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Sanctification
RO80-01© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1977)
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:19-23. Our subject continues to be "Two Kinds of Slavery."
Truth
It is a self-evident fact which often is forgotten that people act on the basis of what they believe to be the truth. Beliefs may actually be true,
or they may be merely false assumptions which are not true, but which are treated as truths. In any case, a person acts upon what he thinks is the
truth. False assumptions evolve from subjective feelings, which is the way most people deal with their problems and the way most people try to
think – with subjective feelings on an emotional basis rather than on the basis of objective facts. These emotions, of course, are easily
stimulated and directed by Satan. So, decisions are made and actions are taken moment-by-moment in our eyes on the basis of whatever we believe is
true, whether it actually is true or not. If we think it's true, that's what we act upon.
Consequences
These actions result in consequences that become part of one's eternity, and I think that's a good way of putting it. I was driving in my car the
other day, thinking about this subject, and all of a sudden this combination hit me – that we make decisions that result in consequences that
become part of our eternity. That puts a degree of seriousness upon what we decide to do. There is a lot of frivolous decision making by Christians
because they think that, "Well, it won't make any difference." Decisions are made under an emotional moment: either we're mad about something; we
want to get vengeance; we're indignant; or, we want to prove a point, and we want to strike back. And we forget that the action taken has
consequences that become part of our eternity – and permanently part of our eternity.
Eternity
When we talk about what is eternal, just like eternal life, we're not talking about something that you can change – something that's going
to be here now, and it's going to be removed later.
So, all of a sudden, what you and I, as Christians do as a result of what we think, which is based upon what we believe to be true, takes on a
degree of importance and seriousness that maybe we generally do not attribute to it. When our actions are motivated by real truth, they result in
eternal gain and blessing. When our actions are motivated by false assumptions, the result is eternal loss and regret. In either case, the
consequences become part of our eternity. It isn't just part of this life. And a lot of people are counting on the fact that the ups and downs of
this life, and the bad moments of this life, and the bad decisions, and the bad moves of this life, are all going to be left behind. And while it
is true that, in eternity, there is no more sorrow; there are no more tears; there is no more grieving; and there is no more death, we go out into
that eternity in a certain condition relative to rewards. And decisions that you and I make now must always be viewed in terms of the fact that
they become part of our eternity, and you live with them forever.
Beliefs about how to be saved, for example, lead to actions whose consequences become part of one's eternity. You are seeing on television the Muslim
belief for salvation. And you saw the other day, as they came to the high point of the holy day, people were walking through the streets with whips
with which they were striking themselves – hitting themselves over the back with chains and whips of one kind and another, in order to punish
themselves for what purpose? In order to gain favor with God; in order to punish themselves for the evil; and, in order to gain God's blessing.
Now, what you saw on television was people who are taking an action upon what they believe to be true, and they have followed that action to
certain consequences which are going to become part of their eternity. And every one of those human beings that you saw striking themselves with
these whips are going straight into the lake of fire as the consequence of acting upon a belief that is a false assumption. They think that it's
true, but it's going to become part of their eternity, and the consequences are going to be sorrow.
The beliefs of Christians, therefore, governing our actions have a very serious result upon our eternity relative to our rewards. Every decision
you and I make becomes part of our eternity, and very directly affects our rewards, because those rewards are going to reflect your decision-making
process, and your relationship to Him in this life. And the rewards are going to be a very live actual thing that you're going to live with for all
eternity. You're never going to change it. You're never going to increase those rewards. You're never going to decrease them. Your actions now
determine that, and it's going to be part and parcel with you forever. So, these decisions have eternal consequences which are permanent.
Human Viewpoint and Divine Viewpoint
Now the beliefs of people, we are finding from our study in Romans, are the result of their enslavement to the sin nature, or to their enslavement
to absolute righteousness. Unbelievers are slaves to the inborn propensity to evil, and so they really lack real truth. We call that human
viewpoint. Christians are slaves of Jesus Christ, so they possess actual truth because they are slaves of absolute righteousness. We call that
divine viewpoint.
