What are Christians to think about their sanctification? Is it immediate and instantaneous, or is it only progressive and slowly develops over time? The Bible gives us some clear teaching in answer to these questions. By definition, when a person becomes a Christian he is made to be “holy” and “righteous” in God’s sight (1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11; 1 Pet. 2:9-10). This fundamental change is made possible by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the individual Christian (2 Cor. 5:21). Since that person is united with the risen and reigning Christ, he is justified, adopted, and sanctified. These glorious doctrines witness to the change of one’s position in and through Jesus Christ. Yet, the Bible also teaches that individual Christians are to make serious efforts, by God’s grace, to improve his condition through holy living (Rom. 12:1; Eph. 4:17-24; Col. 3:12-17). Hence, through these efforts the Christian progressively grows in his sanctification. It is a cooperative effort—God works, and the Christian works (Phil. 2:12-13). This is why the Bible defines Christians as “saints and faithful brothers” (Col. 1:2), and also gives strong exhortations such as “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:16).

The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life. More information about the NCFIC is available at www.ncfic.org. It's good to start with the Word of God and to root our thoughts into the right place. So if you've got your Bibles, let's turn to Psalm 25 verses 4 and 5 just to get started. And whenever we talk about a particularly thorny theological question about how to understand sanctification, It's good to keep ourselves humble right off.

And so, David will write these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation.

For you I wait all the day long. All theology begins with being humble. And let me just say right off if you ever meet an arrogant theologian, don't follow him. The basic rule for all theology is that we're creatures, we're men made by God, and God is our great creator and he's worthy of all praise and so if a man is arrogant when he approaches the subject of who is God and how are God's ways there's something askew there, there's something terribly wrong. And so whenever we think about God and begin to think the deeper thoughts of how does this work or how does that work God, then let us be humble men and women before the Lord.

Also in Psalm 27 verse four, one of the theme verses for a previous conference in regard to the worship of God, David again writes, One thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. And as I've been thinking and preparing for this talk today, I've been doing a lot of inquiring and asking God to show me His truth and to help me to understand the parameters, the limits on both sides of the issue when it comes to the subject of sanctification. How do we define sanctification, that definitive aspect? And then how do we work it out and experience it in our own life? If you're like me, you've had different friends over the years who have erroneously, and I think in a way that led to much sadness in their own life declared that there was a certain point in their life when sin was completely eradicated and it was no longer a burden for them.

They bought into this idea that somehow their sanctification was a one-time act and that from their perspective there would be no struggle, no work, no difficulties in the Christian life anymore. Well sadly some of those friends fell into great sorrow and into great difficulties and consequences in their life because they they wrongly believed that somehow sanctification could be instantaneous and there would never be any work required of them. As we search the different portions of scripture, what we'll find however is not that sanctification is instantaneous, but that sanctification is a definition as to who we are and how we stand in Christ by the imputation of Christ applied to us. And it is a work of God's grace and efforts that we make in the Christian life that then lead us to that place of being conformed to the image of Christ. And so it really is a both and.

By definition we are those who have been sanctified those who are in Christ and it is that ongoing work of efforts in the Christian life and both of those work together Let's think for a minute about the Apostle Paul and who he was prior to his conversion. I'm going to guess if we lived at that time and we had a prayer list of people we would start praying for and we considered who would be the most likely to be converted. Saul would fall pretty low on that list. We might put a few people above him. I might think of maybe the Samaritan woman coming to Christ easier than Saul, or even the Gerasene demoniac coming to Christ easier than Saul.

After all, Saul was a Pharisee. He was hardened in all of the Jewish elite perspectives, all of the different details of the law. He knew them intimately and had been acquainted with them from his earliest of days. He was a Pharisee. He was a zealot.

He was one who was willing to persecute others so that they would understand the same view of God as Him. And so Paul would probably fall, or Saul would fall pretty low on that list of likely converts. But amazing of all amazing things, God does convert him. God does convict him of his sin. God does regenerate his heart.

And God does bring him to the place that where he realizes that he is a chosen instrument to bring the gospel to the Gentiles, something that Saul, in all of his Jewish pharisaical thinking, could never imagine for a moment that God would use him in that way. But he does use him in that way. In Acts 9 verse 15 we see that one of the earlier helpers of Saul who becomes Paul receives a word from the Lord that he is a chosen instrument of mind to take the gospel to the Gentiles. But Paul, as he becomes that Christian man who's given that task of preaching the gospel, realizes that he is the very least of all the saints. As he goes on in his Christian experience, he says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse nine, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.

