Randy Green's Blog - Posts Tagged "saved-by-grace-through-faith"
Like being sanctified...
I remember a popular song back in the day with the lyrics, "like being sanctified". No, that song hasn't a thing to do with this post. So if you want to discuss the song, go to your mp3s!
Imagine a person who commits a crime and is hauled before the judge to stand trial. The evidence against him is inconclusive so the judge pounds his gavel on the judge's bench and thunders, "Not guilty!" The man has just been justified. Trouble is, he IS guilty of the crime. In fact his life is filled with guilt for breaking the law.
This is where sanctification enters the picture. The guilty person has been freed from guilt for his crime. Double jeopardy prevents him from being retried for it. However, he does have a penchant for committing crimes. Will he return to his life of crime, or will he turn over a new leaf?
The word sanctification is a theology textbook word for turning over a new leaf. A saint is a sinner who has been justified. He/she has accepted the Lord's provision of forgiveness for sins, based upon the death on the cross of Jesus Christ for man's sins and his resurrection out of death. This acceptance was achieved by grace through faith. This means that the Bible stated this to be true, and he/she accepted in both the head and the heart that the Bible is true and acted accordingly.
The word sanctification refers to the continual present tense of a person's life, the day-to-day actions of a person in rejecting the old life of living for self and instead substitute the new life of living for Jesus. This is NOT a life of doing what seems good in our own estimation. It IS a life of faith, of feeding on the Bible daily in quiet time alone with the Lord to learn what He wants us to do, and then doing it.
Justification is a once-for-all act where we accept God's offer of forgiveness for sins by accepting the Lord Jesus' death on the cross as our substitute death, and receiving His new resurrection life in its place. Sanctification is our day-to-day action of refusing to live the old life of doing what seems right in our own eyes and living for self, but instead living according to what the Bible teaches us to do. This can only be done by quiet time alone with the Lord Jesus daily, in prayer and meditation on the Bible.
Justification is a one time, once-for-all act, with consequences which continue through the present time. In Grammar this is known as the perfect tense. Sanctification, contrariwise, is a present tense affair. It continues day in and day out throughout our lifetime.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure [Philippians 2:12-13]. God already worked His salvation in us. That is justification. Our job as those who are born again and therefore kids in God's family is to live like it, to work out what God has already worked in us. This is sanctification.
Imagine a person who commits a crime and is hauled before the judge to stand trial. The evidence against him is inconclusive so the judge pounds his gavel on the judge's bench and thunders, "Not guilty!" The man has just been justified. Trouble is, he IS guilty of the crime. In fact his life is filled with guilt for breaking the law.
This is where sanctification enters the picture. The guilty person has been freed from guilt for his crime. Double jeopardy prevents him from being retried for it. However, he does have a penchant for committing crimes. Will he return to his life of crime, or will he turn over a new leaf?
The word sanctification is a theology textbook word for turning over a new leaf. A saint is a sinner who has been justified. He/she has accepted the Lord's provision of forgiveness for sins, based upon the death on the cross of Jesus Christ for man's sins and his resurrection out of death. This acceptance was achieved by grace through faith. This means that the Bible stated this to be true, and he/she accepted in both the head and the heart that the Bible is true and acted accordingly.
The word sanctification refers to the continual present tense of a person's life, the day-to-day actions of a person in rejecting the old life of living for self and instead substitute the new life of living for Jesus. This is NOT a life of doing what seems good in our own estimation. It IS a life of faith, of feeding on the Bible daily in quiet time alone with the Lord to learn what He wants us to do, and then doing it.
Justification is a once-for-all act where we accept God's offer of forgiveness for sins by accepting the Lord Jesus' death on the cross as our substitute death, and receiving His new resurrection life in its place. Sanctification is our day-to-day action of refusing to live the old life of doing what seems right in our own eyes and living for self, but instead living according to what the Bible teaches us to do. This can only be done by quiet time alone with the Lord Jesus daily, in prayer and meditation on the Bible.
Justification is a one time, once-for-all act, with consequences which continue through the present time. In Grammar this is known as the perfect tense. Sanctification, contrariwise, is a present tense affair. It continues day in and day out throughout our lifetime.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure [Philippians 2:12-13]. God already worked His salvation in us. That is justification. Our job as those who are born again and therefore kids in God's family is to live like it, to work out what God has already worked in us. This is sanctification.