Carnal Christians
Carnal Christians fall into the category of being dominated at certain points in their lives by the sin nature. So, they, at that point lack,
divine viewpoint truth on which to make judgments for actions. So, once you're a Christian, this does not remove you from the possibility of
taking actions that create consequences that you'd just as soon not have as part of your eternity. A carnal Christian creates just as many serious
consequences for as eternity as the unbeliever does, and in many respects even worse, because God holds you more accountable for the truth.
Grace
So, without real truth, you cannot follow God's perfect will to receive maximum blessing and joy. Real truth is the only way upon which God
blesses you. Remember that we illustrated that once more by the fact that God has a channel of blessing, and that channel of blessing is called
grace. And that blessing, at one end, has perfect justice. Perfect justice looks for some place to deliver divine blessings. And there's only one
place that God's justice can deliver divine blessings, and that's to absolute righteousness. There is nothing else that God's perfect justice will
permit Him to bless except absolute righteousness.
Now the only way you and I, as human beings, can to receive this blessing is on the basis of grace. Grace has to deliver to us God's blessing.
Grace takes perfect justice and makes it possible for us as human beings to possess absolute righteousness. And once we have absolute righteousness,
there we are, sitting out at the end of the pipeline of grace blessing, and God is just showering blessing down all over us, as long as we haven't
thrown the plug in the line. And that plug is evil, either in the form of sin or human good – one or the other. And as long as that plug isn't
there, grace is free to flow blessing through us. That plug has to be taken out by confession of the known sin.
That's the arrangement that we're dealing with. But without real truth, you cannot live by this. You cannot live under this condition, and you
cannot expect to find God's perfect blessing and God's perfect joy. If you are a Christian, and you come along with an assumption of something to
be true which is false, you've thrown a plug in the line. Consequently, you have cut yourself off from blessings, and the consequences are part of
your eternity. You lose it now, and you lose it forever there.
Reality
Now, Bible doctrine is what gives us the knowledge to provide us with real truth for the decision-making process. And being positive to doctrine
preserves our contact with reality and the decisions we make. And that's the problem. Once this plug is in the line, the thing that has happened
is that you have lost contact with reality. In other words, reality is the way God thinks. It's the way God works. And what you are seeing in the
Muslim world today during their holy season, in their attempt to approach God, is lack of touch with reality. They don't have the faintest notion
about how God thinks and how God works relative to human sin and to salvation. They're out of touch with reality.
Well, a Christian puts himself in this same position. Once he has plugged up the line, he has no reality. Then what kind of decisions does he make?
There is only one kind you can make, and that's human viewpoint to the core. And again I remind you that the consequences become part of your
eternity. They are unchangeable, and they are eternal.
The Victorian Age
Now, every era of mankind, as you know, has reflected the fact of its enslavement to the sin nature. We have had some eras of human history where
this may seem like it wasn't as bad. For example, we talk about the Victorian age. The Victorian age was the age which was ruled by England when
England was the ruling empire of the world, and Queen Victoria had that monumental long reign of (I don't know) 50-some years as the ruling monarch
of England. And it was viewed as an era of great integrity and of great moral purity.
However, the fact of the matter is that the Victorian age was not an age of great moral purity. It was an age of great immorality. It was an age
which simply covered up the immorality that was taking place. And this was as true in the upper echelons of society as it was in the lower levels
of society.
The Churchill Family
We think of the Churchill family. Churchill's father, on a drunken visit to a prostitute, when he was 20 years old, contracted syphilis. At 45, he
died, though he was a member of Parliament, and he died a horrible death. Churchill's mother, Jenny, that he adored so, was an adulterous several
times over. Queen Victoria's son, Edward himself, lived a profligate life. He lived a life of sexual immorality. He lived a life of sensuality.
He lived a life of gluttony. His father, Prince Albert, died as the result of contracting a fever when he had taken a trip in order to try to
straighten out one of his son's adulterous relationships.
Now this was in the ruling echelons of the empire. Here was the people who were carrying on the influence upon all of the nation. One of the prime
ministers of England, Gladstone, in that era, said that he had known 11 previous English prime ministers, and every one of them was an adulterer.
Now that's the Victorian era that we talk about with such admiration as being a reflection of a time when people did a lot better. That is not so.
