Scripture Introduction
It was over two years ago when I first contacted Robert about serving as your pastor. He returned to me a document, The Church of the Covenant Core Values, the first sentence of which reads: “We are a Gospel-driven Church.” About that conviction, the session notes: “We believe that the gospel is not simply the door of entry to the Christian life, but that the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ must be preached both to believers and unbelievers as the key to justification and sanctification. We believe that when the gospel is preached in its fullness and comprehensiveness, with clarity, we will see that we are much worse sinners than we ever dared to dream, but that God’s grace is much greater than we ever dared to hope. We believe that this is exactly where God wants us to be.”
Those are critical statements, undermining the false view that we mature in the Christian life differently than we enter it. Because my sinful heart likes to deny the gospel, I am always tempted to live as if godliness were the Spirit’s duty and my work. That is precisely backward. It is the duty of every person to believe the good news of Jesus Christ—but it is the Spirit’s work of new birth which creates and enables such faith. Likewise, it is the duty of every Christian to put to death sinful desires—but it is God’s work of union with Christ and spiritual transformation which creates true righteousness and holiness.
In our study of “The Dynamic Church,” this really is the dynamic that undergirds all else. It is first in our core values and could have been first in this series. But we do better to think of this as the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the reminder I seek to preach to myself everyday and to you every Sunday. The gospel is not something we outgrow, like baby food for new Christians; it is more like the amino acids that form all healthy foods—milk and steak.
Probably the most famous Christian in the world is the Apostle Paul, and he preached gospel-driven sanctification in every sermon and letter. We read it today from his message to the Colossians. [Read Colossians 2.6-15. Pray.]
Introduction
One Sunday morning Helen and I attended the town’s largest evangelical church. We were surprised that the worship program announced a sermon on the Eighth Commandment. I was not expecting a growing, contemporary church to preach so clearly on the ten commandments.
I must be careful of being mean or overly critical, but I think I can fairly summarize the message as: “The Bible says, ‘Do not steal,’ because stealing is very bad. Here are many Bible references which prove this.” [The pastor then ranged throughout the Bible to give clear examples of stealing and to show that God is against theft. He even quoted Malachi 3, noting that failing to tithe was robbing God. He concluded by saying,] “So do not steal, for it will get you into big trouble, with society, but especially with God. It may look good, but in the end it leads to death.”
What intrigued me was not the preaching of the law, though I did not expect that at an evangelical mega-church. Two things intrigued me.
First, the sermon failed to address the power and pervasiveness of sin. The Bible certainly says, “Do not steal,” and the killing of the flesh is my duty. But my inability to obey on my own was never mentioned. Listen to Romans 7: “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Romans 7.14-20). Stacking up Bible reminders of the prohibition against stealing does not overcome sin’s power.
Sin is also pervasive — it infects more than my outward behaviors. The pastor well described the record of debt owed by those who pocket office supplies, fudge on their taxes, fail to correct the waiter’s mistake in their favor, and refuse to give to the Lord’s work. Such stealing is wrong. But he never spoke to the machinations of the heart which grabs glory from God by eyeing my honor in everything that I do. He never exposed my desire to steal created by my envy of my neighbor and anger over the prosperity of the wicked. This is why our catechism reminds us that sanctification is not perfect in any believer in this life because of the remnants of sin which remain in every part of us, and the continuous sinful cravings of the flesh against the spirit, through which even our “best works are imperfect and defiled in the sight of God” (See Westminster Larger Catechism #77 and 78).
There was a second, more important, surprise to me: the sermon failed to reveal the power of the gospel. Because stealing was limited to external acts (taking post-it pads home for the kids and cheating on taxes), I could obey without the help of the Holy Spirit. Unlike our church’s Core Values, the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ was not offered as the key to sanctification. I was not shown to be worse sinner than I ever dared dream; as a result, the grace of God was not greater than I ever dared to hope.
This is a common error in understanding the Christian life: the gospel saves; our good works sanctify. Here are two (of many) authors writings about this.
Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (1692): “Notwithstanding all the light of the gospel, we commonly think that we must get a holy frame by producing it anew in ourselves, and by forming and working it out of our own hearts. Therefore, many that are seriously devout strive earnestly to master their sinful lusts and press vehemently on their hearts many motives to godliness, laboring importunately to squeeze good qualifications out of them, as oil out of flint. They account that, though they be justified by a righteousness wrought out by Christ, yet they must be sanctified by a holiness wrought out by themselves…. They that are convinced of their own sin and misery, do commonly first think to tame the flesh, and to subdue and root out its lusts, and to make their corrupt nature to be better natured, and inclined to holiness, by their struggling and wrestling with it. And if they can but bring their hearts to a full purpose and resolution to do the best that lies in them, they hope, that, by such a resolution, they shall be able to achieve great enterprises, in the conquest of their lusts, and the performance of the most difficult duties” (Sovereign Grace Publishers, 2001, 21, 95).
G. C. Berkhouwer, Faith and Sanctification, 1952, “The moment sanctification is ejected from the temple of faith, and hence of justification, that moment justification by faith has become an initial stage on the pilgrim’s journey, a supply-station which later becomes a pleasant memory. Successive stages would follow, that of sanctification for instance, and in this stage it would be up to man to act. Understood in this fashion, the distinction between justification and sanctification would amount to assigning the one act wholly to God and the other wholly to man. Sanctification would then be described as a series of devout acts and works performed by the previously justified man.” Thus, in this erroneous view, “man…is not called upon to justify but to purify himself.”
