Last week we talked about God’s sovereignty and salvation: His hand in and His heart for His creation. When we understand God’s sovereignty, we can face the future with courage because His plans for us are good and perfect in every way. Though we are responsible for our choices and will answer for our decisions, He will accomplish everything He has ordained for this world.
Today, we will be talking about God’s sovereignty and the work of sanctification. What do I mean by sanctification? The word in the original Greek simply means ‘being set apart to God.’ There are three aspects of sanctification: 1. Positional sanctification, 2. Progressive sanctification, and 3. Permanent sanctification.
The moment anyone places their trust in Christ as their Savior they experience positional sanctification. The person has a new immediate standing where their destiny, identity, and purpose is now on a completely different trajectory. At the moment of salvation, God immediately sanctifies us or sets us apart for Himself, taking us out of the kingdom or rule of darkness and into His kingdom realm. Progressive sanctification is the lifelong process of being transformed into who we were created to be. Permanent sanctification happens once we receive our glorified bodies and are free from sin and death for all of eternity.
Today, we will be focusing on the progressive aspect of sanctification and looking at a passage from the book of Philippians. This aspect of sanctification is a lifelong process that happens as we walk with God personally and in community with other Christians.
Philippians 2:12-18
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.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me (ESV).
Paul, who was writing to the church in Philippi, was both commending them for how they were following the Lord and exhorting them to continue living out their faith in their secular surroundings. He was teaching the church what it looks like to be set apart for Christ and His purposes. As Jesus laid down His life for the church, He was setting an example for us to die to ourselves and lay down our lives for others.
What does it mean to mature in the faith - to grow in sanctification? How are we being set apart to God as a church? Today we will be talking about God’s sovereignty and the:
Purpose of Sanctification
Process of Sanctification
Practice of Sanctification
1. The Purpose of Sanctification
The purpose of sanctification can be compared to the TV show, Extreme Home Makeover, where home experts are invited into someone’s sub-par, substandard housing situation. They are usually in this type of housing situation because of some tragic life circumstance. These experts see what the place is like but have a vision for what the place can actually become. So they begin their demolition work, ripping down walls, removing old paint, wallpapers, wiring, pipes etc. This is a very popular show. Why? Because everyone loves a good makeover; we’re amazed by the before and after shots and love the response of the homeowner whose place has been totally transformed into a place of beauty and rest. The purpose of this show is to make it clear to the viewer that no matter what shape the home may be in, in the right hands, it can be transformed.
God also loves a good makeover! Once we invite Him into our lives, the Master Builder begins to dismantle the old edifice of our lives - removing the rotted and corroded things and lays a new and everlasting foundation (1 Cor 3:11). He then begins to build our lives up from the foundation, using eternal building materials, filling each room with His precious and pleasant riches and treasures, so that our lives begin to reflect the handiwork of our Savior. God has a vision of what our lives can become but it will take time, effort, resources, and constant maintenance. The house will be subject to the elements, to wear and tear, and maybe even to occasional earthquakes. The purpose of sanctification, no matter who you are or where you have come from, is to transform you, conform you into Christ’s image so that you reflect His life more and more. When we place our lives into the hands of God He begins the process of transformation and it is a work in progress. One scholar said:
But we know that at times we are so far from what we ought to be but by God’s grace, we are so thankful that we are not what we used to be!
When God saves us, we are immediately placed in His family and He designs each of us to grow in community. We now share this common life, destiny, and purpose with other believers. As God continues His active work of sanctification in the life of the church, we are growing together, revealing Christ to each other, expressing genuine love and care for each other.
Paul's concern for the Philippian church was that they would absorb the ways and morals of the culture around them which would eventually eat away at their convictions and destroy their testimony. He wanted to remind them that God’s plan wasn’t just to save them and get them to heaven. God saved them for more than just heaven - He saved them to be salt and light in a dark, twisted world, to shine like lights in the firmament, and to prepare them for all of eternity.
Let’s look at the:
2. Process of Sanctification
In verse 12 he says: “My beloved.” Paul is speaking to the church who consistently lived the Christian life, not only in his presence - but even when no one was looking. They weren't doing good to be noticed by people or to impress those who had power or influence. It’s easy to show your Christian enthusiasm when you have a large audience, it’s quite another thing to live faithfully and consistently in your home, work, and in the church when no one is watching and when no one seems to care or appreciate your work. This church had integrity, they were the same on the inside as the outside, and Paul's presence or absence didn’t change how they served the Lord.
Paul told them to “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” This sentence is in the present tense and “work out” comes from the word katergázomai: a verb used when figuring out a mathematical equation - literally to carry the work through to its conclusion. In your day to day life, figuring out with God what belongs and doesn’t belong in the equation, what will and will not contribute to healthy, fruitful Christian living because you are aware of how this will affect others in the church and ultimately the church’s testimony to the world.