There never was a golden era of mankind, because mankind has always been a slave of the sin nature. And what I'm trying to do here with Romans 6:19
is to try to convey to you what it means to say that you're a slave of sin nature. People read that verse and say, "Oh, yeah, well, you know, we do
bad things." It's more than that. It's things that become part of our eternity, and it's the things that affect our nation. It's a thing that
affects mankind in a widely dispersed way.
Teddy Kennedy at Chappaquiddick
Well, is it any better today? No. We still have demonstration today that we are under the domination of the sin nature – slaves to the sin
nature. If you want to read an interesting book, I'm going to quote a paragraph or two from it now. It is a book that may come into the forefront
of a lot of thinking today as we approach this presidential campaign. It's called Teddy Bare, and it tells the story of Senator Edward
Kennedy's experience at Chappaquiddick Island and the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. It is written by Zad Rust. It is published by Western Islands.
If you ask for it, you will find it in bookstores. And you have a beautiful picture of what's his name on the front cover.
This book is a very factual book. It gives you all the pursuit of this terrible tragedy. But at the end of the book comes this conclusion, which I
think again demonstrates our point: slavery of men to the sin nature, and the serious consequences both now for us and for people eternally. The
final chapter is called "Conclusion."
It says, "It might be asked from Pearl Harbor; Yalta; Operation Keelhaul; the handing over of China to the
communist beast; the betrayal of the Hungarian patriots; the Contango Infamy; the Bay of Pigs; the establishment of the Soviet stronghold in Cuba;
the protection of traitors and criminals; unilateral disarmament; and, no-win wars in Korea and Vietnam have been accepted, when systematic
corruption of teenagers and younger children by pornographic literature and so-called sex education in the schools; the invasion of the streets
by looters, arsonists and snipers; confinement in a mental institution by simple administrative decision; or, the arbitrary ruling of a judge;
the public defilement of the national flag, and the glorification of that of the enemy; the outlawing by the courts of the land of the name of God,
and of the display of the cross are looked at with indifference, why make such a fuss about the death of a girl – a simple secretary found in
a submerged car in a tidal pond, whatever the circumstances of the accident?
"Yes, this might be asked. Yet in the most recesses of their consciences; their feelings; and, their presentments, millions have understood, at
least for a while, that while the moment when the body of that young girl was found in that car, in the tidal waters of that remote island, and
the moment when Edward M. Kennedy was reelected to the United States Senate by the electorate of the state where the accident occurred, something
had happened in this country commensurate with the outrages recalled above. Millions have understood, at least for a while, that what had happened
had plunged the American community still deeper into the zone of callous insensibility of mental and moral asphyxiation, where it could not live
much longer without coagulating into a faceless mass of political robots, broken to the harshness of a satanic and lethal power – a power
which, since the very beginning of the Roosevelt era, has been driving the United States, and with it, the whole world of Western civilization,
toward surrender and perdition."
You just have to read the book, and you cannot believe that a sovereign state, and that the Supreme Court of that state, would have pulled the
strings and pulled the shenanigans that the state of Massachusetts did in order to preserve this man from the consequences of the evil that he was
engaged in. Why is this? It is because the Supreme Court judges of the state of Massachusetts, like everyone else, are men who are slaves of the
sin nature. Consequently, they serve the purposes of evil as well as anyone else.
There has never been a golden age of mankind because they have all been enslaved to the sin nature. Human viewpoint today tells us that man's
condition in the world today is due to his environment rather than his enslavement to evil. For this reason, we see that the personal responsibility
for one's action is removed. Society is blamed for evil because of the social environment which society has created.
However, the Bible says that that is not the case. We shall learn a little later here in Romans 14:12 that God declares that everybody is held
accountable for his own choices. That is part of a divine institution number one, the divine institution of personal volition and responsibility.
Romans 14:12 says, "So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God." That is in direct contrast to modern psychiatry and
psychological viewpoint – that society is to blame through environment for what people do.
You may add Galatians 6:7: "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he also reap." And what that verse is saying is that
you are directly responsible for your decisions and for your actions.
