A BROADBRUSHED COAT OF SANCTIFICATION

 

A Broadbrushed Coat of Sanctification

The Apostle Peter says that you “have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with His blood” (1 Pet. 1:2). The three Persons of the Trinity are mentioned here: the Father, the Spirit, and Jesus Christ. “The sanctifying work of the Spirit” is what we’re looking at.

Now, let’s say you’re at Bunnings hardware store and you’re asked what you’re after, and you say, “the broadest paintbrush you have. I need it to paint our church’s wall.” We’re using broad brushstrokes to paint Sanctification, a church wall we’re looking at, not a Rembrandt.

Let’s say that the Bunnings assistant was a dyslexic Atheist who said, “I don’t believe in your dog!” You could respond by saying that the Hound of Heaven may come after him if he’s not careful!

The Hound of Heaven is a poem written by Francis Thompson in 1890. Like a dog chasing a hare, the poem is about the poet himself being pursued by the presence of God, God the Holy Spirit.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears.

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.[1]

That’s just the opening lines to the epic poem! It’s Psalm 139, isn’t it?

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me. (Psa. 139:6-10)

The Reformed theologian BB Warfield said, “The Gospel is the seeking love of God.”[2] Christian brother, didn’t the Good Shepherd leave the ninety-nine to follow after you? (Luke 15:4-7). If the Gospel is God’s seeking love, then the Hound of Heaven is His Holy Spirit. For the Spirit always works with the Word (Eph. 5:26). The Holy Spirit, if you will, is the heatseeking missile that God fires at the heart (John 16:7). Only, in our case, our hearts are cold as stone towards God. Therefore, God gives us a new heart. He gives us a new heart, a new record, and a new nature (2 Cor. 5:17).

What does any of this have to do with sanctification? Primarily, the Gospel is about the doing and dying of Jesus. Therefore, the Gospel is knowledge of God with Christ and Him crucified at its centre. When the Hound of Heaven catches you, He doesn’t devour you as dog would a cornered rabbit. No! He sets you free! He does this by first regenerating you. This is what we mean by a new heart.

The heart of stone is removed and is replaced by a new heart with the Ten Commandments written on it with a desire, a spirit, to keep them (Exod. 20:1-17; Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:8-12). The summary of the Decalogue is: love God and your neighbour as yourself (Matt. 22:37-40). The first four Commandments are a summary of your duty to God and the last six, your duty towards fellow human beings, the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Luke 6:31).

So, regeneration is kind of like the time when you were a kid and you planted a bean in good soil and watered it, and a beansprout sprouted! That’s what the Holy Spirit does to those who belong to God. He causes you who are dead in your trespasses and sins to burst to life like that seed. And as a flowerhead tracks the sun across the sky, so the regenerated sinner keeps on looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2a). You know you’ve been brought back to life by the Holy Spirit when you believe in the Gospel and begin to turn your back on your sins and look to God (Mark 1:15; Rom. 8:12-17).

Now, the moment you believe is when God, as it were, dons His judge’s robes and wig, smacks His gavel and declares you to be righteous on account of what Jesus did in His life and on the cross for sinners such as yourself (Rom. 4:11). But, at that point, you don’t feel righteous. You feel like a sinful wretch deserving God’s wrath not His grace! (Rom. 7:24-25). To be declared righteous means that you have been Justified.

Justification is a legal word to do with God’s justice for you breaking His Law. That’s what I mean by God the Judge smacking His gavel and declaring you right with Him, i.e., righteous, just. What has happened behind the scenes is this: Your sins have been transferred to Jesus and His righteousness has been transferred to you. Imputation. (Isa. 53:4-8; Rom. 5:19). At this point you are still by nature a sinner. This is Justification. Justification and righteousness are synonymous. To be just is to be righteous.

Justification has to do with you in Christ and Sanctification has to do with Christ in you. Justification is to be declared righteous, and Sanctification is to be made into what you have been declared – righteous and holy.