Later on as he goes further in his life, in his Christian discipleship, in 1 Timothy 1, verse 12 through 15, he says, just to paraphrase, he says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am the foremost." So how do you explain this perspective that Saul Paul has? He started off as a great persecutor. He becomes converted. He sees that God has given him a special ministry. He identifies himself as one of the saints, one of those who has been justified and cleansed.

Yet as he grows on in the Christian life, he realizes more and more his struggle with sin. He realizes that he's the least of the apostles. He's the greatest of sinners. He's one most in need of grace. How do we understand that?

Well, we understand it by seeing that by definition God has declared him to be justified. God has declared him that he's been redeemed and adopted and brought into the family of God. He's by definition a saint, one who's been separated, one who's been set aside for sacred duties. Yet at the same time, we see that Paul, like you and me, as human beings who still live in this body of flesh in which we inhabit in this world, must grow and persevere, must subdue the flesh by the grace of God. And so what we see there is that picture of the definitive understanding of sanctification and also this idea of a progressive growth of sanctification.

It was Matthew Henry who was one day robbed. He was a Puritan, a writer, a Bible commentator, a preacher. He was accosted by thieves and robbed of his money, and he wrote in his diary later that day, let me be thankful first that I was never robbed before, second, although because they took my purse, they did not take my life. And third, because although they took my all, it was not all that very much. And fourth, because it was I who was robbed rather than I who did the robbing." You see, Matthew Henry understood what Paul was saying.

He understood this dynamic of being defined as one who was in Christ, who was sanctified and holy by definition, but he also understood. They could just as very easily fall into great sins himself, and so he sought to subdue his flesh, and he hardened and inured himself to that responsibility of growing and deepening in his love of God and in persevering in his faith. Let's turn to a classic text here to talk about definitive sanctification, and you'll find it in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2 to start off with. Here's Paul writing to the Corinthians of all the different churches that Paul wrote to, here's the church that I think most of us would realize had probably the most problems of all other churches. If you read through 1st and 2nd Corinthians, it's like a laundry list of church problems.

And it goes one problem after the next, after the next, after the next. But yet, listen how Paul starts his correspondence to the Corinthian church. He says, starting in verse one, Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sosthenes to the Church of God that is in Corinth. And listen carefully to these next words to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Well Paul here uses this word sanctified in Christ Jesus.

It's the word in Greek, agiosmos, those who have been sanctified. The verb that's used here is a giasminois, which is in the perfect tense. And maybe you're not anyone who's all that swift with grammar and all of that, but just bear with me for a minute, for some of these tenses actually do make a difference. Paul says to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, meaning those who have received the work of God in the past, there's a completed action of what God has done with continuing results. And this verb is in the passive voice.

It doesn't mean that the Corinthians have sanctified themselves. What it means is that God has sanctified the Corinthians. Those who have come to Christ out of darkness and have been brought into the light, that they have been sanctified by the gracious work of God. Paul goes on to call them saints. He sees them as those who have been separated, those who have been moved out of their former way of living and brought into a new way of living.

And so This is all speaking of that definition or that definitive sanctification. We see that also in other books or letters that Paul wrote, notably in Colossians chapter one, verse two, to the saints and the faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Peter will pick up the same theme in speaking to the churches that he is writing to, and he'll say in 1 Peter 2, for you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Once you were not a people but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.

So these kind of passages show us that God has by a work of definition through our justification through the imputed righteousness of Christ given us standing before Him as those who have been made holy, as those who are sanctified. Paul gives us a little more information in 1 Corinthians 6. Would you turn there with me please? Where Paul has this marvelous passage starting at verse 9. And he recites to the Corinthians all the different behaviors and dark selfish pursuits that had corrupted them in previous years and how God had delivered them out of that.

He writes, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." And if that's all he said, then many of the Corinthians would simply walk away at that point and say, well that's it for me. I don't qualify to be in the kingdom of God. But he goes on. And, in verse 11, such were some of you.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God." These are beautiful words and I can imagine the Corinthians reading this letter and breaking down at that point and weeping at how good the blessings of God were and are. That God has sanctified them. These verbs here are all, again, just to get technical, are in the aorist tense, and they're all passive in voice. What that means is that Paul is saying to them, you were like this, but God has washed you. God has sanctified you.