Now because the world today rejects the fact of enslavement to the sin nature, and thus to Satan, there is no hope for correction of this problem
until Jesus Christ himself actually returns and is ruling this world. Society (thinking that environment is the problem) will never be able to
correct the problems that we suffer from.
Humanism and Marxism believe that man can be perfected; the society can be perfected; that it can be done now; and, that all it has to have is a
proper economic situation to do it. But the Bible says, "No, we are slaves of the sin nature. That is the problem."
So, the only source of real truth today about man's moral condition is from those who are slaves of absolute righteousness – people like
yourselves. You are the only source of real truth about society's problems and the solution. Therefore, you have upon you a very serious
responsibility (not a pleasant responsibility), and one for which you will suffer. This is part of the Christian life suffering. Here is one place
that you as a Christian will suffer as you try to execute the responsibility of the fact that you are not a slave of the sin nature. You are a
slave of absolute righteousness. Therefore, you have enlightenment. Therefore, you know something that the world has to be taught.
Turn to Ezekiel 3:18-19. Ezekiel is being viewed as a watchman who stands at a tower who is responsible for supervising and warning the people
of Israel. Here is a spiritual principle that has application to us: "When I say unto the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and give him not warning,
nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at
your hand. Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turns not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have
delivered your soul."
Notice a little explanation of "His blood I will require blood at your hand" in and Genesis 9:5. This statement is made relative to first degree
murder: "And surely your blood of your lies will I require. At the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of every man, and at the
hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheds man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He
man." If you take a life willfully by premeditated planning, you have taken something that is in the image of God, and for that you must die. Your
blood is required of you.
What does that phrase mean? That phrase means that you will be punished for it. The phrase means that you will be judged for it. The phrase means
that you will receive divine consequences for your actions, and that they will be part of your eternity.
It is interesting that Ezekiel should use that very phrase to convey this to us. If you know, because you are a slave of righteousness, where our
society is going; where individuals are going; what they're doing; and, the consequences of the decisions they're making, and you keep your mouth
shut, and you don't tell them (you don't warn them), God said, "I am going to hold you responsible enough for punishment. I'm going to bring judgment
upon you for the fact that you didn't speak up." You said, "Well, I don't want to make waves. I don't want to get people mad at me. I don't want to
be the brunt of somebody's antagonism. I don't want somebody to put pressure on me.
Preachers are very prone to this. Preachers are supposed to build up big congregations. And every preacher knows before he gets out of seminary that
there are certain things he shouldn't talk about. The prophet Ezekiel was told, "Ezekiel, if you don't speak out, and these people go to destruction
(because, as we're going to see, the consequences ultimately are death of various kinds), you are going to be punished for the fact that you knew,
and you didn't put out a hand to warn these people and to sound forth. That's why we try to tell you what it means to be a slave of the sin nature
relative to economics in this country in our society; relative to morality in our society; relative to education in our society; and, relative to
politics in our society, so that you have a frame of reference. You don't have to believe it. All you have to do is listen to it, and then you make
your own decision whether you think it merits the classification as being true or not true. And you can forget it, or you can act upon it. But your
decisions will become part of your eternity. And at least you should have the information. That's what Ezekiel was told by the Lord.
Now let's look at the other side: Verses 20-21. This is about a person who's doing right. Verses 18-19 told about the person who's not doing right,
and what you should do. How about the one who's doing right? "Again when a righteous man turns from his righteousness (a believer starts doing
wrong), and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sins.
And his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered. But his blood will I require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warned the righteous
man that the righteous sin not, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he is warned. Also, you have delivered your soul."
You delivered him from divine judgment and discipline, and you have delivered yourself from discipline, because to the believer you said, "Hey,
wait a minute. I want to tell you something. You're out of line. You're not acting on God's principles. You are bringing judgment upon yourself.
You're taking a course of action which will have consequences that will become part of your eternity. And out in eternity, you will regret that
they are with you, and you will wish you hadn't done it, and you wish that you hadn't made this part of your eternity. Christians, as the slaves
of absolute righteousness, are the only hope the world has, and the only source of information.