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Now, like the old Sinatra song, love and marriage going together like a horse and carriage, you can’t have Sanctification without Justification. And with God you get the added bonus of Glorification. You get Justification and Sanctification in the here and now, and Glorification in Glory when you die which glorification is completed upon the resurrection of your body. When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he and all of humanity lost three main things that we regain when we are saved: We are renewed in Knowledge (Col. 3:10); Righteousness, and Holiness (Eph. 4:24). Holiness and Sanctification are synonymous terms. To be Sanctified is to be Holy. To be Holy is to be Sanctified.

Right. God is three persons but one God (Matt. 28:19). The Father has chosen (Eph.1:3-6; 1 Pet. 1:2), the Son has Redeemed those chosen by the Father (Eph. 1:7), and the Spirit Sanctifies those chosen by the Father and redeemed by the Son (1 Pet. 1:2). To be sanctified is to be set apart, set apart by God for God (Rom. 9:23-24).

Holy means consecrated, dedicated, separated, sacred, as we say, set apart. If you own a dog, you’ll know what a dog’s bowl is. You (hopefully!) don’t feed fido from your good dinner plates. Fido eats from his own “set apart” bowl. To be sanctified is to be set apart for the special use of the ‘Hound of Heaven’ (Rom. 8:14; 2 Cor. 6:14-18).

When Jesus was crucified, there was a man crucified on each side of Him. Both were hurling insults at Him. But one underwent a change, a change of heart. The Holy Spirit had given Him a new heart. He regenerated him. Regeneration precedes faith! His nature changed while on the cross. His insults were transformed into… “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). God had granted him repentance and belief in the Gospel of the Kingdom. That’s Sanctification. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier!

The words of the thief on the cross were his profession of faith! He was Justified, Sanctified, and He was about to be Glorified, He was about to enter into Glory with Jesus. “Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise’’ (Luke 23:43). The thief went from trashing Jesus to treasuring Him. That’s Sanctification!

The repentant thief didn’t get to go to a church with good, solid teaching. He didn’t get to go to theological college or even read a book on systematic theology. No! But he was Sanctified. It’s what theologians call Definitive Sanctification.

Now, you may have noticed that, unlike the thief, you and I did not get taken to Glory the day we first believed. So, you and I have received Definitive Sanctification, but we are also undergoing Progressive Sanctification. In other words, the Holy Spirit is growing some fruit in us, the fruit of the Spirit, you know, love, joy, peace etc. (Gal. 6:22-23). Progressive Sanctification has to do with you being set apart from the world for continued cleansing by the Spirit. It is about you knowingly engaging with the Spirit and the Word in your desire to be obedient to God as an expression of your gratitude to Him for His salvation (Phil. 2:12-16).

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Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2). Bearing fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. He is tilling the soil in your new heart like Adam in the Garden. You, the beansprout, are seeking to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The unrepentant thief is a fruitless branch, broken off, discarded. There he is hanging next to the Saviour of the world, he’s dying, and yet he still rejects Him! He remains unsanctified and is to be burned up with all the other broken off branches (John 15:6).

Therefore, to be Sanctified is to have been Justified and set apart for God’s holy use. The Holy Spirit, who regenerated you, now causes you to grow in the faith and produce fruit, fruit of the Spirit. He is the One that has given you a new heart, a heart that is obedient towards God. You seek Him in His Word, in His Sacraments, and in prayer.

The Holy Spirit is your Comforter, your Helper, your Advocate, yes, your Sanctifier. He is the One who keeps you in Jesus’s hand, and the Father’s hand, out of which no one can snatch you (John 10:27-30).

The Father has chosen you; the Son has redeemed you, and the Hound of Heaven, the Spirit, has initially as in definitively sanctified you and is presently progressively sanctifying you. I pray that the Hound of Heaven has chased you down and that you’re walking with Him and His Word daily (Rom. 8:4).

Let that broad brushed coat of sanctification sink in!

Recorded live outdoors. Click on Genesis Christian College link below, (sorry about the noisy crow and cockatoos etc.)

Genesis Christian College.m4a

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[1] For full poem see, e.g., The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson 1890 - Hound of Heaven

[2] Benjamin B. Warfield, The Saviour of the World, (Edinburgh, Scotland, Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 11.