God has justified you. And it's not as if they washed themselves, they sanctified themselves, or they justified themselves. It's entirely passive. God is the one who did that work. And He did it in the past and you can rejoice in the present that you are members by grace of the household of God.

Now that's something to weep over, to rejoice in, to give thanks in. Now there are many other passages we could look at and I'll just give you a a few here to write down on your notes. You can look these up later and maybe contemplate them. In Acts 2 verse 32 when Paul is addressing the Ephesian elders He says, and now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. And He's thinking of sanctification in the sense of a completed act as a definition of who they are.

When Paul was making his appeal before King Agrippa, he said that the Lord opened their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified in me, saith the Lord. And so the idea is that Paul here understood that in his prayer he's praying that God will open their eyes and move them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his son and thereby give them a position and an understanding that they've been sanctified by the work of Christ. In Hebrews 2 verse 11, we see both types of sanctification in here, definitive and progressive. The writer says, for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source, and that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. He identifies those who are already sanctified and then he's talking about the one who does that work of sanctification, meaning God.

Hebrews 10-10, and by that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all." Or Leviticus 20 verse 8, keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Well these are texts that speak of this definitive aspect of sanctification. God is the one who declares that. He's the one who brings that about through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

When Christ died on the cross, he thereby did a work on the sake, for the sake of his people. And in time that work and all the benefits of it are applied to us. And so it's the redemption accomplished on the cross and the redemption applied in our life as we come to faith in Christ and we're defined to be those who are sanctified. Okay, so let's just shift gears now. For Paul realized that he was numbered among the saints, the Corinthians received that testimony as well as the Colossians that they were saints, that they had been sanctified, they had been washed, they had been justified, but then we see other texts in Scripture, and this is frankly the part that makes everybody who thinks along these lines very humble, because there are some great mysteries here, but there are other parts of scripture that talk about the work that we must do as Christians in subduing the flesh, of fighting against the world and the devil.

So turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2 and we find one of those texts I think perhaps the most clear of all that talks about this ongoing struggle in the Christian life. Paul writes to the Philippian church, a church he only visited for a very short time, and by God's grace, a small little congregation of believers was established there, and then Paul kept up a correspondence with them and sending messengers and friends to be an encouragement to them. He says, Therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but 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 work for his good pleasure. In this text we see that Paul is writing to believers. That's one of the problems in interpretation that a lot of people have somehow suspected that Paul here was writing to everybody of Philippi, everybody who lived there.

Well, in a sense he was writing to proclaim the gospel to them, but when he's speaking in this section and also at other parts of his brief letter, he's very clear to refer to my beloved. He's referring to those who are fellow Christians, as is he. So he's not talking to the unbeliever here, he's talking to the Christians. He says, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. Paul's cognizant of the fact that at this point in his life he's not in Philippi and the chances of him getting back there are slim to none.

He's imprisoned at this point and he's on trial for his life. Whether he's going to be released or not, that's totally up to God and Paul is okay with that. He makes it very clear that if he dies, then that's a good thing, he'll go to be with the Lord, but if the Lord preserves his life, then he'll be with them, with the Philippians and with others, and he can continue to evangelize and disciple. So whether it's in my presence and much more in my absence please continue to obey the instructions that have been given And then he goes to the next phrase, where he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Some have thought that perhaps Paul was abandoning his concept of how we're saved by grace through faith and suggesting that somehow we have to work out our own salvation by works righteousness.

And that is not at all the case. What do we do when we come to a passage of scripture where we're puzzling over, well what does that mean? Well what we do is we follow the analogy of faith which is the idea that we take those scriptures that are abundantly clear and plain and use them to shed light on those passages that are a little more obscure or difficult to interpret. We use scripture to interpret scripture was the Reformation cry. And so in this case we follow exactly that.

We know from Ephesians 2, from Romans 3, from various other writings that Paul gave, for instance in Titus 3, that the regenerative work of God is only by His grace and not associated at all with our works. Works will flow from it, but works don't cause it or bring it about. We all square with that? Paul's abundantly clear in many other passages. So what does he mean by this phrase when he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

This word to work out is the most common word. There's nothing really highfalutin or special about it. It's a word that could also be used to cultivate or to work hard in certain situations that you may be in so that you would then bring the fruit of your labors about. It's in the present tense and it's speaking about this idea of how we're to work in the Christian life, to work out our salvation, all the progress and the details of our salvation as we go through life. Now, when Paul uses the word salvation here, he's not talking about that point of your regeneration or conversion.

