condensed theology lecture 35

8/6/2019 Condensed Theology Lecture 35

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Condensed Theology

A Primer in Systematic Theology


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Soteriology:

The Doctrine of Salvation

What does the Bible teach about

salvation?


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Sanctification

Review: A Definition for Now


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Sanctification: Toward a Definition

Sanctification refers to the believers

holiness of life and conductset apart byGod and behaving likeGod.

Definitive sanctification

Progressive sanctification

Can anyone define these two terms?


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Definitive Sanctification

Preliminaries


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Definitive Sanctification:

Preliminaries

Definitive sanctification is a unilateral actof God that is performed upon usirrespective of faith.

That is, definitive sanctification is thataspect of Gods saving work whereby he

sets us apart as his holy people logically

prior to our exercise of repentance andfaith.


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Preliminaries The reason we say that definitive sanctification

is logically prior to our repentance and faith isthat it is an immediate result of effective calling: Rom 1:7: to all who are beloved of God in Rome,

called as saints: Grace to you and peace from Godour Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 1:2, 9: To the church of God which is at

Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in ChristJesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place

call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lordand ours.9God is faithful, through whom you werecalled into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ ourLord.


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Preliminaries

But it is not just the timing of oursanctification that makes one of itsaspects definitive;

It is its nature,

Which is what this lecture is all about


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The Nature of Definitive

Sanctification

What Makes

Definitive SanctificationDefinitive


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It Is a Once-for-All Event


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Once-for-All 1 Cor 6:11: Such were some of you; but you

were washed, but you were sanctified, but youwere justified in the name of the Lord JesusChrist and in the Spirit of our God.

Heb 10:10: By this will we have been sanctifiedthrough the offering of the body of Jesus Christonce for all.

Heb 13:12: Therefore Jesus also, that He mightsanctify the people through His own blood,suffered outside the gate.


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Once-for-All

1 Pet 1:1-2: Peter, an apostle of JesusChrist, To those who reside as aliens,scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,

Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who arechosen according to the foreknowledge of

God the Father, by the sanctifying work of

the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and besprinkled with His blood: May grace andpeace be yours in the fullest measure.


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It Entails Cleansing and

Purification from Sin


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Purification from Sin Eph 5:25-27: Husbands, love your wives, just as

Christ also loved the church and gave Himselfup for her, so that He might sanctify her, havingcleansed her by the washing of water with theword, that He might present to Himself thechurch in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkleor any such thing; but that she would be holyand blameless.

Eph 1:4: just as He chose us in Him beforethe foundation of the world, that we would beholy and blameless before Him.


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Purification from Sin

1 Cor 6:9-11: Or do you not know that theunrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor

idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, norhomosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nordrunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inheritthe kingdom of God. Such were some of you;

but you were washed, but you were sanctified,but you were justified in the name of the LordJesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.


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It Is a Constitutive Event


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A Constitutive Event This means we are changed by definitive sanctification,

we become something different than we were before.

Eph 1:1: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will ofGod, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are

faithful in Christ Jesus. Phil 1:1: Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ

Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are inPhilippi, including the overseers and deacons.

1 Cor 1:2: To the church of God which is at Corinth, tothose who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saintsby calling, with all who in every place call on the name ofour Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.


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It Is a Product of

Union with Christ


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Union with Christ

1 Cor 1:2: To the church of God which isat Corinth, to those who have beensanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling,

with all who in every place call on thename of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord

and ours.


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Sanctification


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Sanctification

It is a once-for-all event.

It entails cleansing and purification fromsin.

It is a constitutive event.

It is the product of union with Christ.

Therefore we can say that


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Sanctification

Definitive sanctification is a once-for-all actof God that cleanses and purifies us fromsin, which act is the product of our union

with Christ in his life, death, burial, andresurrection.


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Sanctification Our definition of definitive sanctification thus far

has been informed strictly by those passageswhich use sanctification terminology (e.g.,sanctification, sanctify, holy, etc.).

Now that we have synthesized these passages,we can see that there are many other texts ofScripture that teach the concept we calldefinitive sanctification without using itsterminology.

These passages give us further help as to itsnature.


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Further Scriptural Support


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More from Scripture

Titus 3:5: He saved us, not on the basisof deeds which we have done inrighteousness, but according to His mercy,

by the washing of regeneration andrenewing by the Holy Spirit.

Titus 2:14: who gave Himself for us toredeem us from every lawless deed, andto purify for Himself a people for His ownpossession, zealous for good deeds.


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More from Scripture

Rom 6:1-11; 7:4-6.

Turn there in your Bibles


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Actually and Truly Holy

Definitive sanctification is a once-for-all actof God that cleanses and purifies us fromevil, which act is the product of our union

with Christ in his life, death, burial, andresurrection.


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Actually and Truly Holy

This means that Christians are actually and trulyholy in Gods sight. It is not that God looks on

us as ifwe are holy.

Unless we are actually and truly holy, we canhave no access to God. Jesus work does not

open up the way for sinners to have access tothe holy of holies; rather, his work changes the

very nature of those united to him such that theycan enter the holy of holies.


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Actually and Truly Holy This is why I do not like the language that is

sometimes used to refer to this aspect ofsanctification; namely, positional sanctification.

The language of positional sanctification implies

that there is not an existential change that takesplace in the Christian as a result of his havingbeen sanctified. It is simply hypothetical.

What the Bible teaches is that our sanctification

is nothypothetical; it is actual. We areholy andblameless. Once we were not holy; but nowthrough union with Christ in his death, burial,and resurrection, we are.


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Actually and Truly Holy John Murray, Collected Writings(Banner of Truth, 1977), 289: We

are compelled to reach the conclusion that it is by virtue of ourhaving died with Christ, and our being raised with him in hisresurrection from the dead, that the decisive breach with sin in itspower, control, and defilement has been wrought, and that thereason for this is that Christ in his death and resurrection broke the

power of sin, triumphed over the god of this world, the prince ofdarkness, executed judgment upon the world and its ruler, and bythat victory delivered all those who were united to him from thepower of darkness, and translated them into his own kingdom. Sointimate is the union between Christ and his people, that they werepartakers with him in all these triumphal achievements, andtherefore died to sin, rose with Christ in the power of hisresurrection, and have their fruit unto holiness, and the endeverlasting life. As the death and resurrection are central in thewhole process of redemptive accomplishment, so are they central inthat by which sanctification itself is wrought in the hearts and lives ofGods people.


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An Objection


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An Objection If this is true, why do we as Christians still sin?

Because the real and definitive breach with thereign and mastery of sin through our union withChrist is experiencedby the believer over time.

This is progressive sanctification, which we willaddress next time.

For now, understand that without this

fundamental change in who we are we wouldhave absolutely no hope of (progressive)change.


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Conclusion


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Conclusion

Since definitive sanctification is the once-for-all act of God that actually cleansesand purifies us from evil, which act is the

product of our union with Christ in his life,death, burial, and resurrection

Since this is true, we ought to be excited

and encouraged.


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Conclusion

(1) What kept you from seeing the glory ofthe Lord in the face of Christ has beenremoved once and for all.

(2) All that bound you and caused youmisery (your sin) no longer defines whoyou are.

(3) And since you areholy you can beholyyou reallycan change no matterhow powerless you feel.

condensed theology lecture 35

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