The Works of the Flesh Versus The Fruit of the Spirit

INTRODUCTION

              Many remarkable things take place when God converts a human being. God’s Spirit works with God’s Word in the heart of every believer, first, to enable belief in the sinner (who beforehand is dead in trespasses and sins until the Spirit regenerates him/her), and second, to transform the regenerated or born-again sinner through the renewing of his/her mind. The former has to do with Justification and the latter has to do with Sanctification. Like love and marriage going together like a horse and carriage, you can’t have one without the other.

              The individual is Justified by God the very moment he believes. He is also Sanctified by God at the same moment, but unlike Justification (which is a legal transaction in God’s court of law), Sanctification is progressive. It is the Son, i.e., Jesus Christ by His perfect life, death and resurrection who Justifies a sinner. It is the Holy Spirit who begins the work of Sanctification in the heart of the sinner upon his Justification. Both Justification and Sanctification are a work of God. However, unlike Justification, the (redeemed) sinner gets to participate in his Sanctification by doing the works God has prepared for him/her beforehand (Eph. 2:10).

              The Works of the Flesh versus the Fruit of the Spirit shows (according to Scripture) the “before and after picture” of the Christian. Before his conversion the sinner produces only works of the flesh. After his conversion the Holy Spirit produces fruit in the (redeemed) sinner. 

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THE WORKS OF THE FLESH VERSUS THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

My The Works of the Flesh Versus The Fruit of the Spirit is out now in paperback:

Many remarkable things take place when God converts a human being. God’s Spirit works with God’s Word in the heart of every believer, first, to enable belief in the sinner (who beforehand is dead in trespasses and sins until the Spirit regenerates him/her), and second, to transform the regenerated or born-again sinner through the renewing of his/her mind. The former has to do with Justification and the latter has to do with Sanctification. Like love and marriage going together like a horse and carriage, you can’t have one without the other.

              The individual is Justified by God the very moment he believes. He is also Sanctified by God at the same moment, but unlike Justification (which is a legal transaction in God’s court of law), Sanctification is progressive. It is the Son, i.e., Jesus Christ by His perfect life, death and resurrection who Justifies a sinner. It is the Holy Spirit who begins the work of Sanctification in the heart of the sinner upon his Justification. Both Justification and Sanctification are a work of God. However, unlike Justification, the (redeemed) sinner gets to participate in his Sanctification by doing the works God has prepared for him/her beforehand (Eph. 2:10).

              The Works of the Flesh versus the Fruit of the Spirit shows (according to Scripture) the “before and after picture” of the Christian. Before his conversion the sinner produces only works of the flesh. After his conversion the Holy Spirit produces fruit in the (redeemed) sinner.

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CREATION, FALL, REDEMPTION

 The following is an except from a forthcoming book called The Kingdom coauthored with Rudi Schwartz. Give us a few more months to complete...

Creation, Fall, Redemption

Creation, Fall, and Redemption is, if you will, the macrocosm of that which happens to when a person first repents and believes in the gospel, viz., Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. We have already spoken of the “already but not yet” aspect of Christ’s Kingdom, which is to say (in that other set of trinities) that Christ’s Kingdom has come, is coming and shall come. Glorification is what takes place fully when Christ’s Kingdom has fully come, or, as we say, is fully consummated.

Image from Web

To help us understand Creation, Fall, and Redemption please picture an underground water pipe, or, even, dare I say, a sewer pipe. Creation is when the pipe is first laid. It has the purpose of conveying its contents from one end to the other. Sometimes a leak or a blockage occurs, such as damage caused by tree roots or shifting ground. Picture this as the Fall. Then comes the plumber to fix the problem. When all is finished, this is Redemption.

