Positional and experiential sanctification, part 2; John 15:10

Title: Positional and experiential sanctification, part 2; John 15:10.

 

1 Cor 14:33

for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

 

 “saints” - a[gioj [hagios] = those who are set apart for God through the baptism of the Spirit and called to live in the purity, holiness, and uprightness of the word of God.

 

The world has not been judged, but the believer has been judged through Christ’s judgment. This indicates your separation as a believer.

 

There are three types of sanctification:

Positional sanctification - separated from the world by election in Christ.

Experiential sanctification - walking in a manner worthy of your election; separation from world system in time.

Ultimate sanctification - eternal state in resurrected aristocracy; separation unto Christ as His bride forever.

 

The first one and the third one depend on one decision to believe in Christ for salvation. The second depends on your attitude towards doctrine versus the doctrines of the world system.

 

The Corinthians had a difficult time making the distinction needed in the second one.

Though our bondage to the world was once held in common with the unregenerate, we are still set apart to live by means of doctrine, love, and the happiness of God all of which are not a part of the world.

 

You do not become a drunk to witness to the drunks. You do not become an idolater, an adulterer, a homosexual, coveter, reviler, etc. in order to win over those who are under the yoke of those sins.

 

Some then say that they will completely separate from the world. If you do that, how are you supposed to tell them of the ministry of reconciliation?

 

1 Cor 5:9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;

 

1 Cor 5:10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world.

 

1 Cor 5:11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler [labeled such because it is a lifestyle] —  not even to eat with such a one.

 

 

1 Cor 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous [unbelievers] shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [passive male partner], nor homosexuals [aggressive male partner],

 

1 Cor 6:10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

 

Christ died for all sins so any unbeliever can be saved no matter what he is involved in. Some teach however, that believers cannot get involved in any of these things. The Bible is clear that believers are capable of any sin since the OSN resides in them. Why would  Paul be writing to the Corinthians to abstain from such lifestyles if it were impossible for a believer to do so? Can a believer lose his salvation? The Bible is clear that the answer to that is no.

 

So why abstain from the lifestyle of the world system?

 

1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

 

God desires you to live in the sphere of His love since there you will be filled with the happiness of God. The temporary happiness of the people [believers and unbelievers] who pursue the things in verses 9 and 10 eventually leave them more miserable.

 

It’s not that the believer living in the cosmos would be upsetting God or shocking Him in some way. First of all God knew everything you would do a billion years ago. Secondly, the offering for sin has already been made so God doesn’t look upon sin or judge sin.

 

Ps 103:12

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

 

HEB 10:17-18

"And their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more." Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

 

There is only one sin that will be judged of the unbeliever.

 

John 16:9

concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;

 

REV 20:10

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

 

 

 

So why is there a call for the believer to live in the sphere of love and not the cosmos? It is not to impress God or to avoid making Him wrathful, but to be filled with His happiness and thereby bring glory to Him.

 

You don’t hurt God by sinning, but you do hurt yourself. Rebound quickly and recover your system of thinking and motivation to remain in the plan of God for your life. Abide in the vine and so bear fruit.

 

Yet we cannot ignore the fact that there are two natures within us who are each battling for control of the soul.

 

Though you do possess two natures that war with one another, to guard the commands, to abide in the sphere of love, and to share the happiness of God you must consistently chose one nature over the other.

 

GAL 5:17

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

 

This battle will continue until the day you die. If you truly have faith that you cannot be condemned by God you will not find this battle to be stressful but a battle that give you the opportunity to conquer through the strength that God keeps pouring into you, the Spirit and the word.

ROM 7:15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

 

ROM 7:16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good.

 

ROM 7:17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me.

 

ROM 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

 

ROM 7:19 For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.

 

ROM 7:20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

 

ROM 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.

 

ROM 7:22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,

 

ROM 7:23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

 

ROM 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

 

ROM 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

 

ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

When the believer decides to aggressively abide in the vine and resist the appeals of the cosmos the OSN will fight the opposition more strongly.

 

Like a cancer will resist chemo the OSN will resist your resistance to its opposition to the plan of God. Those who constantly give in to the opposition do not feel the victory of endurance.

 

ROM 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.

 

The battle would therefore be hopeless if the Mosaic Law was still God’s policy for His people, but it is not any longer.

ROM 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

 

ROM 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh [attain to +R], God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

 

ROM 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law [live righteously] might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

 

ROM 8:5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

 

ROM 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

 

ROM 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;

 

ROM 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God [because God cannot bless you].

 

ROM 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

 

ROM 8:10 And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

 

ROM 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

 

ROM 6:1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

 

ROM 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

 

ROM 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

 

ROM 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 

ROM 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

 

ROM 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

ROM 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

 

ROM 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

 

ROM 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

 

ROM 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

 

ROM 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

ROM 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

 

ROM 6:13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

ROM 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.