I believe what he's referring to is salvation in the biggest picture possible. He's talking about it as it extends from the idea of the new birth, all the way through the Christian life, until your death and resurrection and glorification. That's what he has in mind here, when he says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And so he's speaking of this idea in which we need to work hard in the Christian life and to set aside those aspects that hurt us or hinder us or hold us back in going forward and being more conformed to Jesus Christ. And it is to be done with fear and trembling.

We do it with great care. We live the Christian life in a careful manner, and we seek to persevere, and to do all that God would have us do, very thoughtfully, carefully, with fear and trembling. In Isaiah, we find a reference in chapter 66, verse two, to this same type of fear and trembling and what is it but to be humble before the Lord? The Lord says in Isaiah 62, but this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my words." Brothers and sisters that's that's what we're called to be. Those are the kind of people that identify with Christ.

That's the kind of people who humble themselves before the Lord and who work out their salvation very thoughtfully, carefully with a certain sense of being very thoughtful about what we do. We just don't go on willy-nilly without any care for what might happen or sin boldly thinking that there's enough grace to cover every sin. Well, yes there is, but God calls us to a life of holiness, and to live as those who seek to please him. John Calvin had a comment on this whole subject of fear and trembling and what it means to work out your salvation. In his commentaries on the book of Philippians he says, there is another kind of fear and trembling, one that so far from diminishing the assurance of faith, the more firmly establishes it.

This happens when believers, considering that the examples of divine wrath executed upon the godly as warnings to them, take special care not to provoke God's wrath against them by the same offense, or when inwardly contemplating their own misery, learn to depend wholly upon the Lord, without whom they see themselves more unstable and fleeting than any wind." Well, what he means by that is simply to say that the fear and trembling is not that we're always worried about somehow losing what God has done or that somehow having been born again we can somehow be unborn again by some sort of disobedience. The idea is that when we're born again it's a work of God's grace. It's done by no merit of our own. It's freely given and freely received and so it cannot be undone. But once it is begun then there is progress and growth in the Christian life.

We're working out our salvation with fear and trembling. And note these next words in Philippians 2, for it is God who is at work within you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And so not only are you at work, working out your salvation, cultivating the ground so to speak and plowing through the furrows that need to be knocked down and planted. But God is also at work. God is at work within you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

And so we find in Philippians 1 the same letter that Paul writes in verse six, these very comforting words, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That what God began, he also continues to work and bring about the end result, which is that we will be with him forever and ever. Now do you notice in this text in Philippians 2, 12 and 13 that Paul uses the word works three times. He uses it first to explain about working out your salvation with fear and trembling and that's your work in the Christian life. And then he goes on to talk about God's work for it is God who works in you and then he gives it a third time and he says that God does this work for his good pleasure there's a there's an end goal there's a result that God has in mind, and what is that result?

What is that goal? Well, that Jesus Christ might be conformed in you. That Jesus Christ would be made evident in your life as you continue to move forward in this aspect of progressive sanctification. Jesus speaks of this in John 15 verse 8 he says by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples. Our Lord intended that when we came as those who were attached to Him as the living vine, He intended that we would bear fruit, that there would be progress, that there would be growth, that there would be a sense of going along in the Christian life, and it wouldn't be that we were constantly falling backwards, but that we were making progress.

That's God's intent. And our Lord expresses that as well. Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 2, he says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2 10. And so God's will for us as those who are Christians is to grow and to make progress.

His intent is through even the difficulties and hardships that may come our way that God is teaching us, God is subduing us, God is helping us, God is moving us forward. As we're working out our own salvation, He's at work in us at the same time. John Calvin put it this way, Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone. That person who's saved is going to bear fruit, is going to have evidence in the Christian life. There was an old Scotsman.

He ran a little service, almost like a ferry service from one side of the river to the other side the river. And a passenger came by who wondered why it was when he got into the boat that he noticed that on one oar was carved the words faith and on the other oar was carved the words works. And he asked about this and said why is that? And the old man, glad of the opportunity for a testimony, said, well, I will show you. And he gave the passenger the oar.