When God had finished creating Creation, He looked at it and declared that “it was very good.” (Gen. 1:31). When God creates a new creation, you or me, e.g., “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17), His “very good” declaration is applied to the believer. That is what Justification means. To be Justified is to be in Christ; God the Judge declares you to be “very good” in Christ, just like He did at the end of the sixth day of Creation. The new creature is declared by God to be righteous, i.e., to be right with God, justified by the second Adam, Christ. This is simply a legal transaction. “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30)

Following this legal declaration (or simultaneously from God’s perspective) the person who has been Justified has also been definitively Sanctified, which same sanctification progresses until full consummation.

Notice that sanctification is not something that we do, but the Spirit. Yes, Christians notice what He is doing in us, and by extension, in the world: “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us…” (Heb. 10:12-15).

 Think of the earth as being progressively sanctified too. (Ps. 24:1). This is what we mean when we say that the Kingdom has come (past tense), is coming (present tense), and will come (future tense). Thus, both the “earthling” and the earth have been set apart by God for a noble use, i.e., for glory (read, gift from the Father to the Son as per Ps. 2:8; see also Rom. 9:23). Thus, Glorification has to do with glory, the King’s glory.

To be fully consummated is to be Glorified. Sanctification is to become what God has declared you to be. He looks at the new “very good” creation over whom the Holy Spirit has hovered as it were, and the Spirit with the Word speaks into the believer’s heart where He has lodged. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Rom. 8:29–30).

We need to be Justified, Sanctified, and Glorified, because, like all of Creation, we too are fallen. When Creation had fallen, God judged and redeemed it along those on the ark. He opened the windows of heaven and baptised the household of Noah on the ark in covenant blessing, and by breaking open the fountains of the deep, He fully immersed His old creation outside of the ark in covenant curses for the wilful disobedience of humanity. As He did with Adam and Eve in the old creation, so God blessed Noah and his household as He reissued the Cultural Mandate. Hence, we see that the earth has been sanctified by the Flood, the global Deluge. To be Sanctified is to be cleansed, as pictured in covenant baptism.

In the following note the connections between covenant baptism, progressive sanctification (i.e., “the mortifying of sin”), and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. 167. How is our Baptism to be improved by us?
A. The needful but much neglected duty of improving our Baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others, by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made therein; by being humbled for our sinful defilement, our falling short of, and walking contrary to, the grace of the Baptism and our engagements; by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed to us in that Sacrament; by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace; and by endeavoring to live by faith, to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness, as those that have therein given up their names to Christ; and to walk in brotherly love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.  

God signified His covenant with His new creation with a rainbow in the cloud (Gen. 9:12 & 16). Noah signified his and his household’s redemption by sacrificing that which was a picture of Christ’s promised redemption (Gen. 8:20).

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done (Gen. 8:20-21).

God’s Covenant of Grace was now being administered on His new creation by Noah and his faithful descendants all the way down till today. Those who are born of the Spirit are new creations. Again, the micro (us, as new creations) pictures the macro (Creation) and vice versa. Christ redeems both. The ark was a type of Christ. As everything in the ark was saved from God’s judgment, so is everyone and everything in Christ saved from God’s coming final judgment.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.” (Ps. 24:1-2), “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.” (Ps. 50:10-11), “Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.” (Ps. 2:8). The baptised earth is progressively being sanctified and will be glorified along with all believers after the final judgment.

Without the Fall there would be no need of Redemption. Without the Fall we would not need to be Sanctified, set apart and cleansed. But Creation was washed with water in Noah’s day, and we are washed with water in our baptism. Glorification follows Sanctification. However, because Jesus’s humanity is made of the same material as Creation, that means that Creation is already being Glorified in Him. Therefore, as we await the redemption of our material bodies, we have been, are being, and will be Justified, Sanctified, and Glorified. Our acquittal on Judgment Day will prove that we have been declared righteous, set apart and cleansed, and blessed and glorified by God to His glory.

So, just as millions of dead things became fossilised in sediment after the Flood, as horrible as it sounds, so will that which does not belong to Christ and the new Earth. It will be immersed in the lake of fire forever beginning on Judgment Day.