You and I, before conversion, Paul has taught us here in Romans 6:19, were slaves of the sin nature. And when we were that, we placed our bodies
at the disposal of our sin nature master for the purpose of filthiness and lawlessness. You remember that those were the two words. He said, "The
slave nature results in filthiness and lawlessness. And the goal of the sin nature is a style," he says, "of iniquity." And the word "iniquity" is
again translated as "lawlessness." So, you may have a lifestyle which can be described by the word "lawless" – that is independent of God.
Adam had the power to choose good as well as to choose evil. Don't forget that. He had the power to choose. Adam chose to be lawless. So, he
disobeyed God. He broke the law. Adam produced, consequently, a posterity (Paul has taught us) which is now enslaved to the lifestyle of
lawlessness against God. That is the primary characteristic of our society today – lawlessness against God. So, man's greatest problem is
alienation from God. It is not environment. Man's problem is not his environment; man's problem is not clothing; his problem is not shelter; his
problem is not money; his problem is not food; his problem is not medical care; and his problem is not adequate recreation. His problem is
alienation from God because he's a slave of the sin nature. Now that is what the apostle Paul looked at our past and said, "This is what you used
to be."
Then if you look at the last part of verse 19, he says, "Let's change it. That isn't the way it is with you anymore." He begins with the word "Even
so, now yield your members slaves to absolute righteousness unto sanctification." "Even so" looks like this in the Greek "houtos." This is an adverb,
and it means "in this way."
You remember that we said that there was a comparison in this verse. The first part of the comparison was: "For as you have yielded the parts of
your body (those are the members) as slaves to filthiness and to lawlessness." As you have done that, that's the first part. Now the conclusion is
introduced by this word: "In the same way that you were a slave to evil, now I want you to be in the same way." That's what this means: "In just
the same way, I want you to be a slave to righteousness.
Slaves of Evil
Now, what kind of a way is that? What kind of a pattern characterized slavery to the sin nature? Well, there are certain things we can point out.
Pursuit of Evil
First of all, when you were a slave of the sin nature, you devoted vast amounts of time to the pursuit of evil. All of your free time was readily
devoted to pursuing evil. When the weekend came, after your week's work, you pursued things of evil on the whole weekend. You looked forward to the
weekend to be devoted to your personal pursuits of evil of one kind and another. You claimed to have a busy life, but that was only relative to
spiritual activities. Oh, you were very busy when it came to spiritual activities. You were very busy when it comes to the things of God in those
days when you are an unbeliever. But you had no limit of time to pursue your greed; to pursue your lusts; and, to pursue your pride.
You can develop this yourself. You know very well that people who are slaves of sin have no limits on their time relative to the pursuit of the
pleasures of evil. The slaves of the sin nature make time to do the things they want to do of an evil nature.
Make Time
Now the Lord says, "If you're going to be one of my people, as a slave of righteousness, I want you to act the same way. That's what Paul is saying.
"Houtos" – "just as." So, don't come around and say, "Oh, I'm so busy. I just cannot do this – the thing that the Lord's work needs me
to do, and that the church needs me to do. I'm just so pressed. I just don't have time." You had plenty of time, and you still have plenty of time
for pursuit of evil. When the Lord's service calls you, make time.
Christian Service Means not doing Something Else
Don't ever forget the principle that Christian service means not doing something else. And if you haven't memorized that little phrase yet,
you've missed one of the gems of the Berean ministry. Christian Service means not doing something else. Then you have time for what the Lord
wants you to do. You had it in the days of your evil. You had it in the days of your enslavement to evil.
Unlimited Energy for Evil
There is a second characteristic that is behind this "houtos" – "just as." And that is that slaves of the sin nature have unlimited energy
for evil activities. The materialist never tires insatiating his greed for money. He never tires insatiating his greed for money. There is no lack
of energy to pursue material things. The pleasures of sin, furthermore, are pursued at all hours of the night after a hard day's work. The same
person that doesn't have any energy relative to anything that deals with God, will be able to dance away half the night, and still be at work on
time the next morning. He'll have no limits of energy for the pursuit of evil. Slaves of the sin nature always come up with a new burst of energy
to do evil.
