Positional and experiential sanctification; John 15:10.

Title: Positional and experiential sanctification; John 15:10.

 

At the moment of faith in Christ the believer is baptized by God the Holy Spirit and he is entered into union with Christ.

 

This action by God, which can be done through the completed work of Christ who satisfied the justice of God through becoming a man and taking death upon Himself so that our old nature would die and our new nature would be born, separates the believer from the world, the dominion of the KOD, and the OSN.

 

The baptism of the Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer who is at that moment set apart from the world, becoming a member of the body of Christ and the Church.

 

The believer then no longer has an affinity for the world but does gain an affinity for the righteousness of God. Living in the righteousness of God, which amounts to guarding the commands of God, is impossible for anyone still under the yoke of the world system.

 

A believer can ignore his affinity for the righteousness of God and be drawn still into a lifestyle in the cosmic system. He can never lose his salvation, but he will live in misery, constantly trying to reconcile who he is in Christ with a system he has been completely separated from.

 

There was probably no church that was as mired in the cosmic system as the church at Corinth.

 

Corinth was ancient Greece’s most important city. It was the link between Rome and the east. It was a first century navy town filled with gambling, legalized temple prostitution and business opportunities.

 

Roman armies destroyed Corinth in 146 BC, but Julius Caesar ordered it rebuilt in 44 BC and he populated it with freed Italians and slaves from every nation. Soon the merchants flocked back to Corinth and it became a melting pot of about 500,000 from all corners of the world. With no singular cultural background the morality of the city was very relaxed and gambling, temple prostitution, merchant businesses, and tourism flourished, so much so that the term “to Corninthianize” became popular. This is what the church of Corinth was made up of. People from all kinds of different backgrounds and most with no understanding of the damages that cosmic involvement can do to the soul that is on a frantic search for happiness.

 

1 Cor 1:2 to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling,

 

1 Cor 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

 

Why would God go to such lengths to separate us from this system? It is because there is no lasting happiness in this system. It is a fallen system ruled by a fallen angel and it is filled with fallen creatures that are on a frantic search for happiness.

 

John 16:11

and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

 

2 Cor 4:4

in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

 

The Church, the called out ones in Christ, a community of disciples, has been torn from the clutches of the world. It still lives in the world, but it is a body with its own sphere of sovereignty and its own claim to freedom.

 

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.

Ultimate sanctification - eternal state in resurrected aristocracy.

 

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.

 

In experiential sanctification the believer recognizes his sanctification, abides in Christ, guards the commands, and abides in the sphere of Christ’s agape love.

 

You must become aware of, believe in, and execute the truth that what you have been separated unto is infinitely better than what you have been separated from. 
 

At salvation a contract was signed by the Holy Spirit which cannot be broken and the world has been sealed off from it.

 

EPH 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation —  having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,

 

EPH 1:14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

 

A believer must define clearly the frontier between himself and the world and have rebound always at the ready.

 

This boundary between the world and the church has become fuzzy and in many cases there is no difference and the world has bled into the Church and the Church into the world.

 

The place of the Church in the world is to be calling out reconciliation and doing so in God’s truth, God’s love, and God’s happiness.

 

The church is a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. A believer that is growing in experiential sanctification will not himself be isolated from the world in which he exercises his truth, love, and happiness as an ambassador for Christ.

 

Matt 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

 

Matt 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

 

Matt 5:15 "Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house.

 

Matt 5:16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

 

Your good works are not going to turn them into believers, but your lifestyle of doctrine, confidence, and love as separate from the world will put you on the correct side of the frontier from which to call out the good news. Men will from time to time notice that you do not behave like the rest, which is usually true under great pressure in adversity or prosperity. 

 

Though the believer is separate from the world he must not forget that he is in the world and that he has come from the same stock of those who have yet to be snatched out of the world.

 

There is a certain kinship to the unregenerate as the believer was once in that bondage. By that clarity of thinking the saint becomes an ambassador of the Church which has its true residential address in heaven and he calls out to those still under the slavery of the world and the slave market of sin to be reconciled.

 

This returns us to our definition of agapan love. It is seeing value in another and the potential to be delivered from the slave market that they are hopelessly and helplessly a part of.

 

The world is the world and the Church is the Church, and yet the word of God must go forth from the Church into all the world proclaiming reconciliation and that the Lord possesses all things.

 

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

 

2 Cor 5:18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

 

2 Cor 5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

 

2 Cor 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

 

2 Cor 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

 

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.