See red chimney top right sector (Image from Web)

As youngsters growing up in Scotland, we lived next to a hospital. We could see a large chimney that would on occasion belch forth smoke like when the Roman Catholics elect their new pope! The older kids told us that the smoke from the hospital incinerator’s chimney meant that they were burning a dead body. Creepy! We thought we were living next to a crematorium. It seems that they did at least incinerate surgically removed body parts and other materials, medical waste, but not whole bodies.

Christ has removed all our sins. His Father incinerated them when He poured out His wrath upon Jesus on the cross, baptising Him with fire. His law-keeping righteousness is imputed to us, and our law-breaking unrighteousness is imputed to Him. It is as if we had never sinned, like we went from glory to glory, from Creation before the Fall to Creation after Christ’s return. Says John Witherspoon,

The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, among whom he had never been in person, at great length establishes the fundamental doctrine of the gospel that sinners are justified by the free grace of God through the imputed righteousness of a Redeemer. To this doctrine men do make by nature the strongest opposition, and are, with the utmost difficulty, brought to receive and apply it. We may well say of it in particular what the same apostle says of the truths of God in general, that “the natural man doth not receive them” (1 Cor. 2:14).[1]

An interesting but pertinent aside is, not that the American actress Reece Witherspoon is one of John Witherspoon’s descendants, or that, “John’s mother, Anna Walker, could trace her lineage through several pastors back to John Knox himself”, or that “In 1746, he led a group of militia volunteers from Beith intent on fighting for King George II against the pro-Catholic Jacobite uprising. Although Witherspoon was not engaged in any military conflict, he was captured and imprisoned for a short time in Doune castle.[2] The interesting fact is that Witherspoon, the Scottish Presbyterian who was invited to come over to America to be a professor at what became Princeton, he was the only clergyman to sign the American Declaration of Independence – in defiance of King George III. He had a major influence on many of the Founders, no less than one James Madison. The famous converted ex-slave trader, John Newton of Amazing Grace hymn fame, wrote,

This work has always been regarded as one of the ablest Calvinistic expositions of that doctrine in any language. I hope you approve Mr. Witherspoon’s books. I think his Treatise on Regeneration is the best I have seen upon this important subject.” John Newton (1725-1807) in a letter to Mr. Cunningham.[3]

Even that great Abolitionist, William Wilberforce, heaped praise on Witherspoon’s theological understanding, “Referring to the Treatise on Regeneration, Wilberforce gushed, “I am conscious, indeed, that the excellence of the Work is far too well established to render any eulogium of mine.”[4] Thus, the converting power of the Holy Spirit working with His Word in the hearts of men has a far greater impact than the mere individual. It goes far and and wide. It crosses oceans. It engulfs whole nations for good as the gospel, the heart of which has to do with Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification, works like leaven in the expansion of Christ’s Kingdom throughout the whole earth.

Back to the plumber fixing the damaged underground water pipe. The water of life has been turned back on by Christ and flows through our veins. Or, what about the time my old friend, (who is now with Christ in Paradise), had to have a damaged and decayed portion of his bowel removed. They simply cut out the offending piece of intestine, (and sent it to be incinerated?), and rejoined both ends. He lived a healthy life for many, many years after that. Being already glorified, my friend is awaiting the redemption of his body and then he will be fully glorified. God speed!

All of us became disconnect from God by the Fall. The Christian’s sins were removed with surgical precision by Christ. We are now reconnected to God. He remembers our sins no more. It’s as if the damaged part to our lives was never there, so good was the operation. All our transgressions have been incinerated. Gone. Amazing grace!

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[1] John Witherspoon, Justification & Regeneration: Practical Writings on Saving Faith, (Edited by Kevin DeYoung, Westminster Seminary Press, 2022), 5

[2] Kevin DeYoung, ibid., ix-x.

[3] John Newton, ibid., on dust jacket.

[4] Ibid., xviii.

GROWING IN GRACE & KNOWLEDGE

 

SIX WEE GLIMPSES OF GRACE

Growing in Grace & Knowledge

What’s the Gospel?

The Gospel is about the doing and dying of Jesus. Jesus did what Adam failed to do, and He paid the penalty for that failure. Adam failed to keep God’s Law that He had written on Adam and mankind’s heart. Jesus kept God’s Law in all its applications perfectly unto death. Therefore, His life was substitutionary, and His death was substitutionary.