Now, Paul says, "Just as that was true of you (you never lacked energy for doing evil), now that you are a slave of Jesus Christ and of absolute
righteousness, the same thing should characterize you. There should never be any lack of energy. You should always have a new burst of energy to do
what the Lord needs you to do." And when the local church ministry needs something, don't come around and tell us that you're just so tired, and
that you just don't have the energy, because God gives you the capacity to do what He asks you to do.
Perseverance in Pursuing Evil
And there's a third characteristic of slaves of evil, and that is that slaves of the sin nature persevere in pursuing evil desires. Slaves of the
sin nature are not discouraged by obstacles. They are not discouraged by failures.
Recidivism
One of the prime examples of that is recidivism, which means repeaters in prison. This is a characteristic of a criminal who pursues evil. He's a
slave of the sin nature. He pursues evil. He gets caught; he gets put in prison; and, he gets out. And what does he do? He perseveres. He says,
"Now I was going to pull that bank job. This is what I did. That was stupid. That's what got me trapped. I'm not going to do it that way anymore."
He gets it all lined up, and he goes back in there again. He perseveres. All you have to do is talk to the warden of a prison, and he can guarantee
you that the sin nature perseveres in its pursuit of evil. "What Lola wants, Lola gets." That's the pattern.
The slaves of the sin nature never quit pursuing their evil goals. Now Paul says, "OK, you're slaves of Jesus Christ. I want you to be just like
that again. I want you to pursue. I want to pursue this so that what the Holy Spirit wants, the Holy Spirit gets." If you get into an obstacle,
you work around the obstacles. If you get into a failure, you back off; you reevaluate; and, you hit it again. And the Lord keeps opening up, and
opening up, and developing the problems, and he removes the obstacles.
You know what I'm talking about? We've got the Christian who doesn't have any time for the Lord's work. He is just so busy, but busy with temporal
evil. We've got Christians who have unlimited energy to pursue everything else in life except what has to do with the Lord's work. We've got
Christians who come up with the slightest little problem, and, bingo, they're out. They give up: "That's it. I'm going home." But for evil, they
can persevere.
That is what is behind this word "houtos." Just as that was true of you in your sin days, so it should be true of you now. "Just as – even so,
now." The word "now: is "nun." It's an adverb, and it's used here to direct our attention to your present circumstances – where you are in life
right now as a believer, in contrast to where you once were as a slave of evil. This time he says again, "You are to yield." This is the same word
he used before: "paristemi." This word means "to present." It means "to place at the disposal of for service." It is a military oriented term. It is
in the aorist tense, which is that point in the Christian life where he makes the decision to recognize his position as a slave with God as his new
master. It is active. The Christian makes this move as a slave of absolute righteousness to place himself at the disposal of his new master.
However, this time, it's not just a statement of fact, as it was before, when he was talking about, earlier in the verse, when you were slaves
unto filthiness and lawlessness. Here he says, "Now you are to do it." It's imperative. It is a command. God is telling you to do it. He is not
inviting you. You do not have an option in this matter. You and I as Christians are to recognize and to deliver ourselves as slaves of our new
master, God.
"Even so, now, at this point of time, turn yourself over." Turn what over? Your members. Again, this is the same word we had before: "melos,"
referring to the physical parts of your body, including your brain. As servants? No. It's "doulos." And that is "slave," and nothing else but
"slave." Turn yourself over as a slave, but this time not to filthiness and to lawlessness, but unto righteousness. That is our old word
"dikaiosune." This is a noun referring here to the divine standard of absolute righteousness.
Sanctification
For what reason? For this purpose. "As slaves to absolute righteousness unto." We had this word "unto" in the Greek. It looks like this: "eis,"
which is a preposition meaning "resulting in" – "for a certain result." Resulting in what? Resulting in holiness. The word "holiness" looks
like this: "hagiasmos." This word means "sanctification" – "unto sanctification." In the Greek, when you have a word that has this "mos"
ending on a noun, it indicates that it's an active word. It is stressing a process. So, here it's stressing the process to sanctification rather
than the resulting state of being sanctified. It is talking again about a lifestyle. It has been talking about a lifestyle devoted to evil. Now
it's talking about a lifestyle devoted to godliness.