“Your salvation” can have a wide application here but most scholars agree that the word salvation here refers to “to becoming whole and complete.” The word salvation here is not talking about eternal salvation but about our growth and maturity as it affects family, friends, and the corporate health of the church. Sanctification speaks about the whole being. If we want to live spiritually healthy lives then we will give attention to our physical, mental, emotional health as well. We will consider our diet, exercise, getting enough physical, mental, and emotional rest, having personal and corporate times of worship, and quality time with family and friends. As a whole being, we shouldn’t depreciate the body, emotions, or intellect as we are called to live a balanced life with God at the center.
“With fear and trembling” means living with an awareness that you are always in the presence of God and that your life always affects others.
So is maturing in the faith completely up to us? Do we think that God saves us and then expects us to do the rest? We do play a role in our own sanctification process. We are certainly called to obedience, and how we live and the decisions we make everyday matter. However, in recognizing that God is sovereign, we can trust Him and know that He will bring us to maturity (Gal 3:3; Phil 1:6). Paul wrote,
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 (Phil 1:6).
And to the church in Ephesus he wrote,
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10).
If you look at vs. 13, it says, “For it is God.” This is a pivotal phrase and the key to being transformed and set apart. If salvation and sanctification were up to us, then why did Christ need to die in the first place? We were without a way, we were lost, without hope, and destined to hell for eternity.
But God, being [so very] rich in mercy, because of His great and wonderful love with which He loved us, even when we were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us [spiritually] alive together with Christ (for by His grace--His undeserved favor and mercy--you have been saved from God’s judgment) (Eph 2:4-5 AMP).
We can trust that our preeminent, powerful God works through His Spirit and through His Word in (among) you (plural) in the body of Christ to bring about His good purposes. The Spirit is now at work giving us, witnessing that we are His children (and not His slaves), and bearing eternal fruit in our lives, revealing that we truly are in Christ (vv. 15–17). As the Spirit indwells us, He gives us godly desires, guides and leads us, gives us the wisdom, understanding, and power to work out what God has worked in. What is interesting is that when Paul writes, “you” in this passage in Philippians it’s in the plural. We were not meant to figure life out alone but with God and side-by-side with others.
This brings us to our third point:
3. The Practice of Sanctification
Just like there are no shortcuts to becoming a professional musician or athlete there are no shortcuts for genuine growth and transformation, in fact it takes a deep work. There is no super pill that causes instant growth, strength, or maturity. It’s normal to be drawn to flashy events or mega conferences in the hope of being instantly transformed, but it's the day-to-day on the job training in real life scenarios that God uses that causes us to grow up. Whether it’s struggles we face at the workplace, or in the home, family relationships, or in the church - it’s easy to justify running from the very circumstances that God has many times preordained to conform us into His Son’s image. These difficult times and situations are what bring us to the end of ourselves and exactly what He uses to refine and sanctify our lives.
This call to work out your salvation has to do with your relationships in the context of the local church. We are challenged to work out the attitudes and actions that have the potential to do great harm to the body of Christ and His testimony. How are we going to respond to the challenges, difficulties, and trials that we as a church will inevitably face?
Paul says: Do all things without grumbling or disputing - Why are these mentioned?
Grumbling speaks about secret displeasure, discontentment, and disappointment, not openly spoken but those which fester in the heart. Paul is referring back to the Israelites who murmured against God’s plan, provisions, and His leaders and these people never made it to the Promised Land. Instead they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, on a journey that could have taken 11 days. They faced the same tests again and again and failed every time because they never trusted God at His Word, never got victory, never grew up, and never moved on. Murmuring will rob the life and joy from any church.
The second thing that rips the fabric of peace and unity in a church is complaining. This is a temptation for anyone in the church, especially when things don’t go the way that you had hoped or expected because your hope is in people and not in God. At some point, the pastor, the elders, life group leaders, musicians, greeters, even your closest friends will disappoint you. It is a fact of life. What will you do? Leave? Get too busy to be part of the body of Christ or pretend everything is fine? Or will you work through these disappointments and discontentment with God and learn to work with and love others in the body of Christ? This is why it is important to have healthy friendships in the church, people that will walk with you. The question is: who are you allowing to speak into your life and whose life are you speaking into?
God wants the church to be a proclaiming church, not a complaining church. Why? Because our lives are on display. You are on display in front of other Christians in the body of Christ and nonChristian friends and peers who are waiting to see how you are going to handle life.
What was Paul telling us in this passage? That we are to be set apart to God and the church is to be blameless, a church with integrity, unstained by what’s crooked and twisted in the world while living in the midst of it. God sets us apart but we determine how far we will allow Him to take us as He shows us the areas that belong and don’t belong in our lives. Let’s allow Him to build the house, to fill our rooms with precious and pleasant riches, to prepare us as His bride for all of eternity.