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In rugby or soccer as in many sports, a substitute can be brought on to replace an injured player. In our case, Adam and all of mankind was injured to the point of being dead in our trespasses and sins. We were dead, out of the game for life. Jesus perfectly kept all the rules and played a perfect game. The fulltime whistle was blown when He breathed His last on the cross.

God raised Jesus from the tomb because He was without sin. He died to pay the penalty for His team’s foul play. He paid for His side’s sins, and, since death is the wages for sin of which He had none of His own, God was obligated to bring Him back to life.

So, in the simplest of terms Paul says, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Rom. 10:9-10 NIV). Therefore, you believing that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead is your salvation. Telling others that you believe this, is evidence that you personally have been saved. Your profession of faith is to declare that you are on Christ’s team.

If you belong to Jesus, then you have been saved from God’s punishment of sin, i.e., breaking His Law. You have been justified by the Father because of everything that Jesus did in His life and His death, yes, His doing and dying. The Holy Spirit is the One who brought you, the believer, this good news by His Word. “Faith comes by hearing…” He has given you the gift of faith, i.e., belief in the Gospel, in God’s Word.

Now, go and score some goals for the Lord!

What’s Sin?

John says, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4 NIV). When God saves us, He gives us three main things, three things that we lost when Adam sinned. He renews us in Knowledge (Col. 3:10), Righteousness, and Holiness (Eph. 4:24).

If we remember that the Holy Spirit always works with the Word of God, we will understand that this knowledge has to do with God’s revelation, creational and written, i.e., through the things He has made and by the sixty-six books of the Bible. It is God renewing your mind (Rom. 12:2). Your mind was darkened before you believed (Eph. 4:18). Now you are saved, God the Holy Spirit is shining the light of His Word in there.

Righteousness has to do with your being justified by God. God has applied to you what Jesus did. Jesus kept God’s Law perfectly as your substitute. Growing in the knowledge of God and His works means that you are holy, set apart from the world by God for God. You no longer play for the world. You are now on Christ’s team.

The power sin had over you has been broken. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:1-2). Sure, you still sin, but God has given you a new nature. Your nature now has the power to not sin. Your will has been set free from its bondage to sin, self, and Satan. You now live for Christ. You wear His jersey, His uniform.

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If you find a nice big juicy red apple with a worm in it, especially after you’ve bitten into it, you spit it out as fast as you can. That should be our reaction when we discover sin in our heart. Jesus speaks of hell as the place where "the worms that eat them do not die…” (Mark 9:48a). Sin tastes too much like hell. So, spit it out and look to the Saviour!

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:1-2).

Now, because you are holy, you want to know more about Christ and His righteousness. As Jesus says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). Sin is the opposite of righteousness. Sin is breaking the law that Jesus kept perfectly for sinners such as yourself. Righteousness is Jesus doing what you could not do. But now that you have been saved, now that you are growing in knowledge, now that you have been justified, now that you are holy, you have the God-given ability to turn your back on sin by the power of the Spirit working with the Word in your heart. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psa. 119:11).

As a watch with a dead battery is merely an ornament, so is anyone without God’s Word hid in their heart. Christians are to be doers of His Word. The more we fill ourselves by reading and studying God’s Word, the more we give the Spirit to work with in our battle with sin.

Kick sin through the opposition’s goalposts!

What’s Justification?

Paul says about Jesus, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).

Jesus was our substitute. His death was to save us from God’s punishment for our sins. The Father punished His Son instead of punishing us. This means that God’s justice has been satisfied. This means that God has been paid in full what He was owed for Adam’s and our breaking His Law. When Adam broke covenant with God by breaking His law, he did so as our representative. He failed the outward test by eating the forbidden fruit, the fruit with the worm in it.

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As the sign in the antique shops says, “You break it, you pay for it.” What Adam broke, Jesus paid for. But He paid only for those who believe in His Gospel, His team members. As Adam represents all mankind, Jesus represents those His Father has justified, i.e., believers, those who wear His jersey.

