:
Romans 12:1,
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
1John 2:4-6,
“The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ [meaning, I am a believer and follower of Jesus Christ] and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Titus 2:11-14,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. One of the clearest expressions of the premier attitude of sanctification is found
in Galatians 2:20,
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Pastor Mike
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