Since we have determined to be a gospel-driven church, and since the gospel is the dynamic or power for sanctification, we do well to conclude this series by focusing specifically on the relationship between beginning the Christian life and progressing in it, between justification and sanctification.
1. Progress in the Christian Life Continues As It Began (Colossians 2.6)
Please note well the exact words: “as you received…so walk”; they contain at least two critical principles.
First, remember that faith in Christ does not culminate the spiritual life, but begin it. We are very often confused just here — we think that “receiving Christ,” or “professing faith in Jesus,” or “acknowledging him to be our Savior and God” — that these are the end and essence of what it means to be a Christian. Instead the text says, “you received, now walk.” Since you began, now you must continue.
A second critical principle is in the connection between the way we progress and the way we began; they are the same. As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so you must progress with him. There is not one way of beginning the Christian life (by faith), with a different way of advancing (by works). Justification is an act of “God’s free grace”; sanctification is a work of “God’s free grace.” One is an act — God acts one time for all. The other is a work — God works over time, transforming us into the image of the Christ “from one degree of glory to another” (2Corinthians 3.18). In both cases, as in Hebrews 13.21, the way is the same: free grace. It is God who is “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.”
Or, as Paul writes in another place: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3.1-3). Two warnings are here.
First, some vainly imagine that the point of Christianity is to accept Jesus, so that you can escape hell while living for your own pleasure. But “Christ Jesus the Lord” offers no such option. He is “Lord”; that mean to receive him is to accept him as your captain and commander, to lay down control of your own life, knowing that your will stands continually against God. As your pastor, as one entrusted to watch out for your soul, I’m not interested in your mere repeating of the right words. I want you to change allegiance — from that of sin and self to the Savior who is Christ the Lord! This is a warning to pretenders.
The second warning is to the Pharisee that clings to us all. This passage reminds us that we all must struggle against the flesh to walk by faith. Believing the gospel, walking in him as you received him, is the fight of faith.
Dr. Richard Lovelace (Gordon-Conwell Seminary), Dynamics of the Spiritual Life, 214: “A ministry which leads to genuine sanctification and growth avoids moralism (whether it takes the form of denunciation or pet talks), first by making clear the deep rootage of sin-problems in the flesh so that the congregation is not battling these in the dark, and then by showing that every victory over the flesh is won by faith in Christ, laying hold of union with him in death and resurrection and relying on his Spirit for power over sin. Presented in this context, even the demand for sanctification becomes part of the good news. It offers understanding of the bondage which has distorted our lives and of the promise of release into a life of Spirit-empowered freedom and beauty. Ministries which attack only the surface of sin and fail to ground spiritual growth in the believers union with Christ produce either self-righteousness or despair, and both of these conditions are inimical to spiritual life.”
The sin nature wants credit for growth in holiness, even if it must also take the blame for failures. It demands ownership so that it can take credit from God. Only faith in Christ gives glory to God for progress in the Christian life.
2. Progress in the Christian Life Grows Deeper In Christ (Colossians 2.7a)
There is no true Christianity without growth, and there is no growth without nurture by Jesus. These are not commands, as if Paul were begging us to be rooted and growing in Christ. Instead, they are participles, descriptions of what the Christian life looks like. In other words, you will know if you are a true Christian by this: you will be rooted in Christ and built up in Christ. Your spiritual life will be nurtured by Jesus, and this will result in spiritual fruit.
You will depend on the Word of Christ to guide and direct your life. You will pray to God in Jesus’ name, believing that he makes you acceptable with the Father. You will find the confidence to be a humble servant by imitating Christ, knowing that those who trust him receive a good reward. You will engage in mercy ministry in the name of Christ Jesus, and you witness to the work of Christ in your life.
A great many people make the mistake of thinking that Christian maturity means learning to do right without depending on God. Absolutely not—maturity is greater dependence, as the young tree stretches out its roots and draws more water and nutrients from the soil. Are your roots in Christ, and are you growing in dependence on him?
3. Progress in the Christian Life Believes the Gospel (Colossians 2.7b)
It is easy to imagine that the Christian life works this way: I believe in Jesus in order to become a Christian; now I must obey the rules to remain one. But the heart and soul of remaining a Christian is faith, just as it was in coming to Christ.
“All who rely on works of the law are under a curse” — for sanctification as surely as for justification. “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Dr. Richard Lovelace, “Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives…. Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in the quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude” (101).
Repent and believe is not simply the work of those who do not know Christ Jesus as Lord; it is the work every Christian every day.
4. Progress in the Christian Life Results in Thanksgiving (Colossians 2.7c)
Why must the true Christian, the one who walking in Christ as she received him, the one who is growing and maturing and believing the gospel — why must that believer be marked by overflowing gratitude? Because the Christian who is living the life of faith described in Colossians 2 knows that “from him and through him and to him are all things”; therefore, she says, “To him be glory forever. Amen.”
There is no place for pride, because “in him we live and move and have our being.” There is no room for self-exaltation, because “we put no confidence in the flesh.” There is demand for congratulations, because “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”
Yes, the duty of obedience is mine; but all the work is Christ’s! And since we believe that holiness is happiness, we cannot help but be grateful to God for the blessings of the walk of faith.
John Bunyan wrote: “Run, John, run, the law commands, But gives us neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings: It bids us fly and gives us wings.”
The law correctly reveals what is right and holy and good: you shall not steal. But it offers no power for obedience. I have far better news for you. “The grace of God has appeared: training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2.11-12).
The gospel, not the law, is the power of God for salvation and sanctification. Let us recommit ourselves to being a gospel-driven church. Amen.f