Justification is about being declared innocent by God. It is to have had your bill for breaking God’s Law paid in full, paid by Jesus. And since you yourself are included in that which Adam broke as your representative, you being declared right with God in God’s court of Law, declared just, means that you as it were are being dewormed by the Spirit working with His Word in your heart. The Spirit is the new battery in your watch, the power that never grows dim or runs out.

As Jesus was raised from the dead for our justification, you who are justified by Him are being raised back to life too. You were what He was, i.e., dead. Now you are being made what He is, i.e., alive! His righteousness has been imputed to you. This is justification. The Holy Spirit by His Word has communicated this good news to you. You have believed the Gospel. You have been regenerated by the Spirit. You, who were a flat football, have now been filled by the Spirit and are ready for play.

Keep the ball away from the opposition!

What’s Sanctification?

Sanctification us the Holy Spirit working with His Word in your heart to make you into what God has declared you to be, i.e., righteous.

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Sanctification flows out of Justification. Justification is the bubbling spring that supplies the water of the Word that cleanses us of our sin through the process of sanctification. Justification is the raincloud. Sanctification is the cloudburst that washes away our sins. Christ has won our salvation for us. “It is finished” (John 19:30). His Spirit has notified us of His victory. Even though we were nothing more than spectators sitting in the bleachers, sanctification is our shower after the game.

To be holy is to be in the world but not under its sinful influence. It is to be in Christ’s team, the winning side. Though you have been declared righteous, and thus are something that you were not before, i.e., holy, you must now strive, by the power of the Spirit within you, to become more holy. You want to grow in knowledge of Jesus and His righteousness, and you want to grow in holiness. “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

Christ is where all our righteousness stored. The Holy Spirit applies that righteousness to all who believe, we “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood” (1 Pet. 1:2). The Spirit sprinkles us with Christ’s blood, the blood that cleanses us of all sin (1 John 1:7). This after-match shower is pictured in Covenant Baptism.  “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word” (Eph. 5:25b-26). The Spirit works with the Word to make us holy. This is sanctification.

Join the cloud of witnesses to Christ’s victory parade!

What's the Trinity?

To be baptised is as it were to wear the team’s jersey of which Jesus is Captain. “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal. 3:27). We must never forget whose side we’re on. Christians wear the name of Christ. We barrack for Him, not for ourselves, and most definitely not for the other side! In other words, we are to remember our baptism.

As Jesus represents us, so the Father represents God, who is Triune. When we are baptised, the element used is water and the formula is “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19b). If the water represents the Spirit “cleansing [us] by the washing with water through the word,” then we will easily see the importance of the Trinitarian formula being used in the administration of baptism. For therein we clearly see the Spirit working with the Word. It is the name of the Triune God we are being baptised into through Christ our representative. The sprinkled and/or poured water being applied to us speaks of those “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood” (1 Pet. 1:2).

It is our Trinitarian baptism that visually separates us from the world. Baptism is a sign and seal of righteousness, our Captain’s righteousness. It is primarily about promise not profession. To be baptised is to have the covenant promise of the Father (representing the Triune God) affixed to you. Communion or the Lord’s Supper is about our profession of faith.

Whereas Baptism speaks of our union with the Triune God through Christ our Captain, the Lord’s Table is where we get to celebrate this union in communion with God and His people. The Lord’s Supper is Christ’s team celebrating His victory over the Devil and his team. It is the celebration of the death of death through the death of Christ. The Father has chosen you for Christ’s team. The Son has won the contest with the devil and death for you. And the Spirit has revealed your victory over sin, self, Satan and death! Covenant Baptism cleanses you for the Covenant Meal.

The Spirit is the “Promise of the Father” (Luke 24:49). “On one occasion, while [Jesus] was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 1:4-5).

As per the great Commission, the Father promised that He “will sprinkle many nations” (Isa. 52:15a), and “I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17), so the Father kept His promise. It was as John the baptiser had said, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). As per the baptising the nations in the Great Commission, the Father kept His promise made through Ezekiel, “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek. 36:24-27).

