13.2 What God Does: The Christ Lived and Died for Us

Table of Contents

• The Text
• The Chapter
• The Confession
  • This sanctification is throughout the whole man
  • yet imperfect in this life; there abides still some remnants of corruption in every part
  • wherefrom arises a continual and irreconcilable war; the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh

The Text

Romans 7:14–21 (CSB)
¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin.

¹⁵ For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.

¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

¹⁷ So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.

¹⁸ For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

¹⁹ For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me.

²¹ So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.

The Chapter

This sanctification is throughout the whole man, yet imperfect in this life; there abides still some remnants of corruption in every part, wherefrom arises a continual and irreconcilable war; the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

The Confession

This sanctification is throughout the whole man

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (CSB) Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Having recently put away Evangelical associations and stepping into the Reformed tradition, I am sure not a day goes by when I am reminded of some of the error in teaching that I have taught and sat under.

From a general non-Reformed, Evangelical teaching, even those with Calvinistic leanings, will declare, "We know that election is of God, calling is of God, justification is of God but sanctification is of God in joint with our obedience. There is no sanctification without our obedience."

That is a fine notion. It is just not found anywhere in the Scriptures. For:

Philippians 1:6 (CSB) I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (CSB) Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Romans 8:29 (CSB) For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

When I read of sanctification, what I see is the work of God in us.

Tell me something, Christian: in your action, did you perfectly obey the will of God and perfectly abstain from sin? Well, of course not. That question is ludicrous. No Christian in their right mind would be so bold to make a claim that they have been without sin since being saved.

So, dear brother and sister, did your sanctification start and stop since you were disobedient to God? What a frightening thought? That somehow we control the sanctification process and turn it on and off like a light switch.

Your salvation wasn't a on/off switch you could flip. Your glorification is not a faucet that you can turn off and on. Why would sanctification be any different? The answer is that it is not.

Salvation belongs to God alone. From election to glorification and all points in between, it is God who does everything in order that we will be conformed ot the image of his only begotten Son.

yet imperfect in this life; there abides still some remnants of corruption in every part

Romans 7:18 (CSB) For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

Romans 7:23 (CSB) but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.

We are dead to sin and alive to Christ. That old man we once was is now dead.

Romans 6:6 (CSB) For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,

But as we all know and experience this daily: "the dead man floats" as Martin Luther once said. And we still sin because we were born in the flesha and apart from God. And God takes our entire lifetime to do his work.

The process is slow. This is the long game. Where people are at now is not where they will be. It goes for unbelievers and for God to save them. It goes especially true for believers who struggle with sin every day. But know this, beloved, God is at work within us. God is eternal, he will not stop. And he is perfect--he will do the work until he is done.

wherefrom arises a continual and irreconcilable war; the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh

Galatians 5:17 (CSB) For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

1 Peter 2:11 (CSB) Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

James 4:1 (CSB) What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

But take real heart, dear Christian. Your salvation is not future secure sometime in the future when God is good and ready to do so. His salvation of your soul, to rescue you from the licks of flames from the pits of hell, from the bottom of the soul crushing ocean of your sins, through your backsliding, struggles, addictions, despair, and doubt, you have have been rescued by the Lamb that was slain. And I know because over 2,000 years ago, Christ came to live and to die. Once and for all. Now you are free. Now you are saved. And God will complete that work. He promised. And he is faithful even when we are faithless.