The Nature of Sanctification
Very quickly, we should review the nature of sanctification.
Positional Sanctification
Sanctification is positional. In positional sanctification, believers are eternally set apart for God by redemption through Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 10:10 teaches us that you. You are eternally set apart for God by Jesus Christ. Therefore, you now hold a sanctified position. You are
eternally sanctified. Christians, from the point of salvation, therefore, are saints. Philippians 1:1 indicates that. They are also holy.
Hebrews 3:1 tells us that. Every Christian, now and forever, is a saint, and he is holy positionally.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit
How do you enter positional sanctification? As you well know, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you are set apart to God in Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:13 teaches us that. Positional sanctification is the result of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's the reason for the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. If you do not have positional sanctification, you are going to hell. People who are going to heaven must have positional
sanctification, or they'll never go to heaven. And that is the purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's why the charismatic Pentecostal
movement is not of God, because it has (at the very vital point of the reason for the baptism of the Holy Spirit) distorted that major doctrine,
because the devil wants you to be confused on that. The baptism of the Holy Spirit gives you positional sanctification. That makes you forever
secure. You can never go to hell once you have positional sanctification.
Positional sanctification is not affected by the way of Christian lives his life. We know this from 1 Corinthians 6:11, where carnal Christians
are sanctified positionally by God. Positional sanctification is just as complete for the carnal Christian as it is for the spiritual Christian.
Positional sanctification, Paul has indicated, is the judicial act of God based upon our union with Jesus Christ. This is a fact of the spiritual
life to be reckoned with.
Experiential Sanctification
Then there is experiential sanctification. The Holy Spirit, through Bible doctrine, is sanctifying the believer in his daily experience (in his
daily life). John 17:17, 2 Corinthians 3:18, and Ephesians 5:25-26 all explain how, in our daily experience, we are being set apart in our
sanctification. The Christian presents the various parts of this physical body for holy living. That's what Romans 12:1 calls us to do. The daily
living in separation from slavery to the sin nature – that's what we do in our daily living. We are free from slavery to the sin nature.
However, we are not always sinless. 1 John 1:10 makes that clear. We are free from slavery in our position. But we are not always sinless in our
practice. The moment-by-moment victory over the old sin nature is the result, and it evolves into a lifestyle of experiential sanctification.
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
This is achieved by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Christian uses the techniques of the Christian life, building spiritual maturity in his soul.
It's a progressive experience. You develop in experience of sanctification. 2 Peter 3:18 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 both teach this.
Ultimate Sanctification
Then we should just complete this. These two are the ones we're interested in today, because when Paul says, "Unto holiness" or "Unto
sanctification," he's talking about "unto experiential sanctification as the result of positional sanctification," because we have become the
slaves of righteousness, resulting in positional sanctification for the purpose of delivering us to experiential sanctification. But the picture
is complete with ultimate sanctification, and that is the sanctification that comes when we are finally in the Lord's presence. At this point, the
sin nature is eradicated. We live a perfectly sinless life. We receive this at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:27 and 1 John 3:2 tells
us that we cannot have this until Jesus Christ returns. So, there are no sinless Christians. The Lord Jesus Christ preserves every believer for
ultimate sanctification. Jude 24 tells us that there is no Christian who possesses positional sanctification who will not someday possess ultimate
sanctification. This is the final goal of salvation – a state of sinlessness (1 Thessalonians 5:22-23).
So, tying this up – the functioning of this sanctification that he refers to here. The Christian possesses positional sanctification as a
slave of absolute righteousness by a judicial act of God in dealing with the sin nature. Positional sanctification is to be transformed into
experiential sanctification, or a functioning active holiness in daily living. Such progress into experiential sanctification is a gradual process,
but it is from the base of enslavement to absolute righteousness in positional sanctification.
The believer lives between the time of his justification and the time of his glorification. We are now living in this period, and that is called
sanctification. That's the relationship.
Now as you once yielded the parts of your body to the evil sin nature, so now recognize that you have been enslaved to the Holy Spirit, and yield
parts of your body to absolute righteousness for the purpose of developing experiential sanctification from positional sanctification. That's the
goal. That's what we're after.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1977
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