And the passenger dropped one oar into the water and rode around, and he just went in circles. And then he shifted over to the other oar and he also went in circles, not getting to his destination at all. But when the old Scotsman picked up both of the oars, both faith and works, he sped swiftly over the water, and he explained to his passenger in this way, he said, you see, this is the way it is in the Christian life. Dead works without faith are useless and faith without works is dead also getting you nowhere. But faith in works pulling together make for safety and progress and blessing.

See the illustration shows us the necessity in the Christian life after you've become a believer in Jesus and a disciple of Christ that the Christian life is designed so that we progress in the faith and our sanctification goes on and on. So we have to think of this idea of sanctification in these two ways where we're defined to be saints by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ but at the same time as those who are still in the body of flesh we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling knowing that God is at work in us. Now, there are many Christians who have struggled with this, and I'm not going to stand before you and say that no Christians have ever had a difficulty with these doctrines. But the reality is that God has designed it this way in our Christian life and we have to accept it for what it is. Augustine was probably one of the first to really wrestle with this concept, thinking about what he called the fourfold states of man.

Thinking about our position as it changes, as we are apart from Christ, as we come to Christ, and as we then progress through our life. Here are the fourfold steps or stages of man. First would be before the fall. When we think of Adam and Eve, what was their state? Well, they were in original righteousness.

God had made them perfect. They were able not to sin. But we all know the sad story and that is that they did sin. And in sinning, their state changed so that rather than not being able not to sin, their state changed to, after the fall, to being those who were not able not to sin. Not able not to sin.

That those who were descendants of Adam and Eve were not only born with the guilt of Adam, but also with the fallen sin nature of their father and mother. And so we get such doctrines as total depravity or total inability that every feature of the human personality in life has been impacted by sin. We're totally depraved and we're totally unable to rescue ourselves out of that state unless it were by a work of grace from God who would bring forth the regenerative new birth through the preaching of Jesus and his gospel of grace. During this time of the fall and afterwards you could say that man's heart was so thoroughly corrupted that as Calvin would say his heart was a factory of producing idols Day by day hour by hour always producing idols But there's another change that comes about you've got before the fall able not to sin after the fall not able to not sin and after our regeneration, when we're able to sin and not to sin. The stage changes yet again.

By the work of Christ in our life, we come to that point where as a Christian man or woman, we can exercise our will and our determination to not sin because God has brought us into a happier or a better place whereby the work of grace has given us a new nature so that we can go forward as those who are held captive by Christ. Think of it this way, the new birth produces a new man or a new woman. And that new man or new woman then leads by necessity a new life in Christ, which is profoundly different from where we were before. And so the understanding that we must have is that after our regeneration, after coming to Christ and experiencing the new birth, we are a new creature in Christ. That speaks of our definitive sanctification.

But yet at the same time we realize that there's growth and progress as we seek to please God in the Christian life. And so we choose to not sin. God has given us that ability as we come into the Christian life after our regeneration. And then there's a fourth stage, Augustine put it this way, and that would be in heaven, when we are unable to sin at all, where the new body is united with our soul, and we take on that which is imperishable, and which is without sin. And so in heaven there's no sorrows, and no sin, and no suffering anymore.

And God has brought us through that state. So just to go over them again, there's before the fall, Augustine would posit, when we're able not to sin. After the fall, when we're not able not to sin. We're always choosing sin in every case. After our regeneration, where we're able to sin and not to sin, and then in heaven when we are unable to sin at all.

Let me tell you another story. Martin Luther in the year 1505, He was just a young man at that time, in his early 20s. He was a student at the university at Erfurt. He was studying law and he went home on a journey just for a time of vacation and on his way back to the university. He was deep in thought, thinking about all the things he had learned in classes up to that point, and didn't realize that there was this tremendous thunderstorm brewing on the horizon, getting closer and closer to him, and the sky was darkening, and he wasn't paying any attention at all, when all of a sudden there was a thunderclap and a stroke of lightning that came racing down and either hit him or hit near him and threw him into the dirt much like the Apostle Paul.

And he looked up, realizing that his life could have been immediately lost at that point, and he said, Saint Anne, Saint Anne, I will become a monk. Well, in all of his superstition, in all of his great zeal, in all of his misunderstanding of who God was, he thought that the path to righteousness was through works and accumulating merit over time in being a monk. Some have said that in regard to Luther, he tried to out-monk all the other monks. He went into the monastery, the Augustinian monastery, and he beat himself daily with a little whip on his back. He starved himself, he stayed up all night praying.