The Father choses people from the nations for His Son’s team. The Son has already won the contest by fighting to the death and shedding His blood for His team. The Holy Spirit clothes His team with jerseys that have been cleansed by the blood of Christ’s cross. His team hears the good news of their victory through the ear-gate by the preaching of the Gospel, and they see the Gospel through the eye-gate in the two Sacraments, i.e., Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

All non-Christians deny that God is Triune, i.e., Father and Son and Holy Spirit. They reject the Trinity to their peril. They are on the other team. Don’t rub in their defeat. Rather, try to win them over. For they have lost possession of the ball, i.e., eternal life in Jesus Christ. We hear about it in the Gospel and we see it in the both Sacraments.

Always keep your eye on the ball!    

What's Covenant Theology?

Covenant Theology is a whole of Scripture approach to understanding the Gospel and the Sacraments. It is Trinitarian. It sees the Gospel as being synonymous with the Covenant of Grace. Grace for salvation began to be revealed by God to man right after Adam sinned in the Garden (Gen. 3:15). Adam broke the same covenant that the second Adam, Jesus, perfectly kept (Hos. 6:7; Rom. 5:18-19)). Christ’s keeping and paying the penalty threatened for breaking the pre-Fall Covenant of Works is what we call the Gospel, i.e., the Covenant of Grace.

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Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8b). He is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He is the promised Messiah, i.e., the Christ (Matt. 16:16). He was chosen by God (1 Pet. 2:6). He is the elect in whom are the elect of God, i.e., all who are on His team. “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph. 1:4).

Covenant Theology reflects the Trinity. In the Godhead, in what has been referred to as “the Trinitarian dance” where each Person interpenetrates the Others in the One and the Many, (God is many Persons but one God), so, in Covenant Theology all theological doctrines interpenetrate the others but are one. They are all interconnected, like a seamless garment as opposed to a patchwork quilt. They dance with each other. Like the books of the Bible, they are one and many.

Utilizing and synthesizing Biblical Theology and Dogmatic/Systematic Theology) Covenant Theology begins with the Triune God in eternity past. From there, it traces the Bible’s revelation of Creation, the Covenant with Adam, the Fall, the Covenant of Grace, the Flood, the giving of God’s Law, the Word’s Incarnation, His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, the outpouring of the Spirit, the gathering in of the nations by the preaching of His Word, Christ’s coming on the Last Day/Resurrection Day, the new Heavens and new Earth, and our dwelling with Him thereon in His everlasting Kingdom, and more, yes, the whole Bible!

In Covenant Theology, Scripture interprets Scripture. Jesus says, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). The Scriptures speak of Jesus. Therefore, Covenant Theology comes to Jesus and trusts Him as its hermeneutic, i.e., Covenant Theology uses Jesus to interpret the Scriptures. Thus, the Word interprets the Word.

Scripture is the Book of the Covenant and Christ is our Covenant (Isa. 42:6, 49:8). We are sprinkled by His blood, i.e., the blood of the Covenant. “In the case of a will [i.e., a covenant] it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will [i.e., a covenant] is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep” (Heb. 9:16-20).

Christians are clothed in Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We wear His shirt, sprinkled by His blood. That’s what makes us holy, His blood. It is Trinitarian. The Father chose us, elected us in eternity past to be given to His Son should the Son covenant with the Father to become flesh and lay down His life for them. The Spirit testifies to this covenant with His Word.

The Father promised the Son a Kingdom, i.e., people and a place, Paradise (Psa. 2:7-9; Luke 23:43). Jesus lived and died for this people. “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). His people are those who have been chosen by the Father in eternity past, these are the same people for whom Christ died (thereby releasing the blessings of the eternal Covenant), and are the same people the Holy Spirit comes to with His Word that they may hear and believe the good news of their salvation. It is these people, renewed and restored in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, who will live with the resurrected and returned Christ in Paradise, the renewed Earth with their resurrected and renewed bodies forever (Rev. 21:1-7, 22:1-5).

Christ’s team have won the cup, the cup that runneth over!