I wrote this a few weeks ago for some friends and want to share it with you today. May it encourage you as it has encouraged me.
A
Summary of the Process of Sanctification from an Exposition of Romans 8.12-13
Based on sermons by Martyn
Lloyd-Jones in his commentary on Romans 8.5-17
“So
then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the
flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans
8.12-13
How is the Christian to wage the
battle against sin, especially as it tends to come to him and defeat him
through his body?
The Bible provides a twofold answer to
this question. The first part of this answer is to know and understand
who we are and what God has done for us in Christ. The second part is to act
upon this knowledge and understanding. Paul does not teach us, as some do
today, that sin can suddenly be taken out of us and completely eradicated, or
as others teach, that Jesus will do-it-all-for-us if we hand it over to him. No!
God’s way of sanctification is to know
His work in us in our union with Christ and then to act on that reality.
The “So” that begins this verse points
back to verses 9 to 11 where we are told that as believers we are no longer in
the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in us, otherwise we do
not belong to God at all. As believers our body is still dead because of sin
but the Spirit is life because we are now righteous in Christ. The Spirit of
life in us brings hope of the complete redemption of our bodies in the future
resurrection. So the fact is that as a believer I am alive in the realm of the
spirit, and dead to sin, to the flesh (Romans 6.6), and to the law (Romans 6.14,
7.4-5). Because of these things that are the result of my union with the death
and resurrection of Christ, I am no longer a debtor to the flesh. I owe the
flesh nothing. I am under no obligation to the demands the flesh makes upon me.
In fact to live after the flesh and to sin is for the believer a contradiction
of who he is in Christ under the realm of grace.
My body is death because of sin, and
there lies the trouble; but my spirit is life because of the Spirit of life, and
there lies the power for the body to be delivered from sin until that future
day when I will have a new body that is alive unto God as my spirit is alive unto
God. This fight against sin is temporary until my promised salvation is
complete. I am to live in anticipation of this full redemption (Romans 8.23).
I am also to put to death the deeds of
the body. “Put to death” is a present continuous which means my continuous,
habitual mortification of the flesh in response to who I am and what God has
done in me in Christ.
To put to death the deeds of the body
does not mean practicing a monastic kind of life separated from the world, or putting
aside all comfort and money, no longer enjoying food and drink and entertainment, with much
fasting and harsh treatment of the body and ascetic practices. Neither does
putting to death the deeds of the body mean legalism which establishes a code
of allowed and disallowed practices, which restricts my joy and happiness,
based on fear.
As a believer I need to understand
that mortification of the body is by the Spirit. As a believer I have power by
the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh. When I allow the flesh to
rule over me it is not because I do not have power over the flesh but because I
desire and chose to have the flesh rule over me and not the Spirit.
Let me sum up. 1) I need to know and
understand my spiritual position in my union with the death and resurrection of
Christ. This is an essential foundation to the process of sanctification in my
life. I am not helpless and hopeless with regard to sin in my body. In Christ I
am dead to the power of sin and dead to the demands of the law. In Christ I
have the life of the Spirit in me. When I sin I grieve the Holy Spirit. Sin is
more than fulfilling my desires for satisfaction and happy feelings, it is
dishonoring who I am in Christ and grieving the Holy Spirit. 2) Also as a
believer I need to remember my destiny in Christ and the destiny of my body
which will one day be made like unto his glorious body. I am to live now with
God’s final goal for me in mind. This mortal body is temporary and will one day
be replaced by a glorious body. For now I am to deny the flesh until the flesh
in me is no more. I belong to heaven, I carry a heavenly name, and I need to honor
my heavenly citizenship and my family heritage in the way I walk in this life. I
represent a righteous country and a holy king. 3) So because of who I am in Christ
and what God has done in me in Christ I am to abstain from sin. I am to
discipline my desires, to flee tempting people and places, to make no
provisions for the flesh. Here is an important point. Deal with the first
motions and movements of sin and temptation within you. Deal with them the
moment they appear. If you do not you are undone, you will go down. Move to a
new circumstance, stop your wrong thinking, call a friend, throw off those
first motions and movements toward sin. Look for those triggers that lead you
to sin. That particular feeling, that website, those pictures or movies, that
relationship. Cut it off at the root. Stop it before it captures you. Don’t go
over the edge of the downward slippery slope. Repression is not helpful here
for repression will eventually explode into unbridled action. We need to say,
“I am not having anything to do with this temptation to sin. This is evil, this
is vile, and I denounce it”. It is not enough to push it away in fear without
exposing it to the light and denouncing it as a new person in Christ. 4) Should
you fall into sin, examine what happened and why. Take time to grieve over your
sin and repent but not to the point of despair and depression. Remember you are
justified by God and your righteous position before God has not changed. Confess
you sin to God and accept his forgiveness in Christ (1 John 1.9). And then
remind yourself again who you are in Christ and move on in the Spirit of life.