He spent years seeking the Lord, and never did that light dawn until he began to read the scriptures. And they began to open his eyes to understand that the righteousness that he sought was not to be found in his good deeds, but the righteousness that he sought was to be found in Christ alone applied to him. Stephen Lawson writes, Luther came to a dramatic breakthrough and amid his soul struggle he became focused on Romans 1 verse 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Previously Luther had understood the righteousness of God mentioned in this verse to mean his active avenging justice that punishes sinners. He admitted that he hated the righteousness of God, according to this understanding.

But while sitting in the tower of the castle church in Wittenberg, Luther meditated upon this text and wrestled with its meaning. Suddenly as though a ray of divine light had shone into his darkened heart, Luther grasped the true meaning of the text, that the righteousness of God is received as a gift by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Luther says in his own words, at last by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, quote, in it the righteousness of God is revealed as it is written, he through faith is righteous, he through faith is righteous shall live. There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning.

The righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith as it is written, he through faith is righteous shall live. And here I felt that I was altogether born again and entered paradise itself through open gates. Well the testimony of Luther is instructive for us. He tried that path of subduing his body through good works and accumulating merit and trying to make himself worthy, trying to climb that stairway to heaven, but the reality is that none of that works. None of that accomplishes a single thing and making one holy, righteous or sanctified.

But that God through His grace, through a righteousness that was not of Luther, He called it an alien righteousness, not meaning that it came from Mars or Pluto, but that it was foreign to him. It was namely from Christ and that righteousness was applied by God's grace to him and it made all the difference. And he realized that he had been converted and that God had now brought him to a place where the righteousness of Christ gave him standing before the Lord And he was a saint. He was sanctified. But there was more work to be done.

In his own life, he realized as time went along. The Roman Catholic Church criticized Martin Luther is saying, well, that's all fine and good. You talk about your experience with God and the whole idea of being regenerated or born again, but we say that no man can know where they stand with God until that final justification when you die and when you stand before God as one who's been justified by good works and merit, by accumulating grace through participating in the deeds of the church. But Luther replied this, that when it comes to the Christian life, we are at best sinner saints. That we are sinner saints, as those who are semel justus et peccator, meaning at once righteous and at the same time a sinner.

You see, Luther understood the same thing that the Apostle Paul understood about himself. He understood the same thing that Matthew Henry would come to understand about himself. That saved by grace and sanctified by definition We also have much work of subduing the flesh, of mortifying the old man, of putting off the old and putting on the new, yet to do by God's grace. The Westminster Confession in its larger catechism asks the question, what is sanctification? The answer is illuminative and helpful and beneficial, a great summary of scripture.

It says, sanctification is a work of God's grace, whereby they who God hath before the foundation of the world chosen to be holy are in time through the powerful operation of his spirit, applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after the image of God, having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased and strengthened, as they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life. This speaks of both aspects of our definitive sanctification. We are saints by the grace of God, But it also speaks of that progressive sanctification. We have much work yet to do in working out our salvation with fear and trembling. John Newton, the great hymn writer, said of himself, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be, but by the grace of God, I am not what I was.

He later, as he approached the end of his life, said this, when I get to heaven, I suspect I shall see three wonders. The first wonder will be to see many people there whom I did not expect to see. The second wonder will be to miss many people I did expect to see. And the third and the greatest wonder of all will be to find myself there. You see, Newton myself there.

You see, Newton understood the same dynamic. That God works and you work. It's a total monergistic understanding of coming to faith in Christ. God gets all the glory for bringing us to faith in Christ. And God gets all the glory as we seek to please Him and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as we progress in our sanctification as we take upon ourselves the walk of the new self putting off the old man and putting on the new.

And so let us do that in the knowledge that God is at work both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for these words in the text of Colossians, also out of Philippians 2, and the Corinthians. We thank you for all of these texts, Lord, which show us the goodness of your grace, of the work that we must do, because as Christians, we are now saints, but yet, who still in this world struggle with our sin. So help us Lord to persevere.

Help us to take comfort with the fact that having done the great thing of saving us while we were yet sinners, children of disobedience, you also will do the lesser work of keeping us safe as we live out the Christian life with fear and trembling. And so we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to this presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. We invite you to visit our website at www.ncfic.org, where you can keep up to date on what is new, as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons, and much more at no charge.

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