Angelic Conflict part 288: Things of the Spirit – Rom 5:12-21; 8:1-11; 6:19-20; 1Co 1:2; 1Th 4:3-4; Heb 12:14; 1Jo 3:7.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 288: Things of the Spirit – Rom 5:12-21; 8:1-11; 6:19-20; 1Co 1:2; 1Th 4:3-4; Heb 12:14; 1Jo 3:7.

 

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.

 

We all know from experience that it is possible for us to fall back under the sway of the flesh, which has been abolished and slain. God does not want us to live thus in hours that are tedious, tasteless, and wasted. A child of God who has stepped out of the will of God to walk after the flesh loses his fellowship but not his relationship. His life becomes a dead thing and nothing he does pleases God. Yet God still continues to love him, as His love doesn't change, and only wishes for his restoration to fellowship.

 

Man is addicted to self-reliance and self-effort, and wants desperately to take care of himself and to do everything on his own. When Moses first spoke the Law to the people they responded by saying, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." They should have responded, "There is no way we're going to be able to do all that." Man does not realize his total inability to do the best for himself; he does not believe that he will be far better in the hands of God. Man would rather run his own affairs badly, even tragically, than submit to the kind, gracious, and merciful government of God. Only by long association with God and His word and Spirit can we come to place utter dependence upon Him, forsake all human endeavor, mount with wings as eagles and be carried away be the love of God who graciously gives everything to us. Thereby we learn to triumph in Christ. Only when we learn this can we reign in life by Jesus Christ.  

 

sanctification - to be set apart as sacred or holy, to be consecrated to God. Every believer is holy, a saint, and sanctified forever and God's will is for him to walk in sanctification.

 

All three of those words come from the same Greek root word. Positional sanctification has nothing to do with the believer’s daily experience. Every believer is holy, a saint, and sanctified forever. God has commanded us to make this an experience through the power of the Spirit and the word of God.  

 

Positional sanctification - set apart unto God in Christ forever. In Christ the Christian stands righteous and accepted before God forever.

 

1Co 1:2

 to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified [hagiozo] in Christ Jesus, saints [hagios] by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

 

1Co 1:30-31

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification [hagiosmos], and redemption, that, just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

 

2Th 2:13

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification [hagiosmos] by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

 

1Pe 1:1-2

who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying [hagiosmos] work of the Spirit, that [result of positional sanctification] you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood [always in grace, no fear of sin or failure]: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.

 

Experiential sanctification - set apart unto God in life’s walk through thinking separately from things proven to be unholy.

 

Rom 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification [hagiosmos].

 

Rom 6:20 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification [hagiosmos], and the outcome, eternal life.

 

1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification [hagiosmos]; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

 

1Th 4:4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification [hagiosmos] and honor,

 

1Th 4:5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

 

1Th 4:6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

 

1Th 4:7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity [uncleanliness], but in sanctification.

 

1Th 4:8 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

 

If we refuse practical sanctification, out of His perfect love, God will discipline us so that we will reject the flesh and see the prosperity of righteousness.

 

Heb 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

 

Heb 12:12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,

 

Heb 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

 

Heb 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification [hagiosmos] without which no one will see the Lord.

 

A believer will not see his Lord in time without walking in practical sanctification.

 

1Jo 3:2

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.

 

Heb 12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

 

Heb 12:16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal [didn't care for being a priest over the family before Jehovah].

 

Heb 12:17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing [just the financial part], he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance [Isaac's], though he sought for it with tears.

 

Gen 27:38

And Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father." So Esau lifted his voice and wept.

 

Esau's apathy towards the birthright was towards the function of the leader of the family before Jehovah. He was to perform the sacrifices, minister the teaching of the truths of God then known and so be a spiritual leader. He didn't care for these things, giving them away for a bowl of lentil stew. In the same way a believer can be uncaring about practical sanctification and caring about the flesh. He cannot lose his salvation but he will not enjoy his inheritance and will not see the Lord. Under discipline he may cry to the Lord for relief or for material blessing, but it will not come. The Lord is only interested in your relationship to him and your worship of Him and that worship cannot just be your intellect, or your sensibility, or your will, but it must be all of you. One must turn his entire life over to Him if he is to enjoy the fruit of his inheritance in time. This is not works this is sanctification unto the only righteous One, the only holy One, the only God and Savior.

 

In C.S. Lewis's essay "Is Christianity Hard or Easy?" writes

The ordinary idea which we all have is that...we have a natural self with various desires and interests...and we know something called "morality" or "decent behavior" has a claim on self...We are all hoping that when all the demands of morality and society have been met, the poor natural self will still have some chance, some time, to get on with its own life and do what it likes. In fact, we are very like an honest man paying his taxes. He pays them, but he does hope that there will be enough left over for him to live on.

The Christian way is different-both harder and easier. Christ says
"Give me ALL. I don't want just this much of your time and this much of your money and this much of your work-so that your natural self can have the rest. I want you. Not your things. I have come not to torture your natural self...I will give you a new self instead. Hand over the whole natural self-ALL the desires, not just the ones you think wicked but the ones you think innocent-the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. [C.S. Lewis; Is Christianity Hard or Easy?

 

1Jo 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

 

1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.

 

1Jo 3:3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

 

1Jo 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

 

We are not under the Mosaic Law but we are not lawless. We are under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

 

1Co 9:21

to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ

 

1Jo 3:5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.

 

1Jo 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins [communion with Him]; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.

 

Pastors, theologians, and commentators are all over the map on the interpretation of this verse. Every believer knows Him to some extent, but to the believer who practices a life of rebellion against God [asserting our will against God's will is sin and thus rebellion] has not seen Christ or knows Him. If there is an area of my life where sin is still practiced then I haven't seen Christ or known Christ in that area. God wants all of you and in grace and mercy He is longsuffering until that time of conformity. There is no caveat in the word of God for you to keep some of the flesh for yourself. It is completely dead and God's wants you to enjoy your new life in Christ in all areas. In time God will bring all of us to the realization that Christ is not in a certain area or areas of my life.

 

Pro 20:26

The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord,

Searching all the innermost parts of his being.